Why wont my new comp work?

[Cronith]

I just built my first comp and followed all the instructions and everthing seems to be done right. When i turned it on for the first time the fans turned, the leds came on for the cd rom & cd rw, and the light on the motherboard also shows. I turn the moniter on and I have the the black screen with the words showing that it reads the cd rom etc. Since I bought every part brand new and installed everything right out of its box I also needed to install an os. I turned the comp off and went to get the os cd. When I came back and turned the comp on all the leds would show like before exept for the moniter. The led on the moniter now shows green for a moment then goes to orange. No matter what I try I can no longer get the led to stay green. I know the moniter works because im useing it now on my old comp.

SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!!!

I really need it to work. I spent $1300 on all the parts and its very frustrating to be unable to use them.

 

[stuman19]

Try re-seating your video card........

 

[mechBgon]

Welcome to the Forums Cronith. What-all parts do you have? The more info, the better

 

[Cronith]

I have taken out the vid card and put it back many times and its still the same.

The parts i have are: Dragon 2 Platinum edition motherboard, p4 2.8ghz processor, 2x 512 pc3200 ddr ram, All-in-Wonder Radeon 8500 vid card, maxtor 200 gig hard drive, Antec case with 4 fans, 500 watt power supply, cd rom, cd rw, 3.5 floppy.

 

[MikeMike]

check your cable from your monitor to video card, the changing of leds on the monitor normally signals, that there is NO signal going from the gpu to the monitor. if possible, try the monitor on any other computer you have, and try another monitor on the gpu. if the monitor doesnt work on another comp, your cable going from the monitor is bad, and if it isnt, then something is wrong w/ your vid card i would guess.

MIKE

 

[Cronith]

the moniter is fine. im useing it right now on my old comp. Also, now that i think about it, the first time i turned it on with the new comp it said floppy failed if that has to do with anything.

 

[MikeMike]

nope, floppy failed cant do anything. just reverse the ide cable on it or something power cord, etc.

are there any beeps from the computer?

try the gpu in ur old computer see what happens

try anything you can. i think if you can try it in your old computer, you should be able to tell right there.

MIKE

 

[Cronith]

ok, heres what i just tried: switched vid cards from the two systems to check if the new vid card works and to see what the new comp does with my old vid card in it.

Results: moniter comes on with new vid & old comp, moniter shows orange led with old vid & new comp.

so... it isnt the new vid card.

also, i knoticed that if i leave the moniter on and turn on the new comp the led turns from orange to yellow and back to orange. it seems to respond but not fully.

any help?

 

[mechBgon]

You've got the video card's auxiliary power plug hooked up? And the motherboard's auxiliary power plug, the one with two yellow and two black wires on a square plug? Is the power supply an Antec or another brand?

 

[JeffCos]

Cronith, the only thing I can think of is to ask you how difficult of a time you had putting the new vid card in the new comp when you originally installed it. Although it's highly unlikely, it's possible that if you wiggled the card into place you may have damaged the connection from the AGP slot to the motherboard itself. Again I say this is highly unlikely because those connections are usually incredibly strong. However, it's possible that you may have gotten a faulty mobo.

What I would do: If your mobo came with an onboard VGA port remove your vid card and use it that way just to get the OS and your primary drivers installed. If you get this far, and everything else is working fine, shut down and install your vid card. Boot up with your monitor still attached to the mobo VGA port. If you get to windows and you get a found new hardware box then it might be that your machine is posessed and anal retentive and wants the vid card drivers installed first (never heard of that happening either.) If you get nothing because your installed video card overrides the VGA port on the mobo then someone else will have to help you because i'm tapped out.

 

[Cronith]

power supply is something called power tek (it came with the case).

i have the square power thing plugged in but the installation manual for the vid card doesnt say anything about one for it. is there one? i see a 4 pin thing like what is on the 3.5 floppy drive. is that it?

 

[mechBgon]

Cronith, I think that's what the 4-pin plug is for there. Please double-check in the manual and make sure, though. I had Radeon 9800 on the brain for some reason, they use a larger 4-pin plug like a hard drive or CD-ROM drive takes.

The brand of your power supply is unknown to me and makes me think "generic," which usually means "overrated." If you can't get it running, try the power supply from your other computer, since you know that one got it to work. If it works with the other power supply, I'd recommend an Enermax, Antec or Sparkle Power in the 350W+ range. Good luck!

 

[Cronith]

also there is no vga port on my motherboard. any suggestions on how to fix this problem are very much appriciated cause i need to figure out how to fix this and have everything installed by tomorrow night.

 

[Cronith]

the manual says nothing about anything on the card.

 

[mechBgon]

Ok, I'm checking into that. In the meantime, you want to try the other power supply? Or try to power your working system with the new 500W power supply and see if it works.

 

[mechBgon]

Hey, before we go any further, try this: shut the system off, begin holding down the Insert key on the keyboard, and keep holding it down. Power up the system while continuing to hold the Insert key, and see if it eventually comes up on the screen.

I mention this because some Soyo motherboards refuse to POST if they don't see an RPM signal on their CPUFAN1 header. This is Soyo's "Fan-Off Control" feature. I don't see it mentioned in the manual, so that's just a long shot.

 

[Cronith]

k ill try it now and see what i get. the psu in the old comp is only a 250 watt so is too low for the new mobo that asks for at least 350 watt.

 

[Cronith]

it didnt work. i dont think anything is wrong with the power supply because all the fans come on, leds com on, even the fan on the vid card runs.

 

[Cronith]

im about to take some pictures of the new comp and post them so people can tell me if i did anything wrong. can anyone tell me how to post them when i have them?

 

[DSE]

I have the same video card, AIW 8500DV, you HAVE to plug in the auxillary power. Same thing as a floppy power cable. If you don't have an extra one from the power supply, ATI provided you with an adapter that can plug into a regular (hdd) power plug and give you a floppy plug and a hdd plug. Also, try using just one RAM stick instead of both, it might also be a dual channel timing issue...er...that's not a dual channel board, then it might be a bad memory socket or bad ram. Try one memory in each socket, then the other memory in each socket.

 

[jepatbentley]

I helped a friend build a computer a while back with the exact same video card and the exact same problem. The computer turned on fine the first couple times we tried it, and then wouldn't turn on again. Once we plugged the video card into the power all was well. Beyond that, try running your system with just the video card hooked up to see if it starts. If it works, put one peripheral in at a time and keep checking. I know it sounds like a pain, but if it's something other than your video card this is a good way to find out.

 

[Cronith]

ok here is what ive done recently:

aux power plugged in = no change

only moniter and power cord plugged into back = no change

1 stick of ram = no change

also i remember that the first time i turned it on and it worked i was also able to turn it off using the front power button. now, when i turn it on i have to turn it off by flipping the power switch on the psu in the back.

any more suggestions?

and i have pictures if anyone could tell me how to post them.