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

 

[Double Trouble]

I know the frustration of putting everything together, and then getting nothing to happen..... We've all been there at one point or another!

Anyway, first thing you should do is disconnect everything, leave only the mobo, cpu, memory and video card. Then try it on to see what it does. If still the same thing, see if changing the memory to a different slot helps. Take out the cpu and verify that none of the pins are bent and that everything is plugged in snugly.

Try the components (memory, video, cpu) in other systems if at all possible, that will help you at least eliminate the possibility of one of those components being the culpriit. That's all I can think of right now....

- tagej

 

[Dravic]

Tagej is on the right track.

Start from scratch... REMOVE everything. Is sounds like there might be a short, and the motherboard may be touching something. Once you have removed everything and made sure there are no random wires under the motherboard. Just put in the essentials. MB, CPU, RAM, Video Card.

Make sure all the sensor (HD LED, speaker, power, reset switch...etc) wires are in , and in correctly. Could be just your luck that one is not plugged in , and shorting the MB from underneath..

Make sure you using the MB mounting screws that came with the MB. Sometimes a MB come with plastic spacers to ensure the motherboard is not making contact with the case/mounting screws.

You said your hearing the beep when you force a shut down, so try removing the video card or the ram and see if the motherboard gives off the beep codes for the mising component.

Also try clearing the MB bios via MB jumper, this way you will at least set the MB to its most relaxed settings. Jus in case comething in the bios from the manufatcure was optimized, and is conflicting with your components.


God luck, and keep trying.

Might be fustrating now, but there nothing like knowing every inch of your setup, and being ale to trouble shoot issues that might not seem so common.

 

[Legendary]

To check to see if your mobo is working at all, try removing one of the required components (memory, CPU or video card) and see if you get a beep code from that (you should) If you don't, then either your PC speaker isn't plugged in correctly or your motherboard is having a problem (short, defective)

 

[imported_NoGodForMe]

Had the same problem on my P4 3.4c rig I recently built.
Put everything together, threw the switch, and the PS fan would move slightly, and that's it.
I disconnected all wires, took out all cards, and the board came to life.
I think it was the sound connectors from the case to the MB. I hooked up the wires one by one, because the all in 1 connector didn't fit my case. On my Antec case, there is a sound block which has everything together, and then a bunch of wires seperate with labels on them.
Disconnect every wire from the Case to the MB only leaving the Power connector. Take out your sound card, and see if you can get the MB to post.
I mean, if you have just the PS connected to the MB, and throw the switch, it should beep, even if no memory is installed. You should see some status lights on the MB.