Now one really big question... Help!!!!

[Worf101]

Well, I did a test run with the computer screen and bios and all that worked fine. I added the hard drives, floppy and DVD's and fired it up and now... nothing...

The mother board lights up, fans whir, cpu fan starts... but nothing out of the video card, no bios, no boot no nothin. The board seems to be working, DVD's light up and open. I don't know how much of this would occur with a bad CPU. Any suggestions on trouble shooting. I reset the graphics card assuming that was it... nada. The screen lights up but is getting now signal.

Any help would be appreciated.

Desperate Dave.

If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.

 

[Zeekfu]

try loosening/tightening the screws on the graphics/card to monitor connection. Double check/triple check on the seating of the graphics card.

So fired up to post screen with just the cpu, memory and card and it was ok before? Sure you got the cpu fan in the right header? Some boards can be set not to run w/o cpu fan. What else has changed? Seating of memory, seating of graphics card? Bad pci card? Try unpluging and taking things off one at a time. What kind of power source? New install or just changing out mobos or what?

This is all just simple set up stuff. Some of these pros can probably trouble shoot for you a lot more in depth if you list your components.

<font color=black>yippie ki ya, m..........<font color=black>

 

[endyen]

Unpug the drives, and see if it's still fine. Then add 1 drive and test. Add another and test. When it wont post, the last thing you added was the problem.

 

[tastim]

Can you see if maybe one of your drives might be contacting metal on the motherboard? Slide your optical drives out enough to clear the case to make sure your mobo isn't grounding... other than a grounding issue.... I got no clue, if you say it POSTed and you had a video signal before adding the drives....


I would say it could be your power supply not being able to put out enough juice... but 480 watts should be enough head room to cover all that even if it was a crappy PSU....<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by tastim on 07/03/04 02:16 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Crashman]

He said he connected the drives and now it won't boot, so you SHOULD have a clue!

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[Crashman]

Follow endyen's advice. Remember that drive lights should flash at boot but not stay lit constantly. The most likely cause for your problem is a reversed IDE cable, assuming one of your IDE cables is not keyed..

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[Zeekfu]

good call on the reversed cable. That sounds very plausible. you are a very knowledgeable fellow crash.

on the other hand he didn't "say" anything... he typed it...

For all I know he could have tested post outside the box like you guys explained to me to do then reinstalled everything. I didn't take it exactly literally that as soon as he installed the hdd everything quit working... His thread reads hdd, floppy, dvds...

Just offering a couple ideas till the pros got here.

you're still a hero even when you are grumpy, crash :>)

<font color=black>yippie ki ya, m..........<font color=black>

 

[xeenrecoil]

heya Worf:

There are a couple things that could be going on.

1) The Jumper on your hard drive(s) isnt set correctly.
2) You need to Reset C-Mos.
3) You could have the IDE cable reversed, as Crashman said.
4) Your PSU doesnt have enough wattage to run everything you have hooked up.
5) Your Graphics card is toast.

That should just about cover it, check all those things out and get back to us with the results.

<font color=blue> <Archer> Cant this thing go any faster, I thought this was a Warp 5 Engine?
<Trip> Yeah, on paper... </font color=blue>

 

[Worf101]

Did some quick checking last night before heading to the gig. This case came with what the guy says was a 480watt power supply I can't see the name on it right now but it's one of those neon light up kind and it has a fan control knob on it. I unplugged the front case light and some other non essentials and the boot screen came up. I'll check all my cables and connections but I think the problem is too much junk on the power supply.

Look I got the normal on board stuff
2 DVD drives
2 Hard Drives in Sata raid
1 Floppy
5 case fans
1 set of case lights

I should've checked this thing fore hand stead of trusting what the guy gave me. I'll reset the cable and pull one of the DVD's and see what that does.

Thanks....

Dave

If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.

 

[Cybercraig]

See what voltages and amps it gives you off of the label. You want:
12v - 17 or 18a minimum
3.3v- 28a minimum
5v - 30a minimum

I just replaced a 430 watt @Power that was pulling down on the 3.3v rail. I thought the MB just had flaky Vregs put it turned out to be the power supply. I got the Thermaltake 420 Pure Power from Newegg yesterday. Twice as heavy and just as quiet even with two fans.
Before: ..........................After:
12v - 11.94v@ 17a ................12.04v@ 18a
5v - 4.89v@ 40a .................5.18v@ 40a
3.3v- 3.18v@ 28a ................3.38v@ 30a

I am seeing half the voltage fluctuation I was seeing before. A quality power supply really does make a difference here.


"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds. Now, let's eat!

 

[Worf101]

I reset the cables, checked the power supply, got some nice preemo round cables from CrapUSA and now she boots fine, is all buttoned up and ready for a windows XP load. I took you folks advice and went with Raid 1 for the time being. I may add a back up HD and run 0+1 someday but this is enough for the time being.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU ALL!!!!
For helping me through this. With all of this it still went a lot smoother than my first buld, which I'm typing this on now.

Thanks again fellahs... I'll be around.

Dave

If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.