New new build: Monitor wont come out of standby

[afromagus]

Hello

Ive only ever replaced parts (gpus, mobos, ram etc) of computers before, and recently decided to try and go for building a whole setup from different parts.

Heres what ive got

* Thermaltake toughpower 750w psu
* Antec 900 case
* Asus P5Q Deluxe Motherboard
* Intel E8600 core 2 duo processor with stock cooler
* Corsair Dominators XMS-8500 5-5-5-18, 1gb x 2 pair (2gb total)
* Nvidia galaxy 9600 gt gpu (starting mid range graphics card, hoping to move to ati hd4870 later)
* generic 500gb SATA drive
* SATA cd drive

Put everything together according to instructions, jumpers connected at default,
turned the whole setup on

fans light up and work, cd indicator lights up

monitor though just goes on standby, and stays there.
cant really tell whats wrong, also the case has no speaker which i can connect to motherboard and indicate problem with beeps.

reset switch is fine, standby process, holding off button on for 4 seconds works fine
monitor just stays on standby

and i did use an older card (8600 gt) from my other computer (pretty basic sff), connected that to the new build, and got the same result (monitor always on standby, and never comes out of it since i waited hours)

just want to know what i could possibly be doing/have done wrong, and any help and advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[alcattle]

sounds like you are not getting power to the gfx card. Does that model have two slots? The cards don't take a second power cord do they? The GPU fan running?

 

[GhislainG]

Did you use the 4-pin or the 8-pin CPU cable from the PSU?

 

[afromagus]

9600 gt has a 6pin socket for the psu, which i connected,
also theres the 8pin and 24 pin sockets on the mobo which i connected to the psu. the thermaltake 750w psu im using is modular, theres a straight up mobo psu lead, and an 8pin pci-e lead, for which i used an adapter to connect to the 6pin power socket on the 9600gt.

 

[afromagus]

did the following checks

ram - took one out, with the one remaining in the first dimm socket..tried with that, no result - monitor still remains at standby

replaced that ddr2 ram with its twin (the one i took out).. same result zero

- with 1 single ramstick remaining, i took out the sata cd and hard drives.
powered monitor on, then powered computer on (standard procedure) and still the same thing, monitor remains on standby.

disconnect everything else including additional fans (with only cpu fan remaining) and gpu remainig.. turned it on.. still the same result.

prior to this i did take the cmos battery out, for 1hr.. before putting it back on, still the same state. and also changed jumper settings, doing an RTC (real time clock) clean/reset, and upped the northbridge voltage... still nothing.

next i have a spare old intel 2.1ghz core duo processor (E6200 i think) i think the motherboard (assuming its not the broken component) supports it.. might replace E8600 and see if that works.

of course any suggestions and inputs would be greatly appreciated from you guys.

 

[GhislainG]

You got me confused. You wrote "also theres the 8pin and 24 pin sockets on the mobo which i connected to the psu." Therefore I presume that you connected both the 24-pin motherboard cable and the 8-pin CPU cable from the PSU to the motherboard. But I don't understand what you mean by "the thermaltake 750w psu im using is modular, theres a straight up mobo psu lead, and an 8pin pci-e lead, for which i used an adapter to connect to the 6pin power socket on the 9600gt."

 

[afromagus]

i meant the atx power connectors
24-pin EATXPWR, and the 8-pin ATX12V

the thermaltake 750w psu has two leads that doesnt need to be connected to the psu itself, one goes to the motherboard (24-pin), and the other is an 8-pin labelled pci-E, which i assume goes to whatever gpu connects to the pci-E, my 9600 gt, has a 6-pin power socket, and the psu package provides an adapter that allowed me to connect the 8-pin from the psu to the gpu 6-pin socket.

I have using an additional lead to the connect the 8-pin EATX12V to the PSU, as the manual says this must be connected or the system wont boot.

