I built my first machine a couple of years ago with the following parts:
Athlon 2 x4 640 Propus (@3GHz)
Asus Silent Knight II CPU Cooler
Asus M4A78LT-M Motherboard
Inno3d GTX 460 1Gb
G7 Power Extreme 880w PSU
8Gb Crucial DDR3 @ 1333MHz
Seagate 500Gb HDD
LG DVD Writer/Rewriter
Sony BD ROM Drive
iCute Jet Turbine ATX Case
And it worked fine for almost 2 years. A couple of months ago I stopped getting a signal to my monitor (an LG 32" HDTV) from the graphics card so, figuring it was the graphics card I tried to get an RMA. Inno3D proved absolutely useless for this, so I took it as an opportunity to order a new graphics card (a Sapphire 7870 XT). I used the motherboard's onboard graphics until it arrived - which worked absolutely fine.
When my new GPU arrived, I plugged it in and booted up and STILL couldn't get a signal from the monitor. I got the post beep, and could hear Windows starting up, but no picture.
I checked my BIOS settings, made sure it was set to boot from PCI-E first, and reset the CMOS, but still no signal. Figuring at this point that I had a faulty PCI-E connector, I ordered a new motherboard - an ASUS M5A97LE R2.0 LE.
After completely taking the machine to bits (wearing an anti-static wristband clipped to the case, which was powered off but still connected to the mains) and cleaning the case out with compressed air, I installed the new motherboard, being careful that all of the spacers matched up with the holes in the new mobo to avoid shorting it. I cleaned the CPU and heatsink and applied fresh Antec Formula 5 thermal paste in the way that their website recommended, making sure not to get any on the mobo or sides of the CPU. I checked the CPU for broken pins, but it looked fine, and made sure it fit snugly before clamping down the heatsink again. I also made sure that all the front panel and PSU connectors were plugged in correctly.
I turned the thing on again, and the fans all span up, but still no signal. I tried reseating the GPU and RAM, but that didn't help. After resetting the CMOS on the new board, I finally got a picture! I was able to install a fresh copy of Windows 7 on my HDD (after formatting the drive), install the mobo and GPU drivers, and began downloading some games to test the new machine out! Bioshock Infinite being around 30Gb in size, I fell asleep before I had a chance to play anything. When I woke up, there was a 'no signal' message on the display, and several reboots and a CMOS reset failed to fix it.
At this point, I figured that it must be a case of the generic PSU that I'd bought deteriorating to the point where it could no longer power a PCI-E card, because what else could it be?
I ordered a Corsair CX600 to replace it, and installed it earlier today. Unfortunately, IT STILL DOESN'T WORK! So now I've spent a fortune on parts and have failed to fix the problem.
Current build:
AMD Athlon 2 X4 640 Propus
ASUS Silent Knight II Cooler
ASUS M5A97LE R2.0 LE*
Sapphire 7870XT 2Gb*
Corsair Builder Series CX600*
8Gb Crucial DDR3 @ 1333MHz
Seagate 500Gb HDD
LG DVD Writer/Rewriter
Sony BD ROM Drive
iCute Jet Turbine ATX Case
*New parts
I'd greatly appreciate any advice or suggestions that anyone could give here - as I'm just about to power the thing on and take it into the bath with me...
Athlon 2 x4 640 Propus (@3GHz)
Asus Silent Knight II CPU Cooler
Asus M4A78LT-M Motherboard
Inno3d GTX 460 1Gb
G7 Power Extreme 880w PSU
8Gb Crucial DDR3 @ 1333MHz
Seagate 500Gb HDD
LG DVD Writer/Rewriter
Sony BD ROM Drive
iCute Jet Turbine ATX Case
And it worked fine for almost 2 years. A couple of months ago I stopped getting a signal to my monitor (an LG 32" HDTV) from the graphics card so, figuring it was the graphics card I tried to get an RMA. Inno3D proved absolutely useless for this, so I took it as an opportunity to order a new graphics card (a Sapphire 7870 XT). I used the motherboard's onboard graphics until it arrived - which worked absolutely fine.
When my new GPU arrived, I plugged it in and booted up and STILL couldn't get a signal from the monitor. I got the post beep, and could hear Windows starting up, but no picture.
I checked my BIOS settings, made sure it was set to boot from PCI-E first, and reset the CMOS, but still no signal. Figuring at this point that I had a faulty PCI-E connector, I ordered a new motherboard - an ASUS M5A97LE R2.0 LE.
After completely taking the machine to bits (wearing an anti-static wristband clipped to the case, which was powered off but still connected to the mains) and cleaning the case out with compressed air, I installed the new motherboard, being careful that all of the spacers matched up with the holes in the new mobo to avoid shorting it. I cleaned the CPU and heatsink and applied fresh Antec Formula 5 thermal paste in the way that their website recommended, making sure not to get any on the mobo or sides of the CPU. I checked the CPU for broken pins, but it looked fine, and made sure it fit snugly before clamping down the heatsink again. I also made sure that all the front panel and PSU connectors were plugged in correctly.
I turned the thing on again, and the fans all span up, but still no signal. I tried reseating the GPU and RAM, but that didn't help. After resetting the CMOS on the new board, I finally got a picture! I was able to install a fresh copy of Windows 7 on my HDD (after formatting the drive), install the mobo and GPU drivers, and began downloading some games to test the new machine out! Bioshock Infinite being around 30Gb in size, I fell asleep before I had a chance to play anything. When I woke up, there was a 'no signal' message on the display, and several reboots and a CMOS reset failed to fix it.
At this point, I figured that it must be a case of the generic PSU that I'd bought deteriorating to the point where it could no longer power a PCI-E card, because what else could it be?
I ordered a Corsair CX600 to replace it, and installed it earlier today. Unfortunately, IT STILL DOESN'T WORK! So now I've spent a fortune on parts and have failed to fix the problem.
Current build:
AMD Athlon 2 X4 640 Propus
ASUS Silent Knight II Cooler
ASUS M5A97LE R2.0 LE*
Sapphire 7870XT 2Gb*
Corsair Builder Series CX600*
8Gb Crucial DDR3 @ 1333MHz
Seagate 500Gb HDD
LG DVD Writer/Rewriter
Sony BD ROM Drive
iCute Jet Turbine ATX Case
*New parts
I'd greatly appreciate any advice or suggestions that anyone could give here - as I'm just about to power the thing on and take it into the bath with me...