Trouble setting up new rig

[darkenedaura]

Hi all, this is my system:

antec p180 case
seasonic s12 500w
corsair xms 2gb (1gbx2) 3200 ddr400
74gb wd raptor
160gb maxtor
bfg 7800gtx oc
asus a8n sli deluxe 939 socket
amd 64 venice core 3200+ cpu
audigy 2 zs
thermalright xp90 heatsink

I tried putting my rig together and it seems there's no display to the monitor (either that or it's not booting). I know the problem isn't with the mobo, if I plug in speakers to my onboard sound, a female voice tells me "memory test failed" if i have no ram installed or "no cpu installed" if I dont have the processor in. I tried unplugging everything and just having the ram, vid card, and cpu plugged into the psu/mobo... still no go.. I don't have any other ram or pci-e vid card to test against.. and I have another venice core 3200 chip to test with, which gave me the same results... I dont know what to do, please help!

 

[rivan]

So with everything assembled, what exactly happens? Do you get a "No Signal" display on your monitor, or just nothing? Do you get any POST beeps? Does everything spin up - the fans, the hard drives? Have you tried booting with a single stick of RAM? Consider resetting the BIOS to defaults. Have you connected the supplemental power to video card?

Also, try booting without the sound card in - get the machine working with the on-board sound, then add the sound card back. When you add the sound card back in, be sure to disable the onboard sound.

Do you have a CRT or an LCD? I've seen an issue once before where an LCD wouldn't auto sync to a changed resolution without turning the LCD off/on manually.

 

[darkenedaura]

I just get nothing on my monitor with everything assembled. I believe my board doesn't give POST beeps... it does POST female voice hehe. The fans all spin up, all case fans, cpu fan, mobo fan and vid card fan... I'm actually not sure about the HDDs, I ended up just trying to boot without them first. I did also try booting with a single stick of RAM, same effect. And I did connect the supplemental power with the card. I removed the soudn card and plugged my speakers into the on board sound (to hear the POST voice). Also I do have an LCD, its the dell 2405fpw, I didnt actually try turning the LCD on/off manually, but I'll give that go once I get home.

 

[farscape]

Is your HS Fan plugged into the correct header?

Vid card molex plugged in?

4 pin, 12V connector plugged in?

Power switch, reset and LEDs hooked up right?

Any or all of the above would result in a "dead" system. All easy to miss and are common mistakes.

 

[darkenedaura]

The HS fan is plugged into the right header, and the vid card molex is in too. I'm not sure what the 4pin, 12V connector is... there is an auxilary power cable with 4 little blocks that I plugged in on the mobo, is that it? I beleive I had the power switch in the right spot, because I used the power button to turn the system on and it worked.. when I was testing, I tried removing all those pins/plugs except for the power switch to the correct spot, would this allow me to boot properly? Or will I need them all plugged in?

 

[rivan]

Farscape, would the fans (specifically the mobo fan) still spin up with the 4 pin disconnected?

Darkenedaura - when you try to power up, what (if anything) does the CD/DVD light do, especially with a bootable disk in it?

 

[darkenedaura]

I dont think I was paying attention to the CD/DVD light.. (where is that light by the way? is it on the mobo? or do you mean on the front panel?) I had previously been trying to boot without it, but I can definitely try plugging it in again to see what happnes

 

[rivan]

It on the front panel. Pay attention to what it does with a bootable CD in there... it should be on for like a full second when the machine first starts (recognizing the drive), then off while the rest of the machine initializes, then on and blinking while it reads the CD, then finally off (possibly occasionally blinking) when it's booted and waiting for input from you.

If all that's going on, then the machine is likely booting and your issues are elsewhere... perhaps the monitor, perhaps the cable.

Has/does the monitor worked on another machine, using the same cable (stick with either DVI or analog while testing)?

Does the mobo manual tell you what the POST will sound like on a goood boot? Should she be saying "Power On" or something, or just silent?

 

[darkenedaura]

Ohh that's a good point, I will definitely try that. about 1 more hour until I get my lunch break, then I'm going hoem to test those things. The monitor has been working on my old rig (it was an analog, but I tried using the analog converter on my new vidcard and that didn't work either). Also I dont know what a good boot is supposed to sound like, but I will check on that too. =)

 

[rivan]

According to the manual, it might say "Computer now booting from operating system" if it's booting. Then again, it might not.

In addition to checking what Farscape mentioned above, do you have your selector card installed correctly? Also check the red SLI_WARN_LED located near the sound jacks... is it on or off when you try to boot?

 

[farscape]

Rivan:
The fans would start and run, but if you'd get through boot, stability would suck bigtime.

 

[rivan]

Not to hijack his thread for my own learning - but is that only supplemental power for the board and board-powered devices?

 

[darkenedaura]

OKay I went home and tried a coupleof things:I did plug in the dvd drive with my win XP cd inside, and the light does come on for a second or so, but then it turns off and never comes back on. I guess this is a sign that the system is not booting up. Also i did read the installation guide, and the voice should say "computer now booting from OS", if it is working correcltyl; though i'm not sure if its supposed to say that just yet because i havent installed the os. Additionally, I made a trip down to Frys and had them test my RAM and it seems that it is working perfectly, so that rules out the ram and the mobo as disfunctional parts.

I have not chekd the red SLI_WARN_LED. I'm positive that the gfx card is in the right PCI slot, but do I have to do anything to the selector (there's a selector on the board that chooses either single vid card or sli cards...) how do I check to make sure it's set to choose the single card? I'm sure the monitor works, because I was using it before, though I haven't tested the DVI cable (only tested the VGA cable) so I'll try that too.

 

[rivan]

The manual shows the selector card has SINGLE CARD and DUAL CARD silk screened on it, with arrows for each. If it's not in the motherboard, that's quite likely the culprit.

As for booting the OS, the OS on the disk would count for the purposes of POST reporting.

Check in your BIOS to be sure the all the disks (including the DVD drive) are recognized and installed.

 

[darkenedaura]

Yes I can see the selector card there with the arrows pointing to where the cards should go. Also, I dont get any kind of video dispaly, so I can't enter the BIOS and work with stuff at all... I don't know what to do

 

[rivan]

Oh, right... that's what I get for trying to answer too many questions at once

Try resetting the BIOS by following the procedure in your manual. It's on page 2-17 of the manual I downloaded, and it appears to be the only jumper on the board, and should be right next to the battery. Follow the steps and see if that gets you anywhere.

Do you have a spare monitor/video card by any chance? Or a friend that could bring one over? It's possible that your monitor or cable is kaput.

 

[darkenedaura]

Hehe, okay I believe I know how to reset my BIOS (remove the battery and change the CMOS jumper from 1-2 to 2-3 for about 10 seconds). I do have a spare CRT monitor.. no extra vid card though which would be greatly helpful, all my friends still have AGP cards. Maybe its the cable though.. will test in an hour when I'm off work. *crosses fingers*

 

[darkenedaura]

Alrighty, I determined it was a problem with either the PCI-E slot or a short somewhere on the board.. got a new board so it's all good