I need serious hardware help! please read!

[guywithoutaclue]

Hi I'm building my first rig (yes I'm a newbie) and here are my specs:

1.4 athlon
iwill ka266
320watt ps
gainworld 4.5 ns geforce2 pro
17" NEC fe700 flat
60gb 7200rpm ibm 60gxp

I'm really excited and followed all the necessary steps (puting the cpu right, adding heatsink+fan, thermopaste, mounting, then double checked everything). But as i booted up my monitor would not give me any signal, as if it were not hooked up to the graphics port of my geforce2 pro. So I'm wondering what the hell is the problem. I also notice that my hard drive led is not lighting up (whether I put the led connector on right or the hd is not working I don't know). I seriously need help as I am stumped and have no where to turn, so please someone lead me in the right direction. I suspect that its a mobo problem as the fans are working and some of the leds are on. I will watch this page every 5 min. so if you have any suggestions please I beg of you, help me. I if some of you want to work with me systemically I will post my response to any questions.

 

[Pederv]

Did you put standoffs between your case and your motherboard? If you did, did you put them only where the screw holes are in your motherboard?

 

[guywithoutaclue]

thank you perderv for volunteering your time! and yes I put those standoff things on the case cause if I didn't the atx form factor would not fit in the mobo I/O slots. I mounted those screws correctly I believe.

guy

 

[guywithoutaclue]

any other sugestions?

what I can't do is get the system to boot. Power is on but no output on my monitor, it stays in the standby mode.

help!

 

[rommel]

just re-assemble everything ....and make sure the video card is seated....sometimes when placing ram in the mobo or another peripheral the board flexes and the video card can pop out a bit....unplug and replug all the connectors from your power supply and try again

 

[rommel]

also try booting the first time with only the cpu with its hsf, ram and video card installed...this is actually the best way to assemble asystem anyway...tehn add each additional peripheral after you are sure the last has been added and is not a problem

 

[guywithoutaclue]

it couldn't be the video card sticking out cause I can see all the golden leads in the agp port plus the video card fan is working when I power up. I just get no reponse from my monitor any other suggestions?

 

[cchen]

on the back of the case, did you set the voltage to 115?

 

[guywithoutaclue]

I think so since I can see a 115V sign on a sliding window. Thanks for the insight I didn't check that but I guess its factory default. thank you but still no boot up

 

[rommel]

lol...dude i gave you a suggestion....you should really re-assemble everything over...hey i have built alot of systems this year...this may not work but it often does...also clear the cmos jsut for good measure....and be ready to eneter the bios to set up your particualr configuration if the thing boots

 

[cchen]

Disconnect everything, and only use the cpu, ram and video. What happens now? Your motherboard may be shorting out against the case... I would take it out and test the board...

 

[guywithoutaclue]

you may be right about the shorting out. so what should I do to test it? take the mobo out of the case and boot while its on my desk?

 

[rommel]

you can do it that way....or just inspect it carefully

 

[guywithoutaclue]

I first put the metal bridges, then the mobo, then the papered screws, so did I mess up? if not how should I inspect it?

 

[Pederv]

Even if you put all the mounting hardware and mount the motherboard correctly, sometimes if the motherboard is slightly out of alignment it can short to the case. Some people will power up thier motherboards outside the case, just to verify that the motherboard works, so if they have a powerup problem they know it's something they did or added since the first succesful powerup.
Just because you can see that the pins on your agp card look like they are lined up correctly in the connector doesn't mean that it's in the slot correctly. I've had to re-seat a couple of video cards 2 or 3 times before they would work properly. Usually pushing the metal card support flush to the case slot hole while inserting the card in the agp slot has given me the best results.
One other thing I do when assembling a system. I don't tighten the motherboard mounting screws until after I insert all of my cards and have them tightened down, then I'll tighten the motherboard mounting screws. I'll have to go and pull the agp card and the last pci card(if I use that slot) to tighten the last 2 screws.

 

[guywithoutaclue]

ok guys I took everything apart and still the same results. Well I didn't want to take off the heatsink fan cpu combo cause it was so hard to get in in the first place. so where do I go from here? should I try remounting the mobo with paper between the bridges like:

bridges, paper, mobo paper, screw?

arg!!! help!!!

 

[Pederv]

Have you done a hard reset on the bios (clear the cmos with the jumper)? After this worked with my KT7-RAID, it has become a standard practice, for me, when installing a motherboard.

 

[guywithoutaclue]

so do I power up with the clear cmos jumper on or do I just put the clear cmos jumper on for 5 sec. then put it back in default?

 

[guywithoutaclue]

I just wanna say that even though I haven't fixed this problem yet I am very appreciative of all your time and patience that you have given me, so thank you all.

 

[guywithoutaclue]

to anyone who helps give the crucial piece of knowledge leading to the proper boot up I will give $5 to them via paypal... so please help!! I'm that desperate!!!

 

[Pederv]

When you reset the bios, you remove power from the machine (un plug it), then change the jumper over for 10 - 30 seconds, then put it back.

 

[Insane3D]

If I remember correctly, the KA266 had problems with the memory seating correctly. Only use one stick of memory, and be very careful to how it's seated in the DIMM slot. IF you emove all the memory and only put one stick in and it still does not boot, remove an re-install the memory a couple of times. I remember when this board first came out a lot of people had trouble with the memory seating being very finicky. Give it a shot.

 

[rommel]

no just clear the cmos using the jumper and set it back to the normal setting before powering up...and you really should have reseated the cpu....but i can understand if it made you nervous...although i cant remember that feeling....lol

 

[rommel]

hey clueless what exactly happens when you power the system up....i know you cnat see anything on your monitor but do you get any beep codes?...do you see the ide drives like the cdrom or cdrw and hard drive activity led come on at all

 

[guywithoutaclue]

ok I took the damn thing apart and reinstalled everything and to my assumptions no output still. as to beeping codes, yes I initially heard them, but when I fixed a jumper for raid (which I don't have) the beeping went away.

now that I think about the cpu I might have used alittle too much artic silver. I put a very thin layer over the core, but I fear that I might've ( probably not though) have put too much, which I don't know if this has to do with it. does it? I could check it if you think this is the problem