FINALLY finshed building my gaming rig and....nothing happens

[TheAntiChrist]

After soooo very long I've finally finished building my new computer. I go to turn on the power and it seems fine, and everything has power. One little problem though....nothing happens after that. nope, no bios, no beeps, NOTHING. I've spent hours double and triple-checking that all connections are good, and that everything is plugged in right and has power. I swapped the memory from my stick of PC3500 DDR to a stick of PC2100 and I'm having the same problem. swapped monitors, same problem. Swapped the video card, nothing. Whats strange is that I hear no beeps at all except when i hold the power button for about 5 seconds to shut it off, i hear one. I really don't think it's an issue of power, because all fans work and and everything powers on when i start the computer. Also interestingly enough I had the same exact problem occur after i was done swapping the memory and put it back into my old computer. My old computer did the exact same thing. I cracked the case and went in to investigate and discovered i installed the memory backwards (I felt too stupid to even call myself any names at that point). I fixed that, and bam my old computer was up and running again. I then checked about 3 different times to make sure the ram in my new computer was installed correctly, and swapped the ram again with a different module, etc. I have absolutely no clue whats going on, I should at the very least get to the bios screen but nothing shows up on the monitor at all from the time i press the power switch. If anyone could help me out in any way I would GREATLY appreciate it! Thanks

Here are my system Specs btw:

Athlon 64 3200+
Asus K8v SE Deluxe
Antec Sonata Case w/ 415 watt Enermax Whisper Power Supply
512 mb Corsair XMS DDR PC3500
Dual Seagate Barracuda's 7200.7 SATA 160gb (for total of 320gb RAID0)
Ati Radeon 9700 PRO
19' NEC MultiSync FE950 Monitor
Creative Soundblaster Audigy 2
Plextor PX708-A 8x DVD Burner
SONY Black 1.44MB 3.5inch Floppy Disk Drive
Logitech Dual Optical USB Mouse (Ruby Red)
Logitech Internet Navigator Multimedia Keyboard

 

[Optimummind]

I think your SN put a curse on you.

 

[KhoiFather]

Don't you just fvcking hate that? You spend all that time and money to put it together and then nothing comes up. Happens to me all the time man.

Make sure your motherboard isn't short circuiting with the case and that your video card is tightly in the slot. Also, make sure your HSF is properly on because that happened to me and my computer wouldn't boot unless I was wiggled the HSF around to the proper spot.

 

[imported_Pipeline]

You're gonna have to narrow it down: Take everything off of the motherboard. Have only Powersupply and speakers connected (you can use headphones if needed).

When you power-up, do you get the vocal POST messages? It should inform you that NO CPU DETECTED.

If not, there may be a problem with the motherboard.

If so, Add the CPU and power-on. It should then tell you "System failed memory test"

Add the memory next

Power on again, POST should detect VGA error (since there's no card installed).

Install the video card and power-on again.

Keep adding one component at a time until you find a faulty component or everything boots up OK.

 

[RyDogg1]

Does you case have a set of USB/Speaker plugs on the front? Might be one of the metal/copper connectors coming in contact with your case. Personally have had this happen to me the last two computers I have built.

 

[windows311]

hi, had the same problem once...i wish i knew how to fix it...JK

The problem i had was with a soyo...do you know what bios u have?

well none the less, i had to press down "insert" to boot for the first time. cause some stupid fan safeguard option was turned on in the bios. and pressing down "insert" while powering on bypassed those bios safeguard settings. I then had to go into the bios to turn off that feature. Now that was about 6 months ago and honest i believe its the "insert" key, but it could be one of those other 6 keys...u know "home" "del"..etc. but try "insert". damn i hate typing " " " " on laptops...

I wish i were at my old PC then i would have been able to give u more detail. Check your mobo manual for a similar feature.

Hope it helps

 

[Anaxibius]

Just a thought, but make sure you hav ethe seperate 4 pronged rail from your PSU going to the 4 pronged input for CPU and memory. I know it sounds simple, but a lot of people forget that. The symptoms you describe mirror exactly what would happen if you didn't have that rail...the fans all spin, but nothing...no beeps, no nothing.

