Ye gods of computer gaming, spare me my sanity

[Ensiferum]

Just built this rig (see below-- my virgin attempt), and I can't get it to detect any monitors. I RMA'd the motherboard as suggested by people here in an older thread, and they say it posts just fine for them. So I can cross the mobo as the problem out. The obvious next choice, or maybe even the first choice, is the video card. Well, I took it out, replaced it with an old VGA Geforce 2, and nothing. I also switched the monitor out for these tests. That eliminates the possibility of some kind of incompatibility between my monitor and the DVI>VGA connector, and also that my monitor just can't support DVI period. Since the VGA card gave me the same result, must not be the video card. This is my understanding, anyway. Could be wrong.

Soooo, if I'm right, what next? I tried both sticks of ram, one at a time, no difference. I tried a barebones assembly on a cardboard box outside the case, nadda. What else in the world could be preventing my monitor from detecting that the computer is on? It just flashes on and off, greenly. I would very much appreciate any feedback.

For more information, here's my old thread:
http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=216594&highlight=

By the way, this is probably important, and I only touched on it in the first thread, so...the computer worked the first time I tried to set it up. Monitor and all. I was monitoring my temps and everything was well within parameters. All of a sudden, it shut down. I booted it back up, figured what the heck, hoping it wouldn't happen again. But it did. Several times. Finally, it wouldn't come on at all. I reassembled and finally did get it to power up, but now there's the monitor issue. If this whole thing is confusing and tedious, try to empathize with how I feel!


MSI K8N Neo-4 Ultra Socket 939 Mobo
Athlon 64 4000+
Arctic Cooling 64 Pro HSF
1024 Corsair ValueSelect Ram (512x2)
XFX 7900GS
FSP Fortron Group 450w PSU
1 Seagate 160gb HDD
1 generic 20gb HDD for o/s
1 Lite-on CD/DVD-RW
Windows XP Professional SP1

Also, I dunno if there are any beeps, if it's posting, because this motherboard is bulk and it's missing the needed connector for the system speaker. And I've already tried resetting the CMOS.

 

[rickpcnerd]

This happen to me once, it work the first time then screen went black. This is what i did... I reseted motherboard CMOS by Unplugging power cable from power supply, then I remove motherboard batterie for 30 secs, then put everything back together. By the way it seems u need more power, 450 is not enough of what u have. Get a least 520 w psu. Dont forget to flash bios and make sure memory are compatible and set memory appropriate voltage in BIOS (2.8v)

 

[Ensiferum]

Newegg says my video card is DVI-I.

My monitor is a VGA crt...assume that's analog? I use a VGA to DVI adapter.

I've already tried resetting the CMOS

I don't get a blank screen though, it never comes on to give me a blank screen. The power led on the monitor just flashes on and off when I boot the pc up.

are you sure 450w isn't enough? I used one of those power calculator things and it said at full load I wouldn't use more than 420 or so, and it's got enough volts to power everything...I think... :?

 

[Ensiferum]

yeah, it has a power plug, and I've got the PSU connector plugged into it.

if I unplug the monitor when it's on, I get a signal out of range message, which is normal. That changes when I plug it in...the led flashes and it turns off. It's weird! It's on, then I plug it in, and it turns off.

 

[Ensiferum]

yep and I tried both.

 

[Ensiferum]

I've tried 4 different monitors.

 

[bornking]

It sounds like your cable is the problem.

 

[Ensiferum]

what cable? all the monitors I've tested each had built-in vga cables. I may have used some of the same power cords, but I definitely tried more than one power cord.