*will send 20$ for solution* Help - Video problems with new system *

[DizzyNT]

soyo dragon 333 lite
geforce 4 ti 4200
corsair xms pc 3000 256 mb ddr
chieftec silver dragon w/ window
liteon 52x cd rom
cendyne (liteon i believe) 40x16x48 cdrw
samsung floppy
maxtor 40 gb hard drive 5400 rpm
dr thermal extreeme (modded vl77) with tornado 84cfm fan
athlon xp 1900
generic 17 in monitor


i had video gone on one monitor after hooking mobo vid card ram hs/f cpu up i got it to work once on that monitor got into bios then after numerous tries reseating ram vid card reseting cmos still didnt work so i tried putting my geforce 4 back into old computer it was in originally and still no video so i try new 17 in monitor (generic) and it works so i think ok its the monitor so i go on try the new monitor with new pc im building it works i can get into bios so i add floppy and hard drive and can still get in bios ... then i add cdrom + cdrw and i think im done i power it on and i get what i had before... No beeps all fans running it keeps running until i turn it off and NO video PLS help as i dont know what is wrong i suspect geforce 4 or monitor... maybe something is killing monitor???? (i hope not :-( ) so if anyone can offer me suggestions or a solution id be very helpful !!

Thanks

 

[JustinLerner]

It seems most likely that either your CD-RW is incompatible with the motherboard BIOS or you have your IDE connectors on backwards on your CD/RW drives or your CD-RW drive is bad.

If you can see the BIOS and the system boots and you can watch this until 2000/XP attempt to start up the logon screen at which point the video disappears, the problem would be that you need to start 2000/XP in VGA mode, not safe mode, then install the correct video driver.

 

[DizzyNT]

im building from scratch and have yet to install an os..... the video has been on and off whole time i have been building with two monitors so im wondering what could it be? after a while of playing around i can get it to work but i have no idea what i am doing... i did use a hard drive ide cable i believe because the ide connector on board is crap or the cable and was very hard to get in (yes i do not know why but it would only go in on one side) ...

 

[DizzyNT]

ok well i tried the regular ide cable that came with cdrw put black one on cdrw which had master has master setting and gray one on cdrom which is slave... and i put that on board ... so then i boot up same thing so i decide well ill go back a step and see if it still works.

so i remove the power from both cdrom and cdrw and it boots up and i can go in bios... so i try one hooked up i get to athlon xp 1900 memory check 26xxxx whatever and then it freezes and doesnt go any farther... i try a different power cable on just cdrom and i get farther and start the windows xp installation (blue screen where it loads all the stuff) but it freezes yet again... so without cdrom power plugged in or cdrw it works fine but with it i cant do anything

is this a power supply problem?? something wrong with cdroms or ide??
also on psu on back theres a switch from 115 or something to 2xx i believe do i need to change that?

thanks!

 

[DizzyNT]

ok well i took out cdrom power cables again and now it doesnt even show any thing on monitor.... im trying to build this for someone and im in a hurry so id be glad to send 20$ via mail if you can offer me a solution that works

thanks!

 

[crisp82]

I would check all of the cables and Motherboard jumpers if I were you. I had a similar problem and it was due to incorrect jumper settings. Also, ensure all PCI cards and RAM are seated correctly. If this does not help, I would RMA some things.

 

[DaiShan]

Ok, lets hit a few of the basics: The only time you set a drive as slave is when it has another drive on the same connector (called a channel) set as master i.e. you cannot have a slave with out a master connected to the chain. So I would set the hard drive to master with no slave (using the onboard jumpers) then I would hook the cdrw and the cd-rom to the same channel making the cdrw a master with a slave, and the cd-rom a slave. Make sure that the stripe on the cable faces the power connector. If that does not work I would try with a minimal configuration for boot then install the OS. Have you read the tech support Checklist?

 

[DizzyNT]

yes i know how ide cables work... after much trial my cpu is broken i believe and im going to RMA cpu and probably mobo and maybe PSU sorry no $$$ to give out cus its just broken ;-(

 

[DaiShan]

One thing before you RMA: If the computer completes the POST operation (the beep you hear when you turn on the computer assuming you have the system speaker attached to the right pins) then The system board, RAM, and CPU are all in working condition. So if you are getting the POST beep, then you are wasting your time trying to RMA, just my $.02

 

[amdskip]

I still believe you don't have something hooked up correctly because a motherboard will either post or it won't and from that point on it usually works fine.

 

[Arrgghh]

Are you trying to overclock at all? I have seen many boards do the same thing when the cpu is pushed too far. Try resetting your bios and see if it will boot. There may be a keyboard command for resetting, on my board I can hold the insert key while powering on and it will reset.

You may also be pulling to much power. Does the system boot with just the memory, cpu, and video card? If so, try adding the HD, then one of the cdroms, then the other. If you remove everything but the cpu, do you get beeps? If so, what do they correspond to for your board?

You have a lot to work out trying to isolate the problem before you can declare the cpu bad. If you RMA now, you may just be wasting your time and money.

 

[DizzyNT]

great ... well i put the geforce 4 back into my other xp system (was working fine with that card) and now no Video from that card either... wtf pls help!

 

[WarCon]

Seating (getting the card all the way in) can be very difficult. It is usually recommended that you lay your system down flat before trying to seat the agp card.

If you know its seating completely then you may have a bad powersupply or motherboard that is supplying deadly voltages to your components.

 

[DizzyNT]

yes warconn that may be the case but i am getting no video on both pcs with same video card (and one pc i had the video card running just fine for a few months) also i have tried an older pci video card and i still get no video

 

[WarCon]

Sounds bad. My recommendation would be to not try anything else in that system. Does the pci video card still work in the other system? You might be looking at blown regulators on the motherboard (the ones that control the 1.5v for the video.) If you have a voltmeter handy, then you could check the voltages from your powersupply (remove it completely first) by grounding the green wire on the ATX plug that goes into the motherboard (make a jumper to go between the green wire and the black) Then measure all the voltages to ensure it is or isn't your powersupply.

I am kind of leaning to a bad mobo. (Have you pulled the motherboard to make sure you didn't leave an extra standoff under the mobo, in other words you only have as many standoffs as you have holes in the motherboard for mounting.

 

[DizzyNT]

yes there are enough standoffs...
i have tried two video cards on 2 pcs with two monitors each (and i have switched the monitor power cable)

i had one pc working fine since april with the good agp 4200 video card when i put it back in there was no video...

i did get into the bios a few times with new pc and new video card altho usually it froze or video would not come after a while

this is all very confusing :/ pls help

 

[DizzyNT]

 

[earthman]

Its hard for us to help you because we really have no idea what you are doing, and we can't see what you have in front of you.
Things to check:
IDE device jumpers all correctly set, devices at correct position on cable.
Any mainboard jumpers/clock settings made correctly. Set all speeds to stock.
Install devices and boot computer...if screen stays black, shut down, reset BIOS (do it with the jumper) then try rebooting.
Some BIOS's (like the K7S5A) need to be reset with a hardware change.
If you get into the BIOS, put the IDE detection to auto for all channels, and find the option to load defaults or safe mode and choose that.
Its often the basics that get overlooked.

 

[DizzyNT]

tried putting in just ram mobo vid card cpu hs/f plugged in and post but no luck :/

 

[DaiShan]

So did it complete the POST operation or not? Do you have the system speaker hooked up correctly, that is a critical instrument in diagnosing computer problems relating to POST. How are you grounding yourself when you go into the computer? Also are you sure the connector from the psu is plugged tightly into the motherboard?