 

[windows311]

please try what i said. look up 1. it sounds silly but i works.

 

[TheAntiChrist]

hmmm,

Khoifather-----> moved the heatsink fan around slightly, but its screwed in nice so I think its fine. I just double checked my video Card and thats snug in the AGP slot as well. I'm pretty sure it's not short circuiting because my system powers fine and I can even just leave it running...just nothing happens beyond that.

pipeline-----> I just tried booting up and listening for the vocal POST messages, and I heard nothing...I had the impression that this was a software-based feature and I wouldn't be able to use it until I had the comp up and running.

RyDogg-----> yes, my case, an Antec Sonata, has a front bezel with USB, firewire, and audio connectors. this could be the problem? i dunno, how did you fix it with the last 2 computers you built?

Windows311------> I'm going to go try that right now, I'll post if it worked or not in a couple minutes.

Anaxibius------>I'm not sure what you mean by the 4 pronged rail. I may have done that already and not remember, but the "4 pronged rail into the 4 pronged input" def isnt ringing any bells. what does it look like? If I havent done that then it could well be the source of the problem.


THANK YOU EVERYONE HOPEFULLY I CAN GET THIS THING UP AND RUNNING SO I CAN GET MY GAME ON SOON

 

[mechBgon]

Welcome to the Forums That's nice-quality stuff, so at least we don't have to worry about trash-O-matic power supplies or something. The single biggest cause of no-POST on the K8V series seems to be people forgetting to plug in their ATX12V cable but if you know enough to spec up a system like that, I doubt you would've overlooked this. Ditto for the auxiliary power pigtail for your 9700 Pro.

So assuming it isn't due to that simple stuff, I'd suggest you set up your mobo outside the case like shown down the page a little here, with nothing but the absolute essentials: keyboard, one memory module, video card (make sure it's bottoming out, not halfway like that second photo), CPU and heatsink/fan. If it doesn't work like that, try a different video card. Also try resetting your CMOS with the system unplugged.

If it works in the bare-essentials situation, then start by putting it into the case with no other changes, and see if it still runs. If that works, add your hard drives. If that works, add your optical drives and floppy. Keep going and see if you shook off the problem I also recommend putting the Audigy 2 into PCI slot #4 (fourth from the top), because that slot doesn't share its IRQ with any other PCI slots or soldered-down PCI devices (such as the SATA controller, gigabit NIC, etc). Good luck!

 

[Tab]

do the compenents get warm? GPU CPU

 

[TheAntiChrist]

ya the ATX12v is plugged in (I think thats what Anax was referring to as well), as well as both power cables on the radeon. The Audigy is coincidentally on the 4th PCI slot too. I'm going to have to try your advice tomorrow about taking the bear essentials out- whatever I do is going to take a looooooooooong time! whats weird too is I don't get any of the post messages that pipeline was talking about. I know it's a feature, why aren't I getting them? ah, the mysteries of do-it-yourself computing...

 

[Budman]

do like mechBgon suggested,take your motherboard out of the case & see if it powers ok outside the case.

if it's a dead board you're going to have to remove it anyways to rma it so.....

 

[mechBgon]

One other thing to check: make sure the little recessed switch on your PSU is set to the right input voltage (115 volts, 230 volts) to suit where you live.

I also recall where the original K8V Deluxe had an issue with some Radeon 9xxx cards, which I believe was fixed with a BIOS update, but since that preceeded your board, I'd imagine it would be fixed from the get-go on an SE Deluxe. Still, if you have another video card, do try it.

 

[carni]

I have had that same problem on three out of the 5 systems I have built. On all three it was the motherboard grounding to the case. To do a quick test of that, unlike the link that shows it pulled all the way out, I just took out all teh motherboard mounting screws, slid a magazine under the MB, then placed an envelope anywhere I saw the MB contacting the case. So the MB was never actually removed from case, just no possibel place to contact it. All three of them booted fine after that. So I then put electrical tape on teh top and bottom of each of teh MB mounting posts. Ta-Da, they all work fine. I now do that with all teh boxes I build from the get-go so I don't have to sweat that anymore.