Power supply or MB?

I am currently building a system and i am having a few strange issues. I think the problem will either be the power supply or the motherboard but i am not sure. I currently only have the MB, RAM, CPU, and power supply connected. I am getting no video through either the onboard DVI or VGA connections. I have tested with 2 different monitors and 2 different DVI and VGA connectors. The system powers on, i hear the post beep, and the fans spin up and stay on. But nothing comes through on screen.

I also tried connecting the IDE optical drive after this inital problem thinking that maybe the chipset drivers need to be installed to get the onboard video to work. When the optical drive is connected to both the power and the motherboard, the optical drive does not light or spin up, but the system still gets the post beep, the MB light comes on, and all fans spin. When i disconnect the cable from the optical drive to the motherboard leaving just the power cable connected, the drive does light and spin up.

Any ideas?

System specs:
Intel DG33TL board
Intel Q6600 Core 2 Quad CPU
two 1GB DDR 800 RAM sticks (both tested and known good)
Spire 420 Watt PSU
Samsung DL-DVD-RW drive
500GB Seagate HDD

 

I'd say it's because you've got some Intel junk, but that's just what I'd say. You have a dedicated video card you can try? I'd think it was the RAM, but you did get a post beep so it shouldn't be that. Because there's no way it could be the powersupply with that small of a load, it would have to be the MoBo.

 

Thats what i was afraid of, just wanted a second opinion. i installed a GeForce 8600GT 512MB card that also have DVI and VGA and the same thing happened. I also tried building it out of the case to see if contact may be the issue and the problem persisted. I think its time to exchange the MB.

 

Although your ram is 'tested' is is correct for your system?
Are there any auxiliary graphics power connectors you have missed?
Does the graphics board have a fan and is it also running?

If your graphics board is working and powered it should produce a sync signal to the monitor, even without generating a picture. The monitor reacts changing the colour or flashing the indicator light. Some remove the 'no sync' notice. If there is no reaction from your monior at power up I would look very closely at the graphics card/ connection to it.

 

The RAM is compatible. The board needs DDR 800 (PC6400 RAM). i bought the RAM through Crucial.com and tested it in another machine with the same RAM specs. The video card does not require its own power as confirmed in the users manual and the lack of a 6-pin PCIe power connector port on the card itself. The Video card does have a fan and it spins up fine. I have the same problems running either monitor to either the onboard DVI or VGA or the GeForce 8600GT DVI or VGA. The monitor does not produce the "no signal" message when any of the various connection methods are used. If i leave the monitor unplugged from the computer and just plug in the monitor power, i get a green light at the power button and "no signal" on screen. The second i plug either monitor to any of the four possible connections, the message on screen goes away and the green light turns amber.

 

Please confirm that you have installed the memory in the blue sockets as per pages 36/7 of the manual
and
The both power supply cables as per page 55 of the manual.

Have you any way of testing the processor?

 

Yes. The memory was installed in the correct blue sockets. I first tried a 1GB stick in each blue slot. When that did not work, i removed a stick and powered on again, leaving just a 1GB stick in the primary blue slot. Since that did not work either, i switched out that stick with the other to test if i had a bad RAM stick. the other stick in the primary blue slot produced the same problem. I tried removing all the RAM to see if they were being recognized. When there is no RAM installed and the unit is powered on, i got the 3 beeps indicating no RAM found. When any of the RAM was installed in any format, i get the standard one beep at post.

Yes, both the 24 pin and 4 pin connectors were firmly locked in place.

I do not have a way of testing the CPU.

I am a L1 tech (i know, i'm still a nubie), so i know the basics, everything is connected correctly and everything but the MB, CPU, and power supply are working. the important details here are:
(1.)that there is no video through either VGA or DVI output on the MB, and there is no video through the VGA or DVI output on the PCIe GeForce 8600GT.
(2.)When the optical drive is connected to both the power supply and MB, it does not light up, spin, and the tray will not open. When the optical drive is only connected to the power supply, it works fine. Spins, lights, and the tray opens.

I am basically trying to find out if i should set up an RMA for the MB or CPU first to save time. If it sounds like the problem is just the power supply, i will buy a new one.

Any ideas specifically related to items 1 and 2 listed above.

 

I would also say the board on that but I would reset the bios on the board first to see if that helps. I've recieved a board before where I've had to do that to for it to post properly the first time. And at creative ballance no need to flame at intel they arent junk and has no relevance to his issues.

 

No I don't suspect the power supply.

If the mobo and processor came from the same source send them both back together.

Unless you have a post test card you can't indicate processor activity or not but new processors are more likely to be working than new mobos.

I am not casting any doubts on your skills, just trying to help and check, check and recheck, so take the processor out check all the pins, make sure there is no grit in the socket, reseat the processor and try once more.

If it is still no go send the mobo back first.

 

Also just throwing this in there some boards have problems booting up with ram that requires a higher voltage and the bios does not provide a high enough voltage. For me most of my PSUs that died, they died under stress, not at start up. Usually I would get a restart when working it hard( encoding and things like that). But if you are not getting video through the on-board video, and you have the 8600gt not hookked up, i would try to reset the bios. if that does not work i would say a bad mobo. there is no reason why you would not get video from on-board, if everything is setup right.