First build trouble, figuring out whats wrong.

[Dismandia]

Hi,
I've been investigating computer building for the past year and so I finally saved up the money to build my first computer (nothing special) which consists of the following:

Antec Nine Hundred Case
Gigabyte N650SLI-DS4 Motherboard
Intel Celeron D 2.66 Ghz Socket 775 CPU
Corsair XMS2 2 x 1 Gigabyte DDR2 RAM
Western Digital Caviar SE 800 80 Gigabyte SATA HDD
XFX nVidia GeForce 8400 GS GFX Card
Goliath ATX 650W PSU
plus an old Floppy and DVD-ROM Drive from an old system I bought.

The problem I have is, after carefully following the instructions of each component for its installation and connecting up every piece so that it will all work correctly, I turned on the computer (linked to an old CRT monitor) and it went to a screen that said something about loading up from hard drive, then from floppy; scanning it or something. So I turned the computer off and prepared myself to enter the BIOS on a reboot but that time the screen didn't show anything. Also, when I start up the computer, I don't get anything like the Gigabyte screen or options to enter BIOS or setup, etc. All I get (on the occasions that it actually shows anything on the screen) is the message about loading from hdd and then floppy.

A friend then came round and tried to help me with it. He turned on the computer and I pressed esc repeatedly and on most occasions the screen actually turned on which was a plus, and it actually gave the options at the bottom to enter BIOS and the rest of it - it said something about the cpu at the top, recognizing the model and what not - but then the keyboard doesn't work, I press delete to try and enter BIOS and its as if it has frozen.

Can anyone help me out with possible solutions, obviously this is quite worrying for me having spent all the money I have saved on this computers parts.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and I hope this can all be sorted out and that I can learn to build computers successfully.

Regards,

Failing computer builder.

 

[mattyrigby00]

try a ps/2 keyboard

 

[Dismandia]

try a ps/2 keyboard

Hi, thanks for your suggestion but I am already using a ps/2 keyboard and kmouse and still its not working.

 

[Cupra]

try a bios reset take out everything other than ram cpu and gpu but only keep 1 stick of ram in then see if it boots then add 1 peice of hardware at a time if its booting

 

[Dismandia]

I'm beginning to think that it may be the power supply since most of the time the screen stays in power saver mode until a few keys are pressed on the keyboard to wake it up and make it respond. Then it goes to Gigabyte motherboard screen before freezing up again.

 

[uvarvu]

I've had similar problems with my last two computers, both have been on the same RAM. The BIOS isn't reading the memory timings properly and sets the wrong values. I have to be as quick as I can with setting the timings otherwise the BIOS won't POST. Once the timings are set everything is fine - weird eh?

 

[Dismandia]

I've had similar problems with my last two computers, both have been on the same RAM. The BIOS isn't reading the memory timings properly and sets the wrong values. I have to be as quick as I can with setting the timings otherwise the BIOS won't POST. Once the timings are set everything is fine - weird eh?

Hi, this sounds like it could possibly be my answer but I have no clue about setting timings, getting into the BIOS on the occasion that the computer starts up is still prooving impossible.

Is there a method you can recommend for starting up the computer and making it to BIOS without the freezing or simple lack of response from the monitor?