New PC build, Dead PC build???

littlejimmy · Jun 21, 2008

Hi All,

Not the best way to start life on a new forum maybe, but for someone who has bookmarked Major Geeks on dozens of people's PC's over the years, I finally find myself with a problem of my own.

After 12 months in the wilderness with no PC to speak of, I have finally got around to building a new one and after weeks of browsing hardware reviews and pricelists I eventually ended up with this:

Asus P5Q Pro motherboard
Intel E8400 Dual Core
Club 3D HD8650 Graphics *
4 Gb A-Data PC8500 DDRII
Hi-Power 1000W PSU
DVD, Floppy and SATA HDD's

All in an amazing Thermaltake Armor+ case (The Graphics card is a temp until the new 4800 series become available)

Everything has gone together and looking good until the moment of truth. Power On and............not a lot, all the fans start to turn for a split second and then nothing.

I am going to rip it all to bits later and start again, but as I don't have any spare parts to swap out with, I am looking for a bit of advice as to what is likely to be main culprit if anything is DoA

TIA

Jim

DavidGP · Jun 21, 2008

Hi Jim

Start with reseting CMOS, pop out the BIOS battery from the motherboard for 5mins or so then pop pack and power up, enter the bios and check all settings, date/time etc

Do you get any beeps? if so what type of tune, bios beeps are in patterns and can tell you what area is affected.

Also if your Ram is multiple sticks pop all out bar one or two to test with 2GB ram as in some motherboards you may need a Bios update to allow not only the newer CPUs to be recognised but also 4GB ram, so check mobo maker for a Bios update that highlights/fixes compatability with your CPU and Ram

Double check all cables and make sure you have the secondary 12v CPU Power cable plugged in and also some GFX cards need a seperate power connection, this can be in some cases 1 or 2 power cables, so check GFX Cards instructions.

Go back to basics and only install bare bones like if multiple HDs only install one, half the ram, one CD?DVD Drive etc

littlejimmy · Jun 21, 2008

Ah, a modicum of success

I stripped everything out and started again, taking it one step at a time.

Processor, cleaned, reseated and new thermal paste
Checked Heatsink fan installed correctly
Powered on OK

Inserted Graphics card - OK

Memory - OK

Reinstalled Motherboard - OK

DVD / Floppy - OK

3 out of 4 HDD'S OK, 1 duff (fortunately not the Boot disk)

So now the systems starts, all fans running......but no beeps, no POST and unable to get into BIOS. The monitor is getting a signal from the Graphics card and has automatically switched to DVI input.

I'll try clearing the CMOS and see if it makes any difference

akhilles · Jun 21, 2008

Try each stick of ram in each of the slots, once the pc posts, go to bios, load defaults, up vdimm to 2.1v, save & exit.

littlejimmy · Jun 21, 2008

What a day.....followed Halo's advice and cleared the CMOS (3 times in all) and eventually got the system to boot......sort of. Decided it didn't like the boot disk anymore so fun and games re-installing XP so I can now install Vista.

A lot of messing around, but got there in the end and many thanks for the assistance

Jim

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