Why do I lose video when my motherboard is still running?

[pietro1904]

So this is my first build in a while and I'm not used to motherboards that don't have built in video cards. for some reason every time i go to install windows from my disk drive I only get about 2 minutes of video from my video card and then it crashes my cpu fan and other fans still run. Is it because I have no video driver?


my speccs are

msi 8701 fuzion motherboard

amd atholon II processor

msi N210 graphics card

2gb of ram

seagate 500 gb harddrive

500w power supply

dvd/cd reader/writer

I'm sure its something stupid I looked over but I'm stumped lol

 

[C12Friedman]

Make sure your graphics card is seated properly (sometimes easy not to get it all the way down). If it's seated correctly, try in a different slot.
I'm a little concerned on the ram since 2GB is the minimum needed to run Win7 64bit but that really shouldn't be a factor...
Are you sure the computer is "crashed" and not just loading without video showing?

 

[pietro1904]

I tried what u said and I still have the same result, and I left it on for 2 hours just to see what it would do an it just stays black screen the whole time and wont let me shut down unless I unplug it.

 

[C12Friedman]

I am assuming you can get into and navigate BIOS and that you get a good POST signal (single beep) on start-up?

 

[pietro1904]

yes I'm able to nav bios as long as I want I get the single beep when turning on but once I start trying to install windows is when I have a problem. Doesn't the video card need a driver? but idk how to load it cuz it doesn't have windows. I'm used to the motherboards with the card built in. Its weird to cuz I can let it sit in the setup and not move through it to start installing and it will still crash its not like its a certain point in the install. Its more like 2-3 min in no matter what windows is doing it shuts off

 

[C12Friedman]

If you can nav BIOS your video card is at least giving you that... the vid card has basic drivers built in. In many builds, I have never had to (or tried to) install a vid card before the OS. But it does give you a screen for BIOS so that's good.
I'm beginning to suspect unstable ram. What ram do you have? Is it a single module? 2 modules? Are they in banks 1 or 1 & 2? Is/are it/they on the motherboard's QVL (Qualified Vendor List) or the ram's QML (Qualified Motherboard List)?
Are you overclocked or have an extra core on the Athlon unlocked?
Sorry for the million questions

 

[pietro1904]

my memory is 1 stick in the first slot the. I had no idea there was a QVL, or a QML for ram. and I dont know what overclocked means.

I appreciate the help so I don't mind the million questions cuz as u can see I dont know much about this only built a couple of towers

 

[pietro1904]

o an dont know if this helps but the memory is made by patriot memory PSD32G16002H DDR3 2GB

 

[C12Friedman]

Overclocking is a way to get more performance out of a processor by making it run at faster speeds. Also, some Athlon II processors have cores "locked" away, they can be "unlocked" and used (the Phenom x4 in my sig began life as a Athlon II x3 455 - unlocked to Phenom) if the motherboard supports that (yours does). I ask because those things can cause stability issues (if it were easy and risk free, everyone would do it).
Back to your issue, I'm stumped. When you say it is in the 1st slot, do you mean closest to the CPU or furthest? It should be in the closest to the CPU - as far as I can tell. Your motherboard is on that ram's QML so it isn't a compatibility issue. I would suggest a different ram module if that's a possibility. (I am right now ignoring the possibility of the GPU being bad since you can nav BIOS with it and I don't see how it could affect Windows installation)

 

[pietro1904]

I'm refering to the first slot being closest to the cpu. how do i check to see if my cpu is overclocking or not?

 

[C12Friedman]

It is a setting you would have to put in (it is done in BIOS) so if no settings have been changed in the BIOS, you aren't overclocked. If you have changed settings in BIOS, using the F6 key will restore "optimized defaults" F10 will save and exit. Thought of something else (while you are in BIOS), check the hard drive's format make sure it is NTFS and not FAT32 (if it says FAT32, just select NTFS) and the hard drive and optical drive are listed as active/enabled/working (somewhere in the SATA settings).
In your "Standard CMOS Features" (still in BIOS) at the bottom is "System Information" select that and see if the CPU information and memory status of your system matches what you think it should say. It'll also tell you BIOS version, that may come in handy (might have to update - Flash - BIOS, we'll try to avoid that)

 

[pietro1904]

okay so i reset bios settings and rebooted and got the following errors.

DQS training failed on previous boot, reverted to slower DRAM speed

A hyper transport link has failed

CMOS settings wrong.

how do i check format of my harddrive in the bios?

 

[C12Friedman]

okay so i reset bios settings and rebooted and got the following errors.

DQS training failed on previous boot, reverted to slower DRAM speed

A hyper transport link has failed

CMOS settings wrong.

Okay, those last two two errors are very concerning, the ram speed, not so much but, I think you should contact MSI tech support as they are far more familiar with those issues (I have no personal experience to draw from there). They may have you RMA the board or clear the CMOS or something. You could try F8 ("failsafe settings") in BIOS but I would contact MSI 1st, have them guide you through that. You can look at this and see if we've missed anything in the mean time.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-perform-steps-posting-post-boot-video-problems