interesting yet annoying.

[DarkAngelRayne]

recently i was working on a computer, adding some new components like ram and i also mounted a few fans and such. When i was all done i hooked the PC back up and turned it on, everything was fine, all the lights came on and the fans were good. But then i went to turn on the monitor, i got the amber light, which meant it was getting power, but still wasnt turning on. at first i thougt, oh ****, did i exceed the PSU limit? no way! so i went an unhooked the fans first, same deal. i checked all the hookups, everything was fine. so i tried unhooking the monitor from the PC, but left it connected to the wall, and what do you know, it turned on, and ran the color test that it does when not hooked to a PC. i thought, well ok then, one last looksie. I took a look at the ram, and what do you know, somehow it was offset and not placed properly. now, 3 out of the 4 sticks were in right, it was one stick that was just barely off, so i still had 3 gigs worth of ram in perfect order. I readjusted the last module, and started her up. Everything came on fine, so somehow that was the problem. The only question i still havent answered is why did that affect the monitor and ONLY the monitor, the mobo, fans, graphics card, and everything else were running just fine. Regardless, for those that are building PC's and cant get the monitor on, lol check everything is situated properly on the mobo hahaha. im just grateful i didnt fry my settings or the sticks. or the whole mobo.

[mplsmelo]

Your monitor didn't come on because the computer never successfully went through the post process and/or failed to load the OS. The offset ram didn't just affect the monitor, that was only a symptom of the much bigger issue: improperly installed Ram = fail to post/load os.

Fans, lights etc only need a source of power to operate regardless if you have an OS installed or not.

[glc]

You don't need an OS to complete a POST. It will simply stop and tell you to select a bootable device.