New build nightmare - advice needed :(

Roadshowuk

Roadshowuk

Roadshowuk

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2 Dec 2007
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25
Built my new PC today or at least tried to, but am having a nightmare.

I bought the following:

Asus Striker II Formula nForce 780i (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/LGA775)
G.Skill 4GB DDR2 PQ PC2-8000C5 (2x2GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-8000CL5D-4GBPQ)
Coolermaster RC-1000 Cosmos Silent Full Tower Case
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKS)
Thermaltake ToughPower 1200W Modular Power Supply
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
OcUK GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - OEM
Samsung SH-S203PRSMN 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer Lightscribe ReWriter (Beige/Black/Silver) - Retail

This is the 3rd PC I've built but I quickly realised today that I have bitten off more than I can chew this time.

I had a pig of a time with the Ultra 120 cpu cooler and after 3 attempts to get it seated properly still find that it can be slid around slightly even with the screws as tight as they'll go.

I bought a fan to sit on the cooler that had the holes connected front to back so had to resort to a hacksaw to open up the corners in order to get it to fit with the coolers wire contraption which holds on the fan.

The fan on the cooler is 3 pin so cannot be connected to the cpu fan connection on the motherboard. I connected it instead to the case fan 1 connector but don't know if this will cause me problems. If this is a problem, is there a 12cm fan out there with a 4 pin cpu connector or perhaps an adapter from 3pins to 4?

Now to the BIG problem. With everything hooked up and powered I cannot get the machine to boot. Not even to the point of producing any output from it's gfx card. I have tried both connectors on the card but my monitor sits saying no signal. The LCD Poster that comes with the board firstly hung on 'CPU Init' and so I tried taking off the stupid heatsink, taking out the processor, giving it a magic blow and reseating it. This seemed to improve matters a little, the machine still did not boot but this time the LCD Poster said 'CPU Init', 'Chipset Init' and then hung on 'Dram Init', still with no video output though.

Tomorrow I will try the video card in the other slots on the board to see if that makes any difference. I don't have any other ram to try but have tried each stick in the different slots without achieving any success.

I guess the ram may just be incompatible with the board but is that enough to explain my problems? I am really tired and demoralised now having spent over 12 hours failing to get this thing running.

I should add, the HDDs whir, the fans are spinning, the lcd's on the mobo are lit (I am colour-blind so can't report on their colours lol) and the fan on the gfx card is spinning.

I would be really grateful for any advice beyond that of my wife who told me "all that money wasted. You are such an ********. Why didn't you pay for them to build you one?". That didn't help progress matters much.

Thanks in anticipation.
 
well sorry to here yo having issues. hang on in there all can be resolved. allways strat woth bascics,

have you plugged in all the extra power cables the gfx needs ?

have you plugged in the extra power connector that goes on the mobo the white 8 pin one in top left corner?
 
Start with the obvious... I know it's a pain.

1 dimm, CPU and GPU..... can you get into the BIOS?

Have you reset the CMOS (helps to turn off the power at the socket then try to start the PC... removes residual current.... before reseting the CMOS.

The PCI-E slot nearest the CPU is often the best start.

Other than that.... it's mobo back out of the case and see if it powers up then..... Recheck all connections especially the 8pin which can be PCI-E or Mobo +12v but are not interchangeable. Dependant on the mouldings they can be interchanged.

AD
 
Have you made sure the power button leads from the case onto the mobo are the right way round? the little + and -? Mine was the wrong way and didn't start up cos of that..

BTW I had the same problem with my cpu fan . I had to saw too cos the holes were connected front to back with connecting a wire contraption on it.

Case 1 fan connector won't cause problems.
 
The 3 pin fan on the cooler plugs into the 4pin socket on the mobo. If it fits easily, then its in the correct place. The 4th pin is for a PWM function on certain fans/coolers. Its normal to be able to twist the cooler, its lubricated with the thermal paste.

Do you have a speaker plugged into the motherboard? If you have one, plug it in, as it will give you Beep Codes as to the problem (If there is one).
 
