help i cant seem to get anything on my monitor

[Jzeidenb]

i just spent the last couple of hours trying to put my system together and im pretty sure i got everything connected right.

I power the system on and everything seems normal, no strange beeps or anything. but nothing comes up on my monitor. Ive made sure the video card is securely in the pci-e spot and it seems to not be an issue.

does anyone know where i should be looking to fix this?


edit: to provide more detail

my system is: http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2086096&enterthread=y

when push the power button, the system turns on then seems to stop for like 2 seconds and the power button led even turns off, then it starts again on its own and i get a single beep very short in duration. it stays running but nothing ever shows up on my monitor. Then after about a minute of running the system powers off

 

[Jzeidenb]

it seems the problem is that its shorting out.. i added in more spacers that came with the case when i noticed holes were present.

now it shows me the bios on the screen but its still shorting out like 3min after i turn it on.. this is driving me nuts

 

[Markbnj]

Hard to say exactly what the problem is at this point. Go over all of the connections and cables; make sure the RAM is in the correct slots; make sure all power connections have been made (including the video card if needed).

If it still won't boot remove any components not required for the initial test. All you need for a POST test in addition to the processor is keyboard, on-board video or video card, one stick of RAM, and monitor. If it boots up in minimal config start putting stuff back in and testing.

If it doesn't boot in minimal config remove the motherboard and all components from the case and lay them out on a nonconductive surface like cardboard and connect them up. If that boots then the problem was how the stuff was mounted, probably in a short somewhere. If it still doesn't boot, and you're down to minimal config, something is just broken.

 

[Jzeidenb]

Figured it out, the screws just werent tight enough, i tightened them until they literally stripped, im typing on the new computer now.. ITS FAST!@

 

[Jzeidenb]

well everything seems to be good except vista only says i have 3.25gb of ram.. instead of 4, (bought patriot 2 gb sticks from newegg).. anyone know why that would be? the ram sticks seem inserted correctly.

 

[Markbnj]

i tightened them until they literally stripped

I'm gonna recommend that you not build anymore computers. But I'm glad you got it working.

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: Jzeidenb
well everything seems to be good except vista only says i have 3.25gb of ram.. instead of 4, (bought patriot 2 gb sticks from newegg).. anyone know why that would be? the ram sticks seem inserted correctly.

All 32bit versions of Windows will only recognize ~3.25GB of memory.

 

[boglwe]

Well, if this is your first build, then your doing Ok and learning a lot here. First off, that case has some serious functionality issues already, You should not have to screw in a board that much, your shorting somewhere for sure, just need to find it, but, if the board is secure now, no worries. Second, yea, The mem thingy, Return the second set of 2 gigs, and get 2x512, makes things very snappy.

All in all, great job and congrats on your build, hope you have fun, and be very careful if your going to OC, The most important thing you can do is study and research before you do, take a look at my posts, I am about to build a new system and i got threads all over the place, heh. Have fun, good luck.