New system - no video/post. Any help appreciated.

[ignloyola]

So I checked through the article about testing new Mobos before posting, and I have followed all of the steps. I checked all the plugs, made sure that the 8-pin CPU power was plugged in, tried all the settings, reset the CMOS/pulled the battery, etc...

I wanted to upgrade the system, so I got new RAM, Mobo and CPU. Everything else has been tested as working with the old triplet. System now is:
Asus p8p67 LE
i5 2500k
Diamond HD 5760
OCZ 600W
WD 500 GB HD


Right now, I am just trying to get to the Post so I can enter the BIOS and look at the settings. I have things set up so that nearly everything is unplugged - RAM is out, HD and disc drive are unplugged. Only thing that is in is the CPU and the video card.

The computer starts up fine - all the fans start, the internal lights come on properly, and it runs. It almost seems like the mobo is working fine, but for some reason it doesn't want to output the video through the video card. Since there is no onboard video, I have no other options. (I am using a VGA connector for the video - one card is a Diamond HD 5760 while the other is an older ATI. Do I have to use the DVI? I didn't think so.)

From what I understand, the mobo doesn't have a system speaker, and I don't have an extra system speaker around to try out. So I don't even know if it hits the beep point.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[majorgibly]

Hmmm, tough one did you make sure that you installed the standoffs correctly? The board Maybe shorting on the case. Just an idea.

 

[ignloyola]

I unscrewed and screwed it back in. Haven't tried breadboarding, because I was really careful with the standoffs.

Will get back to you tomorrow. Thanks for the reply.

 

[jsc]

You really need the case speaker.

Next, are you trying to use the old drive without doing a fresh install? Taht works about half the time.

You do not need a hard drive to successfully POST, but without a case speaker, you do not know if your system is not POSTing at all (silence), unsuccessfully POSTing (beep pattern other than a single short beep), or POSTing successfully (normally the single short beep) but not booting.

I have tested the following beep patterns on Gigabyte, eVGA, and ECS motherboards. Other BIOS' may be different, but they all use a single short beep for a successful POST.

Breadboard - that will help isolate any kind of case problem you might have.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/262730-31-breadboarding

Breadboard with just motherboard, CPU & HSF, case speaker, and PSU.

Make sure you plug the CPU power cable in. The system will not boot without it.

I always breadboard a new build. It takes only a few minutes, and you know you are putting good parts in the case once you are finished.

You can turn on the PC by momentarily shorting the two pins that the case power switch goes to. You should hear a series of long, single beeps indicating memory problems. Silence indicates a problem with (in most likely order) the PSU, motherboard, or CPU. Remember, at this time, you do not have a graphics card installed so the load on your PSU will be reduced.

If no beeps:
Running fans and drives and motherboard LED's do not necessarily indicate a good PSU. In the absence of a single short beep, they also do not indicate that the system is booting.

At this point, you can sort of check the PSU. Try to borrow a known good PSU of around 550 - 600 watts. That will power just about any system with a single GPU. If you cannot do that, use a DMM to measure the voltages. Measure between the colored wires and either chassis ground or the black wires. Yellow wires should be 12 volts. Red wires: +5 volts, orange wires: +3.3 volts, blue wire : -12 volts, violet wire (standby power supply): 5 volts always on. The green wire should also have 5 volts on it. It should go to 0 volts when you press the case power button (this is also a good way to test the power switch and the associated wiring), then back to 5 volts when you release the case power switch. Tolerances are +/- 5% except for the -12 volts which is +/- 10%.

The gray wire is really important. It should go from 0 to +5 volts when you turn the PSU on with the case switch. CPU needs this signal to boot.

You can turn on the PSU by completely disconnecting the PSU and using a paperclip or jumper wire to short the green wire to one of the neighboring black wires.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FWXgQSokF4&feature=youtube_gdata

A way that might be easier is to use the main power plug. Working from the back of the plug where the wires come out, use a bare paperclip to short between the green wire and one of the neighboring black wires. That will do the same thing with an installed PSU. It is also an easy way to bypass a questionable case power switch.

This checks the PSU under no load conditions, so it is not completely reliable. But if it can not pass this, it is dead. Then repeat the checks with the PSU plugged into the computer to put a load on the PSU.

If the system beeps:
If it looks like the PSU is good, install a memory stick. Boot. Beep pattern should change to one long and several short beeps indicating a missing graphics card.

Silence, long single beeps, or series of short beeps indicate a problem with the memory. If you get short beeps verify that the memory is in the appropriate motherboard slots.

Insert the video card and connect any necessary PCIe power connectors. Boot. At this point, the system should POST successfully (a single short beep). Notice that you do not need keyboard, mouse, monitor, or drives to successfully POST.
At this point, if the system doesn't work, it's either the video card or an inadequate PSU. Or rarely - the motherboard's PCIe interface.

Now start connecting the rest of the devices starting with the monitor, then keyboard and mouse, then the rest of the devices, testing after each step. It's possible that you can pass the POST with a defective video card. The POST routines can only check the video interface. It cannot check the internal parts of the video card.

 

[swifty_morgan]

a little something to think about. the jumper that clears the cmos.......... is it on the correct pins ?

 

[ignloyola]

So I breadboarded it (I think that is what it is called). Checked all the cables, checked everything. Didn't work at first. Tried a different video card and it worked. Plugged in new video card and that worked. So I installed everything, and I can now post!

Thanks everyone for the suggestions!

Now I am getting a BSOD when I try to install Windows, though, but that is a different problem. Going to work on that.

 

[swifty_morgan]

you put it back together. did you retry the old video card or try with one stick of ram and if that didn't work pull it and try another/or another slot ? too bad you can't try another mother board.......... how's about another case ?

 

[ignloyola]

Apparently the BSOD error is 07B, which corresponds to a hard drive controller. It goes to the blue windows install screen (XP 64Bit) but none of the normal text runs at the bottom, it just goes to BSOD after 30 seconds or so.