Sapphire HD3870

Are the fans running? Any beeps? Is there a cable connected between the video card and the monitor? Is the monitor plugged in and turned on? Is the video card inserted properly? Is it connected to the PSU?

did you reinstall your os ( operating system)?? that is a must. if you did reinstall your os try and get into safe mode ( you keep hitting the F8 key right after you push the power button) if you can get into safe mode but not windows you probably are having some kind of driver/hardware issue. you dont happen to have a 45nm processor do you?

+1.

If you can't get a bios screen, it's not a driver issue.

Use the top PCI-e 16x slot (pci_ex1).

What power supply are you using? And again, is a power cable connected to the video card. Look at the 6 pin plug on the end of the card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowImage.aspx?CurImage=1...

Barney, I didn't realize AMD made any 45nm CPUs. Its also not what you are thinking of, if it were, it would be able to get to the windows splash screen, then constantly reboot.

Assuming the card is fully in the slot and plugged in, I'd look elsewhere. Are both the 24 and 4 pin bundles fully plugged in? Are both ram sticks in? (make sure one end isn't loose.) Make sure the CPU is correct, and that the fan is plugged into the CPU fan header. If your lucky, its probably something dumb, so double check everything.

If your unlucky, you have a bad part somewhere. My guess stays with either bad ram or CPU. (or GPU...) Are any of these parts second hand? The only way to tell is to start swapping parts out one at a time and see if it boots. Try PSU, GPU, Ram, CPU one at a time and see if that causes it to work.

Yes I plugged the cord you showed into the PS. My PS is this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006

Ok here's something else that might help. The GFX card said in the instructions that it had to be connected to the PS and the HD. So what I did was connect both the GFX and the HD to the same PS cord.

I used the PCI-e 2.0x16 slot. Dark blue on the MB. I don't hear any beeps when it starts up. I have the cable from the monitor to the GFX plugged in.

I haven't installed the OS yet on my new PC. Is there a way to do that without getting any display on the monitor?

MY HD is this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136218

My CPU is this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103759

EDIT: I bought all of the parts new from newegg; everything. I'll try to double check everything tonight and see what happens.

How did you connect the HD and graphics to the same power supply cord? The only one that fits the 3870 should be the PCIE 6 pin, and it definitely should not be in any way connected to the HD.

I took the PCIE 6 pin, plugged it into the GFX card, and then I plugged the other end (the 4 pin) into a PS cord. With that same PS cord I plugged another branch of it into the HD.

EDIT: Thanks for the help, I gotta go to football practice. I'll get back with you later. I'll mess around with it later tonight and I'll let you know how I make out.

EDIT2: I have 4 sticks of DDR2 RAM in my MB right now at 1MB each for a total of 4MB. I'm not sure if I can do that or not so I'll remove two sticks and see what happens.

You should install vista with only 2GBs max. There was a bug that causes issues (not this one) if you try to install it with 4GB. I'm not sure if this is still the case.

I agree with the other posters, I don't see how you could do this PSU "trickery" as you've described it. There should be a 6+2 plug that you put into the 3870. There aren't any other connectors on that cable. I also don't understand what the manual says you should do. There are no links between the video card and the harddrive.

oh ya sorry 4745454b. i read the post and thought back to when i built my computer i didnt reinstall the os and that didnt work to well. and no as far as i know amd does not have a 45nm processor(yet) i just know that 45nm processors dont allways work unless you do a bios update.

You have two dark blue PCI-e 2.0 slots, on that mobo, make sure you use the top one if installing one card.


How is that possible? Are you using a molex to PCI-e power cable adapter? You don't need that adapter with your power supply, just hook it straight up to a PCI-e 6-pin connector from the PSU. That adapter if single molex to pci-e 6pin could be the problem.

