New system build won't boot?

Hi peeps, I'm building a new system and when I power up I get only that - power. The monitor doesn't start up, though power light is on, so I get nothing on the screen.

On the tower my power led is on and the switch works, reset switch does not, but light is on. Getting no beeps from sound, It sounds beautiful, quiet heat sink fan and PSU fans...getting power to DVD-RW/CD-RW drives and floppy but cant open them.

Don't know what I'm doing wrong. A few specs:

AMD Athlon 64 3000
Soltek Mobo for 754cpu
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128 MB - it's the only card plugged in. I don't have onboard graphics, so I'm kind of stuck.
520 PSU
1 Gig Corair XMS matched.

****This may a big hint. When I power up, I try to access my bios by hitting the appropriate key (DEL), but it won't let me in the BIOS.

Any help would be great....scratchin' my head.

Thanks, StratMan23

 

you might have tried this ... but reseat the video card, monitor cable etc ... what about contrast or brightness? are they set correctly?

EDIT:
who makes your PSU?

 

I did reseat the vid card and it is properly seated, constrast and stuff set right. Aspire made my PSU 520 watts. It's sweet - definitely not that.

Thanks, StratMan23

 

try just one stick of ram and switch it between sockets if need be. Could be bad stick of ram or bad socket on MOBO.

 

Do you have an external soundcard. If so you will need to disable onboard sound in BIOS before you can install it.


May be coincidence but I've had the exact same prob on two different socket 754 boards in the last two weeks

 

I should clarify, if this is the case then it won't even POST until you remove the external soundcard.

 

I had a problem with no picture on a new build that was caused by grounding of the motherboard. Might want to double-check your standoffs and reseat the MB. Best of luck!

 

Well, first of all congrats on building your own system (or at least trying to do so! )
Now, by saying you got power to the system, besides the LED lights in the front panel, what other items are powered on?
How about the CPU fan? Do you feel the HardDrive spinning (vibration is a good sign)?

I am confused! Reset switch doesn't work but the light is on? What light is that? Getting no beeps at all is NOT a good thing. Under normal operating conditions if the case speaker exists and its wires connected correctly you should get 1 beep after a few secs following the power-on action, indicating that the BIOS completed its Power On Self Test routine which would also confirm your CPU, RAM and Video is in good working condition. It doesn't even seem that you get that far in the process.

If the video card is the only one in the case, that is good and normal but as mentioned by others if any other cards exist (used or not), remove them. also on RAM, though it would give you fast rhythmic beeps, however since we can't be 100% certain that you did the wiring correctly for the case speaker or that you even have one, I will not assume that it could NOT be a RAM problem, so as suggested try starting the system with one RAM stick at a time (also try different slots).

Yes a big hint indeed. What kind of a keyboard is this? I hope it is not a wireless one. If it is wired make sure the keyboard itself is working and connected to the right port in the back. Disconnect any USB cables and other peripherals that you might have plugged in.
For the sake of troubleshooting the boot problem, you might also want to go to the bare-minimums to make sure your system can boot that way if at all before going any further.
Bare minimums for a successful POST:
1) Grounded Mobo
2) Power Supply
3) One stick of RAM
4) Video adapter
5) CPU and its heatsink/fan
6) Monitor
...and of course related cables for connecting any of this items. a PC case needs to be used since it provides the cables/switches for powering on, resetting and shutting down the mobo but HW techs would know how to short the appropriate pins on the mobo to do that without even a case.

 

I have the same problem. Everything seems to work great, but I have no video.
ECS KT600-A (no onboard video)
AMD Sempron 2400+
Ultra 512mb x 2
80gb SATA hitachi (wind xp home sp2)
Sony cdrw
rosewill radeon 9200

I need help!

 

Having an issue with the video card and/or the monitor wouldn't be the only 2 reasons for NOt having anything on display upon boot....in short 'everything' doesn't work as assumed. Please follow all the advise given on this thread as they all are valid possibilities and worth checking out. As you progress with the possibilities that are not to be the cause, re-post your progress so we can get a better idea and help you narrow in on the actual culprit...

 

Mobo is double checked, grounded and properly installed. Thanks, though.

Can't even get into BIOS, so this won't work. Only thing hooked up now is, CPU w. heatsink, Mobo ATX power, Video Card, Power Switch, Case Speaker (no USB header pins hooked up), keyboard, and monitor. Power works to everything, but that's all I'm getting.

