Building new PC woes... [motherboard?] :?

Hey guys,

This could be a simple solution and I might just be overlooking something, but here's my situation:

I bought a pile of new parts off of NCIX for a new computer I am piecing together.

EGVA 8800GT gfx board
AMD 6400+
2gbx2 PC8500 Corsair ram kit
Seagate 300GB HD (reusing from my old PC)
Gigabyte MA78GM motherboard
DVD r/w
Antec III 500 case (500w P/S)

Now, I put it all together myself. It HAS been a while since I have done this, so it could be human error here... but I have looked it over with a few people and we can't figure out why it wont start up properly.

Basically, if I turn it on, the fans all light up and the computer starts to 'run'. The drives all seem to work, but my monitor wont load up anything on the screen. I hear no confirmation beeps that my computer is loading up, and I cant get a video signal. its DV by default, and I even removed my video card for now to remove that from the equation. EVen using onboard video, I can't get a signal. I tried an older monitor VGA signal and the same thing happened....

Any ideas of something I might be overlooking? Anyone running a similar setup? Could something be faulty? I don't know what is wrong. ;()

Thanks!

 

Do you have the 4 pin power plug on the mobo in? Also make sure the CMOS jumper is in the correct pins, 1 and 2 I think.

E

 

Yeah, I found that 4-pin this morning actually. ^^ Stupid oversight, but yeah, I got it.

I'll check the CMOS jumper right now.

 

I'll just clarify a few things to make this simpler to respond to.

-I did something dumb and did the motherboard installation on carpet... I was always grounding myself over and over again, but there is a chance I ended up bringing in some static... yes, it was dumb, so keep this as a factor.
-I have my graphic card unplugged for the time being, as I'll just get everything else loaded up and then worry about my graphics board.
-I can't see any visual indication the mobo is recieving power. There are no LED's anywhere, but this might be mobo design... maybe? Or am I possibly still missing power to the mobo somehow?

To summarize my problem; I have checked over my connections and hardware with a friend (he's Geeksquad, take it for what it is worth. ) and we can't find any problems. The computer starts up if power is pressed, and the fans kick into action, but that is all. No visual signal is ever transmitted, as I have tested both DVI and VGA on the motherboard's onboard video. It's stuck pre-post, it seems.

Any other thoughts? The help is much appreciated. <3 <3 <3

Ask if you need any more information.

 

try resetting cmos. I've gotten boards where that had to be done to boot. also you can try removing all peripherals except 1 ram stick and try to post.

 

Got this semi-working last night...

I removed the battery to reset the CMOS, then put it back in after 1 minute. On booting up, an error popped up, but I could still press DEL and access my BIOS. From there, I configured a bunch of my boot priority settings so it would load from my DVD-ROM and start with the XP installation process... but when I pressed 'Save and Exit', the monitor went black and I no longer got a signal.

I am at work now and can't exactly remember the error, but I am pretty sure it was a checksum error (detailed HERE)

Does anyone know what I might be missing or know what needs to be done? I am so very close to getting this up-and-running now. Thanks for the CMOS suggestions, guys!

Summary: I can get into my BIOS, but I can't get past POST and start the OS installation. I have an error that if I remember correctly, was 'checksum error!'. I lose video signal (and I assume computer functionality) as soon as I close down the BIOS with the new boot priority settings I save.

 

when you reset the bios like that, it will usually give you that checksum error stating that the bios has been reset, etc...Make sure you set the correct date/time also...and double check the RAM to be certain it's seated correctly, and also make sure the bios (if you can get back to it) is reporting the correct ram configuration. as stated above, you might want to start with 1 stick (if you have more) and then add the add'l later. also try booting without any drives, hdd or optical, connected.

 

I'll try this tonight when I get home from work; thanks for the feedback.

 

Ok, progress! \o/

After getting home, I reset my CMOS through battery removal. Upon booting up, I got to the 'checksum error!' that is brought up by resetting the CMOS, and I was given a list of choices as usual. Instead of pressing DEL to load the BIOS, I pressed F1, which was 'Continue Boot'. I wasn't sure if that would work since I haven't fixed my boot priority in my BIOS yet, but I tried it anyway and the computer loaded up ok.

I got it to boot from DVD-ROM and it started the Windows XP installation. At the end of the installation, it asked me to restart to finish installation. I pressed enter to restart, and it did the same weird idling thing. The fans were all working, but I lost my monitor video signal, and it just kind of 'froze'. It almost seems like it is just sleeping, but I don't know what would cause it.

Anyway, I turned it off manually, and upon reboot? It gave me that weird sleeping state again. So, I took out the battery again and reset the CMOS, then fired it back up. Booted it up, pressed F1 to continue loading, and the Windows installation continued where I left off. 30 minutes later, it restarted again... and left me in the same frozen/sleeping state.

After taking out the battery again to restart the CMOS, I booted it up and was able to load into XP. I set up the basics like my username and such, then realized it was 1:30am and had to go to sleep.

So I have a few questions...
-Any suggestions as to why my computer wont simply load up without rebooting the CMOS? As it currently stands, I can only get one 'run' out of my computer before having to restart the CMOS.
-Is it bad to keep resetting the CMOS like this?

Thanks!

 

I found a thread on NCIX about my board...

This seems to be my problem. I will try using 1 stick or RAM when I go home and see what happens. Apparently, some people have luck using just 1 stick, then altering the voltages in the BIOS. Plugging in the second stick works after that.

 

Update: I have my compter OS installed, along with all my system drivers and a bunch of games. :cool

Turns out my motherboard doesn't like my RAM by default. The BIOS has it set at 1.8v, but my RAM needs to run at 2.1v. I only am running 1 stick of 2GB right now, but when I go home I will change the BIOS voltage and add in my second stick for 4GB.

Thanks for the support!

 

you might want to look into that further...might have to play around with the latency settings as well..and also dual-channel/non dualchannel.