Hi, I need a bit of advice here. I have an Asus P5K motherboard, and I'm not getting a signal from the graphics card when I switch the power on. The drives fire up (there's no OS installed yet) and the LEDs light up and the fans spin, but that's all. The reason I thought this might be a motherboard problem is that it does not make the beeps that it is supposed to in the event of a problem, with one exception. With no RAM installed, it makes the appropriate beeping sound as described in the manual, but with RAM in there it doesn't sound for lack of keyboard, or (trying without the Geforce card) lack of VGA, both of which it should do. I've tried all I can think of, including clearing the RTC RAM and I'm out of ideas. I just want to make sure this is likely a motherboard failure (or could it be CPU or something?) before I buy another.

Asus P5K motherboard
Geforce 8800GTS
Intel Core 2 Duo E6850
2x2 gb DDR2
250gb IDE HDD
400w PSU

Thanks in advance.

Is this a new, just built system or a system that had worked previously? Have you tried a different graphics card? Have you plugged the 6pin 12v power lead into the GC? have you plugged in the 4/8pin 12v power lead to the CPU MB header? A 400w PSU is on the light side for an 8800GTS. What is the units 12v amperage? It would have to be at least 26 amps or so to power the graphics card properly.

I think badge is right, you msut have forgotten to plug a pin. video card pins are obvious. But the cpu pins are less, this is a picture where the 4 pin to the cpu are on your motherboard.
http://img293.imageshack.us/img293 [...] 779dk6.jpg

Hello, thanks for the replies. Yep, I've got everything plugged in, and double checked. The system is just built, and the parts are new to me, though I'm 99% sure the graphics card works as I fully trust the person I bought it from. Regarding the power supply, I don't too well understand watts, volts and amps... actually I don't understand them at all, so I'll just tell you what it says on the little chart on the side of the unit

+5V = 20A
+3.3V = 20A
+12V1 = 10A
+12V2 = 14A
-12V = 0.5A
+5VSB = 2A

I'm guessing as both those 12V's are less than the 26 amps you reccommend (is that 26 total, or 26 each?), that could be the problem?

From what you posted, you have combined 12v amperage of 24A. The 8800GTS requires 26A minumum. This could be your problem, you may need to install a more powerful unit with more 12v amps available to the system. Look at 500-600w units for the needed 12v amperage.

I've borrowed a 500W PSU from a friend (12V1=18A, 12V2=18A) and the problem persists. Oh and another thing I forgot to mention in the first post is that there was apparently no power to the USB sockets either (my Habu mouse should light up when plugged in, but didn't), and this is also still the case with the more powerful PSU. Anyway, does this rule out the PSU as the problem?

Have a good, thoughtful read over this. It is possible you have a bad MB. You may have to consider building the MB outside the case with the CPU, 1 DIMM RAM and the video card only. This way if a problem exists with the hardware it has to be one of the five, MB, CPU, RAM, VC or PSU.

http://www.tomswiki.com/page/Troub [...] ild?t=anon

ram is usually the problem with you lack enough voltage to run stock ram

I don't get it, Dragonsprayer. Can you explain?

t-man

early in ddr2 high end ram demanded more voltage then the default voltage

this was fixed for the most part by lowering the default settings and mobo bios boosting voltage slightly

nvidia mobos give 1.85v at 1.8

1066 or 1150 ram may read as ddr800 ram with cpuz so it can load with default voltage settings

some ram are not flexible meaning there range is small.


really good ram like ocz flex ii 1150 can run dd800 1.8v 4-4-3 or ddr1150 at 5-5-5 at 2.2v - massive flexibility

muskin is goes as is corsair


it looks like i guessed you have cheap ram - tier 2 or 3 cheapy high voltage ram