 

[GhislainG]

Try with a single memory stick or, even better, with DDR2 800Mhz RAM that requires 1.8V to run. I would also try with an old PCI video card (which you probably have if you've replaced lots of parts).

 

[afromagus]

I did try with one memory stick

not yet with an old ddr2 800mhz ram though

and i have no old pci video card, i do have an agp lying around, but the motherboard doesnt have an agp socket

also only use crt monitors, so no dvi socket, but vga, and have used adapters to connect my crts to the dvi output sockets at the back of the 9600 gt (and 8600 gt) card.
still to no avail.

 

[GhislainG]

If you can, try with DDR2 800Mhz memory. If you can't, then pull the motherboard out of the case, put it on a non-conductive surface, install a single memory stick and the video card to see if it will POST (no keyboard, mouse or anything else connected). If it doesn't POST, then you'll have to get the motherboard and CPU tested.

 

[afromagus]

quotemsg=1883615,10,339627]If you can, try with DDR2 800Mhz memory. If you can't, then pull the motherboard out of the case, put it on a non-conductive surface, install a single memory stick and the video card to see if it will POST (no keyboard, mouse or anything else connected). If it doesn't POST, then you'll have to get the motherboard and CPU tested.[/quotemsg]

to be honest i wasnt expecting that to work.
but it did.. an old kingston 800mhz 1gb ram, which im using on the working system (which im using to access the internet at the mo) did the trick.

i dont know what happened to the corsairs dominator 1066mhz ones, one did kinda half work after a while of trying again (after removing the kingston one), but the other one was gone, there was bios or post at all.

after that i removed the halfworking but unstable corsair ram, and replaced it with the old 800mhz kingston, reconnected all the fans, sata hdd and cd, and now im formatting hdd and installing xp.[

Its good that its only the ram, as they are cheap these days, not the psu, motherboard or (thank goodness) the still rather expensive E8600 cpu.

but now ive kinda lost faith in what ram to buy.. do i try for another pair of the same corsair dominators (£35 a pair at amazon.co.uk) or just buy another pair of the kingston ones thats working on it (800mhz) which maybe wont give me much room in terms system overclocking?
or what else can i choose in terms of ddr2 memory.

 

[afromagus]

ok i feel dumb now.
realised that i may have to set ddr2 voltages from that used for 800mhz to that used for 1066mhz..
looking up info now.

 

[afromagus]

ok scratch that.

in the asus p5q deluxe bios, i set the ddr ram frequency to 1066mhz from auto, then i set the ddr ram voltage to 1.8v

turned off system

unplugged system and replaced kingston 800mhz 1gb ram, with the corsair 1066mhz one as listed above.

got the old monitor wont come off standby again.. well sometimes, othertimes the post and bios comes up,... then i tried the other corsair ddr2, and that (as before) doesnt work at all, i.e. monitor is always on standby no matter how long i waited, or times ive resetted / switched on/off.

so my next question is, should i assume the corsairs to be not working and get new ones?
what recommended memory should i get, the motherboard i use supports up to ddr 1200mhz, but i want to get affordable ones i guess.

 

[alcattle]

It is not the speed of the memory, it is the voltage. You boot with the 800 stick, then change to the voltage the fast RAM says it needs. That's all. Set the BIOS, Save it and shut down the machine. exchange the RAM and off it goes (we hope)

 

[GhislainG]

Do as alcattle says. To be honest, it's a lot easier to buy high quality DDR2 800Mhz memory that runs at 1.8V because the motherboard will POST and you don't need to find a stick that runs at 1.8V, then change the memory timings, voltage, etc. Without that old stick, you wouldn't be able to get your system up and running.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

That Corsair needs 2.1v to work. You should put in the old RAM, set the RAM timings and voltage to the Corsair manufacturers specs, shut down the computer, & put in the Corsair RAM. The Corsair RAM should work if it gets the correct voltage (2.1v). If the Corsair RAM works with the correct voltage, I'd recommend running memtest86+ overnight to test for errors.