A Thread For The Experts!

[24hrs]

So ive built my pc, gotten my dvi adapter
( motherbaordboard is dfi lan ultra-d, 6800 gt pcie, antec 550w truepower 2 psu )
i turn my comp on, and the monitor turns on, then quickly turns off... in that time i do not get a screen... just reassurance that power is getting to my monitor.

All the leds are working on the mainboard, and i get no beeps
All the fans are working

BUT

when turned on, the red light on the tower stays on, does not flicker at all

the yellow/green light on the tower does not come on at all ( im guessing thats the led for the hard-drive )

and besides the fans, i get no noise "at all"

ive taken the motherboard and the hard-drive out of the case and put it on a mat that came with the board, which i put on a table, to see if grounding was a problem...... and that didnt work..
,
i only have 2 dvi sockets on my 6800 gt, and ive treid both, ive also tried both pcie X16 sockets...


Ive spent the whole day trying to get answers to this, but nothing comes of it...

Can any of you smart people help a poor noob in need?

 

[Sunner]

Yank everything but the video card out and see if it works.
Well, actually leave the CPU and RAM too, you kinda need those

If it does, start putting stuff back in, one at a time, and see where it stops working.

 

[24hrs]

hmm.... i still got nothing.... just with the cpu, ram ,video card ( psu plugged in of course ) and monitor

could i have gotten this problem if i had put the cpu in the wrong way?

i'm fairly certain it is in the right way, but theres no harm in asking...

 

[TheGingerbreadGenius]

I don't think you can put a CPU in the wrong way. Or if you have, then you've knackered the pins on it.

 

[Gatt]

Traditionally, Green/Yellow is the Power light, Red is the Hard Drive LED. Is it possible you have those two cables plugged into the wrong pins on the Motherboard?

I'll be honest, my first guess is cables plugged in wrong. Second guess is a dead power supply. Third guess is that the CPU fan is either plugged into the wrong pins or the pins it's plugged into are dead.

It's likely one of those, The lights are backwards for every motherboard I've worked with. I've never seen Green for HD and Red for Power, all of the boards I've used have been the other way around.

It sounds like some kind of power problem, Power Supply would be the next culprit.

But if you've don't have the fan plugged into the right header, or the header it's plugged into is dead, it won't power the processor up on some boards. Built in processor protection since a couple seconds without adequate cooling these days will melt the processor and possibly the board as well.

 

[Sunner]

By the way, which PCIe slot did you plug the video card into? (no, I don't know if that makes a difference, just thinking out loud so to speak)

 

[24hrs]

hmm

1. im fairly sure cables are plugged in right..... is it critical to have the led's on the case working? i press the power button on the case and it works, but when i press the restart it does nothing, and i have tried all possible combos for it.

2. i checked the power supply with a multi metre, it seems fine

3. as far as i can tell, the fan works perfectly

EDIT: Ive tried both pcieX16 slots

 

[Gatt]

I'm leaning towards dead motherboard at this point then, if the fans are powering up, but the reset button isn't working and it's not going to at least the bios bootup screen, then I think it's a bad board. Especially if the reset button isn't working. Even if the CPU is dead it should get to the bios screen on most boards.

Is there any other board you might be able to test the processor and ram on? Just to rule those out. Also maybe try plugging the board into a PS you know is functioning, just to rule out the PS as well.

Otherwise, if you bought the board at a store near you, maybe exchange it or get them to verify it's functioning.

 

[boomerang]

Reset the CMOS following the instructions in the manual to the letter.

Is the monitor new? Do you know for certain that it works?

Can you get your hands on another DVI adaptor? I would want to have a known working monitor or monitor/adaptor in the mix.

LED's will not matter.

 

[24hrs]

i got the monitor around april this year, it worked the very last time i used it, and havent done anything wild with it since.
I did try using another monitor as well, and it didnt work

I may be albe to get my hands on another dvi adapter, but its a pain in the ass, and i dont want to cause fuss if i dont have to...... of course, if this is the problem, i may have to do it though

"Is there any other board you might be able to test the processor and ram on? Just to rule those out. Also maybe try plugging the board into a PS you know is functioning, just to rule out the PS as well."

i only have 2 other boards, and both are old socket A, AGP epox k7s5a

 

[boomerang]

Don't skip the CMOS reset. I've fixed a number of "bad" motherboards this way.

 

[24hrs]

right, just tried the cmos reset and i still got no image

i tried the other monitor again, and once ive started the comp up, and it doesnt go on by itself, i turn it on manually, and it tells me "no signal detected"

 

[imported_Phil]

Remove everything from the motherboard. Yes, everything; CPU, RAM, drives etc. Leave the PSU connected.

The motherboard should start up on it's own, and beep frantically. No beeps = dead motherboard.
It should beep without RAM and CPU to tell you that it thinks the RAM and/or CPU are dead.

