No Input Signal - Any Ideas?

[TempestCrescent]

Hey guys, thanks for taking the time to read this. I am custom-building a desktop PC with the following parts:

Case: Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147153
Mobo: ASRock 970 Extreme3 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157280
Processor: AMD Athlon II X3 450 Rana 3.2GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Desktop Processor
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103886
RAM: Pareema 4GB 240-Pin DDR3
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820576002
Graphics: EVGA GeForce 9800 GT HDMI 1GB
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130534
PSU: Antec VP-450 450W ATX 12V v2.3 Power Supply
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371045
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6.0Gb/s
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136769
Monitor: HP L1706 (Refurbished from a friend)
- http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1930897,00.asp
- http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1556143&CatId=167

After taking about 3 hours yesterday to put it all together (being careful all the while about grounding myself to the case to avoid static electric discharge), I powered the sexy thing up only to find that the monitor would receive no input from the graphics card. All of the fans, even the one on the graphics card, are running fluidly. Nothing seems to be overheating, even after being left on for 20-30 minutes. There are no smells of any kind.

- A couple of peculiar things have happened which may be of note:
1) I had originally forgotten that the video card came with an adaptor to receive two PSU cords and instead directly plugged in the 6-pin connector. This resulted in the situation above. Finding the adaptor, I tried it. The PSU's fan jerked, but nothing started up. I investigated and found one of the pins in the video adaptor to be bent, after straightening it and re-fastening it, the computer started up in the same manner as before. It has since functioned the same with and without said adaptor (i.e. No Input Signal) [I believe it is needless to say that I took all of the appropriate measures in grounding myself and in turning off and detaching the power cord before tweaking with the computer's innards.]
2) The graphics card came with a VGA to DVI adaptor. After the above issue, and trying a few other things (among the list below) I was becoming slightly irrate. While the computer was on, I unplugged the vga cord (from the back of the PC) and fastened on the VGA to DVI adaptor. I then plugged it in to the back of the PC and the PC shut off automatically. The PC now starts the same with the VGA to DVI adaptor in as it did without it, but I have no tried switching it with the power on again (nor do I believe doing so could produce any good effect).


The Attempts: Being a tinkerer myself, though not a particularly hardware savvy one, I've since tried a number of things to fix the issue.
1) Believing that it could be the monitor, I detached the vga cord from the pc and plugged it into my laptop (which I am on now). My laptop's screen changed to its display mode and the now-attached monitor displayed the screen without issue, thus discounting the possibility of the monitor or its vga to vga cord's malfunctioning.
2) On a similar note, I read in a forum about a guy having similar issues with his monitor which was solved by turning off it's Power Saving Mode. I did that, and while it prevents the monitor from going to sleep every time it can't find a signal, the monitor still, however, receives no signal.
3) Thinking perhaps that the 450 watts which my antec brings in might not be enough, I took the suggestion of unplugging all of the fans and starting it up, to the same effect.
3) The ASRock motherboard that I have has two PCI-E X16 slots. Under the impression that the first slot I put it in (PCI-E2) might've been in error, I switched the video card to PCI-E4 to the same effect.
4) I read in a forum that a guy was having a similar issue which was solved by switching his RAM from slot to slot. Let me backtrack and say that, When initially installing the RAM I could not find which one was the first slot. I couldn't see any labels and I still can't see any labels, so I simply put it in one of the end ones. This let me to believe that it was possible that I had it in the wrong slot, after changing it to the one closest to the motherboard, I tried starting the PC up to the same effect (I have no tried the inner 2, but I don't think it'd make any difference).
5) I tried simply detaching and readjusting the video card, to no apparent effect.
5) I read in a forum that sometimes there is dirt or something similar which severs the connection that the video card makes with the mother board. I detached the video card and cleaned the copper prongs with a non-alcohol based electronic cleaning wipe. I allowed these to dry for about 20 minutes, blew off any residual hairs from the cleaning cloth, and then reinstalled it. To no effect.

I would appreciate any input or further questions you have to offer. Thank you kindly.

- Adam

 

[Sunius]

Do you have a beeper attached in the motherboard?

 

[TempestCrescent]

Do you have a beeper attached in the motherboard?

Thanks for your quick reply! I'm not sure entirely what you mean. I've have not put any auxiliary components besides the ones listed, but I have heard that the motherboard will beep some pre-determined number of times according to the problem it detects. I do not have a speaker system, though I was wearing headphones turned to the maximum in anticipation of these beeps. I did not hear anything though I tried both the front and rear sound ports. I just tried again, booting it three times and each time checking, in sequence, the front audio, the rear audio, and the rear speaker with a different set of headphones than yesterday.

 

[Sunius]

No, they will not come through audio ports for sure. They will come through a speaker that comes with your motherboard (not sure if your parts are new, though).

