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1st build problems

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~morningsabre:iconmorningsabre: Mar 27, 2008, 1:23:22 PM
Hey, I've been wanting a new fast computer for a long time partly for my games, and partly so i can do my digital art without having to wait for the frustratingly slow loading times. I tried buying a gaming PC, which after 2 weeks broke down after displaying the blue screen of death. I got my refund and turned to the idea of building one, which was something I've been generally interested in doing for a long time anyway.

This is my first time so I'm very inexperienced, but luckily I know a lot of hardware people who helped me to assemble it together. We were very careful all the way through to make sure my new parts didn't get damaged. However when it came to switching it on, it didn't work. The fans came on and it made noises indicating that the parts were working, however, the monitor was receiving no input. I tried different cables, 2 different monitors and double checked they were plugged into the right proper slot and everything. Then i tried moving the GFX card into a new slot and checked to make sure it was in secure and had the right power cable connected to it. Initially the fan on the card worked, but after a few attempts other things started happening. Sometimes, just flicking the switch on the back of the PSU but not pressing the on button will cause the lights to flicker on my fans. Now the fan on my GFX card has also stopped running, although at one point i unplugged the power and the fan went round (still no image), yet when i plugged the power lead back in it stopped. Another thing i'm also concerned about is that the cpu fan will start turning when u first turn it on, but then it will stop. Is this suppose to happen, or should the fan be running on it constantly?

Me and my friends hav checked to make sure everything is where is should be, checked to make sure the motherboard isn't in contact with the case anywhere, we've even tried unhooking the dvd and hard drives in case they were causing any problems. I'm thinking this could possibly be a faulty GFX card or PSU, but I'm very worried it could be my motherboard. The thing is these are brand new parts so I'm slightly bemused about it, but i got them online on ebuyer, so to send them back and get em replaced or whatever will take some time, which I'm not happy about because I'm on a game development course and I really need a computer that can handle the work I'm currently doing. Here are the following parts I have...

Intel core 2 quad Q6600

Gigabyte GA-X38-DS4 iX38 Socket 775 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard

OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 Memory REAPER EDITION CL4

Asus Radeon HD3870 512MB GDDR4 Dual DVI TV-out PCI-E Graphics Card

Seagate ST3500320AS 500GB Hard Drive SATA II 7200rpm *32MB Cache*

Optiarc AD-7200S 20X DVD±RW/DL/RAM Internal SATA Bare Black Drive

Extra Value Black 700W 14cm Blue LED Fan PSU

Antec Nine Hundred - Gaming Case with 200mm Top Fan - No PSU

Although I've only got one card, I picked em out hoping to one day eventually implement crossfire.

I really hope to sort this problem out as I was very much looking forward to having my own built PC. Although my luck with technology atm seems to be on a low...

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*Leaping-Faith:iconLeaping-Faith: Mar 27, 2008, 2:11:24 PM
Heh "Extra Value PSU" <-- this is a really important part to spend money on rather than skimp :D

The graphics card definitely has power yes?
It's definitely seated properly? The clip is clipped in correctly?

I assume there is no beep from the motherboard? Have you plugged the speaker in? (the different types of beep can help you know what's wrong with it)

You've tried disconnecting everything except the minimum? Everything is seated correctly?
and "only got one card" that 3870 will last you a while ;)

--
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands, but in seeing with new eyes. - Marcel Proust
`rayvinazn:iconrayvinazn: Mar 27, 2008, 5:03:36 PM
*Leaping-Faith covered most of it for me. Never skimp out on a power supply like that, you're just begging for trouble. A power supply ready for HD3870 Crossfire (and don't forget, AMD now has CrossfireX, which means you can Crossfire any cards in the HD38xx family - so if you want to throw in an HD3870X2 you can do that, or if you want to try a cheap Crossfire setup you could throw in the upcoming HD3830) should not cost less than $120. Wattage isn't even close to everything about a power supply, in the exact same way that Gigahertz are not everything in a processor anymore. For your setup I would have most likely picked out the Corsair TX650w unit, or if the HD3870X2 is a card that you might consider in the future, the Antec Truepower Quattro 850w would be an appropriate choice.

Regarding your problem, I agree that you should go back to the bare minimum - even going so far as to take the motherboard out of the case and trying it that way to make sure it's not shorting against your case. Disconnect your disk drives first, and then try taking out one stick of RAM at a time (and switching slots), and finally removing the motherboard from the case. Make sure you test it in a reasonably ESD-free area (any hard surface, preferably not in a carpeted room).

The Antec Nine Hundred unfortunately does not come with a case speaker (which I consider unforgivable in a $100+ case), so you can't troubleshoot your problem via POST beeps, unless you pick one up. I picked one up from Performance-PCs, they have great customer service and reasonably fast shipping, but you can get one wherever you feel most comfortable. I'd pick one up regardless, they're very handy to have.

--
Dusted.
*PerseBalthasaar:iconPerseBalthasaar: Mar 28, 2008, 4:38:27 AM
Run your build only with processor, motherboard, and memory. Plug in the power and fans. See if the thing's fan could run constantly and there's no beeps.

--
~LuzBalthasaar *PerseBalthasaar ~Serpentear
We are the Balthasaars! *Strange music plays*
~morningsabre:iconmorningsabre: Mar 28, 2008, 5:43:51 AM
yup, checked the cards in right and everything. I got my mates to check it for me aswell. Ye i'm starting to regret getting that PSU, it had a gud rating on it, but I decided to try a new PSU to see if it would make any difference. So far i'm not getting any flickering on it when i start it up, the fan on the GFX card is running constant. The fan on the cpu flicks a bit, but still isn't running constant, but still no video output. Disconnected everything excpet the mininum, still no hope. Thanx for the advice, i tried plugging some speakers in and got no beeps or anything, so i'm starting to think i'm gonna have to send the whole lot back.
~morningsabre:iconmorningsabre: Mar 28, 2008, 5:49:45 AM
thanx, ye, i'll try moving the RAM about and taking the motherboard out. I'll check out that PSU as well
*Leaping-Faith:iconLeaping-Faith: Mar 28, 2008, 9:04:59 AM
Following on from the your reply to me and the above, the speaker to plug into the pc isn't connected to the pc's green jack output, rather it's connected right onto the motherboard with a 4 pin socket.

If you have any old PCs lying around that you don't use, the speaker in mine came from an old P4 board.. still works fine. The beep code is really useful when debugging.

As to the cpu fan not spinning, a usual startup should have the fan spinning on full and then settling down to a nice quiet pace.

--
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands, but in seeing with new eyes. - Marcel Proust
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