New build, No video

Building a new PC.

I've had these components for awhile:

• Phenom X4 9950 Black AM2+ 2.6ghz (quad, 64-bit)
• Saphire Radeon x800 Pro, PCI-E
• OCZ DDR2 PC2 6400 RAM
• Seagate 10k SATA HDD
• 500w PSU

I just bought:

• Asus M3A78-CM Motherboard
• LG 22X DVD-RW SATA

Assembled everything last night and when I powered it on, no video.
I first tried the on-board video (vga). I disconnected the HDD & DVD drives.
I also tried the graphics card.
still no luck.

I've built and rebuilt many PCs, and use a KVM, so I'm relatively confident it's not a monitor issue.

I rechecked the connections and everything appears to be getting power.

I think the BIOS should warn you in other ways of hardware failure. If POST fails you will get a series of beeps which you can use to detect the problem. I once had a graphics card die and used this to determine that it was the graphics card before I did anything else.

http://www.pchell.com/hardware/beepcodes.shtml
http://www.biosflash.com/e/bios-beeps.htm

I'm not hearing any beeps. I checked and the PC speaker appears to be connected correctly.

I did change the PSU. I noticed that the ATX plug from the PSU was only 20-pin, but the mobo is 24-pin. So I found a PSU with a 24-pin, but no change.
(btw, what are the additional 4 pins for?)

If you don't get any beeps, then the graphic card is the main suspect. It performs it's own POST sequence first, before handing over to the motherboard BIOS - if that POST never completes, then the rest of the boot sequence won't occur.

and the beeps don't come through the sound card so speakers/no speakers won't matter. It would be system beeps from the Motherboard.

Also, far be it for me to contradict SuperSparks, but i had a graphics card die and i got the Bios warning beeps. Maybe it is BIOS or Motherboard specific?

The viseo card was not quite totally dead, but dead enough not to work.

But guarantee, if it is totally dead, nothing works!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by themanwhowas

but i had a graphics card die and i got the Bios warning beeps

---

It is perfectly possible for a graphics card to die but for it still be able to complete it's POST and hand over to the mobo. It just depends on the particular mode of failure.

I first tried it without the Graphics Card. (no beeps there either)
I have the PC speaker hooked up.

I tried it with the bare minimum installed:

• CPU
• CPU fan
• chassis fan
• Ram
• system panel connections (Pwr, Reset, Spkr, HDD Led)

If you're getting no beeps without a graphics card installed then it's a dead mobo or CPU. It is nearly always the motherboard, CPUs rarely fail.

Hmmm, I just got the mobo from TigerDirect on Friday.
Is there any way to check before I return it to them?

I'm assuming that I'm doing something wrong, but I've built 25+ PCs and never had a bad motherboard / CPU / Ram, so I don't know what to check.
I've gone thru everthing twice and can't find any problems.

There is no way to check a mobo or CPU other than by a process of elimination, which you have done. Believe me, DOA motherboards are not unheard of. But before you RMA it, try clearing the CMOS by removing the battery for a few minutes, it's unlikely to be the problem here, but there's no harm in trying.

Well, I'm happy to hear that I tried everything that has been recommended. I tried removing the battery on Saturday. No difference.
I just wanted to make sure I exhausted all options before I call them back to RMA it.
bummer, guuess I'll take it back apart again tonite.

just a question, what is the bare minimum you can attempt to startu-up (Post) with?
will it post without Ram / CPU?

nuts, I hate removing the cpu HS fan. no more thermal paste!

what is a Gigabyte equivalent of this mobo?

Have you tried running the machine with the mobo outside the case?

Haven't tried that, but since I have to take it apart anyway if it is DOA, I'll give it a try. What is the difference, in-case vs out-of-cas? (grounding?)

Yes gounding can be a problem, whether it is a stand off or a shorted USB connector on the back.

All of the stand-off aligned with a hole and were secured with a screw, but I'll try it regardless.

Well, I guess it's really dead, I'm going to pack it up and send it back tomorrow.

I tried installing an old PCI Video card and that didn't work either. So I have now tried the on-board,PCI, and PCI-E video.
I also removed the mobo and hooked it up external to the case. No video and still no beeps.

As a despirate attempt, I even removed all of the Ram, so that all I was running was the CPU and CPU fan, nothing else at all!
It still didn't work, BUT the PC Speaker did beep!!! So now I know that that DOES WORK!

I've tried everything short of swapping out the CPU and mobo (I would if I could!)

Thanks for all of your help, guess I just got a dead mobo.

Change it for a Gigabyte. I like Gigabyte mobos :)

NUTS! New mobo, same problem.

I'm beginning to think it's the PSU.
I had originally planned to use a 500w ULTRA PSU that I bought new last year. When I went to hook it up, I discovered that the mobo had a 24 & a seperate 4-pin ATX connection, but the PSU only had a 20-pin and no 4-pin at all. I found another PSU from an old PC that had a 24 & 4 pin, so I used that one, but no video. After further investigation, I determined that this PSU was only 285w, so I'm figuring that's the problem.

Any thoughts? Could this be the problem?

You seem to be on the right track now.
X800 - 30Watts
X800 XT PE - 63W
Now in case you may want to upgrade.

