Oi and OUCH! any computer gurus??

[Nate Owens]

As posted elsewhere in this forum, I have finally gotten together all the parts and pieces for my new system (listed below).

A few years back I built a few systems, and my wife was a network and help desk and computer-fixer for a chain of banks (but that was in the '90's).

Frankly, I have hit a glitch that I'm working out, and at the moment I'm at an impasse... (NOW - Don't laugh at the poor deranged artist )

I didn't get to the point of installing an OS (black monitor on startup) or seeing the cmos or whatever comes up on a monitor even if you don't have an os or hard drive installed (it would at least say no startup disc inserted).

All the drives, fans, and little leds fire up fine, all that.
Nada on the monitor when I fire up... not even cmos. The graphic card and monitor were borrowed from the computer I'm working with now... they are alive and well. I'm trying disconnecting one item at a time to see if there is a bad egg in the mix, and looking at all the info on dimms compatibility, chip and etc... (how do you tell if a mama board or chip is wacky?

Any ideas links to resources would be appreciated.

Yes, I can take it to an "expert"... I live out in the boonies and the "experts" for this kind of system are few and far in these parts... besides usually the first thing they want to do is try to unload their inventory of parts on you by telling you that everything is bad... kind of like used car salesmen. The other thing is I sort of whacked my budget on this.

Thanks... help... aaarrrgghh... be nice, now...

The System

POWER:
C283-1854 :: CoolerMaster Real Power Pro 650-Watt Power Supply - SLI,
SATA-Ready, 120mm Fan, Active PFC

GRAPHICS:
Radeon graphics card from current system = Radeon 1600, 512MB, pcie

RAM:
MICSYS 2 sticks of 2GB DDR2 Ram PC2-6400 240 pin DIMM Major/3D

MOBO:
A455-2364 :: Asus Maximus Formula Special Edition Motherboard - 45nm
Support, Intel X38, Socket 775, ATX, Audio, CrossFire Ready, PCI Express 2.0
Dual Gigabit LAN, S/PDIF, USB 2.0, Firewire, Serial ATA, RAID

CHIP:
CP2-DUO-Q6600 :: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Processor HH80562PH0568M -
2.40GHz, 8MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB, Kentsfield, Quad-Core, OEM, Socket
775, Processor

FAN:
Thermaltake Silent 775D Socket 775, Copper Heatpipes

HD:
150 Gig Western Digital Raptor 10K rpm SATA - not in raid config (will add others later not raid)

BOX:
C283-1170 :: CoolerMaster Cosmos 1000 ATX Full-Tower Case
(This case is full of fans... yes, I have all of them hooked to MoBo, including the cpu fan)

[Piem]

I'm far from an expert.

ATI drivers sucks. (youth sentence..heard a thousand times everywhere on the net)
I would put twice ram. (If you use xp64 or vista..vista is a HUGE ram consumer, alas).

[Nate Owens]

Thanks.
Like the avatar... some kinda mouse.

I should add that on building this computer I didn't get to the point of installing an OS (black monitor on startup) or seeing the cmos or whatever comes up on a monitor even if you don't have an os or hard drive installed (it would at least say no startup disc inserted).

I have not had your experience with the ATI - ZBrush, Carrara, Hexagon 2.2, Cinema 4d, Rhino, Photoshop, and a host of other programs run fine. My Hex has always ran no problems when the forums were full of folks screamin' about card issues.

What is your card of preference (I'm betting on GeForce?) What issues have you had with ATI?

[Pete Exxtreme]

in simple english words (for me )you mean that you've setup all the spare parts, and that when you switch on the monster, nothing happens ? Even no messages off any kind on the screen? Does all the fans connected to the mobo run ?

[-ash-]

Hi, Nate,

I'm not a hardware whizz but a few things spring to mind. You've probably already tried these but:

Is everything plugged in in the right place?
Do you get any beeps when starting up? If yes have you looked in the motherboard documentation for what the beeps mean? Might give a clue to what is happening.
If the monitor and card work on a different PC is the cable the same? Try different cables if you can.
Is the monitor set to the right input? I thought mine had gone once but I had plugged the cable into input 2 by mistake

That's all I can think of. It's a real bummer when this happens. Hope you get it fixed soon.

