Computer boots, no video.

[tle0001]

Specs:

Asus P5N32-E SLI - Motherboard
Intel dual core processor
1gb OCZ ram
7900gt nvidia graphics card

Basically, I am just trying to get my old gaming pc back to working condition for minor use (schoolwork mainly). My old mobo/cpu were toast, so I got the current ones from a friend. I hooked everything up and had some issues getting the mobo to recognize my 500gb and 160gb hdds, so I formatted a 40gb with XP home.

Everything went fine until I went to restart windows. The computer booted up normally with the exception of my video feed. All fans are working and all parts are getting power. I managed to get the computer to work once so far by moving the Ram from slot 1 to slot 3.

I have been reading various forums trying to find a solution other than replacing the entire computer, but with no luck. I have been troubleshooting. I removed hdd/cdrom (floppy was not hooked up previously) and booted with no video. I removed graphics so that i was down to ram, psu, cpu, mobo, and still didn't even get a beep.

I'm running out of ideas. When I got into windows I was able to get graphics and mobo drivers installed, but that didn't do anything.

Right now I'm leaning to bad/incompatible ram, although the ram is DDR2 240pin and should be fine.

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[Numenorean]

If you have no video, how do you know it's booting?

 

[tle0001]

Valid point. I should say rather that:

mobo light is coming on

cpu fan is working

graphics card fan is working

psu fan is working

all parts are receiving power

This leads me to believe it is ram, but that's why I'm asking.

 

[tle0001]

It would seem that removing and reinstalling the CMOS battery has at least temporarily allowed me to re-enter windows with video. I'm going to restart within the next hour and see if the issue resolved itself now that the chipset/graphics drivers have kicked in. I'll post.

 

[tle0001]

In the interim, would anyone know if there is something in the BIOS I could change that might solve this? Fixing a software problem is a lot cheaper than going to hardware route.

 

[mlc]

doublecheck your ram settings.. I would overide the bios settings, and manually put them in, so they match the specs on the ram labels.. (i.e. voltage and latency/timings)... somethings the auto settings undervolt the ram.

then i would run memtest to ensure the ram is ok...

 

[tle0001]

I just ordered new ram and a new graphics card. I'm hoping the problem was with the ram. I'll update this thread if the problem persists or I encounter something new. Thanks for the hint in the meantime.

 

[tle0001]

Asus P5N32-E SLI - Motherboard
Intel dual core processor
2x1gb PNY RAM
VGA Sapphire Radeon 4650
Coolmax CP-500T PSU

These are my updated specs.

I just installed a new graphics card and memory and I'm still getting no video.

I took out the battery to reset the CMOS. I also attempted to boot up without the CD drive with no luck.

Anyone have any other ideas or solved posts to link me to?

 

[Numenorean]

Could be power supply - I'd see if I could try a different one from a friend or something.

Do you have an extra standoff underneath the motherboard? This isn't very likely since it did boot at one time though.

 

[tle0001]

Update:

Completely dis-assembled my case. I took all the parts out, found a spare riser under the motherboard with no responding screw hole. I removed that riser. I re-seated the motherboard. I plugged in the HSF, hooked up both mobo power connectors, installed graphics card and one stick of ram. When I powered the computer on, I heard the familiar beep and my display appeared. I added the second stick, powered on. I added the CD drive, powered on. I added my hard drive, powered on.

I am convinced the issue was bad RAM and an old graphics card, as well as the fact that the motherboard may have been poorly seated in the case.

I discovered that with my motherboard reset, the computer was trying to boot to [removable] rather than to CD or Hard disk. Regardless, I unplugged my usb keyboard and am setting up a fresh install of windows now.

Thanks to all who helped me and several other posts with similar issues.

 

[tle0001]

I now kind of feel bad for people who mistakenly replace an entire computer, to find out all they had to do was remove one screw. I was about 5 minutes from scrapping my system and replacing everything.