computer expert needed!

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nickjc

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hi,

I now this is not a computer forum, but I'm building my own PC for home recording, and I've got a small (BIG) problem . . .

ok, I have the CPU, motherboadr and power supply connected, as well as the monitor. everything powers up fnie, the CPU fan runs, the lights come on the motherboard and monitor, but THERE IS NO DISPLAY!!!!!!!! GRRRRRR!!!! :mad:

I have an onboard video card, so it's not that, and the monitor is working fine as I've checked it on another computer.

any ideas? ANYONE? even if you don't know much I probably know less so HELP! I am going to contact the people who sold it to me, but they don't exactly have a masterful grasp of the English language so this may be a problem.

from searching the net, it seems like it might be a faulty motherboard. yes? no?

any help VERY much appreciated :)
 
Pick the monitor up and move it to a different computer - and just check it works (it may have worked a while ago, but it's good to eliminate these things).

Borrow a graphics card and put it into your new PC (making sure you plug the monitor into the Graphic card, not the onboard graphics).

There is a chance that your memory or CPU is not seated correctly.

You could also reset your bios (instructions will be in your motherboard manual)...

If you try all these things, and still get no life - return the mobo.
 
I had that problem once and went through a few mobo/cpu combos until it would work right. That was the last time I tried to build my own computer. I'd rather just pay an extra $50 to a local shop so I don't have to hassle with bad components.

Apart from double checking that everything is seated properly the only thing you can do is exchange stuff and try again.
 
Have you partitioned and formatted the Hard drive? If it's a new drive and you don't have the OS installed yet you're going to have to start there.
 
The big question is.... beep or no beep? If you have the little speaker in your case hooked up properly then you should hear either a singal beep or series of error beeps to indicate a problem. If everything powers up okay, but the system never posts, ie no beeps, Then you either you have a bad chip, a bad board, a conflict between the two, or a conflict between your processsor an RAM. Specific information on your board, processor, and ram would help troubleshoot your problem. A common mistake is for people to use pc2700 ram with the new 800mhz fsb pentium processors, which doesn't work.
 
Easto said:
Have you partitioned and formatted the Hard drive? If it's a new drive and you don't have the OS installed yet you're going to have to start there.
Click to expand...
Easto, you are not thinking very clearly. Every PC shows a POST screen before the OS loads, and should no OS be present declares that fact.
 
nickjc said:
hi,

I now this is not a computer forum, but I'm building my own PC for home recording, and I've got a small (BIG) problem . . .

ok, I have the CPU, motherboadr and power supply connected, as well as the monitor. everything powers up fnie, the CPU fan runs, the lights come on the motherboard and monitor, but THERE IS NO DISPLAY!!!!!!!! GRRRRRR!!!! :mad:

I have an onboard video card, so it's not that, and the monitor is working fine as I've checked it on another computer.

any ideas? ANYONE? even if you don't know much I probably know less so HELP! I am going to contact the people who sold it to me, but they don't exactly have a masterful grasp of the English language so this may be a problem.

from searching the net, it seems like it might be a faulty motherboard. yes? no?

any help VERY much appreciated :)
Click to expand...

It is not clear to me from your post if you are using a motherboard with video built in or if you are using a AGP adapter that you had to add to your motherboard. Regardless, if you are getting no display whatsover, have proved to your satisfaction that the display and AGP adapter (if present) work correctly in other PCs, than you need to swap out the motherboard.
 
The problem is not necessarily the motherboard. I wouldn't be so quick to start ordering new parts. What would be really helpful is to find a computer savy friend with a similar machine that you can swap parts with just to start narrowing things down. Just pay him 20-30 bucks to exchange his processor, then try RAM. It only takes ten minutes, and if he is techy enough he probably wouldn't think it was a big deal or anything.
 
Nick, if you've proved the monitor good on another computer, and your cables are good and properly connected, and you get no display even during POST, then yes, you'll need to try another MOBO.
 
thanks

hey guys,

thank you very much for all the replies - I didn't expect to get much of a response, but this is the most replies I've ever got. I checked everything out and it seemed ok to me, so I ended up taking it back to the people who sold it to me. I'd rather just let them deal with it than screw the whole thing up myself.

thakns for all the helpk tho, you guys are legends :D
 
AGCurry said:
Nick, if you've proved the monitor good on another computer, and your cables are good and properly connected, and you get no display even during POST, then yes, you'll need to try another MOBO.
Click to expand...

This is simply not true. It could still be a number of things. For one, the motherboard needs a correctly installed, working, and compatible processor to post. So it could be an incorrect processor installation, bad processor, or wrong processor for the board. It could also be a ram conflict. A computer will start without ram installed and just give you error beeps, but if the wrong ram is installed the computer won't post at all and it often won't even give you any error beeps because the board detects the ram is there. So it could be any of three different components causing the problem, and a bad board is the last thing I would guess to be wrong. It is much more likely just some kind of simple hardware compatiblilty problem. We would really need to know if there are any error beeps or not to get anywhere. Information on which motherboard, processor, and ram you were using would have been the next step, but I guess it's too late now. It's a shame that you already took your computer back because we might have been able to diagnose and fix your problem easily with the proper information. Let us know how it works out.
 
noiseportrait said:
... It's a shame that you already took your computer back because we might have been able to diagnose and fix your problem easily with the proper information...
Click to expand...
I may be wrong in this assertion, but in my opinion it is apparent that you have never had the dubious pleasure of working for any length of time on a helpdesk.
 
God Forbid. I just figured that someone building their own computer would be a little more tech savy than the average person buying a printer at office depot. I love the people that work at the help desks or on the tech suport phone lines. As soon as you ask them any real question about a real problem with their hardware or software they just toss you around and put you on hold because it's obvious they really have no clue what they are doing. The best is when you try to walk them through your own diagnosis, and they're like, "Uhh, I can't find this in my manual..." You need a manual to navigate the control panel? I thought you guys were tech support.
 
stupid

hey guys, thank you all for the suggestions - it's good to know the support is there because I will surely need it in the future . . :o

turns out noiseportrait was right - it was a CPU problem. I, bein' a clutz, had broken the CPU fan when attaching the heatsink. the manual said to use "the appropriate tool", which didn't seem to be in the box anwhere . . turns out the appropriate tool is not a wee screwdriver . . :rolleyes:

anyways, everything is lovely jubbly now, so thank you all for the help

now to install the software :rolleyes:

thanks again
 
Not having a fan, or having a broken fan wont stop it turning on.

A PC fan is like the water a car radiator... The car still starts without it, but you wouldn't want to leave it running for very long.
 
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