HD4870 - 130W
GTX 280 - 178W

I wouldn't even think of using a power supply of less than 500 Watts with recent hardware. Odd symptoms though, normally an inadequate PSU just causes constant reboots.

Train, sorry I didn't follow what you provided.


Will this work?
OCZ StealthXStream OCZ700SXS-B 700W ATX12V

specs:
Type ATX12V / EPS12V
Maximum Power 700W
Fans 120mm Fan
PFC Active
Main Connector 20+4Pin
+12V Rails 4
PCI-Express Connector 1 x 6-Pin, 1 x 6+2-Pin
SATA Power Connector 6
SLI Ready
CrossFire Ready
Modular No
Efficiency 80% @ 115V (Typical load)
83% @ 230V (Typical load)
Over Voltage Protection Yes
Overload Protection Yes
Input Voltage 100 - 240 V
Input Frequency Range 50/60 Hz
Input Current 11 - 5A
Output +3.3V@36A,+5V@30A,+12V1@18A,+12V2@18A,+12V3@18A, +12V4@18A,
[email protected],[email protected]
MTBF >100,000 Hours
Approvals CB, CE, FCC, cUL, RoHS

That was a list of the power requirements of several video cards. As you can see it can be outrageous in my book.

Yes, that should work .

I didn't realize the PSU I was using was so low on power, but I was trying to get it to work with the on-board video, no HDD or DVD drive installed. Pretty bare bones, I'm still guessing (and stumped) that it is the PSU.

First check the monitor on another computer
Not sure about your power supply questions.
There is a minimum amount of memory required before a system will complete the POST, but don't recall how much is needed. If there is a problem within the first bytes of memory, (for example the system contains no memory or the system does not recognize the memory) I think that will prevent the Power On Self Test stored in ROM memory from yielding to the video BIOS. Check the RAM memory. Did you use the same RAM memory modules on the new motherboard? How many times did the computer beep without RAM installed?

thanks for the advice Robert

The Monitor, KB, & mouse are on a KVM, so I know they all work fine.

I have 2gig of Ram installed so that should be more than enough to boot. I tried removing both and each Memory Stick. It only beeped when I removed both, but I don't remember the number of beeps.

KVM? What's a KVM?
Check the documentation for the motherboard and Be sure the correct RAM slots are filled.
For example, if a motherboard has 4 slots for RAM, you cannot fill slot 2 with nothing in the first slot.

KVM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KVM_switch

I could cry.
Bought a new PSU, still no video.
:mad:

This has me depresssed!
I bought a Coolmax VL-600B Power Supply - 600-Watt, MPN: VL-600B.

I have the mobo & PSU outside of the case (with the packaging insulating so it does'nt short-out anything sitting outside of the case).
I have the KVM video plugged into the on-board video (the monitor works fine (I checked) and the KVM worked fine with a previous test right before this endevour).
I've tried the Ram in all 4 slots (it beeps if I don't install the Ram, so I don't think that is the issue).
I also have the CPU fan plugged in and that's it. No HHD, DVD, or video card.

Am I missing something with the CPU requirements?
Phenom X4 9950 Black AM2+ 2.6ghz (quad, 64-bit)
I saw something about 140w requirement for this CPU, but I didn't know what that meant.

PLEASE HELP!

Bumming for Christmas!

By pass the KVM.

Had one with a bad port and that is how I found out. :(
Plus a couple bad cables.

I'm 99% sure the KVM works, I just used it a couple weeks ago with no problems.

But I tried something different anyways.
I tried another LCD monitor, keyboard, and Mouse (no KVM).

NO GO.

I simply don't get it.
I've replaced the mobo, PSU, and video. The only other thing I can think of is the CPU (I bought it used from my friend when he upgraded, it was working).


Would the system still attempt to Post (with video) if the CPU was bad? I'd think I'd still get some kind of video message.

Normally with a bad cpu nothing happens, but if it is not 100% bbad, you can get some weird things to happen.

I agree, there are never any hard and fast rules about what will happen - there are many millions of transistors in a CPU, thus you can get many different kinds of failure.

Hi all, I was reading this thread and I thought I might ask MPTECh have you plugged the 4 pin connector into the motherboard? The plug is located near the cpu. I know that my MB would not boot if the 4 pin atx power was not supplied. Just a thought, Bob

unfortunately, yes, I have the 4-pin connecter plugged-in too.

I just don't get the no video thing.

I'm going to retry the PCI-E and PCI video cards again (since I've replaced the mobo & PSU).

I know the PSU isn't top-dollar, but it should be good enough according to the specs.
Coolmax PSU VL-600B Power Supply - 600-Watt, PCIe

Am I missing something?
AMD Phenom 9950 Agena 2.6GHz Socket AM2+ Quad-Core Black Edition Processor

ASUS Mobo M3A78-CM AM2+/AM2

Is something not compatiable here? This is driving me nuts, something should be working.

The only thing I haven't replaced is the CPU (don't have any quad-cores just lying around, ya know!). But I'd think if it was a CPU issue, either the mobo & fans wouldn't fire up, I'd get beeps, or a Post would tell me bad CPU or some such other issue.

I've been battling this for over 3 weeks, can't afford to throw anymore money at it until I know what is really wrong to replace.