Whats wrong?

[Weeeman]

Hello all! *Attempting* to build my first computer, but have quite a few problems...

To start, hes what I've got

AMD 3000+
MSI K8N
X800 Pro
420 Enermax Noise taker
3200 OCZ [Originally ordered 3500 which is too fast, RMA'd it, thought that was the problem]
[Yes i have the other peices, but this is just what im trying to boot it up from right now]

Ive got the CPU in, pasted where it is supposed to on the heatsink, yes the arrows are lined up correctly.
Video card is seated properly, the white lever clicked up [reseated multiple times]
RAM is seated correctly, reseated multiple times.

I've called MSI and the guy was just like reading off a sheet, and wasnt much help, hey kinda like talking to dell?

I've got the main power cord from the PSU going into the mobo, and the other fair size one [not sure what to refer to it as]

Heatsink clicked in, and fan connected.

And the PSU fan connected.

What am I missing?
When i flip the PSU on [It turns on everything....without hitting the button on the front...odd?]
Both fans turn on, and when the harddrive was plugged in, it atleast atttempted to read it.

Ive tried 2 differant video cards [an old nvidia 32mb was the other one] and no luck there either, the only thing i havent tried is the old video card with the new ram....worth a shot?

I figure on RMA'ing the board if i cant get that to work...but is there anything else i should try first?

[Boots up, screen turns on, then goes into idle]

The only thing the MSI guy was helpful was saying everything is compatible that I have.

One last thing, I went to the local computer shop to ask how much itd be to have them play around with it and try and see if it was the mobo was shot or the card slot was out of whack, whatever. $75 an hour, with an hour minimum. What a waste.

Please help!
Thanks!
Peace

 

[Lonyo]

Can you enter the BIOS?
In what was does the screen turn on then going to idle?
Does the screen display anything? Does the screen initialise?

I had a dead PSU, fans etc worked, but the comp wouldn't boot up at all, monitor didn't do anything.

 

[Fuchs]

Did you hook all of the headers/jumpers up for the case correctly?

Are you turning this on by the PSU switch or the case Power button?

Does the machine post? (Beep once and then go through bios)

What's on the screen when its idle?

 

[So]

3200 OCZ [Originally ordered 3500 which is too fast, RMA'd it, thought that was the problem]
[Yes i have the other peices, but this is just what im trying to boot it up from right now]

Not true that old ram should have worked just fine. The ram would have just run at the proper clock speed.

first oreder of business: take the board out of the case and lay it on a dry nonconductive surface (i.e. a wooden table)

Connect the following:
CPU
HSF
1 Stick of Ram
Video Card
Power supply.
power switch lead (alternatively, you can just jump the two power button pins with a flat bladed screwdriver
Monitor
KB/mouse
try to boot.

 

[Weeeman]

It never makes it to bios, the screen turns on to BLACK, then idles to BLACK some more

No Beep.

Screw the msi guy for telling me to get new ram. Just screw him.

Well here comes another problem...I seem to have seriously wedged that mobo in the tray...suggestions to get it out without snapping anything?

Also, im turning it on by the power switch on the PSU.

To check if its the PSU, would an old dell PSU do fine to test it?

 

[So]

Just pull the PSU out of your case. (well, unscrew it but, you know)

Edit: Oh, I see...depends on the PSU..what is the 'old dell' PSU rated at? (It should say on the side).

If it's >300 watts, yes, otherwise, doubtful.

OEMs tend to use the crappiest PSU's they can get away with, so I'd bet no.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

hey u might wanna check out this

ive linked to an article on toms site, about Athlon 64 motherboards and their compatability with ram

ive linked straight to the MSI board, first board is a K8N (nforce chip) and on the next page is the K8T (Via chip) it shows you what memory has worked good with which board

the K8N looked fine with OCZ memory (even tho wrong timings were detected) but the Via board WOULD NOT BOOT, with ocz memory

toms

 

[So]

As to your seriously wedging the Mobo in...umm, how? make sure you remove all the screws and there should be almost no trouble pulling it out.

 

[sisooktom]

You'll need to connect the power switch on the front of the case, and use it to turn the PC on. The switch on the PSU only gives you power to the board, it's the front switch that actually tells the mobo to boot.

 

[So]

Check MechBgon's great first time builder guide.

http://www.omnicast.net/~tmcfadden/guides/build/index.html

 

[So]

Originally posted by: sisooktom
You'll need to connect the power switch on the front of the case, and use it to turn the PC on. The switch on the PSU only gives you power to the board, it's the front switch that actually tells the mobo to boot.

