First build and nothing works

biker

New Member
I'm building a gaming system with my sons. We powered it up for the first time and get no video. The cpu fan does not come on when connected to the mobo, but will work when connected to psu. Is this normal? Also the cpu's heatsink stays cool. Here's our parts:
Thanks,
A frustrated (moutain)biker

Abit Kn8 Ultra
AMD venice 3800
Crucial ballistix 2 X 512
WD Raptor 74g
ATI 3D Rage II PCI (a x1800xt is on the way)
 
1) did you put standoffs behind the motherboard?
2) Did you connect the 24 pin connect AND the 4 pin connector to the motherboard?
 
You will first have to re-examine all power connections as well as the panel harness for main power, reset if the case has a reset button, power and hard drive led lights along with case speaker connected to the small block of pins generally at the lower front edge of the main board.

If you used a power supply that comes with a 20pin and not updated 24pin connector that can goof you up fast. Did you forget to plug in the additional 4 wire connector that plugs into the board usually near the cpu socket? These are the little things that can trip you up a little. Upon closing a case up after installing a new supply here the small two wire plug for the power switch somehow lifted off of the connection block. A thing to add here is verifying that the correct wires are on the correct pins on the primary block by review of the user's manual's diagram and inspection with pocket magnifying glass if you have one onhand. Those blocks are about 5/8 to 3/4' long only where you can easily misplace a few there.
 
Yes make sure to check your psu plugs on the mobo and the standoffs. If your mobo is touching the case it will short out and not work.
 
Yeah that's true. Make sure it's on the risers correctly, and if it's not on risers which it might not be. Retrieve the from the case supplies and put them in.
 
Thanks for the tips guys. I checked connections, mobo standoffs. The mobo has power, the status led's come on, fans connected to mobo work, except the cpu fan connection. If the cpu's bad, will the bios not recognize the cpu and disable the fan's power? Also should I have some form of video without a cpu?
 
With a bad cpu you may instead hear an audio alert with continuous short beeps if nothing comes up on the screen. Even with the power led indicating power is seen by the board the oversight of not plugging in the four wire plug is one thing that will stall a system at powerup. Another thing to look into is a possible bad chipset where the board would have to be returned for exchange or refund. A friend was caught recently when two boards of the same make and model failed to run while everything else looked good. The third board was to see good results being a different model. A dead cpu or chipset would prevent anything coming up onscreen.
 
If you received a bad board ship it back to the vendor as a defect. It's not a good day to go through this for sure. A local tech would cost for labor there.
 
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