Problems with new kit

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26 Nov 2008
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12
Barely started an RMA conversation with a guy in Overclockers, but I'm figuring this could be a faster place to receive help.

If tech support questions aren't welcome here, I'm sorry.

Anyway, I hooked up this equipment for the first time yesterday (after I'd received my replacement motherboard which had arrived broken the first time). Hooked up just the motherboard, gfx card, memory, cpu, cpu heatsink and fan and PSU, and power on. It powers on fine, everything's whirring nicely, but no data is sent to the monitor.

So I think maybe I need to use the DVI output with the flatscreen, so I go out and get a DVI to VGA cable, but that results in the same problem.

I tried using my TV as well (which also has a vga socket) and no dice.

Then I tried removing the RAM and booting, as I should get POST beeps about there being no memory installed. No beeps were produced at all.

I have the PC speaker plugged in. I'm using the handy all-in-one plug that came with the motherboard (into which you plug the speaker, power switch, reset switch, etc, and then plug the all-in-one into the motherboard), with the writing on the individual plugs (SPEAKER, PWR SWITCH etc) facing outwards, as shown in the mobo manual.

What should I do?

Here's the kit i'm dealing with:

£115.99 x 1 - Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
£106.99 x 1 - LG W2242S-PF 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black
£84.99 x 1 - Asus P5Q Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
£64.99 x 1 - Corsair TX 650W ATX2.2 SLi Compliant PSU
£54.99 x 1 - Gainward ATI Radeon HD 3850 Pro 512MB GDDR3 TV-OutDual DVIHDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail
£34.99 x 1 - Kingston HyperX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-8500C6 1066MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX8500AD2K24G)
£15.99 x 1 - Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775)
£13.99 x 1 - Sony NEC Optiarc AD-7200S 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Silver) - OEM
£59.99 x 1 - Lian Li PC-A05A Aluminium Midi-Tower - Silver
 
Yep, I reset the CMOS. I also tried booting up with just 1 stick of ram, rotating it through the different slots, but no dice.

All that's connected is the PSU, CPU, heatsink & fan, mobo, gfx card, RAM, monitor. I've got the PSU connected to the motherboard with the normal 12-pin plug, and a 4pin in the slot (there's room for 8, but the other 4 are blocked off - i'm guessing for a reason), and the gfx card (using the adapter that came with the card)
 
right, well i'll keep it on the 4 pin since i've no OC'd anything yet, and i don't even have any HDs or DVD drives plugged in ;)

I'll try the setup with another gfx card tomorrow.. thanks for your help guys
 
Brought it all over to a friend's house. We've figured out that it's not the gfx card, not the PSU and not the memory.

Unfortunately didn't have any heatsink grease so we couldn't swap the CPUs.

I'm thinking one last thing - and this is a long shot, considering how little I have plugged in (just the cpu, gfx card and 1 stick of memory) - but there are two places to plug in the power from the PSU: a 12 pin socket and an 8 pin socket, 4 holes of which are blocked off (but this block can be removed).

So, currently, I have just the 12-pin plug in, as well as a 4pin plug (but not the other 4pin).

The asus p5q manual is completely contradictory about this. It says, on the same page, "Use only an 8pin EPS +12V power plug for the EATX12V connector" and "Do not forget to connect the 4-pin/8pin EATX12V power plug, otherwise the system will not boot."

So, what should I do? Will connecting the full 8-pins be overkill and fry my board? Or is leaving the other 4 pins out exactly what I'm doing wrong, and I should connect them all up?
 
Ok after doing a bit of research, I found that most quad cores need the full 8 pins, so i took off the cap and plugged both 4-pin plugs in.

Thankfully the mobo didn't blow or anything...... but still, no signal to the monitor. I cycled through the ram sockets with a stick of ram (and then the other), but nothing. not even POST beeps.

What do you guys think?
 
Oh, I know computers perfectly well - but the last time I built a computer, SATA wasn't exactly mainstream.... Things have gotten a hell of a lot more complicated in terms of hardware since then, it seems.
 
Did you try your friends RAM in your board just to check it is not being fussy regards memory.

Not sure what to suggest, sounds like the board is DOA.

If so, it'll be the second one that arrived dead. I'm going to try my mate's cpu and RAM if i can tomorrow....
 
Just checked my motherboard manual. I think i've found the problem... Is it possible that the motherboard doesn't support my RAM?

as listed above, the ram I have is: Kingston HyperX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-8500C6 1066MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX8500AD2K24G)

The Kingston RAM listed as being supported by the motherboard is as follows:

512MB Kingston - Part No.: KVR1066D2N7/ 512
1024MB Kingston - Part No.: KVR1066D2N7/1G
2048MB Kingston - Part No.: KVR1066D2N7K2/2G

It looks completely obvious that this is the problem - the only reason I'm posting about it here is that I absolutely cannot believe that this is the case.. How things have changed over the years.. Am I correct in my diagnosis?
 
Tested a friend's RAM in the box, no dice. Was also assured by Overclockers that my ram is totally compatible with my motherboard.

Tested my CPU in a mate's box, and it worked fine.

So, it looks like it's the motherboard. Again. Does this happen often or what? First mobo arrived completely dead, this one ****** too.

Should I RMA this and try to get a different mobo?
 
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