The most ANNOYING night.. help!

[tmar89]

I got a new motherboard and RAM for my PC and decided to install it today. I've built my own PC for 10 years now so I just want to let everyone know that I've done this and I am very experienced. Anyway, I took my current system and gutted it. I installed the new motherboard (ASUS A7N8X) and 512 PC3200 DIMMs, swapped my Athlon 1Ghz, HDDs, CDs, Audigy, ATI All-In-Wonder AGP and thats it.. Well, I went to start the computer and everything seemed fine, it booted to the black BIOS screens and then my monitor just went out! Standby.. I lost the video signal. I tried rebooting the system numerous times, checking the cables, checking the expansion cards, removing and using one memory stick at a time, switching monitors, none of this worked.. The only thing I can think of is that all of a sudden the video card died.. Unfortunately I dont have a spare video card laying around that fits this AGP slot. This slot has an additional spacer now.. I also thought about the Power Supply, but I dont have another one of those.. When I boot the PC, I can hear the computer doing its normal boot up sequences, so it just seems to be the Video Card.
Well, I then decided to rule it out and I put back my old Motherboard and just connected the video card with RAM. It didn't work, but what is strange is that now my Power Supply is turning itself on and off when I put it on. So now I can't even get my old system to work. I've been working on this for 5 hours now.. Please, does anyone have any ideas??? I'm desperate now.

 

[Ben88]

This might sound stupid but swap the power cable between the monitor and computer. Use the monitors power cable for the comp and vice versa. I had that same problem and that worked for me. Weird I know.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: tmar89
I got a new motherboard and RAM for my PC and decided to install it today. I've built my own PC for 10 years now so I just want to let everyone know that I've done this and I am very experienced. Anyway, I took my current system and gutted it. I installed the new motherboard (ASUS A7N8X) and 512 PC3200 DIMMs, swapped my Athlon 1Ghz, HDDs, CDs, Audigy, ATI All-In-Wonder AGP and thats it.. Well, I went to start the computer and everything seemed fine, it booted to the black BIOS screens and then my monitor just went out! Standby.. I lost the video signal. I tried rebooting the system numerous times, checking the cables, checking the expansion cards, removing and using one memory stick at a time, switching monitors, none of this worked.. The only thing I can think of is that all of a sudden the video card died.. Unfortunately I dont have a spare video card laying around that fits this AGP slot. This slot has an additional spacer now.. I also thought about the Power Supply, but I dont have another one of those.. When I boot the PC, I can hear the computer doing its normal boot up sequences, so it just seems to be the Video Card.
Well, I then decided to rule it out and I put back my old Motherboard and just connected the video card with RAM. It didn't work, but what is strange is that now my Power Supply is turning itself on and off when I put it on. So now I can't even get my old system to work. I've been working on this for 5 hours now.. Please, does anyone have any ideas??? I'm desperate now.

Unfortunately, I can think of something other than the video card suddenly dying... that makes a little more sense.

Did you make sure that the heatsink was attached properly, and was making contact with the whole die?

 

[Nocturnal]

Well, the first thing I would try to do is get a spare PSU and a spare video card to try it out. And when you say other AGP cards won't fit into the AGP slot, I think you're just imagining things. That AGP slot will take ANY AGP card. Even if there is a spacer, just put the video card in like you normally would and it'll boot.

 

[tmar89]

Thanks for all the replies..

The heatsink/fan is on the CPU very tightly and securely.. the fan spins and the computer boots up but there is no video signal so I'm favoring against the CPU, but never ruling it out...

I didn't try the cable thing but I will...

As far as the AGP card, I'm not imagining anything.. It's really strange. I have an ATI AllInWonder AGP card and my backup is a Voodoo3 3000 AGP. The ATI has 3 inch wide connectors and the Voodoo has 1 2 inch connector and a smaller 1 inch connector. They are both AGP im sure of it but the Voodoo wont fit in because there is no 2nd groove in the connector to fit around the spacer in the AGP slot. whats strange is that the new motherboard is AGP Pro and the AGP slot has the extra spacer in it but my original motherboard's AGP slot doesn't have this spacer and both cards fit in it.. so im definitely not imagining this..