I did this, it made no difference. Either stick, either slot. It's Corsair XMS matched DIMMS, but I'm not even able to POST. No beeps no nothing.

 

StratMan, with all the final info you'd given, here is my final $.02:
(given the fact that all wiring is done properly and the case switch works)
There are 2 possibilities for the problem, no others come to my mind that makes sense:
1) BAD mobo
2) BAD CPU

PS. I believe this was suggested but I am not sure if you had tried resettings BIOS in the most appropriate way fo your mobo? If that still yields no success then the 2 possibilities are it!

 

Check and make sure, that the hard drive is plugged into the primary IDE socket. Check and make sure that your processors FSB and the Motherboards are compatible. I've got a sixty-five dollar motherboard I can't return, and can't use because I don't have a 400Mhz processor to go with it.

 

Yes, this seems to be the last thing to try. Maybe some of the mobo's jumpers are set incorrectly? Check them and reset your bios, there should be a jumper for that. Of course, if it's possible to test your Radeon, mem and processor on a different board I advice you to do so. It's a pain, I know, but you're running out of choices here.

 

What do you mean? Mobos should be backward compatible... or did I miss your point?

 

This is where I began when I had trouble. Take the MB out of the case and place it on the box it came in. Plug in the power cords from the power supply, RAM, video card, and your keyboard and mouse. No need for the HDD just yet. You'll need the power switch and speaker connected and try to start the PC. Hopefully it'll start up with picture. This solved my problem of no display. I just had to make sure that I had those brass screws in the proper places and the rest is history.

Just start out small and eliminate as you go on. Problem is usually tiny, at least for me they have been.

 

My point was that sometimes the parts don't work together, despite your best efforts. And it should be compatible, but for some reason it isn't, go figure.

 

Guys, by throwing all these possibilities and things to check on, we could be confusing the person, also some of the important steps mentioned may end up gettings discarded inadvertantly due to the amount of info thrown at him by everyone. Let the person troubleshoot/check on a few things at one time at the most. Let's wait for him to re-post and update the issue before giving him more possibilities that could hinder others' efforts as well...

 

Hello again. I tried every suggestion on this thread and from other sites, nothing. I went and bought a new mobo (MSI KM400A), same problem. I finally got into the bios (I hadn't plugged in the 4pin cpu power cord, the ECS doesn't have that), but the system shut down right away. I tries the frequency jumpers in various arrangement but that only gave me less time powered up. Any ideas here?

 

If a mobo has a square shaped 12Volt 4-pin power connector then you have to connect that on top of the standard big, wide power connector. Other wise the system won't even boot.
Are you using the same CPU on both mobos? As I mentioned before the CPU could have been damaged, especially if you had ESD buildup and touched a critical component without discarging which would have instantly fry some or all of your components. Other common point of damaging the CPU is when placing the CPU heatsink/fan on it.

 

how is thathttp://forums.majorgeeks.com/images/smilies/confused.gif

 

By applying excessive amount of pressure or by placing the heatsink improperly while trying to get the security latch to close.

 

Well, I hope this post helps a bunch of people building there PC's. I found the problem............and I'm majorly embarrased of what it was. It was something simple and small: I forgot to plug in the 4 pin +12V square power connector to juice up the CPU.

I'm officially a moron. Thanks for all your help and pass it on to ALWAYS remember to plug in ALL of your power sources!!!

After I did that it POSTed fine and now I'm off and running.

Regards, StratMan23

 

Don't feel too bad, I bet many people makes that mistake. I commented on that in an earlier post, I even had that idea but I figured you would have not missed such a simple thing. The funny thing is it would definitely be explained in the mobo's manual but I doubt many people even read the manuals?

 

The ecs doesn't have that 4pin power connector. Any ideas for that? I bought a MSI KM400A mobo, that got me to the bios, now the system shuts off automatically after about 5 secs. Why? Any help please.

 

1) Overheating CPU: is there an appropriate heatsink/fan installed? Is it running?

2) Faulty BIOS settings: try resetting the BIOS first to see if any changes occur.

3) Faulty PSU but if the shutoff time is always right after boot (a few secs after boot), it should #1 or #2.

 

How do I reset the bios? Also, how would I know if the cpu is overheating? It doesn't feel hot. (This is my first solo PC build, so I'm ignorant on some stuff).

 

Figured it out. the heatsink was on backwards. D'oh!