First build. Test boot worked, but now I've got nothing.

[TehDot]

Hey guys, I'm currently building my first rig. I did an outside build to test all my components, and it booted the bios just fine. After putting all my components in the case, nothing worked. I pulled everything back out, and after about an hour of trying things, I realized I had the wrong end of a cable plugged into the psu. Now I have my current problem though. When I power everything on, my heatsink fan spins, as well as the graphics card fan. The led for the power button in my case comes on as well. I get no bios though. I've tried everything I can think of and searched the net all of last night with no actual results. I've tried using both of my memory modules (one at a time) in all the different memory slots. I've reset CMOS. I've checked all my connections several dozen times. I'm just lost.

Currently the only things on the board are the cpu, heatsink, graphics card, 24-pin motherboard power, supplimentalcpu power, and the case headers for the power button and leds.

Specs are as follows:
Antec DF-85 case
ASRock 990FX Extreme3 mobo.
Saphire AMD Radeon HD 6950 Flex edition graphics card.
AMD Phenom II Black Edition 1100T 6 core processor.
Rosewill HIVE Series HIVE-650 650W 80 Plus Bronze certified modular psu.
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL8D-8GBXM

My mobo did not come with a pc speaker, but I've just now ordered one.

Okay, so after reading my post again, I don't think I've provided enough information, so I'm gonna try and explain EVERYTHING exactly as it happens.

I currently have the cpu, heatsink, graphics card, and one stick of ram on the motherboard. All of them have the appropriate cables plugged in, and the motherboard has both the 24 pin cable plugged in, as well as the 8 pin cpu power cable. I now have my case headers plugged in, as well as all the fans and sata power cables. When I hit the power button on my case, the blue power led lights up on the case. My heatsink, gpu fan, power supply fan, and all of the case fans spin just fine. Even the leds in the case fans light up. There's a green light coming from my SSD telling me it's getting power, but I do not have the data cable attached to the motherboard. My optical drive opens and closes just fine, and a green led lights up when I use it. My rig is running as I type, so it doesn't have any issue staying powered on, and I can also turn it off with the power button. I'm still without a speaker, so I don't know if I'm getting beep codes, but I'm definitely not getting any output onscreen. The monitor I'm using is actually a vizio tv with an hdmi cable, but I've also tried it with a regular computer monitor using a vga cable. I know the vizio works, because it DID boot once, but I don't know if that could cause problems now.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated!

 

[DelroyMonjo]

How do you know you reset the cmos if you have none? Wrong end of WHAT cable plugged into PSU?

 

[TehDot]

I don't know for sure. I just switched the jumper to clear and back. And I honestly don't know the name of the cable. The psu is modular, and the cable has six pins that plug in for sata, floppy, and peripherals. There's an adapter for the graphics card with three pins on it that plugs into one of the four pin plugs that come off the original six pin cable. I had the adapter plugged into the psu in the beginning instead of the original cable, and that was shutting off the psu immediately after I powered on.

 

[kajabla]

Is your monitor plugged into the graphics card or the mobo?

 

[TehDot]

Is your monitor plugged into the graphics card or the mobo?

It's plugged into the graphics card with an hdmi cable.

 

[TehDot]

Okay, so after reading my post again, I don't think I've provided enough information, so I'm gonna try and explain EVERYTHING exactly as it happens.

I currently have the cpu, heatsink, graphics card, and one stick of ram on the motherboard. All of them have the appropriate cables plugged in, and the motherboard has both the 24 pin cable plugged in, as well as the 8 pin cpu power cable. I now have my case headers plugged in, as well as all the fans and sata power cables. When I hit the power button on my case, the blue power led lights up on the case. My heatsink, gpu fan, power supply fan, and all of the case fans spin just fine. Even the leds in the case fans light up. There's a green light coming from my SSD telling me it's getting power, but I do not have the data cable attached to the motherboard. My optical drive opens and closes just fine, and a green led lights up when I use it. My rig is running as I type, so it doesn't have any issue staying powered on, and I can also turn it off with the power button. I'm still without a speaker, so I don't know if I'm getting beep codes, but I'm definitely not getting any output onscreen. The monitor I'm using is actually a vizio tv with an hdmi cable, but I've also tried it with a regular computer monitor using a vga cable. I know the vizio works, because it DID boot once, but I don't know if that could cause problems now.

Would it be wrong to assume that the psu is okay? Given that everything runs and seems to be getting power? I'm really just at a loss. I've been fiddling with it for hours on end with no sort of result, good or bad, and it's starting to drive me crazy.

 

[jsc]

All you really know is that your system is not working. Without the case speaker, you do not know if the POST is not running (no beeps), is running but failed (bad beeps), or passed (single short beep) and has something else wrong.

At this point, you cannot assume that the PSU is good.

Work systematically through our standard checklist and troubleshooting thread:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-read-posting-boot-problems
I mean work through, not just read over it. We spent a lot of time on this. It should find most of the problems.

If not, continue.
The following is an expansion of my troubleshooting tips in the breadboarding link in the "Cannot boot" thread.

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:

Check for line power at the PSU input. Extension cords, power strips, and power cords do fail.

If you have power and no beeps, suspect components in likely order are PSU, motherboard, and CPU.

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: 5 volts always on. 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.