Every Builders Worst Nightmare!

[garritynet]

Well, I got started on my new build last night. I finally had almost all the parts, well enough to have a working computer that is. I have not done a build in several years but I have built five computers in the past and made numerous upgrades for myself and friends.

My build so far:

Silverstone Sugo 2 F Case
Antec Neo Power 550
Asus M3N78-VM board
AMD 6000+ Brisbane
4x 2gig GSkill DDR2 800
LG 22x DVD Burner
Old Hitachi 80gig 7200 SATA 1.5 HD I had laying around.
Old Wireless G PCI card


I was very careful while building and I used a grounding bracelet. When I first turned it on it worked fine. I was able to go into the bios and look at everything. Temps were 51 C idle. Case was 38 C.

I put in my Vista Home Premium 64bit DVD and tried to install. Noting happened. I turned the computer off and on a few times and finally it booted from the DVD. I got as far as putting in my license number before the computer froze. When it restarted there was a bios error message. I inserted the DVD that came with the MB and it reloaded the bios and all was good.

I tried to install Vista again and got as far as the second reboot. Now the computer won't post. Won't do anything cept turn the fans on. Nothing will come up on the monitor and the keyboard lights won't turn on either.

I have already tried clearing the CMOS.

Any suggestions?

 

[Loop2kil]

my worst nightmare would be having to get up in front of the class while im naked and telling everyone it won't post

on a serious note....test the ram...find memtest and make sure all it good with the ram before we go any further.

 

[garritynet]

How can I test the ram? I don't know anyone with a computer that will take DDR2 ram.

 

[Loop2kil]

go here and grab a copy of memtest to burn on a cd....burn the iso then boot with the cd in the drive

http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

 

[Loop2kil]

direct link to the windows iso

http://www.memtest.org/downloa...emtest86+-2.10.iso.zip

 

[DSF]

Or google the Ultimate Boot CD, burn that, and use Memtest from there. The UBCD has a number of other utilities that may prove useful as well.

 

[garritynet]

I'll give it a shot but as my monitor isn't showing anything when I power my PC up I'm not sure if its gonna work.

 

[Nocturnal]

When a computer won't post, the best thing to do is to break it down and rebuild it. Remove the motherboard from the case, lay it on some type of anti static bag or flat surface and re-seat the processor, memory and video card. If your motherboard has the power button on it, use it, if not, short the power on pins with a screw driver. Check to see if it POSTS. If it does, try adding the hard drive and reinstalling Windows. You can go from there.

 

[Slugbait]

Originally posted by: Nocturnal
Remove the motherboard from the case...

Yup, I'm thinking the mobo is shorting out against the case, it's touching somewhere it shouldn't be.

 

[garritynet]

I think it might have been shorting out too. I opened it up and took a very careful look around with a flashlight and a magnifying glass. Not sure what I was looking for but I didn't find anything. I put the cover back on and hit the power button just for kicks and wouldn't you know it, 20 minutes later I have Vista installed. Everything seems fine, but the ASUS MB monitor program says my CPU is at 66 C right now so I think I may re-seat the CPU.

I speculate that either

A: the CPU had grown hot while I was dicking around with the BIOS and caused instability once I started installing Vista. As I took a look around with the case cover off it cooled down enough to complete an install.
.

B: the mother board was shorting out and what taking the cover off the case somehow fixed this.

 

[DSF]

The motherboard would short out against the back of the case, not the side that you open. I doubt that was the problem.

 

[garritynet]

The case cover covers both sides and the top. Not sure if that changes anything.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Originally posted by: Nocturnal
When a computer won't post, the best thing to do is to break it down and rebuild it. Remove the motherboard from the case, lay it on some type of anti static bag or flat surface and re-seat the processor, memory and video card. If your motherboard has the power button on it, use it, if not, short the power on pins with a screw driver. Check to see if it POSTS. If it does, try adding the hard drive and reinstalling Windows. You can go from there.

Do not lay a mobo on an anti-static bag. Those bags are conductive. You need to use a non-conductive surface (piece or cardboard, wood desk, whatever) to test the mobo on, unless you install the plastic spacers to ensure you aren't shorting out the motherboard.

 

[Rabbits]

Originally posted by: Fullmetal Chocobo

Originally posted by: Nocturnal
When a computer won't post, the best thing to do is to break it down and rebuild it. Remove the motherboard from the case, lay it on some type of anti static bag or flat surface and re-seat the processor, memory and video card. If your motherboard has the power button on it, use it, if not, short the power on pins with a screw driver. Check to see if it POSTS. If it does, try adding the hard drive and reinstalling Windows. You can go from there.

Do not lay a mobo on an anti-static bag. Those bags are conductive. You need to use a non-conductive surface (piece or cardboard, wood desk, whatever) to test the mobo on, unless you install the plastic spacers to ensure you aren't shorting out the motherboard.

If its anti-static then how would it not be conductive? Doesn't make sense to me..
Well I guess your ideas would work out..