Help! New build displays no image!

FrankDaTank

FrankDaTank

FrankDaTank

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Joined
17 Feb 2010
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236
Location
Newry
Hi I built a PC for the first time today and it wont boot. Pretty sure i have everything in the right place but i cannot see an image when i first start it.

My build is listed below, any help would be appreciated!

Motherboard:
Asus M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 AMD 890GX

CPU:
AMD Phenom II x4 Quad 955 Black Edition (AM3)

RAM:
OCZ Low Voltage 2x2GB DDR3 Dual Channel PC3-12800C9 1600Mhz

Graphics:
ATI HD 5770 Vapor-x

Optical Drive:
Sony optiarc AD-72415

Cooling:
Arctic Cooling freezer 7 PRO REV 2

Case:
Thermaltake VL10001 Element G

PSU:
OCZ ModxStream 600w
8-pin PSU extension cable 25cm

Hard Drive:
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB
 
Mind if I ask a couple of quick questions? - this should cover a few of the main reasons new builds don't work first time:

- Do you hear any sound (maybe fans spinning) when you press the power button?

- Are you certain the front panel connectors (mainly power and reset switches) are installed properly as per the manual?

- Did you install the motherboard on stand-offs, so the underside of the motherboard is shorted by the metal case?

- Are both motherboard power connectors installed? There should be a 24pin (on the right side) and a 4/8 pin (near the CPU).

- Have you installed the 6 pin PCIe power connection from the PSU to the graphics card?

- Is the display cable connected to the graphics card, not the motherboard?

- Are the RAM sticks in the correct slots? (your motherboard manual will tell you which to use when only using 2 sticks)

- Is the graphics card installed in the 1st PCIe x16 slot?
 
you done all the usual checks, brass stand offs fitted, all cables especially the motherboard power cables? does anything happen at all when you attempt to turn your new build on? e.g lights on mobo fans spinning etc?
 
does the case have a speaker of any kind, and is it plugged into the correct place on the motherboard ?

do you hear any beeps at all when you turn it on ?

the beeping usually gives a signal to whats wrong, assuming you have a speaker of course.

the it remain powered up, ie all the fans continue to run ?
and are there any lights on the motherboard, usually at the very least theres a light for the memory.

first thin i would suggest would be to reseat both the gpu and memory and try again.

also do you have both power conenctors plugged into the motherboard as well so its getting enough power, and do you have the pci-e connectors in the gpu ?
 
your case might have come with a speaker. if so attach it to the mobo. Remove eveything apart from the cpu. turn on the pc. you should hear some beeps then go from there
 
Hi guys thanks for your quick responses. I will try to answer all questions. I have done all the usual checks. LED on mobo is green. The rig stays powered on but the power light on top is Orange. All the fans are working, the 4 on the case, the one on the gfx card and the cpu heatsink. The MemOK light came on a few times but after hitting the button it blinks for a while and stops blinking but still no display!

All the front panel connectors are inserted correctly as per the manual. I have tried the display cable in the onboard gfx and the pcie. Tried vga vga-dmi and hdmi. i have all the power connectors in on the mobo and the gfx is in the blue which i think is correct slot. I have a VGA switch card in the other pcie slot. I have tried booting with and without it.

Forgot to say that i dont have an onboard speaker as i am pretty sure my case above doesnt come with one. If you check the case reviews it says in there. I broke the only other old speaker that i had.

I am stumped. Pleas if you have any suggestions let me know.

Thanks.
 
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Some of the newer batches of the Samsung F3 have issues with the SB850 southbridge:

http://www.overclock3d.net/news/sto..._s_don_t_like_the_new_amd_sb850_southbridge/1

There is a firmware update from Samsung for affected drives:

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/hdd/faqView.do?b2b_bbs_msg_id=308

Here is how you create a DOS USB disc:

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/191416-dos-usb-boot-drive.html

Once you extract the file which you downloaded from the Samsung website you will need to copy it to the boot disc.
 
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Thanks cat i remember readiong about that when i speced the system. It says you need to go in and change boot priority, but i cannot enter bios as i get no image. If i put those files on usb will it work if i cant see the bios? Thanks.
 
Have you tried booting the system without a hard disk??

It should boot fine if the hard disk is the issue. If the problem persists then it is not the hard disk!
 
Hey i have tried removing the hard drive and still no boot. After i put the ram in and secured the fan its a bit snug. Theres about 1 or 2mm between the heatsink and the top of the ram, would that be an issue. I am pretty sure thought that the power light remains orange?

I can't think of anything else to do, so any suggestions would be great.
 
boot it with nothing connected. just the cpu isntalled. then turn it off and insert the gpu. boot again and youll then get memory beeps. then insert the ram. if it fails here its your ram.
 
Might sound odd but..

i had a issue yesterday where the monitor didnt decide to turn on untill it got into windows (stayed off through the bios untill it starting loading into windows) i tried a different monitor and it worked..

basicly all im saying is im guessing you aint got windows installed so try a different monitor :)
 
the problem is, without a speaker, or any beeps, its difficult to tell where the problem is, it could be beeping at you telling you exactly whats wrong, you just cant hear it, so trying to guess.

thats one reason i like DFI boards, have built in speakers for beeping as well as onboard LED giving the status of bootup

also, have you tryed clearing your cmos, perhaps it has a dodgy setting thats preventing it from booting, clearing it should load the fail-safe options
 
hey thanks for all the advice. I finally got the thing booting after i took out one of the ram sticks. Now its booting off of the onboard graphics. I cannot get the gpu to work though. There is no setting in the bios for disabling, jus setting the preference which doesnt deem to help. Thanks.
 
so it sounds like you got a bad ram stick AND a ropey gpu, thats damn bad luck, but gotta be highly unlikely. is the gpu definitely seated properly? have you tried seating the gpu in the second pci-e slot? i suppose its possible the first slot could be a dud

i'm just gonna have a quick butchers at the manual online to see if there's any info there. hopefully some1 comes up with a fix sooner
 
FrankDaTank said:
Now its booting off of the onboard graphics. I cannot get the gpu to work though. There is no setting in the bios for disabling, jus setting the preference which doesnt deem to help. Thanks.
Click to expand...

from what i can see, page 3-21 of the manual says you can opt to disable internal graphics mode, if you can't find it try looking under northbridge settings, i think(sorry i'm not familiar with your board)
 
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