Can't find the problem

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xenophek

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I'm upgrading an older pc to a new dual core setup, but I can't figure out what's wrong with it. When I turn it on, I get no video. The CPU power is plugged in, motherboard power is plugged in, everything is as it should be. I got nothing. So, I tried a different motherboard. Same scenario. No video. I RMA'd the CPU and I got the new one in, still nothing. I moved the RAM to the other slot, nothing. I unplugged all peripherals, nothing.

What on earth am I doing wrong? I even tried putting this thing in a new case. BTW, I already tried clearing the CMOS.
 
Couple of things to ask:

1. Does it POST normally? (Any errors or warnings?)
2. Does the monitor go active? (check the status light. Usually three colors, "Off", "Amber", and "Green". What color do you see? Does it flash or stay constant?)
3. You swapped everything else out...but did you swap monitors?
4. Have you tried a different video cable?
 
all of the above, except post. I don't have a case speaker to use for the beeps. However, two different monitors known to work, cables that are known to work, etc. It's not a cheap motherboard either. It's a Biostar. The other is a ECS, but neither worked.
 
Are you meeting and or above the required power for the video card and MB + all the other hardware inside? What I am saying is your power supply might be too low to push the power needed for everything. Just a thought. Try a different power cord, some cords and become dead lines.

Find a better video card, the one you have could be defective. You never stated you swaped out videocards.
 
I found a case speaker. POST gives me no beeps.

The power supply is a 400w psu
 
I dunno, 400W is kinda low for a newer computer... even without a video card I would say that may be your problem, do you have another PSU handy that you can try out? like, maybe a 600W?

By the way, do any of your fans spin at all? or does absolutely nothing happens. I have had times where the fans spin up and things get powered, but it doesnt POST and i get no video.

If you are getting absolutely nothing at all, then I would say to check that the little switch in the back of the power supply (if it has one) is in the on position or check to make sure that the power button is connected properly to the motherboard. There are even two pins on the main power supply connector that you can short to find out if the PSU works at all... google it, but dont try it unless you know what you are doing.
 
Mustachio said:
I dunno, 400W is kinda low for a newer computer... even without a video card I would say that may be your problem, do you have another PSU handy that you can try out? like, maybe a 600W?

By the way, do any of your fans spin at all? or does absolutely nothing happens. I have had times where the fans spin up and things get powered, but it doesnt POST and i get no video.

If you are getting absolutely nothing at all, then I would say to check that the little switch in the back of the power supply (if it has one) is in the on position or check to make sure that the power button is connected properly to the motherboard. There are even two pins on the main power supply connector that you can short to find out if the PSU works at all... google it, but dont try it unless you know what you are doing.
Click to expand...

The case fans work. Found out that one of them is dead, but they get juice. My wonderful Corsair 500w psu is 2 hrs away right now. Sad.

Anyway, the power supply works. I've crossed the pins before.
 
Only thing left I can think of is RAM then. I had the same problem when I built my new PC. The fans powered on, everything started up, but no POST, no video.

The RAM was supposed to be compatible with the motherboard, but for whatever reason, it wasnt. I had a friend who let me try his out and it worked just fine. If you have other ram you can pop in, thats supposed to be compatible, try it. The only thing left I can think of is to try every component one by one until you find the culprit.

And if you have a video card handy, pop it in there in the off chance the onboard video doesnt work either.
 
If you have any other computers to test components in, that couldnt hurt so you can at least narrow it down. For a dual core cpu and new graphics card you will need 550w minimum to be safe, ya 500w will probably just meet the requirements. Imo when it comes to psu's its better to be 50-100 watts over.
 
If it would be ram he would get a steady BEEEEEEEP since he found the speaker.. imo it sounds like a death motherboard since you arent getting any activity anywhere
 
Zergspower said:
If it would be ram he would get a steady BEEEEEEEP since he found the speaker.. imo it sounds like a death motherboard since you arent getting any activity anywhere
Click to expand...

You are correct, sort of. I'm classifying it as dead.

The bugger has a bad habit of eating 1 gig sticks of RAM. I found this out because I accidentally touched the heat spreader (almost five minutes after I unplugged it) and I got a blister. HOT!

However, it only eats 1 gig sticks. Half a gig works fine. But that's unacceptable. I fried 2 gigs of RAM before I figured the problem out.

Does anybody have a creative way to destroy a motherboard? The maid threw the box away, so I can't return it...
 
Zergspower said:
If it would be ram he would get a steady BEEEEEEEP since he found the speaker.. imo it sounds like a death motherboard since you arent getting any activity anywhere
Click to expand...

Not necessarily... I had 1066 RAM, which didnt work with my motherboard, no beeps, nothing. The ram probably wasnt bad, just didnt work with my motherboard.

So it may be incompatibility, not necessarily broken components.

But it also may be a broken motherboard.... although I wouldnt destroy it until you have swapped in components you know are working and are 100% positive it is broken.
 
Mustachio is right...there is a chance that the RAM is dead and you're not getting any beeps. I've seen it happen before, and I've seen it cause video problems.

The hard part with the RAM at this point is you don't know for sure if it's the RAM itself, or the slots. It could be that the motherboard is bad (as you've been saying). Sounds like you've just recently replaced the motherboard, though.

The RAM is the easiest thing to check at this point, so I'd try that first. If you have another computer lying around, plug the RAM into that machine and use memtest86 to see if it's good or not. Or you could drop some new RAM into your current board and see if it works. The only worrisome part of doing that is if it's bad RAM slots then you run the risk of borking another set of RAM.
 
Mustachio and trykael,

It fried two different brands of RAM. Kingston and Wintec. If it is DDR2 800 incompatible, then it's a dead board to me.
 
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