[jones2000u]

Don't know anything about PCs, Nate, but have you tried putting in a HD with a system on it that you know works? I keep a spare one in an external firewire box with Mac OS and basic utilities for the "dead Mac needs a gentle cure with a 9lb hammer" event.

Another (tedious) approach is to stuff all the bits into the system you're using at the mo until it stops working. Sort of stuffing it til it bursts. That might isolate what isn't working - and then see if the new box works without all the extra goodies.

Good luck!

[rickei]

did you plug it in?

actually have you checked the clock battery? It may be "unseated" or dead, or missing that will cause a blank screen.

[Nate Owens]

Originally Posted by Pete Exxtreme

in simple english words (for me )you mean that you've setup all the spare parts, and that when you switch on the monster, nothing happens ? Even no messages off any kind on the screen? Does all the fans connected to the mobo run ?

Thanks...

• Fans run
• HD runs
• leds on moboard light up
• monitor is dark
• this box has no speaker (strange - it is a high-end box), there is an add on sound card, so if that is working, I suppose I would hear a beep, but no beeps so far. It's been years since I built a system, but I thought they all had an on-board speaker. Maybe I'm an idiot and I have to add that on, but the systems I built in the past had one stuck to the case.... hmmmm

[Nate Owens]

Originally Posted by rickei

did you plug it in?

actually have you checked the clock battery? It may be "unseated" or dead, or missing that will cause a blank screen.

I see you have my number, there, Rickei... but this time I did turn it on and plug it in. I will have to look into the battery thing... that's a new one on me (I know they have batteries, but I thought you could get to cmos on nothing, including no hd, no dimms, etc... at least it would light up and say no boot disk..) well I broke away from it for a day or so to do other stuff... I had enough smarts to keep my old sys going.

Well, I'm going to try everything.

I noticed (after getting my dimms) that Asus Motherboard has a list of approved vendors for the dimms. The specs on what I have are exactly as called for... but maybe who makes it makes some sort of difference... would rather replace dimms than the cpu or mobo.

[Nate Owens]

Forgot to add my hd... (will add more later)

HD: 150 Gig Western Digital Raptor 10K (will add others later)

[Pete Exxtreme]

Your mobo supports your RAM i've seen also. BTW as you ave 2 PCIe slot for crossfire, did you plug your graphic card into the other PCIe slot to give it a try ?

For the box case i have the same than you (and an Asus Mobo ) and it doesn't make a sound (beep) at startup

[Nate Owens]

Hi, Pete...

How do you identify problems or test POST if the system makes no beeps at startup???

++++++ EDIT ++++++ EDIT ++++++++

Someone at another forum pointed this out... I missed the speaker connects.. duhhh...



++++++ EDIT ++++++ EDIT ++++++++

I did try both slots with my graphic card. I do not have a crossfire, but am using an ATI card.. it is pcie and I've put it in both slots. What exactly is crossfire, and does that mean this mobo can only use a crossfire card. The card does great in my current system with all sorts of open gl apps - no problems.

I am printing out all the stuff you guys are suggesting and this weekend will tackle this with fresh eyes - starting with hookup sequences, ram and the least costly fixes first.

BTW - the hd is a sata but not in a raid config... it is my single (boot) drive at the moment. I tried it in all the sata slots.

Thanks and if you think of other ideas, please share. I need all the help I can get on this.

[are]

might be worth resetting the motherboard - normally there is a jumper next to the onboard battery ? (read the book - often you need to unplug mains and battery first or you can fry things !!!!)
ram chips might need to be in slots 1 and 3 rather than 1 and 2 (assuming you are sticking in two slots) - some m/b can be a bit particular.
is there an onboard video - can you get anything from it using that ?


is there mention in the book about beeps - "one long and two short for no ram" for example ?

sacrifice a small furry critter to your favourite deity.
swear at it a lot (the computer not the deity - or we could be back to frying things again ).

good luck !

[Nate Owens]

@ are... thank you

There is a reset cmos, and yes there is a list of beeps, but until I discovered the hidden place to connect a speaker, I would hear nothing. Haven't fired up again - will over the weekend.

[Pete Exxtreme]

another stupid question : does your keyboard is connected at the boot ? PC BIOS does not like it when it's missing....
If so try to unplug/re-plug everything (cables/power etc..)