Which is why I offered the flat bladed screwdriver trick. Trust me it works, all you have to do it momentarily jump the two pins with a flathead screwdriver.

 

[Weeeman]

Not sure how i got it wedged in there... i had to put on a new cover for the usb ports and stuff, and theres the problem, being able to lift the board and pull that out at the same time....

I know i had the switch hooked up earlier, and it didnt even act like I was hitting if i did...just sat there spinning the fans

 

[Weeeman]

Also, I just briefly looked over the guide, and everything it says to get it to post, ive done... :-\

 

[Fuchs]

Try this. take all of the ram out and power it up. If it is the ram the machine should give you beeps that it doesn't have any memory in it.

If you're not getting any beeps its not the ram. If you get beeps without the ram in, try one stick, then try different ram if you have it.

It sounds to me like either the PSU is bad or you have it hooked up wrong. Does the cpu fan and all other fans turn on? do the drives open and close? (cdrom)

 

[So]

Originally posted by: Weeeman
Not sure how i got it wedged in there... i had to put on a new cover for the usb ports and stuff, and theres the problem, being able to lift the board and pull that out at the same time....

I know i had the switch hooked up earlier, and it didnt even act like I was hitting if i did...just sat there spinning the fans

If the fans spun, the stiwch was working and the board got power.

You need to pull it from the case. Be careful and gentle try lifting from the far end (from the ports) and tipping it out.

 

[Confusednewbie1552]

Maybe you have the cables for the hard drive and optical drives switched around??

 

[So]

Originally posted by: Confusednewbie1552
Maybe you have the cables for the hard drive and optical drives switched around??

LOL

I'm assuming you know they are the same cables.

 

[Weeeman]

Well, I dont even have the drives hooked up at all right now.

No beeps without the ram either.

As I said before, I plug in the main power cord, the other square cord, the reset, pwr and hdd cords, and a power cord to the video card...

 

[Weeeman]

Working on getting some pictures up to show you guys exactly what im doing...might be something simple ^_^

anywhere know a place i can get a few pics hosted for free?

 

[Conor026]

Do as SO says take out the board and try it on the wooden bench.

All you need plugged into the motherboard is the:

CPU with heatsink
RAM
Video Card
Power Supply
Hard Disk

The only external wires plugged in should be the monitor and power cable for PSU.
Don`t plug in the keyboard or mouse.I`ve fixed two PC`s that the mouse was the problem

Trip the Power connector (on the Front Panel Connector set) with a screwdriver.
just put the screwdriver between the pins til you hear the PC coming to life.

As to the problem of the board being stuck, Take out the PSU and if all the screws are out of the
motherboard it should come out perfect.

 

[Lonyo]

Try a new PSU.
I had NO boot at all, screen did nothing.
Fans powered up, mobo LED was on, but the PSU wouldn't work.
Taking RAM out, it didn't give me beeps. no beep error codes at all.
Everything else was changed, basically a totally new computer, but the PSU stayed the same, and was the problem.

The PSU did "seem" to work though, as LED's on the mobo came on, suggesting it had power.

If you can find another PSU, TRY IT OUT.
Took a week to figure out the PSU was my problem (after buying a load of new parts, useful anyway though).

My screen didn't make it to black.
Fans DID spin.
No beep error codes. (With RAM in, or with RAM removed).
Mobo LED's WERE lit.

 

[So]

And you did pull it out of the case, right?

 

[So]

Oh, and pics.bzzzd.com

 

[So]

er... http://pics.bbzzdd.com

 

[mechBgon]

Looks like some very solid advice is already being given. I assume you cleared the CMOS already, but for good measure, unplug the system, take the battery out of its holder, and clear it again, then put the battery back and plug it in again.

And you did mount the board on standoffs, right? Not directly to the metal motherboard tray? I'm just thinking about how it turns itself on when you flip the switch on the PSU. I haven't dealt with an MSI recently... maybe they set their Power-After-PowerFailure option to Enabled by default or something.

Since the MSI has the diagnostic LED thingie, is that giving you an error code? If so, what's it getting stuck on?

One other thing you might try: put in a stick of the tamest, slowest DDR you've got, like a stick of Crucial PC2100, and see if it likes that. If so, go into the BIOS and raise the memory voltage to 2.7 volts, save & exit, let it go through a complete POST afterwards so it knows the settings are good, and then turn it off and put your fancy RAM in.