OK. First of all, READ the damn motherboard manual. I am SURE with a single card in that motherboard, it HAS to be in a specific slot. SECOND, make sure you plug in the power on the back of the card. and lastly make sure all other connections, HDD/cdROM drive, power and data cable, memory, and cpu, which usually has another connection for power onto the motherboard. (other than the 24pin connection) plus the cooling fan. Again I say, "Read the manual" please don't make us read it for you...

OK, I have it in the second slot. I'll switch it and see what happens.

>.< Bear with me, I'm new to this.

Hey, no problem. We just want to see you get it running. Swap it to the top slot I think you'll be fine. Although I would remove the molex adapter and just use the power supplies 6-pin PCI-e power cable instead. That adapter is only for people who's power supply doesn't have a PCI-e power cable.

Agreed on the power supply - you'll probably get better power out of the dedicated PCI-E 6 pin.

Ok I swapped the GFX card to the top slot, removed 2 sticks of RAM, plugged the PCI-e 6 pin from the PS directly into the GFX card, and I still don't get any display.

I get the error message: "No input detected," on the monitor.

If you took the 6 pin to dual 4 pin molex adapter from the graphics card box and plugged it into the graphics card, then hooked one of those 4 pin molexs from that adapter to a 4 pin from the PSU to power the video card and the other 4 pin molex from the 6 pin adapter to power the hard drive, you may have did some damage to your hardware including, video card, MB and CPU. Was there any smoke when you did that?

No, I didn't see any smoke.

Which input do you have the monitor hooked up to? Is the monitor set properly for the input? I've never seen a monitor that said "no input detected" unless the cord was physically unplugged from the graphics card.

Well, I think you need to check your graphics card in a different system. See if it works properly. Sometimes if you improperly power a graphics card it can cause damage. If the card checks out goodd you might consider breaking the system down to the basics. Unplug everything HDs, optical drives, case fans etc., EXCEPT the HSF/CPU, 1 DIMM RAM and video card. Try to get to BIOS that way. You can also try defaulting the BIOS by resetting the CMOS jumper. Instructions in MB manual.

Try some troubleshooting like this for example:
http://www.tomswiki.com/page/Troubleshooting+a+New+Buil...

cji has a point. If your monitor has a (non DVI) input, try and plug the graphics card in to the monitor's (D sub?) input. Some monitors have both a DVI and the older type (can't say the name) plug in. Try the older type connection between video card and monitor.

OK I'll try those.

I was thinking the same thing.

I opened the case up and saw that the fan on the GFX card was not running so I'm assuming I either screwed it up or whatever.

I got a replacement for the GFX card, and I still have the same problem. The fan on the GFX card does not spin and I get no display on my monitor. It says: "No input detected."

So you ran a '12v 6 pin to dual 4 pin molex adapter' into the graphics card. Then you took one of the 4 pin molex leads from that 6 pin adapter and plugged it directly into the hard drive. Then you plugged in the other 4 pin molex from the adapter to a 4 pin 12v lead from the power supply to power both the video card and hard drive from the single 6 pin to dual 4 pin molex adapter You used the adapter in this configuration to power both pieces of hardware, VC and HD? You probably damaged the MB. I would RMA the MB.

More than likely you fried the rail/line the PCIe plug is on by doing that. Those plugs are ment for nothing but graphics cards. All those molex plugs from the power supply are there for a reason.

RMA the power supply or try another if you have one laying around. There should be no reason the motherboard is fried.

All the leads from a PSU are 12v. 3v and 5v power are supplied to the MB by the 24 pin plug in. OP did not use a designated 6 pin 12v lead from the PSU to the graphics card. Apparently He used a random 4 pin molex lead from the PSU and plugged it in to one of the dual 4 pin leads to a 6 pin to dual 4 pin adapter. Then used that adapter's other 4 pin lead to plug into the HD. The 6 pin connector from the 3 way adapter was plugged in to the VC. This is a misconfigured 12v source and caused damaged to his MB and or CPU and or other components. The PCIE socket was likely damaged. The MB is likely damaged as a result.