New system wont POST

[paperkut]

So I spent the entire day building and debugging this darn PC that just won't work. After spending 4 hours trying to make it work inside the case I decided to rip everything out and test it outside.

I laid the board (GIGABYTE GA-MA74GM-S2) on a table and installed the processor (AMD Phenom X4 920) and heatsink, one stick of RAM (tried the other stick too), and connected the 24pin and 4pin power cables from my power supply (Corsair 650W). I then connected the video cable (tried both vga/dvi) and power cord to the power supply.

The system won't post. The heatsink fan starts spinning when I short the power pins but nothing appears on my monitor. I even tried connecting the dedicated graphics card and used the DVI cable but still nothing.

I'm at a complete loss. What could be wrong here? Am I missing something simple? Is there a way to test if the motherboard or cpu is defective?

This is really annoying, it's my first build and newegg was kind enough to send me broken parts >(

Edit: I've also got no way of knowing if any error messages are beeping since my case doesn't have a speaker :/

 

[Jacque]

Hmmm....

Try to see if you can find a speaker for motherboard. It's really important to hear the beeping codes.

Also reseat everything, from power cables to memory and maybe processor too.

Update us if you find the solution.

 

[paperkut]

Ok, I reseated the processor and heatsink. I managed to rig up a speaker of sorts by busting out an old headphone and connecting the two wires to the speaker. There's no audible long or short beeps though, I tried listening both with RAM and no RAM.

There is a really faint pulsating/repeating noise though, I wouldn't characterize it as a beep as it's pretty low pitched and repeats really fast, sounds like rapid footsteps to me.

Mobo uses an AWARD bios btw.

Any ideas?

 

[KGB]

Originally posted by: paperkut
Ok, I reseated the processor and heatsink. I managed to rig up a speaker of sorts by busting out an old headphone and connecting the two wires to the speaker. There's no audible long or short beeps though, I tried listening both with RAM and no RAM.

There is a really faint pulsating/repeating noise though, I wouldn't characterize it as a beep as it's pretty low pitched and repeats really fast, sounds like rapid footsteps to me.

Mobo uses an AWARD bios btw.

Any ideas?

The sound you hear is probably the pulses from one of the fans.

Try this: clear the CMOS using the method in your MB manual.

What specific RAM are you using?

 

[paperkut]

I'm using a pair of G.Skill 4GB PC6400 (DDR2-800) RAM but I doubt they're both duds. I guess it's possible.

I've tried clearing my CMOS both ways, one being remove the battery for 10 mins and the other by shorting the CMOS pins for a few seconds. I even tried the latter with the battery out... no joy.

If the mobo is dead, would it still be powering the components? I'm guessing either that or the cpu is defective, unless you can think of something else. Perhaps the processor isn't supported without a bios flash? I dunno..

 

[pcgeek11]

Perhaps the processor isn't supported without a bios flash? I dunno..

You may be on to something here. But to fix it you will need a CPU that the MB wil support.

pcgeek11