First Build Start up

[Mark16]

Hey Guys,
I have my first build put together, when i first turned it on it seem to start up ok.
All the appropiate lights, fans came on.
But when i turned on my screen it said no signal.
I unplugged the monitor cable from the graphics card and it then said no connection. plugging it back in says no signal.

I took out the graphics card and hard drive to see would the board beep, but it did not. Then again though im not sure if it has onboard speaker.

Also the keyboard lights seem to work, if i press num lock the light will come on.

Thats about all i can see at the moment. from my description would you think the board or graphics is the problem. Th emonitor is ok as ive tested that on another machine.

Mark

[newbuilder14]

Is the video card seated correctly? Is any additional power given to it if it needs it?

[lostplanet]

if your having probs getting your pc to start i'd post complete specs here, better still create a sig with your specs in.
mainboard is a gigabyte GA-965P-DS3, PSU OCZ modstream 450w etc.

are you using the PS/2 ports for your mouse and keyboard? it may seem silly but a similar thing can happen if you have them plugged in the wrong ports (KB to mouse and vice versa)

and as newbuilder said your graphics card probably needs it own power either molex or a similar plug to floppy drive power
http://www.msprojectstart.org/power.htm
plug pic at bottom

[Mark16]

Hey LostPlanet and newbuilder14,

Here is complete Spec, that i put together with the help of This forum, here goes;

Pentium D 3.4
GA-965P-DS3
PSU OCZ modstream 450w
Ati radeon x1800xt
ocz gold edition ddr2 ram 800mhz
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB SATA2 16MB 7200RPM
Antec P160 Miditower, Silver, Side window, (Without PSU)
emprex 16x dvd rewriter


Yea i have a pci express power plug plugged into my graphics card and i tried resitting it in the board.

mark

[Mark16]

yea im using ps/2 ports, ill check them to make sure they are correct as soon as possible, other than that theres prob no other thing i can do but try the graphics card in another machine yea,

Could the board be damaged do ya think?

Mark

[lostplanet]

worth a try, but it could be a RAM issue read below about voltages and bios flash on DS3
a quick search came back with this:

http://forums.extremeoverclocking.co...d.php?t=232511

so the system wont even post? to enter bios? give it some time to fire up with the monitor switched on.
is your monitor DVI? or are you using a DVI to VGA adapter?

theres also a lot of FAQ's here:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=110460

[Mark16]

hey LostPlanet,

Im using a dvi to vga adapter for the moment, could that be an issue,
The ram is ddr2 800mhz would that be ok to put into a board that does not support 800mhz ram it'll just run at a lower freqency right?

mark

[lostplanet]

if its a DDR2 board yes give it a try one stick at a time in different slots if it doesnt work(assuming you have a dual channel kit 2 sticks of ram), Try this on both your Mainboards.

i take it you have tried both DVI ports on the graphics card? always power down before swapping/unplugging video ports.

be careful when connecting the adapter as the graphics card can creep(depending on the strength of your case) and become slightly unseated but saying that the lock on the PCIe slot "should" stop that.

Did the DVI adapter come with the graphics card?what monitor brand/model do you have?

[z3frog]

Did you make sure both the 24 pin and the 4 pin power connectors are plugged in on the motherboard? I forgot to do that on a recent build, and got the same problem you got.

[Mark16]

HEY,
Yea i was talking to lostplanet last night and he said to do that when installing the mother board and power supply.



My power supply has 3 main power cablies.


20 pin and two 4 pin cables.

I have a 20 pin a 4 pin plugged into my 24 atx socket and a 4 pin into the 12v atx socket on the board.

[Mark16]

hey lostplanet,
yea ill try that when i go home, the turning off the pc when changing dvi slots.

The monitor is a crt dell monitor, bou i can get access to a 19 lcd monitor to test, my brothers he wont mind, i hope.

[Cricket]

Having problems with a new build? Try this.

Also, you really should get a true ATX 2.0 power supply with the 24 pin motherboard power connection.

Cricket

[Mark16]

Guys
i tested my graphics card on another machine and it worked ok, so i suppose not its got to be a prob with either the ram, processor or mainboard.

Do ya know if a ddr2 ram mainboard can accept ddr ram?

