New build - why won't my monitor come on?

[socalcyclist]

Mobo: Abit KN8 Ultra NF4U 939
Video Card: EVGA GF 7800GT 256
PSU: Enermax EG425P 420W
CPU: AMD 64 3800+ Athlon X2

This is my first build. I've been at it most of the day and I'm starting to get frustrated. This is what's working, or appears to be working:

PSU seems fine. The 3 case fans including the blue LED's are working. The front LCD temp and fan speed control are working. The heat sink fan is working and even the video card fan is working. The CD/DVD has power and opens and closes. The 3.5 floppy has power. The mouse and keyboard lights come on and appear to working. All internal cables and wires are connected, I think. I just found my SATA HD was connected to SATA3 by mistake. So there's a good chance I've made other mistakes as well, either accidental or because I just don't know what the hell I'm doing.

Anyway, my main problem right now is the monitor won't come on. Like I said there's power going to the video card since the fan is running. I'm trying to hook up an older Viewsonic A90 so I'm using the supplied DVI to DB-15 converter. There's two DVI output connectors and I've tried hooking the monitor up to both to no avail. I've tried powering the video card by using both the 6-pin connector from the PSU and the supplemental power adaptor that came with the video card. I've also removed the video card and re-seated it in the PCI-e slot and made sure it was snug and snapped in securely.

Is it the old monitor with the old 15 pin connector causing the problem? (Yes, the monitor does work.)
Is it something really obvious that I'm just missing? (very possible)
Shouldn't the monitor just come on when the computer is powered on?

This is my first video card ever so I really don't know what I'm doing. And, yes, the monitor is plugged in and turned on.

 

[Powermoloch]

Had you tried another monitor ^_^ ? Was there any beeps when you power up the pc ( a regular error free beep )?

 

[mechBgon]

First a quick question: is your ATX12V cable hooked up?

 

[socalcyclist]

Yes, the cable is connected the atx12v1 on the mobo.

 

[socalcyclist]

Originally posted by: Powermoloch
Had you tried another monitor ^_^ ? Was there any beeps when you power up the pc ( a regular error free beep )?

No beeps whatsoever and I even have the built in mic hooked up correctly, I think. Tried a second monitor, an NEC Multisync 95 (also 15 pin), and no difference.

 

[socalcyclist]

Time for bed. I'll check back in the morning.

I'm awake now and ready to waste another day on this giant paper weight if anyone has any ideas.

 

[socalcyclist]

OK, tried a different monitor with a dvi connector and still no picture. That ruled out the adaptor.

Tried a different video card, a PNY Gforce6600 pci-e, and still no picture. This video card doesn't require a seperate power hook up - I guess it just runs off the mobo?

Either it's the pci-e slot or I have something wrong somewhere??

The monitor should kick on at this point shouldn't it? What am I doing wrong? Power is going to the mobo fan, the heatsink fan, the case fans, and even the video card fan, the keyboard, the mouse, the 3.5 drive, the DVD drive, but yet the screen won't come on! :x If I unplug the dvi cable from the video card the monitor will pop up a little blue window that states "check signal cable". When I plug it back in it will go away.

Again, shouldn't the monitor just kick on even though there's no OS installed. I've never done this before but shouldn't it come on and show something?

 

[squatchy]

I actually had the same thing happen to me on my first build, couldnt figure out what was wrong. I went through checking everything and I ended up re-seating the processor, and for some reason after I re-seated it, it worked fine.

 

[socalcyclist]

I thought about that too but that part of the build went so smoothly I thought for sure I did it right. Do you know if I take off the heatsink/fan, remove the processor and then seat it back in do I need to clean off the thermal paste and reapply new stuff? Originally there was already a layer of thermal paste on the heatsink.

 

[rsatat]

Yes you need to reapply the thermal paste and clean out the old one before you do the new one.
I think you are having a post problem (same as I am currently having).
Are you sure your PC booted up? Did you get the booting sounds?

 

[socalcyclist]

Originally posted by: rsatat
Yes you need to reapply the thermal paste and clean out the old one before you do the new one.
I think you are having a post problem (same as I am currently having).
Are you sure your PC booted up? Did you get the booting sounds?

I get no beeps at all. The only sounds are all the fans whirring to life. What exactly does "not posting" mean? Does that mean the BIOS info doesn't post to the screen?

At any rate I'm done. I've had my head inside this case for 3 days straight. I'm taking it to a computer shop tomorrow morning to let them diagnose and fix the problem.

 

[Atheus]

Originally posted by: socalcyclist

Originally posted by: rsatat
Yes you need to reapply the thermal paste and clean out the old one before you do the new one.
I think you are having a post problem (same as I am currently having).
Are you sure your PC booted up? Did you get the booting sounds?

