Flying blind on my 1st build

[jeffburns]

Ladies and Gentlemen,
This is my 1st attempt at building my own computer. I purchased all the components (listed below) new from Micro Center. Once assembled and powered on, I get no beep and the monitor does not respond at all. The monitor power light is yellow (on) and never turns green for even a moment. I am using an analog connection to the monitor, via a digital to analog adapter to my video card. The two on-board indicator lights are on and all fans are turning. I am able to hold the power button for 5 seconds and power the computer down.

With no communication with the monitor, I am flying blind.

I returned the machine to Micro Center and paid for diagnostics. They reported that the mobo was failing to POST and therefore was bad. Nothing else was reported (they want more money to go any further). I purchased a replacement mobo and returned the original mobo. Upon re-assembly, the behavior was identical.

This leads me to believe that I may have made some error in assembly. What i suspect is that the board may not be fully powered. Can anyone tell me whether that is the problem from the following: I have connected the 24-pin power and the 4-pin 12V power, but nothing else to the motherboard itself. The video card is installed in the PCI-e slot nearest the memory modules, as the user manual suggests. All default jumper settings have been retained.

Here are the (all new) components:
Motherboard = DFI Infinity NF UltraII-M2
CPU = AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual-Core
Cabinet = Antec Sonata III with 500 watt Earthwatts power supply
Memory = 2 1GB OCZ memory sticks (total 2GB)
Hard Drive = 250 GB Western Digital SATA300 WD Caviar SE16
Video Card = e-GeForce 8600 GT (PCI-E with 256 MB on-board

I later added a DVD burner and floppy drive but the computer still never manages to POST.

Your suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!!

[Alaron]

Try our troubleshooter here: http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=132409 Be sure to remove the motherboard from the case. Let us know the results.

[jeffburns]

Thank you for the suggestion. I will be out of state until next Tuesday and will report back after my return.

[Cricket]

Did you install the brass or plastic standoffs under the motherboard when you had it mounted in the case?

Cricket

[jeffburns]

Thank you both for responding. I managed to get the motherboard to POST today. Having read your responses and a number of others found via the Internet, I did the following:
1) Retried with just one memory board (no change)
2) removed all but the minimum connections (no change)
3) removed the board from the case and connected only the minimum (no change)
4) reset the CMOS (POST worked for the first time, but still no monitor)
5) reconnected the monitor to the second digital port on the video card (monitor worked for the first time)

The reset of the CMOS was the trick. Once I got the POST beep, I went to the video card right away. Now I can see the setup screens (no longer blind)! I'll be remounting the board in the case next but wanted to reply as soon as possible. Thanks again. There's lots more to do so I may be back.

[Gen.Ben]

Glad you got it working