Monitor doesnt turn on, arhghg! Advice please.

[josephk]

I recently bought new parts for a homebuilt system.. (it's like the 4th time I've build one, although it's a fair while ago).

AMD X2, 3800 (edit: The energy efficient version, I think)

inno3d 8800gts

Thermaltake TR2 W0101 psu

2x 1gb 6400 ram

Abit kn9 Ultra motherboard


Slightly trembling I carefully put it together (while my fantasy ran amok at the mere thought of all the beastly power my new PC would have.. Atleast compared to my old one).

I turned it on.. And, mobo lights up, HD makes noice, dvd-drive blinks, keyboard blinks, all the fans start spinning (cpu, gpu, psu).. But the monitor never turns on, as if it never recieves a signal from the gpu.

It's not the monitor (i tested with another one) and when I put my old computer back together again, it works (I'm using it right now).

I reset the cmos, tried with only one stick of ram (both of them of course separately), I also tried fooling around with the IDE-drives.. The monitor just newer switches on.

It's immensely frustrating having saved the money, bought this stuff, waited for it to arrive and when it finally does.. Ppfffft.. Zilch..

Hope someone can help or have suggestions about what to do next.



/EDIT: I should probably mention that I checked if everything was 'seated' properly several times (everything but the CPU, I dont dare move that around.. But it looks good and 'clicked' in place). Also, my previous computer was AGP based.. So I cant really use that stuff to test.. Only thing I've kept is my old IDE harddrive and my DVD-drive).

 

[g-paw]

Likely either the video card or mobo. If you can borrow another video card, I'd try it. If that doesn't work I'd RMA the board. Ran into the same problem a while back, everything powered up, and it was the mobo

 

[morerevs]

What type of monitor/cable do you have? Is it DVI or VGA/DVI adapter.On my dads PC it seems to not wanna give an image booting with DVI untill it gets to the windows loading screen with my old VGA card. The only difference from what i can tell is that on my DVI plug (which does give image from POST) all the pins are connected whereas he has a cable with a gap in the pins (missing two) Maybe there is something incompatible there?

 

[josephk]

What type of monitor/cable do you have? Is it DVI or VGA/DVI adapter.On my dads PC it seems to not wanna give an image booting with DVI untill it gets to the windows loading screen with my old VGA card. The only difference from what i can tell is that on my DVI plug (which does give image from POST) all the pins are connected whereas he has a cable with a gap in the pins (missing two) Maybe there is something incompatible there?

Both my monitors have vga plugs, the gpu of course only has (two) DVIs, so I used the adapters that came with the gpu. I'm not sure the machine is actually booting.. Even though everything has power, I'm not getting any beeps (but my cabinets pc-speaker might be out of commission) and since I'm using my old harddrive (with windows installed) I'd expect the harddrive to go crazy (it only gives a slight click and a spin, atm.. as far as I can tell, no intense writing or anything), if it was just a question of the monitor not working (I plan to wipe it and reinstall windows, if only I could get it to boot *cry* ..).

 

[morerevs]

Looking at the specs of your powersupply i see you have a 20+4 detachable style connector. Did the +4 part maybe come loose as it was pushed in the mobo? Seems silly to ask but i don't have experience with these type of plugs so i have no idea how sturdy it is, or if it detaches easily.
What you could try to determine if you're actually able to get into the BIOS is keep hitting "del" untill you're certain enough time has passed to make it into the bios, then hit escape and enter or "tab"enter to exit without saving. If it reboots it's a vga problem, if not probably a mobo related issue. Hope it helps

 

[josephk]

Looking at the specs of your powersupply i see you have a 20+4 detachable style connector. Did the +4 part maybe come loose as it was pushed in the mobo? Seems silly to ask but i don't have experience with these type of plugs so i have no idea how sturdy it is, or if it detaches easily.
What you could try to determine if you're actually able to get into the BIOS is keep hitting "del" untill you're certain enough time has passed to make it into the bios, then hit escape and enter or "tab"enter to exit without saving. If it reboots it's a vga problem, if not probably a mobo related issue. Hope it helps

Hm. The 20+4 pin seems to fit like it should.. (I'm using the new PSU on my old mobo, and on the old one the last four pins "sticks out" over the edge of the main power-plug in the mobo the 'four-pin' goes elsewhere.. Asus k8n is the old mobo, on the new one the main-plug from the PSU fits fully into the mobo.. Although I also connected the 'four-pin' one.. Hm).

I'll try hitting del, and see if I can get it to reboot.. Although I have a suspicion that it isnt doing the POST at all. I took out the battery and will leave it out overnight.. Tomorrow I'll try and put the mobo on cardboard, and only connect gpu and ram.. I'll see how that works out.

Meanwhile, I'll be checking this thread before I start testing further tomorrow.. So please, if anyone has any ideas or things I should do, please post

 

[josephk]

Alright, it's fixed! Thanks for the help.

Here's what worked for me.. (writing it fairly detailed, in case someone has similar problems)


I took out the battery, left it out overnight and even used the 'reset cmos' jumper.

I put a piece of cardboard beneath the motherboard (to make sure I wasnt having any short-circuits from studs, casing or screws or some such), I then disconnected everything from it and reseated one stick of ram, the gpu, the psu, and the keyboard, nothing else.

And woof, up came the monitor with bios and everything. Then I added a dvd drive (while having unplugged the power of course), tested if that worked, then added harddrive, tested if that worked (without actually booting windows), then one more stick of ram, continuing with mouse/audio/etc until I had the full system going.. Then i removed the cardboard, and put the motherboard back in (screws etc).

And now it works. tadaa. I left out one screw (the center one, so to speak) in the motherboard, because for some reason it required a larger screw, and I was afraid that the larger head of the screw might have been causing a short.

Anyway, I believe it was the removal of the battery that did it. I read somewhere else about someone not being able to reset his cmos, by using the jumper for it, and cmos settings might be somewhat wonky from the factory, hence the battery removal.

Cheers!


EDIT: Btw, I also messed around with the on/off/reset/hdled/etc connecters.. At the beginning I only connected the on/off thing.. Not sure if that did anything, but seeing as I'm being so detailed, I might as well mention it.

 

[morerevs]

Allright man, nice to see you've solved it! Hope you enjoy your new system and feel good for fixing it