Asus A8N-SLI -- First Build... no video

[db0335]

Specs:
AMD Athlon 64 3700+ Processor
Corsair XMS 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200)
ASUS A8N-SLI Motherboard
Geforce 7800GT 256MB Video Card
Western Digital Caviar SE 120GB Serial ATA II 7200RPM Hard Drive w/8MB Buffer
Asus DRW-1608P2 16X Double Layer DVD±RW Drive
Antec SmartPower 2.0 500watt Powersupply


First build on this.... I put it all together and connected everything up... had power to both case fans, the fan on the Power Supply, the motherboard fan, the CPU fan and the video card fan.... green light at bottom of motherboard came on..... but I could not get video to the display....it just acted like it was searching for a feed....

Based on what I have read in the forums, I plan to go home tonight and try it again but with speakers plugged in to see if I get a signal as to what is wrong....

I am going to check all the connectors for a snug fit... I made sure I plugged in the 24pin and the 4 pin by the CPU....


If that doesn't work I will take the connectors apart... and try to run it outside the case...

Should I take the processor off the board and re-install it or should I take everything else off and start from there....


I read somewhere on the site where a person was going to just plug their board in with nothing on it and then listen for the beeps and fix each issue the board had... such as load the CPU, load the ram, load the video card... until the beeping stopped or they got to a part that had an issue....

I see I should start with 1 stick of RAM... so I will do that...
I have no other computer to test parts on, so I bought a second video card that is PCIe to plug in to the board if I get to the point that I think it might be the video card....

A dumb question... but my hard drive is SATA... I had originally hooked up a Molex power cord to it... but then I saw there was a 6pin from the power supply to the drive for SATA... I changed it to this.... would it matter which way I ran it??

Any other advice?????

[freakitchen]

The most common cause of no display, besides not connecting the extra 4 pin connector, is your motherboard grounding on the case somehow. The only way to test this is to do the out of case build - this should be your next line of troubleshooting. Do this as per HAL's stickied thread

Don't take the processor off once you've installed the heatsink. You'll need to clean and reapply thermal compound if you do this.

For Hard drives that can use either the SATA power connector or a standard Molex, use one or the other (not both!)

The BIOS beep code you're listening for will come from your case speaker, not audio speakers. This will either be connected to your case, or a small standalone speaker that comes with your motherboard. Either way, they ususally connect to the motherboard on the front-panel header.

Freakitchen

[db0335]

Thanks for your help... I will check that out...

any specific areas I should look for when making sure my Mobo is not grounding out?? I have it on the brass standoffs.... and the screws are within the white circles on each area of the motherboard.... should I look for other things??



also, if i understood you correctly... I should not plug my own PC speakers into the ports on the motherboard??

there was no stand alone speaker and my case (Antec SuperLanboy) does not come with speakers....


thanks again

[freakitchen]

The most common cause of grounding is installing too many brass standoffs. They should only be installed where there is a screw hole in the motherboard, which it sounds like you have done. I've seen another instance in which the motherboard was touching the corner of the motherboard tray 'lip', through a slightly bent tray.

By speakers, im referring to the case speaker which is only capable of emitting beeps - not audio speakers. Often they are attached to a non-visible part of the case, you'll know if you have one if there is a speaker connector bundled in with the case switch wires. Your motherboard might also have come with a tiny 'piezo style' speaker - just a tiny black round cylindar (looks like a capacitor) with two wires connected to a 3-4 pin motherboard connector.

Hope this explains it slightly better

Freakitchen

[db0335]

thanks... I will take a look tonight...

[db0335]

I took the unit out of the case and ran Hal9000's test outside the case

1) Remove EVERYTHING from the case
2) Set the motherboard on a non conductive surface. The motherboard box is perfect for this. .DO NOT PLACE THE MOTHERBOARD ON THE STATIC BAG! It can acually conduct electricity! We are going to try and assemble a running system outside of the case.
3) Install the CPU and heat sink.
4) Install the RAM (only install 1 stick for SDRAM, 2 for RDRAM)
5) Install the video card
6) Connect the monitor to the video card.
7) Connect the power supply to the motherboard.
8) Connect power to the power supply
9) Do NOT connect ANYTHING else. Make sure you have the power connector on the CPU fan connected.
10) Use a small screwdriver to momentarily short the power switch connector on the motherboard.

I still have nothing showing up on the display....

so I then removed one of the sticks of RAM and started it up.... nothing...
I then put the other stick of RAM into the board.... nothing...
I then put a stick I bought for testing into the board...it was a Corsair XMS 512mb stick with activity LEDs on it.... it showed activity upon start up but then nothing within about 5-7 seconds... seemed to be just waiting for something at that point....

I bought a GeForce6500 that is PCIe just to test another PCIe video card and that did not help either..


That seems to leave the CPU and the motherboard itself... any easy way to test these???

[db0335]

I plan to pick up another motherboard at the store today as well as a processor....this should clear up the last two possible issues...or at least eliminate them from the picture as well...

Since I am looking into a motherboard swap at this point....Should I change boards from an A8N-SLI to something else?? I am going to be using the computer primarily for online gaming at my home......