I get no beeps at all. The only sounds are all the fans whirring to life. What exactly does "not posting" mean? Does that mean the BIOS info doesn't post to the screen?

POST, not post, it stands for 'Power-On Self Test' and it's what your machine does before loading an operating system. If the PC speaker is hooked up (check this) you should be getting beeps regardless of whether the video card is working.

At any rate I'm done. I've had my inside this case for 3 days straight. I'm taking it to a computer shop tomorrow morning to let them diagnose and fix the problem.

They will rip you off... My suggestion is to reseat the processor and memory and make sure you do it properly. While you have it disassembled check for short circuits between the motherboard and case, this is quite common, and could cause exactly the symptoms you describe.

If this doesn't work it's almost definately the power supply. You have probably the most power hungry gaming rig available and you will require one of the most powerful PSUs to run it. Keep in mind the wattage ratings mean nothing - you need to get a good brand.

 

[socalcyclist]

>
POST, not post, it stands for 'Power-On Self Test' and it's what your machine does before loading an operating system. If the PC speaker is hooked up (check this) you should be getting beeps regardless of whether the video card is working.
>
I think I hooked up the speaker correctly. It was nothing more than two wires, red/black, connected to a tiny round thing with a hole at the end. It had a 4-pin attachment on the other end connecting to pins 13, 15, 17, 19 on the mobo. The mobo manual states, "Connects to the System Speaker cable of chassis." I hooked up the red wire to the + pin.


>
They will rip you off... My suggestion is to reseat the processor and memory and make sure you do it properly. While you have it disassembled check for short circuits between the motherboard and case, this is quite common, and could cause exactly the symptoms you describe.
>
I don't know what I could do different reseating the processor. I really took my time with that part and it went very smoothly. The processor fit right in and it was pushed down all the way as it was locked into place. I took the plastic covering off the heatsink and it locked on snugly as well.

Why do you say they will rip me off? I've never been to this shop but I've been told they're reputable. If they know what they're doing, find the problem and fix it how is that getting ripped off?

How do I check for short circuits between the mobo and case?

>
If this doesn't work it's almost definately the power supply. You have probably the most power hungry gaming rig available and you will require one of the most powerful PSUs to run it. Keep in mind the wattage ratings mean nothing - you need to get a good brand.
>
This psu was supposed to be a good one. It has two 12V lines each running 18A with 420W. That's not enough power to run this rig? I even tired unhooking all power except for the main 24pin and 12V mobo connections and the connection to the video card. It made no difference.

 

[Green Man]

Try using only one stick of memory at a time and try it in another DIMM slot if the first one doesn't work. Also try clearing the CMOS.

 

[socalcyclist]

Originally posted by: Green Man
Try using only one stick of memory at a time and try it in another DIMM slot if the first one doesn't work. Also try clearing the CMOS.

Did the memory thing with only 1 stick and different dimm slot but no change. I tried clearing the CMOS by switching the jumper cap from pin 1,2 to 2,3 per the mobo manual but no change.

 

[Atheus]

I don't know what I could do different reseating the processor. I really took my time with that part and it went very smoothly. The processor fit right in and it was pushed down all the way as it was locked into place. I took the plastic covering off the heatsink and it locked on snugly as well.

Reseating the processor will appease the deamons which live inside it and make them more cooperative.

Why do you say they will rip me off? I've never been to this shop but I've been told they're reputable. If they know what they're doing, find the problem and fix it how is that getting ripped off?

It's like taking your car to a mechanic - they tend to assume that if you can't fix it yourself you won't understand what they're charging you for and therefore they can ask whatever they want. This is only in my personal experience, YMMV.

How do I check for short circuits between the mobo and case?

Just visually, make sure nothing metal touches the case and all the spacers are installed correctly.

This psu was supposed to be a good one. It has two 12V lines each running 18A with 420W. That's not enough power to run this rig? I even tired unhooking all power except for the main 24pin and 12V mobo connections and the connection to the video card. It made no difference.

Yea, Enermax is OK, 18A is reasonable... I just can't think of anything else it ould be. Bad processors aren't exactly common and bad RAM will generally allow the machine to POST and cause errors later. Try all the other suggestions, including what green man said, but if nothing else works it could easily be the PSU.

 

[xrax]

DOA parts are usually motherboards and PSU. Try minimum configuration, remove everything and put motherboard on non conductive surface and put procesor/memory into motherboard, hook up case speaker and power. then hook up power switch from case.
Turn on listen for beeps.

 

[socalcyclist]

Thought I'd update. Finally got the puter up and running. Turned out the PSU and MOBO were both bad. What a headache having to deal with RMA's and waiting on Newegg to process and ship. For a while there I thought I had made a mistake by going with a custom build but now that it's finally up and running I realize it was definetly the right choice. This baby ROCKS!!