Boot up problem. Lights and fans are on but screen is blank.

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prolinium

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Sep 16, 2009
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Hello all,

I'm having a problem with my newly assembled PC. Upon powering on, all lights and fans turn on with the 1 beep noise but there's nothing on my screen.

History
I ordered parts from newegg and tigerdirect for a new pc a week ago. I received the computer parts and assembled everything together last night with the current symptoms shown: The computer boots up with 1 beep, with all case fans on, with the CPU phase led fully lit on the motherboard (from green to orange), with the videocard fan on, with hard drive disk sound and hdd activity led flashing, and with the optical drive led flashing. The monitor light turns green from orange when the computer boots up, but the screen is blank with no BIOS or anything. The two lcd monitors that I've tested for the new pc both turn green as if it's receiving a signal.

I used an antistatic wriststrap for any potential electrostatic damage. Didn't smell anything burning or anything like that.

Because it's a brand new PC I don't know of anything that happened before the problem arose. I did forget to plug in the cpu pin plug while I tested the CPU, memory, videocard, motherboard and PSU at the very beginning. But the CPU and case fan turned on for less than a second and then shut off because it only had the 24pin on. Since then I plugged in all of the power pin sockets. Also there was no beep (POST?) at the first bootup so I took out and rearranged the memory and just left one stick in there.

I also have not connected the keyboard or mouse to the PC yet as well.

Full Specs
CPU: Intel Core i7-860 2.8Ghz 8M LGA1156 CPU (I69-0860 )
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-P55M-UD2 LGA 1156 Intel P55 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Memory: OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Voltage Desktop Memory Triple Channel (Model OCZ3G1600LV6GK)
Graphics card: EVGA 896-P3-1255-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16
PSU: Ultra LSP650 650w Power Supply (ULT-LSP650 )
HDD: Seagate 1TB Serial ATA HD 7200/32MB/SATA-3G (TSD-1000AS3 SY )
Optical Drive: LG 22X DVDRW SATA OEM (L49-1028 OEM )
Case: COOLER MASTER Storm Scout SGC-2000-KKN1-GP Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Steps I've taken so far:
1. Cleared the CMOS with a flathead screwdriver metal contact recommended in the motherboard manual.
2. Removed all RAM to hear the multiple beeps in the POST. Placed in one stick and I get the single beep now on bootup.
3. Removed optical and hard drive.
4. Checked all connections from the PSU to the pin sockets for the case fans, cpu, motherboard, video card.
5. Tested two monitors.
6. Checked motherboard front panel connections (power switch, reset switch, hdd led, etc.).

I've read the "Read this before posting about Boot problems" sticky and I went through that list as well. I'm at a loss for what the problem could be. I'm a bit newer to building PCs. I've only assembled 2 or 3 before this one and they were years apart. But anyway, any help would be appreciated! Thanks

 
Solution
aford10
Because of the garbled display, the video card is likely the problem.

Does your brother have a video card in his that you can test in your system? That will work as well as putting yours in his.
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Gulli

Gulli

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I've been in the exact same situation once: everything's spinning but no boot.
In my case the motherboard was broken, I still don't know what was wrong with it or why but after I replaced the motherboard the system worked just fine, but if I were I wouldn't rule out RAM completely.
 
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Gulli

Gulli

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Yes, a dodgy PSU may have been the reason the motherboard broke down in the first place, so replace it, just like I did when I was in your situation.
 
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jsc

jsc

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After you get the single short beep, does it look like the computer is booting - drive activity lights and so on? Or does it run for a short while, then shut down?

Have you teseted the video card in another computer? The reason that I ask this is because the POST cannot test the inner workings of the video card. It can only test the interface between the motherboard and video card.
 
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prolinium

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I just turned on the PC this morning and I got the single beep but this time there was something on screen. It showed the Gigabyte mobo image but it was heavily pixelated with white dots/noise. Afterwards it showed text fonts that were broken apart as if it were a corrupted screen. It looked like it may have been the BIOS screen because it was blue and I could move up and down on the menu. On the bottom of the blue screen there looked to be a countdown timer but after toggling up and down the menu it stopped. I hit the reset button to see if the image would clear up but it did not and went back to the BIOS screen. I let the countdown reach zero and it went to a black screen with a few lines of white characters at the top. I couldn't make it out because of the garbled fonts. I hit enter and it went to a black screen with a flashing underscore key that was clearly visible. Afterwards I powered down the PC and powered it on a minute later and now there are no beeps whatsoever and the screen is blank as before (blue power led from the monitor signaling it is receiving something). Not sure what it means.

After you get the single short beep, does it look like the computer is booting - drive activity lights and so on? Or does it run for a short while, then shut down?

Have you teseted the video card in another computer? The reason that I ask this is because the POST cannot test the inner workings of the video card. It can only test the interface between the motherboard and video card.
Click to expand...

jsc: I'm no longer getting beeps but the computer looks like it is booting with the drive activity lights and fan noises going on. It doesn't turn off after a short while, although I haven't left it on for more than 2 minutes afterwards.

I can't check the videocard at the moment but I'll try installing it into my brother's computer to see if it works later today.

I would place any items from TigerDirect on the suspect list, especially the PSU.

Do you have access to another PSU to test?
Click to expand...

Gulli & cmichael138: I don't have access to a PSU at the moment, all of the PSUs I have are either too low wattage or don't have the correct pin configuration for the motherboard or videocard. Do you think I should return the PSU and replace it with the same model or get another one? Unfortunately, the last desktop I purchased and own is about 4-5 years old.

And sorry I haven't figured out the user quotes on this forum yet. And thanks again for the help. :)
 
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prolinium

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As an update, I can't test the videocard on my brother's computer because the videocard is too large for the case AND his PSU is too low with 480w vs. the 500w 36amp needed on the +12v.

Also, just curious but what's wrong with Tigerdirect? I had no idea they have a bad reputation. I normally order from newegg but I fall under their sales tax jurisdiction so I was hoping to bypass some of that cost with tigerdirect. But man their shipping is slow.

I'm wondering if there is anything I can do besides RMAing the motherboard back to newegg? I'm not even sure what is faulty, whether it's the PSU, the mobo, the videocard, or the RAM.
 
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slong

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my screen is blank also... but i am using a old old old gpu that im not sure if it works just using as a temp atm but everything else is working fine.. starts up and no beeps or anything.. the monitor turns on just the screen goes blank and says no signal... and im sure i have everything hooked up right, figuring its the card
 
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slong

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well i removed one ram stick and didnt get anything, then unhooked the hd and it worked?.. set the bios to default and then rebooted and hooked back up the hd and it worked? im intallin win7 atm hoping everything should be fine now... cant believe that gpu worked lol its so old :)
 
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aford10

aford10

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Oct 2, 2008
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Ok, thanx for sharing. You may want to start your own thread if you want people to know about your old video card.
 
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prolinium

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Looks like it's the videocard. I brought in my brothers Geforce 8800 PCI-E card and it worked fine with the boot up bios screen. Put back in the GTX260 and it had the garbled broken looking fonts once again. I'll contact the manufacturer to see if they can replace it and if that doesn't work I'll call up newegg for a return/replacement.

Thanks again for all of the help guys!
 
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Guest

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ive just built my first tower and its my pride and joy,it all came on and worked fine the first time i switched it on so i decided to upgrade ram from 1 gig to 2 so i took a 512mb stick out and they said they didnt have any in stock so i cae home and put it back in,i turned it on and heard a small bang and now the screen says no signal and theres no beeps at all,please can someone me thankyou
 
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