PC won't boot

[Librider]

I put everything together with the exception of the data cable for my optical drive . I booted it up once to check and see if it would boot and it booted up fine and asked if I wanted to boot from a disc. So after that I put my panels on until tomorrow . I tried to boot it again and it says no VGA signal. The tower boots up and all fans work but nothing happens. I reseated the ram, video card, check all the cables. I wonder if I shorted something out when I put the panels back on the case?

 

[Librider]

Ok so it boots without the graphics card but not with it

 

[MichaelD]

Most motherboards that don't have onboard video will not boot without a graphics card installed. Since yours won't boot WITH the graphics card installed, you either have a power supply issue or your graphics card is a dud.

Does your graphics card also require a PCI-E power connection? Do you have that plugged in? It's not optional. Post the specs of your system. Make/model of all components. Also make sure your VGA cable is fully seated at both the PC and monitor ends. They do come loose sometimes.

 

[Librider]

The pci cable is a 6+2 and I have two 6 plug ports. Is that normal?

 

[MichaelD]

Yes it is. Some graphics cards require a 6-pin connection, some an 8-pin. Whatever your card needs, use.

 

[Librider]

I've got
Gigabyte 670gtx
Samsung 1600 DDR3 2x4gb
I-3570k
Asrock z77 pro3
Crucial m4 SSD 128 gb
Hitachi 1 tb

 

[MichaelD]

Nice system. What power supply?

 

[Librider]

Seasonic 520 or 530, I'm not sure exactly. I had to run into town to grab an other sata

 

[MichaelD]

Seasonic makes excellent PSs. Remove/disconnet everything except CPU/RAM/GPU and try to boot. Reseat the RAM and GPU before trying. Make sure your graphics card has the auxilliary PCI-E cable(s) plugged in. If it won't boot, it's either your GPU or your PS. Do you have another system you can test the video card in?

Side note: You don't have any stray screws that may have rolled under the MB, right? It happens.

 

[Librider]

No stray screws I've took everything out and in about 3 times. Everything else is fine, I'm gobs try an hdmi cable and see what happens. I already tried another PCI slot

 

[MichaelD]

For the video card? You mean PCI-E slot, right? You're not trying to jam a PCI-E card into a PCI slot I hope?

 

[Librider]

Lol yeah PCI-E. I did some googling apparently this is a pretty common problem when the 670s

 

[MichaelD]

I also have a Gigabyte 670GTX; is yours the "OC" version with the 3 fans on top? If so, we have the same card. I have a diff MB than you though. I have an Asrock P67 board. I had zero probs getting mine to boot in the first 16x PCI-E slot.

Even a 520-watt PS (a good one like a Seasonic) should have no probs with your system configuration, especially just booting up. Are you sure all your power cables are plugged in correctly? What happens when you hit the power button? Do you get any beeps from the MB or a steady tone? Do fans spin up?

 

[Librider]

All fans spin up in the case. I have two fans on mine. I'm not sure what else to do besides return it for another one. I haven't gotten any beeps at all, regardless of whether I boot the system without the video card or not. But it runs fine without it??

 

[MichaelD]

Unplug the PSU. Hit the power button on the case to fully discharge the PSU. Clear the CMOS on your MB. Consult the manual if you don't know how to do this. As one final thing, reseat the CPU, RAM and GPU. Hopefully that works. Do you have a way of testing the GPU? Maybe a friend's system, just to see if it boots up? Honestly, I suspect the PSU. How old is it? Even quality parts get old and die.

 

[Librider]

I just got everything in the mail yesterday. This was my first build and its already became a disaster lol. I'm sorry for asking so many questions. I'm a total noob about this type of stuff. Would I be better just ordering a larger modular power supply and RMA'ing the Video Card?

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Try moving the GPU to the other PCI-E slot, and if possible try the GPU in another PC or another GPU in this PC.

 

[Librider]

Alright guys, so I'm a dumbass. Basically I was plugging the VGA cable into the motherboard from my monitor and didn't realize I was supposed to plug an HDMI/DVI cable directly to my video card. Now everything seems to be working great and I'm actually posting from my new PC now .

I still need to install all of the latest drivers for everything. Any reccomendations on the best way to start?

 

[MichaelD]

Welcome to the "I built in myself" club, Librider! :biggrin: You made a very basic, but very common mistake. But you LEARNED and you did it YOURSELF and that's the most important thing. You're discovering that putting together your own PC is pretty easy and it's rewarding. Good on you!

Your motherboard came with a driver CD. Load all the drivers from there. It's a good start. You will need to load the Intel Chipset, LAN and Audio drivers. Possibly a separate USB 3.0 driver too. Running the CD on "Auto" or "Load Drivers" should load everything.

Windows 7 will have a driver that works for the GPU, but it's way sub-optimal. For the GPU, go to www.nivida.com and download the latest driver for your OS and GPU. It is version 306.97, FYI. Also, check with the manufacturer of your monitor and see if you can load a driver for it too. A lot of people skip this step. It's not absolutely necessary (obviously, you can see stuff on your monitor) but w/o the driver, you're not getting 100% from your monitor. More like 75%-ish. You're almost there!

ps
Does your monitor have a DVI connection? You should be using that, no a VGA connection, if it is supported. Much clearer picture.

 

[Librider]

I was ready to pull my hair out trying to figure out what was going on, but I'm honestly glad I did. I took it apart and put it back together so many times that I feel perfectly comfortable doing it now. I got my motherboard drivers, my gpu drivers, where do I get the latest CPU drivers?

I bought battlefield 3 and figured I'd do a speed test. I was running 61 fps on league of legends at max settings and I thought it would have been faster than that. Thanks for all of your help Michael

Ps: I'm using a dvi to hdmi cable now

 

[MichaelD]

You're very welcome; I'm happy to help. The "CPU" drivers are built into the Intel chipset drivers. Just load them and you're good.

AFA frame rates (FPS) goes, that depends on many different factors:

GPU
Resolution (you want to game at the native resolution of your monitor)
How much eye candy you like
What CPU you have
How CPU-dependent the game is

And probably 5 more things that I can't think of ATM. Anything above 40FPS is pretty good, espeically with eye candy (Anti Aliasing, etc) turned up.

What's your monitor's native res?

 

[tweakboy]

I just got everything in the mail yesterday. This was my first build and its already became a disaster lol. I'm sorry for asking so many questions. I'm a total noob about this type of stuff. Would I be better just ordering a larger modular power supply and RMA'ing the Video Card?

Ive had my PSU since 2007 and is still working like a champ and very quiete.

It will cost you about 99 dollars or so for a ToughPower Modular 650watt

gl

:whiste:

 

[mfenn]

I bought battlefield 3 and figured I'd do a speed test. I was running 61 fps on league of legends at max settings and I thought it would have been faster than that. Thanks for all of your help Michael

Vsync is probably turned on, there is probably a toggle in the game's options. What Vsync does is limit your frame rate to the maximum refresh rate supported by your monitor (no point in drawing frames you will never see) and as such I would recommend leaving it on.

 

[MichaelD]

Vsync is probably turned on, there is probably a toggle in the game's options. What Vsync does is limit your frame rate to the maximum refresh rate supported by your monitor (no point in drawing frames you will never see) and as such I would recommend leaving it on.

Good catch. :thumbsup: That one slipped my mind.

 

[Librider]

My monitor is a HP LV2311 23" LED. I actually like it alot and I bought it off the hot deals section on the forum. I think its a 1920 by 1080