Build help ASAP

[Brad]

So I've been building my computer all day.

It powers up just fine, but nothing at all comes up on the monitor, and the CD-RW and DVD-ROM drives don't open at all, but the LED is on on the CD-RW. What is wrong?

[Renzatic Gear]

When your comp first starts up does it make any beeping noises beyond the usual single beep?

[Brad]

When your comp first starts up does it make any beeping noises beyond the usual single beep?
No beeps, no LEDs, just the fans all come on.

[Renzatic Gear]

Hmm..it's possible that you've gotten a motherboard dead on arrival. It happens...

But before you start gutting your new comp to repackage your mobo try and reseat your ram, graphics cards, soundcard, all that fun stuff.

Also, how many watts is your power suppily? What are the specs of the comp you're building?

[Brad]

Hmm..it's possible that you've gotten a motherboard dead on arrival. It happens...

But before you start gutting your new comp to repackage your mobo try and reseat your ram, graphics cards, soundcard, all that fun stuff.

Also, how many watts is your power suppily? What are the specs of the comp you're building?

Everything powers up fine, I get lights from everything, fans are going... just no video. PSU is 420W, so it's plenty. I've tried reseating everything like 20 times, still nothing.

Specs are:
Pentium 4 2.8GHz with Hyper Threading
1024 MB PC3200 DDR RAM
80 GB HDD
ATI Radeon 9600XT
Intel 865PERL mobo

[Renzatic Gear]

Okay, if you were to leave it running with the sound up would you eventually load into windows? Do you get any bios post at all (single beep)?

I'm guessing that your graphics card is also new, right? If so try it in your working computer (that I assume you have since you're talking to me now) and see if you can get a display.

[Brad]

Windows hasn't been loaded since I haven't been able to get any video...

No beeping at all from anything.

[Renzatic Gear]

Your computer isn't posting to bios if you're not getting a beep, so your lack of a display is only a symptom of a much bigger problem...probably a fried motherboard.

But if you can do what I said before...either put your old videocard into your new comp, or if you can't do that then put the 9600 in your old comp. If you get a display either way then you know it isn't your videocard...which I think is fine but it's best to check everything before you assume something is dead.

Also, check all your jumpers and stuff. There's one in particular that will cause your comp to not boot properly if it isn't capped right. It's a jumper used to reset CMOS in case you royally screw something up in the bios and need to go back to default settings. Normally it'll come properly capped but in your case it might be different. Since you've already checked the big stuff you might as well start looking at the little things.

[Brad]

In my searches for help I've heard lots about CMOS. But in the manual for the motherboard, no mention is made of any CMOS jumpers. If this is my problem, I can't find it anywhere on my board.

And the board isn't fried, because it obviously still works if the CPU fan comes on..

[Renzatic Gear]

Look for the JBAT jumper in your motherboard manual.

Just cuz your CPU fan starts up when you turn on your computer doesn't mean that your mobo is working, all that means is that it's getting power. There could be a billion and one things wrong with a motherboard that keeps it from booting up properly....it could be a little crack in some tiny chip on the ass end of the board that's giving you problems. The fact that it isn't posting points to either a bad mobo or a bad bios.

Course all this doesn't mean that the mobo is definately fried, but to me it seems to be the most likely cause.

[Brad]

I swapped video cards earlier, looks like the mobo is dead. Already got an RMA and it's on its way back to Newegg.

[Renzatic Gear]

Aight man..good luck with it. Once you get all the new stuff hooked up tell us how it went.