Hi, I've run into a very annoying completly blank screen, so I hope someone here can help me translating motherboard beeps, and non beeps. This is what I have.

Completely blank black screen.

Motherboard, ASRock 939NF6G-VSTA
RAM Corsair CMX1024-400PT

What I did sofar,

I unplugged everything except CPU, FAN, Power, and powered up. Result was 3 BEEP's, which I think is a good sign

I then plugged the RAM into Dual Channel A, and got 1 beep, I am confused

I reset CMOS, still get 1 beep, not sure what to think.

I move RAM to dual channel B, and get no beep, which seems bad

I try the onboard VGA connection, but get no visual

I try plugging in a PCI-E gfx card, but still no visual.

Now Im here looking for assistance, it would seem to me that CPU is fine since I get 3 beeps at first. But then I get a bit confused, is it RAM or MOBO....possibly both which are failing later on, Im leaning towards motherboard since I get no visuals, but Im at a loss.

Can anyone offer me some golden nuggets as to what I need to replace?

Ahh yes, and happy holidays

Did you plug in the 4-pin power connection?

You're on the right track. I can only suggest you repeat the above steps out of the case on a non-conductive surface. I sometimes let the video card lay loose without the hold down screw to insure it's seated in the pci-e slot. Got any power supply leads going to the video card?

Yes, but you are on to something

The 4-pin was clicked in, but since my PSU has 2, 4 pins, I took the first one out and put in the 2nd one, and I got visual on the onboard VGA. So far so good, but unfortunatly that wasnt the end of it.

I started adding items, disks, drives etc and it worked fine,I put in the GFX, PCI-E (powered with its own 6pin) and went to using dual DVI output, all was good, booted into OS like a charm inbetween every new addition.

Until as the last item I added the PCI Soundcard, and lost visuals again, both VGA and DVI.

Now Im at the point where it works until I add anything to either the PCI-E, or the PCI slot. The second either of those slot gets filled, I get a blank screen. I get no error beeps from the motherboard, and it does sound as if it boots just fine, although I can't visually verify so it might not.

I've tried removing the CD and DVD drive to see if its a lack of power that causes it, but that didnt change the outcome, use a slot, loose the screen.

Now Im wondering if it's the PSU (its a 450w Chill Factor) which is quirky, or if it's the motherboard. It might be worth adding that this is a system which worked fine up until this morning, so it's not something new which isnt compatible.

Never heard of that power supply. You need a good power supply or it can take your whole investment with it:

Top Tier PSU:

http://www.tomswiki.com/page/Tiere [...] ngs?t=anon

I got the name slightly wrong, its a Chill Innovation 450w http://chill-innovation.com/ it's by no means a bottomshelf PSU, ofcourse that doesnt mean that it can't be broken. I got it mainly for it's low noise capabilites though.

Do the PCI/ PCI-E draw power from the 4 pin connection or the 24 pin one? I find it a bit quirky that the system only displays the symptoms when I use the PCI/ PCI-E slots.

Do you have a good advise for my next step in troubleshooting, it seems to me as if it's either PSU or mobo related, my best (uneducated) guess beeing the mobo.

Go in the bios and set PEG as the video mode. Disable the onboard video.

Problem dont seem to be the bios setting for video, its like this.

1. System works fine running onboard graphics

2. I seat a PCI Soundcard

3. Screen goes blank.

So even when I dont touch anything video related it still happens.

Sounds like a defective motherboard.

Yes something is not quite right thats for sure.

But something else just happened, I tilted the machine and placed it on the side to get inside it again, booted it just for good measure, and VGA was gone, and I got missing keyboard error beeps. I placed it in the upright position and it worked again.

It must be either a defective motherboard or a loose connection somewhere, I'll pull everything out and make double extra really sure every screw is mint. If that doesnt work, I'll get a new board.

Thanks alot for taking the time evongugg, it was greatly appreciate )

Not allowed to edit post, that ) was suppoed to be a big

Happy holidays