1st Build - not working!

[bbrendell]

I'm new to building and to these forums. I'm trying to build a machine with the following specs:
Intel e6400
MSI P6N SLI motherboard
Leadtek Winfast 7950GT
2 GB DDR2 800 RAM

I installed everything both in and out of the case. The fans spin, the lights on the motherboard come on. However, there is no picture on my monitor. There are no system beeps either. Please help! Any help would be greatly appreciated...

Thanks!

[ChoboSeki]

Originally Posted by bbrendell I'm new to building and to these forums. I'm trying to build a machine with the following specs: Intel e6400 MSI P6N SLI motherboard Leadtek Winfast 7950GT 2 GB DDR2 800 RAM I installed everything both in and out of the case. The fans spin, the lights on the motherboard come on. However, there is no picture on my monitor. There are no system beeps either. Please help! Any help would be greatly appreciated... Thanks!

What is your power supply?

[chuck4456]

More details than that. Let's have it all. Did you connect the monitor and plug it in?

[bbrendell]

Here are the full details of all the parts:
LEADTEK PX7950 GT TDH 256MB
MSI P6N SLI-FI NF650ISLI
XCLIO 450BL 450W
C2D E6400 2.13G 775
A-DATA ADQVE1A16K
XION|XON-303 BK/BL
monitor: Envision EN-9110

I installed the power supply, cpu and heatsink, memory and video card both inside and outside the case as per another post on here, and all of the lights light up, fans spin, etc. But no picture. The monitor doesn't show anything. Ideas?

Thanks for the help!

[bbrendell]

...I should also add that when I built it the first time in the case, I installed MSI's D-Bracket (which has diagnostic lights on it) and did not get any lights on it at all...

[freakitchen]

To clarify, you assembled the system out of the case, as detailed in this thread?

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

Did you remember to connect both the main 24-pin power connector, AND the 4-pin power connector, to the left and centre of the board?

[bbrendell]

I assembled the system out of the case according to the thread you linked.
I only connected the 24-pin power connector. I could not find the location for the 4-pin power connector. Could you possibly tell me where I could find that on the MSI P6N board? Would/could that be the problem?

[freakitchen]

Yes - the system will not boot without that connector.

Is this your motherboard?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130082

If so, take a look at the pictures. You'll see the white four pin connector (2x2) to the left of the large blue MSI logo on the heatsink.

Edit:

On further inspection, it looks like that '4 pin' connector is actually an 8-pin. Only some PSUs have this connector, and I don't believe the Xclio that you have is one of them. Looking at the Newegg picture, and some of the reviews, it looks like a 4 pin connector can be used in the RIGHT 4 pins of the 8 pin socket (on the picture, it looks like the LEFT 4 pins are covered up).

[bbrendell]

Frea - thanks so much! I'm at work now but will definitely try that later and will post with the results. Do you think it's worth it to buy a new power supply that comes with an 8-pin connector? Or will the 4-pin connector work ok?

I really appreciate the help...

[bbrendell]

PS - will this also solve the question as to why the D-Bracket lights are not lighting up at all?

[freakitchen]

That connector is all about CPU power, the 8-pin simply provides more +12v. Usually seen on server motherboards, we're starting to see them on desktop boards because of the introduction of quad-cores etc. Looking at your specs, I'd say if the system boots with the 4-pin (which it should), then don't worry about it.

I'm not familiar with MSI's D-Bracket, but yes, if your CPU wasn't getting any power, then there would likely have been no info getting to the D-bracket. On a forum note, please use the Edit button if you have something to add to a previous post.

[bbrendell]

Great! Thanks for all of the help. I will try it tonight and see if it works and will post the results. I will use the edit button in the future. Thanks again!

[bbrendell]

ok, so it worked, but now i'm getting a CMOS Checksum Bad error when I start the computer... what do I do?

[bbrendell]

In addition, my dvd drive keeps ejecting itself whenever I close it. Also, I looked in the BIOS setup and it said the CPU temp was about 57-58 degrees...is that bad?

sorry - I forgot to use the edit feature before...

[bosamar]

Originally Posted by bbrendell ok, so it worked, but now i'm getting a CMOS Checksum Bad error when I start the computer... what do I do?

That's because when you booted the system it had different bios settings on an earlier boot, i.e. the values are incorrect. Try clearing the CMOS, reboot a few times and see if it happens again. See http://www.tech-faq.com/cmos-checksum-bad-error.shtml

[ktkendall]

Make sure the clear cmos jumper is in the normal position. I've gotten a motherboard or 2 caom with the jumper set in the clear position.

[bbrendell]

ok, so everything works fine, got vista installed. I went in to the BIOS when it was booting, and it says that my CPU is about 57 degrees, and the system is about 40. Is 57 degrees too hot? Should I do anything about this?

[freakitchen]

I think that's too hot for a Core 2 Duo at idle. Suggest you remove the motherboard from the case, and make sure the heatsink is installed correctly. It's not recommended to do this while the board is in the case. See here for a guide, that includes a link to a video

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=176924

[bbrendell]

I installed SpeedFan (a temperature monitoring program) and here's what it say my temps are:
at idle, my core0 and core 1 are at around 34 and 36. However, when I first started the program it said they were at 50 something...

I looked at that site and the video, and that's how I installed the fan. The only thing is I think I might have put a little too much Arctic Silver on there - would too much be a problem?

[freakitchen]

When you used the Arctic Silver, did you clean off the thermal pad that Intel include on the bottom of the heatsink?

[bbrendell]

yes

[freakitchen]

Strange that speedfan would report a lower temperature than in BIOS. The 34 and 36 are what I would expect from that processor running at idle. Installing too much thermal paste can lead it to act as an insulator, but you'd have to go overboard. My suggestion is to run the system for a while with speedfan open - also running an application that will max out both cores of your processor (I think two instances of Prime95 will do this), and see what the temperatures do.

[bbrendell]

Well, I'm installing some programs now, and during the installs the temperatures get up to 50 degrees and over... but then at idle, they come back down to normal. The programs are not very hungry programs (I wouldn't think), just iTunes and stuff like that...

[LeftyAce]

Installation is more CPU hungry than you might expect, because the program has to be uncompressed from the installer. The fact that the processor keeps dropping back down to the 30s makes me think it's fine. How high above 50 does it get? I believe anything below 60 is still ok for a C2D.

[bbrendell]

It goes anywhere from 50 to 58 degrees, give or take. But speedfan gives it the little "fire" icon indicating it's hot.

[ktkendall]

60 is time to surely set up better cooling in there

[bbrendell]

can you recommend a good cooler? I'm new to this. Should I try taking off the stock heatsink first, scraping off the Arctic Silver, and reapplying it in a smaller quantity?

[freakitchen]

Yes, I would do that. But take the motherboard out of the case to remove and re-install the heatsink.

Instructions for paste application here:

http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_s...structions.htm

[bbrendell]

thanks! will try that tonight. After reading those instructions for application, I can see that I put WAY too much on... Thanks!

[glc]

Why did you remove the Intel thermal paste to begin with? AS5 is no better.