New Build - Taking forever...

[JTally]

I've been attempting my first build for about a month now and it's finally starting to get a little frustrating having all of these parts laying around but no functioning computer. Here are the main parts that I started out with:

Asus P5W DH Deluxe
Intel C2D E6600
2x1GB Corsair XMS2 RAM DDR2-800
Antec Truepower Trio 550W ATX12V v2.2
ATI X1900XT 512MB

One the first build attempt, I was entirely unable to get an image on my monitor. The first board I got from Newegg seemed to be DOA (determined after troubleshooting from suggestions I got on the forums here). So I RMA'd the mobo and got a new one.

When I received my new mobo, I did a minimal out of case build with the above parts (only using one of the 2 sticks of RAM) on a non-conductive surface. Turns out one of my sticks of RAM was bad, but using the good stick of RAM, I was able to get the Asus bios screen to come up, and it correctly told me that I did not have any devices connected. So I thought "Sweet, I'm good to go."

Wrong. Put the build together in the case, connected the CD/DVD drive, HDD, and case fans. When I booted up, I was watching the monitor to see if I was going to get an image. Nothing. Blank screen. Even worse, I saw a spark out of the corner of my eye come from the mobo. Nothing smelled though and all the capacitors seemed fine, but I knew I had f'd up something.

I feared I may have blew a DIMM socket, so a few days later when I finally had time, I went to a retailer who has a no questions asked 15 day return policy deciding that I was just going to get different parts to troubleshoot until I could get this thing running. So I bought a Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 mobo and a single stick of Kingston 512MB RAM DDR2-533.

Did the minimal out of case build again and got the Gigabyte bios screen to come up on the monitor. So figured the problem must have been with the Asus mobo or Corsair RAM. I placed the gigabyte set-up in the case, and this time did not connect anything else except the keyboard - none of the drives, case fans, or anything - just to see if I could duplicate these results. Nothing, so I fear my board may be shorting against my case, but that's not my real problem here, because when I pulled it out and set it on the non-conductive surface again, it stopped working - no more images on the monitor.

And now it's just acting all weird. When I do try to boot up, the CPU fan will try to spin 3 or 4 times - with a "jerking" motion. After about 8-10 seconds, it will start spinning continuously, but still no images posting to the screen. I'm all out of stuff to do. I've been diligent in making sure i have everything connected each time - the 4 pin power connector, etc. Tried researting the RAM and video card multiple times with no avail. I'm just out of ideas of what it could be. It's like the parts will work once and then stop. I'm just running out of options and ideas. Do I need to try a different power supply? Maybe this one isn't supplying consistent power? Please feel free to ask any clarifying questions. I may have left out some key details in an effort to keep this post from being any longer than it already is. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks -

[tomkear2006]

Sounds like you are having some particularly bad luck.

What is the situation with all the components at the moment?

What setup do you currently have and is it in or out of the case?

[JTally]

So, I now have gotten to the point where I can consistently get an image to appear on the screen as long as it is built outside of the case. I'm using the Gigabyte mobo with the Kingston RAM. Same power supply, and everything else. Here's the problem now. When I boot up, the CPU and video card fans start spinning at full speed. I have to push down or adjust the video card to get the image to come on the screen. So it's not fully seated even though I've got it pushed into the PCI-E slot as much as possible.

So when I adjust it, it beeps, the screen comes to life, and it seaches for the memory, tests it, and correctly identifies it as single channel, kingston RAM, etc. Then it searches for other devices and displays a second screen:

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i98/jhtally/comp_image.jpg

I can't get past this screen to set up the bios. It's like it's continually looking for PCI devices and won't stop, or it gets hung...

[Alaron]

When it gets to the PCI devices, you've missed the cutoff for entering the BIOS. The reason it hangs is because it cannot find a suitable boot device.

Enter your BIOS by pressing Del or F2 right after it POSTs. Set your CDROM drive as the first boot device, put in the Windows Disk, reboot and begin installation.

About the video card not being seated, there should be a small locking mechanism at the end of the slot, make sure that is working correctly.

Make sure you're using standoffs in the case, and that it is not grounding out. That could be why there is no activity inside the case.

[whubbard]

Also maybe part on the video card is bent, or damaged. Maybe when pushing it, you realign it or something.

~Good Luck~ (I think you need it)

[JTally]

I can't figure out what's up with my build...

So like I said, outside of the case, I can get things to work - if I gently push down on the components. At first I thought that I had to push down on the video card, but now I've come to find that I can push down gently just about anywhere, or even just slightly tilt the mobo to get it to boot up... weird...

So I put the Windows disk in the CD-ROM, booted up, gently pushed down on the video card and memory, and held it at that exact spot until it booted up from the CD drive - I didn't bother trying to go into the BIOS or anything, I was just going to let it start running from the CD-ROM. Once the Windows install began, I didn't have to push down on anything... it all worked fine.... So I finished the install and even loaded my drivers from the ATI cd and a few other apps.

So now that I've got that going, I figure I want to go into the BIOS and configure it and whatnot. So I reboot again. As usual, everything's spinning but I have a black screen. So I move the mobo a little and the screen comes to life, and again, as usual, it displays the CPU info. Push down on the mobo at a slightly different angle, and it beeps and displays the RAM info. If I don't continue to hold the set up at the exactly correct angle, it will die here - frozen at this screen. If I continue holding the set up though, I can't press the delete key to configure the BIOS. Like I said, I only have to toy around with pushing down and holding the mobo when it is going through the BIOS stuff. Once the PC is in Windows, I'm fine. Of course, all of this is still with the build outside of the case.

Any idea what may be going on here? I'd like to eventually be able to run this thing with the push of a button while it's still in the case - without me having to hold anything in place. As it is, I feel like I'm dealing with an old Ford Pinto where i have to push the clutch in half way while in 2nd gear with the radio turned off in order to get the car started or something ridiculous like that.

[tempus]

Sounds like one of the boards is out of alignment if you have to press on it to make it work. The next step is to build it in the case taking care to not short anything out. Make sure the right number of standoffs are in place and that there isn't an extra one touching the board.

[glc]

Yes, this definitely sounds like a case mounting issue. You have stray standoffs or you aren't using them at all - or an I/O shield problem. What model is your case?

[flanzig1]

The metal plate on the video card could be bent so the pointy end isn't fitting into the slot in the case. The metal is soft enough to adjust it so it goes into the slot. Also, make sure that the fan housing on the video card isn't hanging up on something in the case.

[nicolaus corelius]

so perpahs you should "unbend" the video card or simply get a different card and see if everything works w/o any adjustment on your part.

[JTally]

Thanks everyone for their help and suggestions. I ended up actually just switching out the mobo again (thus acquiring my 4th) and went with an Asus P5B DLX. Booted up perfect on the first try, both inside and outside of the case with my existing components. Guess I just had extremely bad luck with motherboards this build.