[lostplanet]

i noticed this note on page 11 of the manual,
http://america.giga-byte.com/FileLis...965p-ds3_e.pdf

(Note 1) To use a DDR II 800/667 memory module on the motherboard, you must install an 800/1066MHz FSB processor.

is your Pentium D compatible with your RAM? i dont know much about Intel CPU's.

[jayb1234]

DDR2 and DDR are not interchangable.

DDR has 184 pins, DDR2 has 240 pins.

They are physically incompatible.

[Mark16]

The pentium d 3.4 has 800fsb so i assume thats ok to work with the ram.

im unsure about the voltage of the ram and if the board can change the voltage to provide for the ram, ill look into it a bit more.

when i try and boot the system wothout a hard drive, or ram etc. it never beeps.
What would that indicate?

[Mark16]

hey jayb1234,

Thanks ill try get different ddr2 ram from somewhere to test on the machine

[Mark16]

The ram i have needs 2.0v to run and can hadle up to 2.2v.
Im still trying to download the main board manual so im unsure what voltage it is default set to? or if it can be changed to 2.0v

[Mark16]

ok looking at the manual my mainboard supports 1.8v dimms, any idea if this can be upped to 2.0 v

[lostplanet]

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=110460

[Q] What is the problem with memories and DS3?
[A] Some memories require 2.0V to boot. Standard DS3 stock VDimm is 1.8V. Simply after a CMOS reset the system won’t boot... If you happened to have such mem, replace them. Or buy some shi++y lowcost mem and put it in to boot, change VDimm and replace with your modules to continue o/c.

difficult to say what is causing your problem, but as cricket suggested try the guide
http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=12753
to get the PC started up or you may have to get some lowcost memory.

the voltage can be changed in the BIOS to suit your OCZ ram later.

this seems like a Gigabyte mainboard issue, so it may be worth contacting Gigabyte support and explain what is happening exactly to them.

http://www.gigabyte.us/Support/ServiceCenter.aspx

[jayb1234]

You might be able to do that in the bios, but that would be likely to void the warranty on the motherboard and possibly on the RAM and processor.

My advice would be to return the RAM and get some 1.8 V.

[Mark16]

ok thanks guys, ill try some of those approaches, thanks

[Mark16]

Hey Guys,


I bought a low cost piece of ram for the machine and it posted into bios settings, so the ram was the prob all along.
Once in the bios i incremented the dimm voltage as far as +0.3 which should have made it 2.1 volts but even at that my ozc ram did not run, got the no signal message.
Ill try install windows with the low cost ram then update the BIOS and try my high end ram again, unless anyone else has another suggestion.

Other than that thanks for all the help, Later
Mark

[newbuilder14]

I'm glad you got it working. Yeah, revision 1 of the OCZ ram has been having problems.

[Mark16]

Hey guys,
Regarding the OCZ ram, i think i may have forgot one thing. The manufacturer site says its timing is 5-5-5-12. What does this mean exactly and can this timing be normally changed in BIOS as i did not notice it last time when i was trying different voltage settings?

Mark

[lostplanet]

similar issues to yours:
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=471786

memory timings are for tweaking/overclocking your system once you have it running.
the timings set by the manufacturer are the stock settings you should use initially, when you overclock you can tweak these settings to improve performance. generally the lower the timings the faster the RAM operates.

the Bios should(if working correctly)choose these timings by default, but there does seem to be issues with the F1 bios on your board.

CAS-5, TRCD-5, TRP-5, TRAS-12.

if you didnt intend to overclock this system personally i wouldnt as it should be plenty fast enough anyway.
guide to memory timings etc:
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=257741

found this on the OCZ forums as well, which links to the previous DS3 FAQ's
http://www.bleedinedge.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22942

[Mark16]

Thanks lost Planet, ill update my BIOS to f4 and that should sort the problem i hope, also ill try configure the timing and voltage again.

Thanks
Mark

[Mark16]

Well i can finally say i have my first working build.....

Once i updated the bios to f4 and upped the dimm voltage to 2.0 everything fell nicely into place.


Big thanks to all you guys for your input and advice on what parts to get, and also appreciate all your help and technical support in getting my build up and goin.

Sound LostPlanet, on the ball (Irish saying for good job)


Later Mark

[lostplanet]

great news Enjoy, mines a guinness btw