Build Fail

[asielcs]

Well my first build wasnt very successful for some reason I did not get any signal from the video card to my monitor. So I started to take out stuff until I was left with the ram, cpu and video card... I tested the Video card in another pc and it worked fine, also tried one stick of ram at time, and several of them, no luck. Since no one really had an answer for it( including Asus technical support)... I'm sending the mobo and cpu back and getting a new board and a replaced CPU.
Newegg.com - ASUS M4A77TD AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard ( old mobo)
Newegg.com - AMD Athlon II X2 250 Regor 3.0GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor ADX250OCGMBOX.
Ive been looking at this one. I have an ATX case... but I dont know how I feel about the micros?
Newegg.com - ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO AM3 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-186-_-Product this is just too much of a bargain but the brand is not even on the reviews

[glc]

Jetway is junk. Made by PC Chips.

Did you try this procedure?

PROBLEMS with a NEW BUILD? Try This!!

[asielcs]

I tried everything ... I just send the mobo and cpu back.
whats your opinion on micro boards?

[jdeb]

Originally Posted by asielcs I tried everything ... I just send the mobo and cpu back. whats your opinion on micro boards?

Super Micro? Those are server boards but are excellent quality. Stick with Asus, sometimes you get a bad board, it happens.

[glc]

Micro-ATX boards are fine as long as you don't need more than 4 card slots.

[Nikon]

i think he means micro atx.

[asielcs]

Yes I mean micro ATX, well all im planning on using is the video card slot. I just want to get something with integrated video this time.... anyways its the same price as my other board and higher boost. you guys think that ASUS I posted is a decent choice compared to the other one?

[Hufigyed]

So why do you want to get a board with integrated video if you're using a video card?

I recently built a system with that board, it's a nice board. It is very similar to your first board, doesn't have as many PCI slots and one less Sata connector but you gain a firewire and e-sata port.

[larrymoencurly]

Originally Posted by asielcs So I started to take out stuff until I was left with the ram, cpu and video card...

No heatsink/fan? While it's impossible to ruin a modern CPU by running it without a heatsink/fan, some systems will shut down if the CPU exceeds some preset limit.

The worst-quality components are usually the power supply and memory, and almost all the major retail brands are made with no-name chips (exception is Crucial, but avoid anything of theirs with a heatsink on it). That's why you see all that DDR3 rated for 1.65V and DDR2 rated for 1.9V -- their chips failed testing at the normal 1.50V or 1.8V. OTOH major brand power supplies are almost always OK.

Did you set up the system outside the case, on 3/4" of newspaper (no shiney paper -- static; the 3/4" stack is to let the rear brackets of any plug-in cards clear the table top) and an anti-static surface (the foam sheet the motherboard sits on is OK)? That eliminates the chance of a short between the mobo and case because of extra standoffs, off-center standoffs, or lack of standoffs near corners (mobos and cases can flex enough to touch). If you did test with the mobo in the case, did you make sure fiber washers were used on top or botom of each post as needed? Mobos are still sometimes made with copper traces running too closely to the mounting holes. Also did you plug in the cards, memory, and power connectors all the way into their sockets?

I would test a new system first with its built-in video or with a low power graphics card, even an ancient PCI card, to rule out problems caused by the power supply being too weak.

Jetway isn't as awful as people think. I'd probably put them on par with ECS. I don't know if Jetway makes its own boards, but I don't think they've ever been associated with PCChips, unlike ECS.

[asielcs]

Well I did various tests. and I never took out the heat sink of course. I bought a really nice modular antec 550 W psu, all the fans in my pc were fine just no video. this is more then enough power to run 3 components. I was also on the phone with ASUS for like half an hour trying different stuff until they told me send the mobo back.
I wanna get a mobo with integrated video this time so I can rule out the possibility of video next time I build. Also its an advantage if your video card goes bad you can still switch back and use the pc, or else you will spend 10 days waiting for the RMA.
One thing I noticed when taking out the heat sink fan, there wasn't many of the thermal paste on my CPU. Since the stock brought some I didnt use any extra?

[glc]

You don't need or want a lot of thermal material. All you need is a very thin coating to fill the microscopic pores, metal to metal gives you the best heat transfer.