Anyhow you really should find a speaker as your mobo beeps could help to find where the issue is....

[Nate Owens]

Pete...

I now have a speaker attached... having discovered the diagram in the post above showing where to connect it.

I have everything connected at boot... drive, keyboard, monitor, sound card, graphic card and 2 sticks of 2 gig ram... so I guess the thing to do is (based on whatever beeps I hear or don't at next start up) would be to start pulling components to see if one is a problem...

As you said, I think I will take the entire thing down (except pulling the mobo) and rehook it all.. maybe if something isn't right that will do the job.. if not, on to plan b.

[achrystie]

Originally Posted by Nate Owens

Pete...

I now have a speaker attached... having discovered the diagram in the post above showing where to connect it.

I have everything connected at boot... drive, keyboard, monitor, sound card, graphic card and 2 sticks of 2 gig ram... so I guess the thing to do is (based on whatever beeps I hear or don't at next start up) would be to start pulling components to see if one is a problem...

As you said, I think I will take the entire thing down (except pulling the mobo) and rehook it all.. maybe if something isn't right that will do the job.. if not, on to plan b.

I build a lot of PC's for family and friends (myself too, but not recently, no disposable cash right now ;().
Anyway, I would suggest the following course of action, and, you are somewhat on the path I would suggest already.
1) Remove every card, reinstall only the bare essentials, including installing only one of the two RAM chips. Make sure you use the correct slot for single RAM, and if you end up putting the two back in, make sure you are using the right RAM slots for "dual channel", if that is what you're doing. Sometimes boards will only take dual channel memory on two specific slots.
2) Try to get the thing to post.
3) If it doesn't, switch RAM chips.
4) Try to boot/post again.
5) Ensure that the video card is in tight and not misaligned. I generally suggest putting the video card in "without" screwing it to the case at first. I've found that you can get it in correctly without screwing it into the case, but sometimes when screwed down it will sometimes "skew" the card in a way that messes up the connections. Although, this problem typically causes constant beeping, rather than just a blank screen, but it can go both ways.
6) If you have another video card in another machine, that will work on your board, try installing that board to rule out the video card.
7) If at that point it still won't load the BIOS and show up on the monitor, try clearing the CMOS again. If that doesn't work, it could be the motherboard is bad.

In general, if you "do" get the BIOS to show up on video, make sure you download memtest86 and make a boot CD on your other PC.
http://www.memtest86.com/
Test the memory with both sticks in place. Also, make sure that all the potential "sharing" of memory is turned off in the BIOS, if it has this feature, otherwise it will crash memtest86.
I also typically go into the BIOS and disable anything I know I'm not going to use, such as the IRQ's that are assigned to the parallel port (unless you have a parallel port printer), as well as the serial port (unless you use this for something). I find PC's run a LOT better when ample IRQ's are available for components as Windows sharing is still "iffy" even to this day. If you have an external sound card, make sure you disable the onboard sound in the BIOS as well, this will free another IRQ.

I'll try to think of some other options.
Good luck.
ABC

[achrystie]

More thoughts.

Make sure you have a keyboard and mouse plugged in properly, and, preferably, place the mouse in the PS/2 port if you can, at least to start.

Sometimes the BIOS will look "early", prior to video initialization, for the input devices, and get hung up. If the factory default is to "not" allow for USB mouse support, it may need a PS/2 mouse to boot properly the first time, until you change the settings (hopefully ).
It looks as if it only supports USB keyboards, so in that regard, you're kind of stuck. Which also leads me to say the USB mouse should work too, but then again, stranger things have happened.

Also, make sure you have both power connections attached to the motherboard. One in the upper left of your board behind the PS/2 and top USB ports, the other is to the right of the RAM slots.

There may also be an SATA power cable, make sure that is plugged in as well. I didn't see it in the small pictures I've found, but it may have one.

I'd also recommend "not" plugging in the IDE or SATA DVD/CD ROM drive, whatever you have, or the hard drive, and trying to "just" boot the BIOS.

ABC

[jones2000u]

Just a thought - is there a test on PC that you can do to see if the motherboard is functioning? If there are no startup beeps... should make some sort of noise even if something else is kaput...