New PC won't boot, help!

[underscore]

Everything finally showed up and I put it together, it booted to POST no problem, I reboot to the BIOS, change the boot order and turn on fan control, as well as turning off the internal video and turning on fan failure alarms. I reboot it, and get absolutely no video with the alarm going off instantly. I figure I must have screwed something up by turning off the internal video before installing drivers or something, so I reset the CMOS and reboot. Still no video.

Now it'll only "start" if it's been sitting for a few minutes, the power light comes on for a few seconds and the fans spin briefly and then everything shuts off. Pressing the power button has no effect until it's been a few minutes, and then the above repeats.

I've removed the graphics card, DVD drive and HDD; all I have is a mobo, cpu, PSU and two fans. Did I fuck something up?

Parts
Processor: AMD Athlon II X4 640 3.0GHZ
Case: Thermaltake Versa II
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3
Memory: 2x Corsair XMS3 4GB PC10666
Power Supply: Ultra LSP550
Graphics Card: ASUS Radeon HD 7750 V2
Storage: 60GB Corsair Force Series GT SSD, 500GB HDD
Disc Drive: Lite ON 24X DVDRW
Cooling: Zalman CNPS14X 140mm CPU Cooler

[Recon604]

are the 4pin connector connected of the psu connected to the motherboard? Is your RAM seated in properly?

[underscore]

yes and yes, the 20+4 as well at the 8 pin connectors are both connected to the mobo from the PSU. The +4 doesn't seem to have any kind of lock on it but it's stuck on there quite snugly.

[Recon604]

Originally Posted by underscore

yes and yes, the 20+4 as well at the 8 pin connectors are both connected to the mobo from the PSU. The +4 doesn't seem to have any kind of lock on it but it's stuck on there quite snugly.

try reseating all of them again. theres somethin wrong with the electrical in your system. is your CPU seated properly too?

[underscore]

it's kept taking longer and longer to "start" up and staying alive for shorter and shorter until it was just a blip. I took the 465W PSU from my other PC and just plugged in the 24 pin connector and the fans and lights come on and stay on, but there's no video. I assume this is because this PSU doesn't have the 8 pin mobo connection?

[FerrariEnzo]

try to reset your cmos, this time, do not turn on the alarms.. I has this problem also, once I turn off the failure alarms, it booted fine.. not sure why...

[underscore]

I did, first with a jumper then with a piece of metal, still no video. Should I remove the battery?

[sekin67835]

Perhaps your video card isn't plugged in properly (by the psu) or the card isn't seated right into the motherboard. If your board has on board graphics, use that first. And try one stick of ram (alternate them to see if one of the ram stick is bad).
Posted via RS Mobile

[underscore]

I removed the video card and it made no difference, hell I even removed the plugs for the front USB ports. I'm leaning towards the power supply atm, I'm about to go pick up a new one to see.

[underscore]

Power supply didn't fail any tests, I've put everything back in and it powers on and stays on, but there's no video output on either the onboard card of the graphics card.

Ideas?

[inv4zn]

It's just black? Are you sure you're getting past POST?

What kind of cable are you using for the monitor and is it new?

Could be bad RAM.

Your best bet (and tedious one) is to just try and replace parts with spare ones.

[underscore]

I'm not even getting a beep from the onboard speaker, I've got it stripped down to a mobo, processor and RAM sitting on my coffee table. Since it's not even beeping I assume I'm not even clearing POST.

The cable to the monitor is older and was being used to connect my old PC.

I just reinstalled the CPU (tedious with this heatsink) and I've tried each piece of RAM in all the slots, no dice. I don't have access to a spare AM3 CPU or mobo. I'll try to borrow some RAM from a friend tonight.

The fucked up part (to me) is that it got to the POST and BIOS several times before crapping out like this.

edit: it doesn't even beep when the RAM is removed, so I'm thinking it's the mobo? Could the CPU also do this?

[underscore]

Update: I took the PSU from my other PC, and hooked up the 4pin connector to the 8pin socket by the CPU.

It showed the Gigabyte logo on the screen, then said something about a POST error and loading the last good config, and then went blank. With the RAM in, the speaker makes one long, never ending beep, and with the RAM removed it beeps repeatedly.

I should also note that the beeps without RAM sound "healthier" than the continuous one, which sounds like a dying cat.

[twitchyzero]

there's no bent pins in the cpu socket? any bent capacitators on the mobo?

remove the battery on-board for a min as last effort ditch...sounds like you need to rma the mobo

[AzNightmare]

Maybe has nothing to do with this... but just throwing it out there.
Did you put in the brass standoffs/spacers when you mounted the motherboard to your case?

[underscore]

Update: The beeps withut the RAM were a RAM fault (made sense) and the long, never ending beep (it kinda changed tones after 2 seconds, but still sounded dreadful) is apparently the fan missing/failed alarm, which prevented me from booting (wtf???). Once I plugged in a fan it gave me new beeps for a video device failure (I'm using onboard video?) so I plugged in my graphics card and voila.

So the power supply has a dead 8 pin CPU output and it'll be RMA'd. The motherboard worries me, because the fan alarm was turned off by default and I reset the CMOS several times, and having it keep me from booting is fucking stupid. And why the fuck doesn't the manual list the beep error codes?

But the most concerning is the onboard video apparently not working on the mobo. Should I also RMA the mobo if the onboard doesn't seem to work, even though I won't be using it?

Thanks everyone for your help!

[lilaznviper]

Not sure when you got everything but there is always a DOA policy.

you should RMA all the non working parts. you never know when you might need to use the onboard video

[underscore]

I got everything from TigerDirect, their shipping took a ridiculously long time so I hate to have to send the mobo back but you're right. Into the bleeping box it goes.

[underscore]

Also, how the hell do you know how long the cords are with a PSU? This one they're just long enough, but my on my old one they're too short so it has to sit on top of the case.

[AzNightmare]

Originally Posted by underscore

Also, how the hell do you know how long the cords are with a PSU? This one they're just long enough, but my on my old one they're too short so it has to sit on top of the case.

You'll have to research the PSU. If you're lucky, they might have specs on the cord length,
but if not, usually reviews will mention about them.

[sekin67835]

Usually they are long enough unless you're routing through the back of the case. Good luck with your replacements.
Posted via RS Mobile

[underscore]

Ok gotcha, I might just get a direct replacement though.

Update on the mobo, I went into the BIOS and everything was as I had set it, not the defaults? So I enabled onboard video, removed my card and it booted fine running onboard video. So apparently everything works except the reset (I also removed the battery for 30 mins).

This seems odd, but I guess as long as I leave the BIOS alone I'll be fine. Now I'm not sure if I should RMA it or not :S

[lilaznviper]

forgot to mention but it might be faster to just go through the manufacture to do the RMA. Some manufactures have quick turn around times.

[underscore]

Good idea, thanks! TigerDirect is slow as hell.