 

[TempestCrescent]

No, they will not come through audio ports for sure. They will come through a speaker that comes with your motherboard (not sure if your parts are new, though).

http://www.avadirect.com/images/items/MSC-BEEPER6.jpg

Oh! I recall seeing that but I did not install it because I was not entirely sure what it was (perhaps not the best course of action, but I digress). Let me install it right quick and get back to you.

 

[TempestCrescent]

I've installed the small speaker both what appeared to be right-side up and with the text facing downwards but I heard no sound either direction.

 

[Sunius]

Take out RAM (all of it) and see if it beeps then when you try to turn on the PC. If it doesn't, it means something is wrong with the motherboard, the beeper (which i doubt) or the cpu.

 

[TempestCrescent]

Take out RAM (all of it) and see if it beeps then when you try to turn on the PC. If it doesn't, it means something is wrong with the motherboard, the beeper (which i doubt) or the cpu.

I took out the one stick of RAM and It's starting up as normal, no beeps. I'm thinking it must be the motherboard; I'm not sure how the CPU could cause no input signal to be displayed. Any way to tell which it is?

 

[Sunius]

As I said, take out ALL the ram, not only 1 stick. Don't leave any sticks inside and check if it beeps then.

 

[TempestCrescent]

As I said, take out ALL the ram, not only 1 stick. Don't leave any sticks inside and check if it beeps then.

I did I was merely specifying "the one stick of RAM," to tell you also that there is only one stick. Still no beeps, even after facing the speaker both ways.

 

[Sunius]

It sounds like bad motherboard or CPU then. Or, it could be faulty power supply unit. Could you list all the connectors connected somewhere in the PC?

 

[TempestCrescent]

It sounds like bad motherboard or CPU then. Or, it could be faulty power supply unit. Could you list all the connectors connected somewhere in the PC?

PSU connected to:
- Motherboard via a 24-pin connector
- Video Card via either an adaptor which needs two molex connectors and takes that to a 6-pin connector into the video card, or directly to the vga by a 6-pin connector
- Hard drive via a flat connector (looks like the ones on the mobo which receive flat prongs on a board)
- Front of case via a 4-pin molex connector (not sure if for the fan/light or just power in general to the front of the case)
- Top case fun via a 4-pin molex connector


Motherboard connected to:
- Hard drive via a SATA 6.0Gb/s cable (provided with the hard drive
- Processor - Directly
- Video card - Directly though
- Beeper via a two-prong male
- Rear case fan via a three-prong male
- Front of case
-- Power button via a two-prong male
-- HDLED via a two-prong male (lights on the front, I think)
-- RESET via a two-prong male (not sure about this one)
-- HD AUDIO via a nine-prong male (there was also an AC'97 labeled female receiver on this same cord coming from the front of the case, no place to put it though)
-- USB via an 8-prong male (the female, as the last one, has 10 holes)

Processor connected to:
- Motherboard - directly
- Motherboard via cords from the cooling fan (4 pin female)

I think these are all the connections. There were a few left unconnected, like the e-SATA cable coming from the front of the case (I won't use it), the AC'97 marked cable (as mentioned above), and a few extra power cables for extra hard drives and the like.

 

[Smeg45]

Looks like the card is DOA. RMA it.

 

[Trysior]

You did not talk about the cpu power cable that should be from the power supply to the motherboard.

If I check the picture of your mobo on newegg this connector is on the upper left side of the motherboard.

 

[TempestCrescent]

You did not talk about the cpu power cable that should be from the power supply to the motherboard.

If I check the picture of your mobo on newegg this connector is on the upper left side of the motherboard.

If I am not mistaken, that is actually the first one that I mentioned in the PSU section - the 24-pin connector. I checked the picture and I believe that is what you are speaking of.

 

[TempestCrescent]

Looks like the card is DOA. RMA it.

I'm going to talk to EVGA on Monday and have them try to help me debug. I believe that you are right, but Sunius raises quite a few good points and it may be any number of things. I'd rather exhaust all other options before any conclusions are made. If we, or if EVGA, can't come up with anything else. I do just what you are suggesting.

 

[Trysior]

No there's the 24 pin connector on the right side and the 8 pin cpu power connector on the upper left side. Both have to be connected.

Depending on your psu it may be 2 X 4 Pin connector that goes there.

 

[TempestCrescent]

No there's the 24 pin connector on the right side and the 8 pin cpu power connector on the upper left side. Both have to be connected.

Depending on your psu it may be 2 X 4 Pin connector that goes there.

HaHa! You, sir, are a genius. It's turned on now and asking me to "Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key"

- I just switched the RAM to the other end slot (the furthest one from the cpu) and it's booting up. Thanks so much for your help guys! (It doesn't have an optical drive, so I'll be installing the OS from a flash drive, Hopefully it won't have any other problems)

Again, Thanks!!!

 

[TempestCrescent]

Best answer selected by TempestCrescent.

 

[Sunius]

Glad you solved it .

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey