I need some help on my first build.

[warpd]

I decided to build my own computer and I got everything and put it togethor today. The monitor shows no signal.The light comes on in the front of the comp and the fan on the cpu comes on, and there are no beeps. Am I supposed to plug the moniter into the graphics card or the VGA connector on the motherboard? I tried both it made no difference. Here is what I got:


Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Windsor 2.0GHz Socket AM2 Processor
MSI K9MM-V Socket AM2 VIA K8M800 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
Kingston HyperX 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory
I also have a GeForce FX 5500 AGP Graphics card from my last computer
and a 650watt Antec Power Supply

Any help would be much appreciated, I'm a college student and I just dropped alot of money on this and its frustrating having nothing to show for it.

[Kov-Ice]

Welcome to PCMech! Here's a really good place to start trouble-shooting your build:

Having problems with a new build Try this.

Let us know how it goes.

[warpd]

Ok I got everything up and running and while I was looking for drivers on the internet my computer started smoking and the screen started to distort this happened for a couple of seconds and stopped, so I thought ok everything must be fine. I started to download my video card drivers and went to wal-mart. When I came back my roomate told me he smelled smoke and that he went back and turned my computer off. He said at the time the screen was blank, when it was on when I left the apartment. The person who helped me get it started and through the bios said the fan wasn't turning earlier and that it might be the graphics card. When I look at it now thought the fan on graphics card is turning fine. I even tried installing a new graphics card and still nothing, the computer seems to come on fine no beeps or anything , just there is nothing on the moniter at all, not even a no signal. It seems like right when it seemed everything is working fine something else went wrong. Is it possible my graphics card hurt the motherboard or cpu? Please any of ya'lls input would be very appreciated.

[glc]

Pull it back out of the case again.

[flanzig1]

Where there's smoke, you have fried parts. Follow the link the Kov-ice provided. Take everything apart to find the source of the smoke. You probably mounted the motherboard before checking to see if the case mounting standoffs were in the correct place and correct number that your mobo uses.

[warpd]

Ok am I looking for damage on the cpu, the motherboard? What will it look like?

Also is it normal for my screwdrivers to become magnetic, after I used them to remove the motherboard screws they became magnetic.

[glc]

The first thing you do is pull it out of the case and try to fire it up as per the thread. Use the onboard video.

[warpd]

Tried it and it did the same thing as in the case, power for all the fans including the graphics card came on, but nothing on the monitor. I tried plugging in the monitor to the vga port on the motherboard first and turning it on , nothing. Then I installed the graphics card and tried pluggng it up and turning it on that way, again nothing. What is the next step? Thanks again for the help.

[doubledragon5]

Check to make sure there isn't any burned spots of the CPU. Also check for any melted transistor on the mb, and make sure the psu isn't omitting any bad odors

[juppy]

While you're at it, you can try a different monitor too, if you have access to one that you KNOW works, just to rule that out.

[warpd]

I've checked the processor and it looks fine and I looked over the mobo and I can't find anything burned out, but obviously i could be overlooking something. I haven't had an opportunity to switch out monitors yet. Power supply seems fine but someone told me the small amount of smoke and smell could come from the psu since its new they do that sometime when they are brand new?

[doubledragon5]

Well that is a first.. I would deffiently try a new psu.. You could have fried the mb....

[warpd]

Ok new update so I changed out monitors and I guess mine is fried because the new monitor worked fine out of the case, when I booted it up without the case it posted fine, attached the harddrive and again it went all the way to xp fine. As soon as I attached everyhting else up and put it in the case it wouldn't post again. The monitor was black again. What is my next step? Im aslo using only 4 of the riser screws when it requires 6 because I lost 2 of the screws. The risers are still there I just don't have screws in 2 of them. Could this be a problem

[flanzig1]

Make sure there isn't more than 6 risers.

[glc]

Rob screws from somewhere else or remove the unused standoffs.