New motherboard, no signs of life

[Rayzn]

I installed a PSU(BFG 650w), CPU(e6600), motherboard(965p-DS3IS3), and ram(2x2gb PC6400) and I connected everything correctly or so I thought. When I power it up all my fans turn on but I have no video and my dvd driver doesn't open. I plugged speakers into it to see if I could hear the start up sounds but I didn't. I have no idea what to do. Please help me.

 

[o1die]

Do a minimum boot out of the case (on a phonebook or the box the motherboard came in), with just the cpu/heatsink, one stick of memory, and video card. Use both the 24 pin and 4 pin power supply connectors. If you're not sure of the power switch lead, just touch the leads with a screwdriver until it fires up. Turn the case on it's side and place the phonebook or box on top to reach the power supply leads, or remove the ps from the case. It sounds like a lot of trouble, but works every time. All you want is to see the post screen.

 

[Rayzn]

I dont understand how this will be different from what I have now. Care to explain a little more?

 

[o1die]

You may have a cable backwards, or wrong jumper setting. You may also have the board touching something in the case preventing a bootup. I've been in the same situation before, and a minimal boot out of the case confirmed a board or power supply problem. If you want to hear beep codes, atatch a speaker to the motherboard. I would also reseat the memory. Many people don't have the memory seated properly when they first power up. I've never had a new board doa if I have the proper cpu and memory installed. Once I had a loose reset switch on the plastic bezel cover of the case, causing a no post situation (short). The out of case minimal bootup confirmed it wasn't the board.

 

[Rayzn]

I want to make sure I start this up. I took the motherboard out and right now I have power going into the mobo from the psu, I have the cpu and heatsink in, and 1 gig of ram as well as the video card. Now how do I start it up exactly?

 

[ScrapSilicon]

you've got your 4/8 pin 12v plugged in on the mobo ? anyway browse your mobo's cd for the manual/paper manual for the 2 pins that are pwr switch ..make momentary contact with like a small flat-blade screwdriver (or something conductive like that) just for posting purposes ...read the mechBgon link in my sig as well gl

 

[Rayzn]

Ok, so I tried this (look below) and i still got no video.

http://smg.photobucket.com/alb...w&current=100_1139.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/alb...w&current=100_1138.jpg

 

[ScrapSilicon]

Originally posted by: Rayzn
Ok, so I tried this (look below) and i still got no video.

http://smg.photobucket.com/alb...w&current=100_1139.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/alb...w&current=100_1138.jpg

with power off ..put you single dimm(some boards don't like higher spec ram ..could try a stick of slower ddr2 like ddr533 to get into bios to change voltages) in the yellow slot adjacent to the cpu socket ..clear your cmos/bios with the power supply still switched off..retry .. gl

 

[Rayzn]

I just gave up and brought it to Geek Squad. I work at Best Buy and I called them a few times and they told me I should have a 4 pin cable coming from my PSU but I couldn't find it. So I just drove it down there and went into the precinct and he found the 4 pin cable but it was with another 4 pin making it an 8 pin that can break off into two which I didn't know. So I plugged it in and it worked.

But now I have a question that I forgot to ask them. I have windows XP previously installed on that and I want to install my Vista 64 bit but how can I get rid of XP completely? I have wipe drive but is that necessary?

 

[Rayzn]

I just read the manual with wipe drive and it says after I run wipe drive and I wish to reinstall my OS I need to partition my hard drive and format your partition. What does that mean!

 

[lopri]

All you have to do is to boot from the Vista DVD. Go into the BIOS and set the boot order in such that the system boot off the Vista disk. Once the system boot from the DVD, you will have the option to manipulate your hard disks the way you want. (yes, you can 'wipe' your XP installation)

 

[Rayzn]

Alright, I have it running as we speak. Thank you guys for the help. I appreciate it.

 

[Rayzn]

Are you allowed to choose 32 bit with the 64bit version of vista? I didn't buy 4 gigs but I will be within a few weeks or is 2 gigs alright for now? Not to many heavy programs yet but I will be using vegas and photoshop in a few months and games that support it hopefully soon.