Gribbz

Hey guys, first post on these forums.

Today my new components arrived - I spent the best part of £500 (~$1000) on an upgrade. This is my second build. My first time building a PC went smooth and everything worked fine when I switched on the computer for the first time.

However, after spending the majority of the day assembling my computer, I found when I switched it on for the first time, the onboard VGA was not functioning. My monitor would sit there in standby. Of course, I checked over and over that I had plugged everything in correctly, that the jumpers were set in the right positions etc. At first, the computer would sit there for the 1-2 minutes I had it running until I switched it off to work on it. Now, though, it shuts itself off after 30 seconds. I do not get any POST beeps. I read somewhere that I should disconnect the graphics card and try that and found the fan was much louder, then to my amazement I had some action on my monitor. Still no POST beeps and it still switched off after 30 seconds, but at least it got me somewhere. On first instinct, my PSU is not powerful enough. But saying that, numerous people have told me that I have plenty of power to support my specs.

Here are my components:-

• Gaming case - 1x 120mm fan, 2x 80mm fans
• Asus M4A78T-E AMD 790GX (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
• AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition 2.8GHz (Socket AM3)
• Arctic Cooler CPU Fan
• Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
• 2 x 2GB 1333 Dual Channel DDR3 RAM
• 1 x 500GB WD SATA II Hard Drives
• 1 x Standard DVD Drive

I have a Ocz Stealthxstream 600w PSU.

Im really hoping someone can assist me in this problem. Im praying that it isnt a PSU problem and that I can fix it asap. My Gfx card reads on the box that insufficient power can permanently damage the card - I really hope I havent just cocked it up big-time!

linderman

follow this How to Bench Test Your System


dont skip or abbreviate any steps including pullign the motherboard from the case!


keep us posted .........although the OCZ 700 is a better choice for your video card, at the bios level your video card wont be working that hard ....... you should see full signs of life

but I would return that PSU for the OCZ 700 for sure !

Gribbz

Cheers for the speedy response - I think i'll try Bench Testing!

I actually rummaged through my graphic card box and found a converting adapter which plugs into the back of the card and allows my monitor to connect to it (apologies, I am not sure what the correct terms are for these slots). This gets me to the stage I was at before, where the monitor will work but it will reach a screen and turn itself off after 15 seconds. The exact message im receiving is:-

I do not have any USB devices connected and my CMOS jumper is in the normal position.

Gribbz

Tried it again - got none of the beeps, but it ran through to BIOS and I accessed it, and then it booted my Windows XP CD. Now I dont know what to think



you should be thinking ..............woo-hoo

linderman

talk to me about your motherboard stand-offs how many and are you 100% sure you are using on the right number in the right places ? if any of the solder and metal parts on the underside of the motherboard touch the case .......... you will get a no show from the life support monitor

Gribbz

That may be my problem then. I spent a great deal of time getting my head around it. My last build was very straight forward and that case came with 9 standoffs, but I only received 3 of the brass standoffs with my new case. All of the screw holes, apart from 3, are on dimples. On the three which arent, I used the brass standoffs, obviously. There are 9 holes in total.

linderman

those "dimples" are for the inserting of stand-offs ..........that your problem