 

[24hrs]

ok i removed everything from the board and i got no beeps....BUT

do the beeps have to come from the speaker bit where the connectors for all the power buttons go? because that seems to have made its way out.... its 2 wires connected into this stout little cylindrical thing.... honestly, it doesnt look damaged or disconnected at all, but is it meant ot be connected to something in the front of the case where all the other wires come from?

i have no idea if its relevant or not, i just thought i should ask

EDIT: i had this thing externally connected while starting up

 

[24hrs]

anyone?

id just really like this sorted, so i can sleep a bit easier

 

[3chordcharlie]

Originally posted by: 24hrs
ok i removed everything from the board and i got no beeps....BUT

do the beeps have to come from the speaker bit where the connectors for all the power buttons go? because that seems to have made its way out.... its 2 wires connected into this stout little cylindrical thing.... honestly, it doesnt look damaged or disconnected at all, but is it meant ot be connected to something in the front of the case where all the other wires come from?

i have no idea if its relevant or not, i just thought i should ask

EDIT: i had this thing externally connected while starting up

the speaker connection is usually hardwired to the case speaker.

 

[24hrs]

so is it going to affect the beeping test i perfomed??

 

[blackrain]

This may or may not help in light of what everyone has already said. I have had two situations where a pc didn't start up and there were no beeps. The first involved an improperly seated board. I didn't bench test it. After struggling with getting it to boot, I took everything out of the case and bench tested it and it worked. Stuck everything back in the case and it worked after that. That was a bit crazy.

It looks like you've already bench tested it

The other time was just a week ago. My board's specs included support for 1.6ghz, but it didn't say 1.6Aghz. I assumed that a 1.6 ghz Willamette cpu was supported. Wrong. The manual said it only supported Northwood (1.6Aghz). There was no beep of any kind, even though I had the case speaker plugged in properly. As soon as I used the right cpu, it booted and I was getting the right beep.

So the fact that you aren't getting a beep might not mean a bad board

I hope I haven't added to your confusion

 

[rise]

Originally posted by: 24hrs
ok i removed everything from the board and i got no beeps....BUT

do the beeps have to come from the speaker bit where the connectors for all the power buttons go? because that seems to have made its way out.... its 2 wires connected into this stout little cylindrical thing.... honestly, it doesnt look damaged or disconnected at all, but is it meant ot be connected to something in the front of the case where all the other wires come from?

i have no idea if its relevant or not, i just thought i should ask

EDIT: i had this thing externally connected while starting up

you said the "leds all work". in what way? you mean that with everything fully assembled they count down from the 4 leds to zero properly? or are they all staying lit?
is the led up by the dimm socket lit?

the front connector panel is fairly straight forward (although i dunno why they won't standardize it). the case speaker connects there.

edit- and i'm assuming you have all 4 power connectors in? not that i think its the problem but nice to know

 

[nweaver]

You have to have the speaker hooked up (the one that is attached to the case) to the correct headers on the motherboard to test for beep codes.

 

[JimPhelpsMI]

Hi, I really doubt that it has anything to do with it, but the plastic bag the Mother Board came in is Electrically conductive!!!! That's how it protects the board from static electricity. Put it on something else. I use a magazine. Jim

 

[boomerang]

If this is your board, then it has a speaker built onto the board. Black cylindrical thing in lower right corner with a hole in it.

That doesn't mean that the board doesn't have connectors for an external speaker (in the case). Hope this helps.

I'm downloading your manual now. DFI site is really slow. There is a jumper that controls whether you are using the internal speaker (on the board), or an external speaker (in the case). The default is on the board.

Also, do you have ALL the power connectors on the board connected? There are 4 in total. Supposedly if you are not running two graphics cards they are not all needed. I would connect them all for now.

 

[TSS]

do you have a spare PSU laying around? or know a way to get one?

at this point, its either a dead mobo or a rotten PSU. my money's still on the PSU. i was just surfing the web once when my PC just went black screen with all leds on and the fans just working, but no beeps. reset button didnt work. i could turn it off, then turn it on again but the same thing. turned out that the PSU blew out, once i replaced that it worked fine.

so test it with another PSU. if its still broken, it'll be the mobo. else check your speaker connection, if its plugged in right.

 

[24hrs]

"you said the "leds all work". in what way? you mean that with everything fully assembled they count down from the 4 leds to zero properly? or are they all staying lit?
is the led up by the dimm socket lit?

the front connector panel is fairly straight forward (although i dunno why they won't standardize it). the case speaker connects there.

edit- and i'm assuming you have all 4 power connectors in? not that i think its the problem but nice to know"

i mean all the leds stay lit.... including the one at the dimm socket.... are they supposed to go out?

EDIT: Now it doesnt even turn on!!! One led is still lit on the mobo though ( before turning on ) , like before................


the only other power supply i have round is 300/350w .....

 

[rise]

well, the leds should go like this-

4 red lights = system start-up
3 red lights = CPU detected
2 red lights = DRAM detected
1 red light = VGA detected
0 red lights = system boot-up

so i would start by re-seating your cpu and then if needed a hard cmos clear per the instructions here leaving it cleared at least 15 minutes.

also, what cpu are you using or did i miss that?