Built PC Troubleshootiing: No Video

[ubersoldier87]

Having followed this thread
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-perform-steps-posting-boot-video-problems

...I can still not figure out whats causing my problem. Everything in the pc seems to be working fine, the 4 motherboard LED lights are on and staying on, all the fans are spinning (including the one on the graphics card), I don't think there is a system speaker built in because I'm not hearing anything when I turn it on, I was hoping I wouldn't need one since that would mean another 4-5 days of waiting for one to ship to me, although if it must come down to that I'll have to do it.

One possibility of a mobo short that I found was I put 2 more spacers in than I should have, I removed those last night but the problem remains. I was very careful during the setup of avoiding static.

The monitor I'm using is an older Samsung LED, I'm using the adapter that came with the graphics card to connect it DVI-VGA. The monitor works fine with my older system. I do have a 4 year old ATI card in my older system, should I try putting that one into the new system to see if it works? Thanks.

My graphics card is a Superclocked 768mb GTX460, my mobo is an MSI-870-G54 and I'm running an AMD Phenom II X4.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Its possible the 'extra' stand-offs have shorted something,
Swap out the card, see if the known good card works ok, and if you can, test the new card in another system,
Drivers are installed and current I assume?
Moto

 

[ubersoldier87]

Its possible the 'extra' stand-offs have shorted something,
Swap out the card, see if the known good card works ok, and if you can, test the new card in another system,
Drivers are installed and current I assume?
Moto

Sorry I should have mentioned in the post, its a new build, so I havn't been able to install any drivers yet. I will try and switch the cards out and see what happens. I don't think running the 460 in my old pc would be an option, it doesn't have the psu capabilities.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

can you swap the psu over as well? or is old psu a dell/generic type?
breadboarding may help isolate the cause though, look over http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/288241-13-read-posting-buyer-guides-troubleshooting and see if you've missed anything.
Moto

 

[ubersoldier87]

can you swap the psu over as well? or is old psu a dell/generic type?
breadboarding may help isolate the cause though, look over http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/288241-13-read-posting-buyer-guides-troubleshooting and see if you've missed anything.
Moto

Yea the old pc was a store bought Compaq Presario...gross, I know.

I tried using my old graphics card in the new build, still no image. As for the breadboarding, I'm going to need the system speaker for that, right? I ordered one off ebay so hopefully it'll reach me by monday. I don't know if there's anything else I can try in the meantime.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

without having known good units to check yes, its sit back and think time tbh,
maybe take the mobo out again, check the back of the board for burns etc, see if you have shorted something, and rebuild one item at a time, if you've gone through the troubleshooting already its the next step imo and you dont need the buzzer for that.
Moto

 

[ubersoldier87]

Alright I'll give that a shot, thank you for your advice, I'll repost once I get the speakers and see how the breadboarding goes. I hope I don't have to rma because I've already taken the barcodes off for rebates, I don't know if that screws me over if I have to.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

ok man, I'll check back on monday then, not sure how american rebate things work sorry, I'm in the Uk
Moto

 

[ubersoldier87]

Hey, I figured it out, turns out (I think) the card wasn't accepting my monitor, most likely because of the resolution. I went out and bought a new one and it worked fine. Thanks again!

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Strange, well at least you got sorted man, happy gaming
Moto

 

[ubersoldier87]

Well, it ran perfectly last night, I left it on through the night, and was using it this morning for an hour or so and then it crashed, just completely froze. I don't know if its significant but it seemed to happen shortly after I switched out the wired keyboard/mouse I had for a usb wireless set. Then I ran into the same problem I had before, no image coming up on the screen. I switched the power cable coming from the pc from the strip directly to the wall, then I got image, Windows loaded but like 5 minutes later it crashed again and again no video.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

As a rule (Usb pendrives etc excluded ofc)
you should never unplug/disconnect anything while the system is on (usb drives are different as you use 'remove hardware' tab), I had similar issues with ps2/usb mouse and K.board, the system turns on and 'sees' ps2 mouse then you swap it out and it confuses the system,
try plugging in the usb set and rebooting (I assume you got the drivers for the usb set in place)
if no joy, reset your bios and that should sort it
Moto

 

[ubersoldier87]

As a rule (Usb pendrives etc excluded ofc)
you should never unplug/disconnect anything while the system is on (usb drives are different as you use 'remove hardware' tab), I had similar issues with ps2/usb mouse and K.board, the system turns on and 'sees' ps2 mouse then you swap it out and it confuses the system,
try plugging in the usb set and rebooting (I assume you got the drivers for the usb set in place)
if no joy, reset your bios and that should sort it
Moto

It worked, thank you very much!

 

[ubersoldier87]

Best answer selected by ubersoldier87.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

no probs man,
Thank you for best answer as well
Moto