no boot, no video, need help pls.

Hello, I'm not sure if this is the correct forum for this but from the ones I was able to choose from it seemed the best.
I recently upgraded my computer, I bought a Biostar TForce 4SLI Motherboard, AMD64 3200+ processor, and a MSI Geforce 7300GT 256MB PCI-E Video Card. I installed everything, made sure everything was hooked up and in securely, then proceded to plug in all the externals (mouse / keyboard / power supply / monitor, ect.) Upon powering the system up, all the LED's show everything is in working order and functioning properly, no beeps from the speaker though (not sure if the speaker is not working or if it just didnt make any sounds). But the system does not boot. I got no bio's on startup or anything. The monitor is not getting a signal from the system either, it keeps the yellow light (power saving mode, from not recieving a signal) I have run out of ideas.
The only conclusions I could come to were Motherboard , Video Card, or possibly Power supply (the motherboard is a 24pin and the powersupply is a 20pin, everyone I have talked to about this said it shoudl work anyway, but since I am having this problem I am still including power supply as a possible cause. I am going to take it to the local pc shop tomorrow to see if they can isolate the issue since they are better suited for this, as I do not have the extra parts to do so.) But until then I thought it would be a good idea to get everyone here's input. Please Help if u can, and thank you very much in advance.

 

I am guessing the problem stems from the power supply. You said that it is a 20 pin, and you require a 24 pin. I had this problem when I upgraded a few years ago, and the solution was to get a new power supply. Most new power supplies have a 20+4 pin configuration to allow for both 20 and 24 pin inputs.

If that doesn't solve it, make sure the video card is properly seated in the motherboard. Make sure the correct power connectors are connected to the video card. Make sure the monitor is correctly connected to the video card.

When you try to boot, do the system fans turn on?

If not, make sure the motherboard isn't being grounded by the case screws.

 

I have double checked to make sure the card is securely seated and it seems it is. I have also checked to make sure the monitor is connected correctly, it also seems to be. Yes when I try to boot all the fans come on, all the lights on the motherboard indicate that everyone is working properly (or at least thats what the book shows for the motherboard) I'll double check the screws to make sure they arent grounding the motherboard out.

 

How many sticks of RAM are installed? Check to be sure they are seated, and in the proper order.

 

I have checked that more than once lol. I have even taken all but one stick of ram out to see if maybe that would help... nope )

 

nvm lol ran outta ideas and i didnt have the stuff to "test" my theories (like an extra power supply with more W's and a 24pin connection) so I broke down and took it to the pc store down the street to have them test everything to isolate what my problem is.

 

I'm almost 99% certain it is the 24 pin PSU. Your motherboard requires the extra 4 pins to provide power to all of the secondary components, and it sounds like it can't do that with only 20 pins.

 

Thats correct, our hunches were right. But for some reason it seems like it's running really really slow for what i have. But the HD i am using was in the system before all the part upgrades so im formatting / reinstalling winxp, maybe that will speed things up. We'll see. But I know for an AMD64 3200+ with 1.5GB of ram, it should be loading up alot faster than what did (we'll see after the format / reinstall) cause before it literally took like 2-3 min to go from the bio's screen to the boot screen then another few min's to go from that to the "boot from cd" thing

 

Alright. If the problems continue, just post and we'll try to help.

 

NeRve -

I had a similar problem. I traced my problem to an extra 4 pin power plug that went from the PSU directly to the motherboard. I was going from a previous gen mobo and I had no idea some newer ones needed an extra power connection. Luckily my current power supply was up to the task.

I booted up, got some LED's, but no beeps, video, or otherwise. Boy did I panic. Reading your post, and subsequent post made me aware of something new - I had no idea there such varied requirements for power connections. I am now equipped with new knowledge which is great as I will be upgrading in a few months.

Good luck with getting your boot problems fixed. I have a similar rig as yours, exact specs are in my sig. For reference, I go from boot to XP in less than a minute.

 

I tried to go back and add the following to my but could not. Here is another thought:


Oh yeah, you might want to run some benchmarks even thought your boot sequence is slow. It might be that the rig runs fine once things get started. That might narrow down some of your troubleshooting.

Good Luck!