Problem 1st boot

[febreeze]

i just booted my computer for the first time and i got 1 long beep and 2 short ones. i googled this and theres different solution for each BIOS. how do i know which mine is? im new to this

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

Quick research on google turned this up.

http://forums.techguy.org/hardware/589703-one-long-beep-two-short.html


Do this, reseat ram first. Restart, if no go, reseat video card. If no go, try one stick of ram at a time. Also, if you have integrated video on the board, pull out the discrete card I'm assuming you've got, see if it will boot to the integrated video. It could be that the onboard video needs to be disabled in the bios. Let us know!

 

[febreeze]

ok i have tried all the ways i could for the ram i tried both in different dual channels and also separately. Tomorrow i will try the video card since thats the last option. btw my mobo has no onboard video heres the mobo http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130565&Tpk=MSI%20890FXA-GD65

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

Have you tried only a single stick? Also, have you reset the cmos? If not, pull the cmos battery for about 5 minutes, replace, and try again. Usually beeping like that is good, I find the two things are usually ram or video card.

 

[febreeze]

whats a cmos battery?

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

Small silver battery on your mainboard, it's about the size of a nickel. If there's not one of those on there, there should be a reset button or something to that effect on the board. Also, stupid question, but you did install the brass standoffs right?

 

[febreeze]

yes i did i carefully installed every part since it was my first build it took me two days
my mobo manual says to short 2-3 pins not taking out a battery should i do that?
could it be my ram's defective?

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

Possibly. On shorting the pins, either way will work. Something else to check. Look in the motherboard manual, make sure that the jumper you are supposed to use was not set to clear. Sometimes I've seen boards come with the pin on the clear jumpers at first and it had to be changed before the build would run. Also, check the sticky's at the top of this section, they may be able to give you some tips I might be missing.

 

[febreeze]

it was set to keep
ok i did all the ram stuff again, reseated video card and did the jumper thing, no dice.... so all i can think is the ram is is broke because the video card is working

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

How do you know the video card works? Have you tried it in another system? You need to check out what kind of bios is installed for your board. But here is a link if you have an AMI bios.

http://www.bioscentral.com/beepcodes/amibeep.htm#

If that is the bios you've got, they say that is caused by the video. Only way to confirm is to test your card in a known working system. Also, another way to know might be to leave the ram in, and pull the video completely, then try to restart the computer, and see if the beep codes change.

If not, and the card works in another system, then you could have a bad pci express slot.

Also, you could try pulling ram as well to see again if beep codes change for a little fun. But at this point, it sounds like your problem is between either being a ram issue or video issue. The way to accurately test is going to be to have a known good system to test the video in, or try another card in the same board.

Stupid question. Noticing this is a crossfire capable board. You aren't trying to use the lower pci express slot on the board are you? If so, move the card up to the primary slot. Those MSI boards should be decent, I've built with a couple of similar boards and they've been solid for me thus far.

 

[febreeze]

my video card is in the top pci slot
ok ill try the things u said

 

[febreeze]

with ram out of the computer i got 3 long beeps
when i took the video card out it gave 1 long 2 short
reseated video card again same beeps im going to try the other pci slot
it wont fit in the slot because of connecters blocking it

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

Ok, so sounds like the board is ok as it is giving you beep codes, that's good. Did you remember to plug in the power connector for your card? Also, have you tried to borrow a working card from someone to test and see if it works with that?

If worse comes to worse and nobody you know has a card for you to try, this is cheap enough to test with, and you could always resell it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/F36-ATI-RADEON-X300SE-128MB-PCI-E-x16-VIDEO-CARD-DVI-/140562214800?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item20ba292f90

What video card are you trying to use by the way? Also, what power supply? It's possible you got a bad video card, or perhaps the power supply you are using is too weak to push the power the card needs. Try reseating the card a final time, double check all your power connections, make sure you power connections are properly plugged into your video card if it requires them, and also that you have a good quality power supply that you are using.

If still no go, the thing to do is either borrow a working card, exchange yours, or buy a cheapie for testing. May want to make sure the power supply is good while you are at it. If you can't borrow or exchange, a local pc shop may have an old pci express card sitting around that they'd part with for not much money. But we need to verify that the motherboard including your pci express slot is good and working. If we can establish that and the computer boots, then you've either got a power issue or you got a bad video card. That's where I'd go next.

 

[febreeze]

my video card is a nvidia gtx 570 and my psu is corsair cx600

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

Could be you are too close to the requirements. According to this link, 38 amps is what you need on the 12v+ rail for a gtx 570.

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=199502

Your power supply is 40 amps, but by the time you add in the extras like hard drives, etc, you might be asking too much of that power supply,

 

[febreeze]

but at least the computer should start up i would understand if the computer crashed during a game so ill try the tips you've given me

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

No problem. Corsair is normally a decent supply. As I said, the things to do now would be to test another card in your system to see if it boots up then or not. Also, maybe trying your card in another system. If another card starts up in your system, you may have a bad card.

 

[febreeze]

ok i bought a geforce gts 450 and now i get a delayed 1 short beep but still nothing on the screen.

 

[aford10]

Try booting with just PSU/HSF, CPU, 1 RAM chip, gts 450, and power switch. Do you get any display?

 

[febreeze]

so you are saying no hard drive and cd drive?

 

[aford10]

Yes, you don't need those to boot your computer.

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

Unlikely for two graphics cards to be bad. If you've not already, try booting with only 1 stick of ram.

All I have to say is Wow. Been a while since I have seen one that finicky. I would say at this point. One thing I did read was that a delayed beep like that can mean delayed seek.

Here's the next things to try. Pull connections from the optical drive, hard drive, and any other components you've got plugged in. See if it boots. If so, add components 1 at a time until it will not boot again, then you know what to look at. If this does not work, make sure all components are unplugged, then try booting with only one ram stick in.

If no boot, then I would see if you can borrow another set of ram from someone to try. Perhaps the ram could be incompatible with the board or a bad set.

If still no luck, then at this point, you may want to consider the possibility that the motherboard or cpu could be suspect.

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

Caught me as I was typing, to the op, sorry to hear all the trouble you've had, especially when I know what you want to do is fire that puppy up to see what it will do.

 

[febreeze]

are you serious?! argh i didnt know making a computer would be this hard....
btw aford i like your quote from office space

 

[aford10]

Ya, get on those TPS reports. :lol:

It's not hard to build a computer, but it can be challenging if something doesn't work right. Now it's just a matter of finding the cause.