The XMEN Clan Forums

I turn it on and all that happens is the CPU fan turns on, the MB fan turns on, and the power light comes on. I plugged in a salvaged PC speaker and no beeps. Nothing. When I had the DVD drive & HD in they both powered up but no BIOS came on the screen and no beeps!

This is what I have now:
Power supply.
Mobo: 24 pin & extra 4 pin power in the PW1 & PW3 plugs
CPU installed & fan plugged in.
RAM: 2x 512MB installed in DDR1 & DDR2
power & reset buttons, power LED, HD LED, and PC speaker installed.

Did I miss anything? I wasn't sure if my 9 year old PCI card would work, so I removed it and installed the PC speaker instead. I don't get it.

Well, there's a lot of delicate components there that are sensitive to physical damage as well as electrical. Gotta be careful. Nuff said on that topic.

Now, assuming you didn't hose something like that, here's how you find out what's up:

Unplug the 'puter.

Unhook all drive cables from the mobo.

Unhook all case wires from the mobo except power button.

Remove all cards from expansion slots. Replace video card.

Remove all memory modules. Double-check to make sure your memory is compatible with your motherboard!! Replace the minimum number of modules possible. (dual-channel will be 2)

Remove and replace power supply connections to mobo.

Try to power on now. Don't forget to plug it back in.

If you see stuff on the screen, then what you have assembled so far is working. Power off, add one component, power on, and repeat the process until you find the offending connection/card/whatever. If it doesn't work, then you have a problem! Likely with your mobo, CPU, possibly vid card, or (long shot) memory. Inspect these components for damage, and try to replace what you can with spares to see if you can find the bad apple in your barrel. If not, probably need to RMA mobo and/or CPU.

Good luck!

must be RMA time then... I've tried different RAM slots... checked all my connections... unplugged everything: plugged in CPU FAN, MB PW1 & PW3, power button, PC speaker. (the vid card I have ATM is 9 years old... works in other 'puters, but the PC speaker is more trustworthy)

If this whole thing falls apart, then I'm going to quit all of my computer habits... #$%(*@&#$#@)($*@#$ing things! I am so close to just giving up and considering the whole thing as a $1000 loss. I'm going to have to go relieve LOTS of tension before I get back to this project.

I think last time I built a PC I had nothing but trouble until all the sudden it started working... I doubt that will happen this time. I can't get the most basic things to work... IT WONT EVEN BEEP!

Calm down. Deeeeeep breath.

Query - you keep talking about the vid card and the pc speaker together, as if one replaces the other. I was wondering what gives with that, since they're not related at all. Do you mean sound card?

Other than that, you haven't mentioned a video card at all. I don't remember if you got the AGP or PCI-E? And that you did plug the monitor up to it? Does the fan on the vid card spin when you power on?

If you got the PCI-E card, I don't think you can just stick the vid card in any of them. Some slots are better suited for video than others. I think the one you want will be closes to the CPU, but I've never had a PCI-E system.

Assuming you got the stuff from NewEgg, they may be willing to walk you through some troubleshooting before you send it back. Couldn't hurt.

My PCIe video card is not here yet, so all I have is a 9 year old PCI card. It still works fine. I'm just not sure if it works on my new system because the monitor never comes out of sleep mode. I'm not saying the PC speaker replaces the video card... just that the video card is in and out and nothing changes.

When I did try it with the DVD drive and the HD they both powered up,

Oh the power LED blinks continuously.

*edit* I googled some posts with people who have the exact same problem (I'm glad to hear other people say that the CPU should be fine.)

*update* I just read something that lightens my mood a bit. Someone said that the MB won't boot w/o a PCIe video card installed. Sounds dumb that I can't use it with an old PCI card, but my PCI-express GeForce6 should be here on monday. So all of my pain and suffering can go on hold until then.

Here is my experience:

When I built my current computer it failed to go throught the BIOS. The LEDs on the back are there to help debug what is wrong but they keep changing what they think is wrong each time. After sending the mother board back and trading in the Memory stick and testing the Processer in my old system I still couldn't get it to work. I talked to some people at Fry's and they couldn't give me a reason but the next guy is line was able to help.

I ended up putting my old processer into the motherboard and trying that. It then started and I went into the BOIS and manual changed it over to the new processer, switched processers and booted it back up. From then on it worked perfectly fine. The BOIS just couldn't auto-change for the processer which was causing it to fail to boot. All of this took me 3 weeks to do.

That would be what i thought. You must have a PCI-E vid card in order to get the thing to work. An ordinary PCI vid card wouldnt work. Now if it came with on board Video than you could just not install a card and it should work just fine.

Ok, then. We'll wait to hear what happens when you get your vid card in.

Glad that it seems to be a non-issue.

Only remaining issue ATM is that I dropped my laptop and now its worse than before. Good thing I only need it for burning a few backup CDs and then it goes to the garbage.

Back to downloading demos that I couldn't play before. Finally, pixel shaders!

Hey, what kind of laptop? I need a replacement power supply for my Dell.

Dell Latitude.
There are some bits I might keep from it, but I'll consider parting it out.

Oh REA-lly? My Inspiron needs the power supply with the square connector. It's 3-4 years old. My dad has a couple Latitudes, newer and older than mine, and neither matches.

THIS is what I have (Latitude C840). Is that the square connector your talking about?

Looks like it.

I wouldn't have asked except you said it was going in the garbage.

This one is the best deal I can find so far: http://www.laptoppartsnow.com/dfsrzdgirugh49.html

Gimme a week to think on it. If the laptop is going in the garbage, you can have the power pack for the cost of shipping.

I still have to get my desktop running and get all of my files transfered. FedEx says I get my video card on Wednesday. Tuesday is more likely.

Oh, my HD is 250 gigs... how should I partition that? What's a good, safe max size for a partition?