cant get display with this computer I built. Bad board?

[eats only heads]

I put togeather this computer from parts. my proble, is that I get no display (the monitor acts as though it is not pluged into the computer. I have tried two monitors and two different graphics cards, one pci and one agp. I don't see anything that could casue this other then a bad board. For one thing it is the only component other then the ram which I have never tested to work. My processor, a p4 1.6 ghs, doesn't have a fan or heat sink, however I don't see how that should matter here. It may of also been damaged when I moved it but even with a broken processor I should still get something. My power supply seems to be working fine so that really only leaves the board. The Led on a network card does light up so I know the board is atleast working.

[eats only heads]

here is the board

http://www.shuttleonline.com/specs.asp?pro_id=105

[RoD]

but even with a broken processor I should still get something

not always. Are the connectors from the p-box to your mobo black to black wire in the middle?

[eats only heads]

could you please refrase that. It is a 478 pin connector the pins are gold and they are in a square pattern with no pins in the middle. At anyrate if I broke my chip removing it wouldn't I know. One of the pins had gotten a bit bent but I fixed it.

[RoD]

most mobos have a 12 pin spot for the power box plugs, ie

||||||||||||

each resembles a pin, and some pboxes have split connectors, so instead of it having a plug like

||||||||||||


it would ahve two sep ones like

|||||| ||||||

in the second instance there is one or more black wires on one of the ends of each plug, the black wire from both connecters would be in. The letters rep the appropriate colorsjus example)

OWRGYB BYGRWO

Notice the (b) blacks are both touching in the middle.

Hope that helps.

[eats only heads]

okay I have one 2x2 pin connector and a larger one as well. One the larger one the black wires are more or less in the middle. The room is poorly lit so it is hard to tell exactly where there are. at anyrate what does this matter?

[kevinalm]

My best advice is to start over. That is to say go over every connection, jumper setting, etc. Bad, incorrect, or pooly seated ram or processor could be your problem. The rule for assembling a computer is check everything 5 or 6 times, apply power once. Don't assume any of the assembly you've done up to now is right. That's what I allways do, and I'm an electronics tech by trade. And I would get a cpu heatsink/fan on it first.

It's really easy to do something silly, like plugging an ide cable on wrong, that will give "totally dead" symptoms. And definately get some decent light. Bad lighting and electronics work don't mix. I speak from experience.

[eats only heads]

well My main light is the window, the problem is that my lights are florecent and take a long time to warm up and are so off color you cant tell red from black. I unpluged everything but the ensentials. Not even any drives. I have been going through this stuff repeatedly and dont see any problem. And can you even plug an ide cable in wrong? It is hard to diagnose a failure like this. I have also been repeatedly checking the manual and everyting seems right. I have been working on this with someone else so we should catch each others errors

[TravisS]

It could be either a bad board or bad chip.

PIV's are pretty notorious for being bad, at least from what I see. So, if you can get a chance to test that chip on another machine, that would be great.

Is your keyboard PS/2 or USB? If it's PS/2, plug it in, power on the computer, and watch for the lights to blink (num, caps, and scroll lock). If they don't blink, try it again. If still no blink, it's a bad CPU.

If they do blink, probably a bad mobo. Assuming you have a speaker on your motherboard, take out ALL your RAM.,t urn on the computer. Does it start beeping like crazy? No? Well, it's a bad mobo then.

Try really hard to test that CPU on another machine though, it's very possible it's bad. And yes, if either the mobo, RAM, or CPU is bad (any or all) there will be no post and no video.

[kevinalm]

Can you plug an ide cable in wrong? Well, it's a little embarassing to admit, but about a week ago...

My own system. No damage, but the symtoms were same as yours. I think the power supply went into shutdown. I was installing a ultra ata card to add a second hd and using a mini flashlight to see. It felt like the plug was seated but I was off by a pin to one side. Couldn't see it till I got a desk lamp and strung out an extension cord.

On another occasion a friend asked me to help him find the problem he was having with his system. The cables were correctly in the drives. Finally thought to check where they plugged into the motherboard. Yep, backwards. The cables didn't have polarisation and they plugged on just fine backwards. You're right, most stuff is polarized nowadays but shouldn't isn't can't.

I took a look at your manual, and I can only think of a couple of things that you might check. Have you reset the cmos? Remember to unplug the power leads (atx1 and atx2) from the motherboard before moving the jumper or it won't reset.

Does your power supply have both atx1 and atx2 connectors, and are they both plugged in to the proper motherboard sockets? With the power cables disconnected, give a little tug one wire at a time and see if all the connectors are latched into the plug. Very occasionally those type of connectors can slip through QC without being properly seated.

Is there a short at one of the motherboard mounting points to the case? This will force shutdown. (If your lucky.)

A bad/incorrectly mounted cpu is possible. So is defective/incompatible/badly mounted ram. Does the speaker beep when you power up? Their is usually an error code involved in that but it won't beep if the cpu never runs at all. Whatever is going wrong sounds like it happens VERY early in the boot process.

[TravisS]

Ooooh, good point.

A VERY good starting point would be to clear the CMOS. In fact just today I was at a house working on a computer that had no post and no video. After a bit of troubleshooting I finally cleared the CMOS and boom, just like that the computer worked

[kevinalm]

Yeah, if one of the cmos settings is incompatable with say for example the video card then you can have that sort of situation. Resetting the cmos forces the settings into a "least common denominator" condition and gets you running.

[RoD]

a good way to tell if its ram, processor, or power box connections, is to listen to the pbox when u turn it on. If the fans not turning something of those three isn't right, then unplug it from everything and turn it on, if the fan moves your pbox is fine. Sometimes a powerbox seems good but isn't cranking the volts that it should.

[eats only heads]

I get no keyboard lights no start up, no sounds from removing ram, I tried reseting the cmos settings but nothing happend. The processer worked fine in my old computer but I could have damaged it in moving. fans and drives are making sound(and spining). The cable all go in only one way.

[kevinalm]

Does the power supply give off a hissing, white noise sound. (Not very loud).