My new system will power on, but won't display information on screen

[Rubber Ducky]

I built a new gaming PC last week. I did an external build to make sure it worked, and it did. I even went into the BIOS and made sure everything was being detected, etc. Nothing was wrong.

I finished the build, but couldn't install Windows 7 yet, because my hard drive was still in the mail. I received in earlier today, so I stuck it in and turned on my shiny new PC.

Every fan was spinning, the light on my graphics card was on to show that it worked, the LED on my front fan was working. There was just one problem: my monitor said that there was no input.

At first I thought it was my HDMI cable, so I connected my monitor (which is really an 18.5" TV) to my Xbox 360. It showed up fine. So I switched between the two HDMI inputs on my TV, but it didn't change.

My stomach sank as I thought of my video card. I unplugged the HDMI cable from the card and plugged it straight into the motherboard, hoping to solve the issue. No difference.

I read on this forum somewhere that someone had a similar problem, and fixed it by holding the power button for 30 seconds with the system unplugged. I did this; no fix.

So, I've concluded that it's not the cable, and it's not my display. I suppose it may be that both the video card and motherboard have defective ports, but how could they stop working when I haven't turned the system on in a week?

Hopefully I've been clear enough. Any help is appreciated, thanks!


Oh, and here are my components:

CPU: i5-3570K (with stock cooler)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Pro3
Video Card: MSI GTX 560 Ti Hawk
PSU: XFX Pro 550W
Case: Rosewill Challenger-U3
Storage / Boot Drive: Seagate Barracuda 1TB
Optical Drive: Lite-On DVD burner something or other

 

[ckholt83]

Did you power on the system after finishing the build but before receiving the HDD, or did you only test it out while it was outside the case?

If the only thing that has changed since the machine was functional is the HDD install, try unplugging it and see if it boots then.

 

[Rubber Ducky]

Did you power on the system after finishing the build but before receiving the HDD, or did you only test it out while it was outside the case?

If the only thing that has changed since the machine was functional is the HDD install, try unplugging it and see if it boots then.

I test booted it externally, then left it in my case for a week. I didn't think that would affect performance, was I mistaken?

Also, just tried removing the HDD; no luck. I also took out my RAM and reinstalled it, to make sure it was seated properly. No change.

If possible I'll try and use it on a different monitor, though I wouldn't get the chance anytime soon.