Just built my own PC!advice needed

[wilto]

This is my first do it yourself system.Quite stressful!!!

PSU - Antec 430W
Mobo - Gigabyte 965 DS3
CPU - intel core 2 duo e6400
Ram - 1 Gig corsair pc5200
GFX - 7600 GT Leadtek overclocked
HDD - WD 160GB
DVD- LG

Right all fans working everything looking good on the hardware side of things......

1)DVD and HDD are connected on the same ribbon to the mobo....thats correct yeah?Is that all i have to connect to mobo concerning those 2?There are orange sockets and SATA wires but none of them fit my western digital hdd

2)How do i know if the HDD is working....i dont detect any heat at the moment from it.

3)When i power up the system my monitor says no input.

I havent had a succesfull boot up as of yet....not got into Bios or anything because the screen wont show anything.

I dont have a boot disk per se but i do have a windows xp pro cd that i got with my laptop last year that was i assuming acted as a boot disk?

Anyone got any ideas....like schoolboy errors i might have easily missed...

DVD and HDD are connected to PSU thru molex

[newbuilder14]

Did you set the jumpers for the hard drive as primary/slave and the dvd drive as primary/slave? Do you have the power cables properly connected to them? Make sure all power cables are connected onto the motherboard, especially the ATX12v 4 pin connector.

[wilto]

Hmmmmm jumpers?uh oh what are they.

Power cables fine and dandy...DVD drive opens etc lights on.....

mobo 12v 4 pin connector is connected.

[wilto]

ok i see the jumpers.

I dont have a wire or lead that looks compatible to it.

Its just a single hard drive system so acccording to instructions on the top its a single drive master system.

There was a little white plastic box covering t2 pins on the end.

I've taken that off......

Someone stop me if im about to blow myself up!

Im not sure if that would cause my monitor to show a no input signal message....anyway here goes.

[wilto]

Right then [talkig to myself out of madness at this point]

Taken the 2 plastic covers that were covering 2 pins on the DVD drive and HDD.

DVD drive has 6 pins - HDD have 8 pins.

At this point i might add that the DVD drive and HDD are connected to the IDE ribbon. 24 pin connector and connected to psu via molex.

I have a lead that slots into the hard disk 8 pin socket quite nicely that links up to the psu....whats the point in that tho if molex is connected to psu?

But the dvd drive....i have no cable that can accomodate 6 pins...

And after all this i still get the no input signal sign.

GFX card fan is working good its getting warm tis all connected nicely.

Come on surely there is somehting small that i havent done!My first build...i have just plugged it all in expecting it to play. Ive not messed around with anything.,

Do i have to jump some switches or something?

[Dannyw]

The jumper pins do not require a cable connected to them. They are just there to change settings, which you do by placing those plastic covers in certain ways. If you look around the casing of the HDD, there should be some kind of diagram/explanation to help you with this. As you only have one disk drive and hdd, they should both be set to Master.

[wilto]

Just found out that ebuyer had infact sent me an ATA HDD not a SATA!

FFS

Could that be the source of my problem?

[Panama Red]

Western Digital hard drives often require a special jumpering when run as the only hdd. Cable Select (CS) may work but more often you need to set the jumpers to Neutral or Single Drive. Use this link for reference.

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc....i=&p_topview=1

Running an overclocked vid card on a new system is a good way to create a problem too. Everything should be started at stock settings until the os is installed and stability is achieved.

[glc]

If you are going to use a PATA hard drive and a DVD drive on the same cable, put the colored end of the cable on the motherboard (usually blue), connect the hard drive to the black end of the cable, and the DVD drive on the gray connector in the middle. Jumper BOTH drives to CS (cable select).

That said, you should do THIS procedure first before mounting the motherboard into the case:

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=132409

[chuck4456]

Has anyone looked at the possibility of a RAM incompatability? Afer all (if I'm not mistaken) that is a 965 chipset.

[wilto]

Would the absence of a HDD cause a no show for the monitor.

Im thinking the mobo is faulty or ram is faulty.

This is the ram i have

Corsair 1GB DDR2 Value Select PC5300 Dual Channel Kit (2x512MB) (VS1GBKIT667D2) (MY-083-CS)


The GIGABYTE 965P-S3 motherboard is built to support a range of processors, including the Intel® Core™ 2 Duo, Intel® Pentium® D and the Intel® Pentium® 4. The 965P-S3 delivers support of up to 8 GB of DDR2 800 / 667 / 533 MHz SDRAM.

To me it looks compatible.

[wilto]

Ok so....

I took it all out.

Cpu and heatsink on mobo.
1 stick of ram on the mobo
video card on mobo.connected to monitor
connected the 24 pin to mobo and the 12v to mobo

right then.

and i still get a no signal input.

what would cause this?i think the ram is probably defective what are the chances?how can i prove it?

is it worth just calling up a someone to take a look.

[wilto]

please anyone?

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by wilto Would the absence of a HDD cause a no show for the monitor.

No.

Originally Posted by wilto Im thinking the mobo is faulty or ram is faulty.

Possible, proper troubleshooting will help to narrow down the exact problem.

Originally Posted by wilto This is the ram i have Corsair 1GB DDR2 Value Select PC5300 Dual Channel Kit (2x512MB) (VS1GBKIT667D2) (MY-083-CS) The GIGABYTE 965P-S3 motherboard is built to support a range of processors, including the Intel® Core™ 2 Duo, Intel® Pentium® D and the Intel® Pentium® 4. The 965P-S3 delivers support of up to 8 GB of DDR2 800 / 667 / 533 MHz SDRAM.

I might be wrong but since you have a Conroe I think you should have gotten at least PC2 6400 RAM (DDR2 800).

Originally Posted by wilto Ok so.... I took it all out. Cpu and heatsink on mobo. 1 stick of ram on the mobo video card on mobo.connected to monitor connected the 24 pin to mobo and the 12v to mobo right then. and i still get a no signal input. what would cause this?i think the ram is probably defective what are the chances?how can i prove it?

Does the fan(s) spin up when you jump the two PWR pins?

Do you have a PCI based video card you can throw in there just to be sure the problem isn't the LeadTek video card?

Do you have the case speaker hooked up to the motherboard so you can hear any BIOS error code beeps?

Cricket

[wilto]

667 ram should work though right?or is it incompatible with conroe.

Everything works fine apart from the no show on the monitor....so somewhere along the line there is an incompatible component.all fans work and heat sink etc.

i hooked the case speaker up and nothing comes out so no error beep.

nope all my other cards are AGP

I just havent got the resources to send stuff back all the time.

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by wilto 667 ram should work though right?or is it incompatible with conroe.

I don't have any experience with Conroe yet so I really couldn't say.

Originally Posted by wilto Everything works fine apart from the no show on the monitor.

No, everything does not work fine since your computer isn't working yet.

Originally Posted by wilto so somewhere along the line there is an incompatible component.

Or a defective or DOA component.

Originally Posted by wilto i hooked the case speaker up and nothing comes out so no error beep.

Pull the video card and the RAM from the motherboard and then power up again. You should get BIOS error beeps telling you there is something wrong (missing RAM and video card). If you don't get the beeps you may be looking at a bad motherboard.

Cricket

[blue60007]

DDR2-667 RAM should be fine with Conroe. DDR2-533 would be an exact match, but DDR2-667 and DDR2-800 would be better yet.

[wilto]

Ok no error beeps.

So i think im looking at a faulty motherboard.

Gonna phone up Gigabyte today just to confirm it.