Strangely enough, I had a problem with exactly the same symptoms the other day - I had put the RAM stick in the wrong way (back-to-front). I changed it around and the machine booted. Maybe worth a try.
 
thefishdude said:
well sorry to here yo having issues. hang on in there all can be resolved. allways strat woth bascics,

have you plugged in all the extra power cables the gfx needs ?

have you plugged in the extra power connector that goes on the mobo the white 8 pin one in top left corner?
Click to expand...

I have plugged in the two 6 pin cables between the psu and the vga card. The card's fan spins but there seems to be no output, although the monitor sees that is plugged in to a dvi source.

The 8-pin socket at the top left of the board is plugged in but the power supply's own cable does not reach it from where it is located at the bottom of the Coolermaster case. I have had to use an 8 pin female to 8 pin male extension which I found among all the cables I have laid out here. It is in a different style to the ones which came with the psu so I am assuming it came with the case itself. I have also tried the board with the cable plugged direct (without the extension) but with the same result.
 
Last edited:
decto said:
Start with the obvious... I know it's a pain.

1 dimm, CPU and GPU..... can you get into the BIOS?

Have you reset the CMOS (helps to turn off the power at the socket then try to start the PC... removes residual current.... before reseting the CMOS.

The PCI-E slot nearest the CPU is often the best start.

Other than that.... it's mobo back out of the case and see if it powers up then..... Recheck all connections especially the 8pin which can be PCI-E or Mobo +12v but are not interchangeable. Dependant on the mouldings they can be interchanged.

AD
Click to expand...

Have reset the CMOS.

Have removed the Striker2's sound card, disconnected sata devices, usb and firewire cables to leave the mobo with gpu, cpu and one stick of ram. Same result; mobo leds light up, fans spin, lcd poster stops on init dram and no display is output to the monitor.

Going to try moving the gfx card from slot 1 to see if that helps and then will see if I can cannibalize my son's pc for alternate gfx card and memory modules to experiment with.
 
voltage setup right for the memory modules ?

the cpu fan can still go on the mobo if its 3 pin and the mobo has 4 pin support, just line it up with the slot on the mobo.

if the cpu fan isnt plugged into the mobo have you set the bios so it doesnt check for the cpu fan speed ?
 
mp260767 said:
voltage setup right for the memory modules ?

the cpu fan can still go on the mobo if its 3 pin and the mobo has 4 pin support, just line it up with the slot on the mobo.

if the cpu fan isnt plugged into the mobo have you set the bios so it doesnt check for the cpu fan speed ?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply.

Someone mentioned that I could plug the cpu fan in to the 4 pin socket and I have now done that. I have not got the pc to boot so far as to allow me to see any display on screen, so cannot gain access to the bios.

I have now checked both it's gfx card and cpu in another machine and both are working correctly. Using the other PC's processor and gfx card in my machine do not solve my problem.

The only other ram I have access to is some Overclockerz pc2 7200 sticks and these are incompatible I think. I tried them anyway but without any success.

I guess at this point I have narrowed it down to either memory or motherboard as the root of my problem, unless you guys know different!

I will ring overclockers today and see if I can switch my G.skill ram for some which has been successfully used in the Striker2 mobo. If that doesn't work then I guess I will need to get the mobo exchanged.

I am seriously hacked off with this now, but relieved that I am narrowing down the list of potential culprits.
 
you said you have access to "Overclockerz pc2 7200 sticks" ?, can;t say i've ever heard of it.

Have you tried you're memory in the mobo that you tried you're card and cpu in ?
 
The memory I tried in to my machine was from a M*** built q6600 with 8800gtx I bought my son more than a year ago. It did not work on my Striker 2 mobo and the G.skill memory I had bought did not work on the older PC's mobo.

I have since rung Overclockers tech support, having come to the end of what I can check here. I suggested returning my ram and swapping it for something that they know would work in the Striker2, but they said that the G.skill sticks ought to work and that they felt it was likely to be the mobo that is at fault. So this afternoon I am posting the mobo back for testing and, if it doesn't work for them either, replacement.

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions. I'll report back once they have taken a look at it. Meanwhile I have a huge Coolermaster paperweight sat on my desk, stripped of it's insides. My new Dell monitor is providing some compensation as it looks absolutely fantastic. 27" for the win, but is somewhat hindered by being connected only to my aging notebook's mobility x800 lol.
 
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