Building a PC...trouble already

[Greekguys]

Brand new parts are being used. In the case I installed a floppy, CD-RW, DVD, AGP Graphics card. Got the monitor and keyboard/mouse and all other components plugged in. Powered on the system and all the fans work, and the CD-RW opens/closes, the DVD opens/closes. The floppy light goes on.

Problem areas are: The monitor powers on but nothing appears on the screen. The IBM hard drive is hard to tell if it's working. I tried the monitor on my existing Gateway PC and it worked fine. This may mean that my Gainward GeForce2 AGP Graphics card is the culprit.

So where do I begin? Is is possible that there is something actually wrong with the Graphics card right out of the box? Also, how do I confirm that my Hard Drive is wired and working correctly?

I have not installed any software of any kind to this point mainly due to the monitor issue.

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He who is the Lord of the Rings answers the phone first...

[diurnal]

Unconnect all power wire of all the drives, meaning cdrom, floppy, dvd, and harddrive, try that and see if the monitor will post.

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Sledgehammer will save the day!

[Paleo Pete]

OK I'll clarify that a bit.

Start with a bare bones system, that means motherboard, CPU, memory, keyboard and video card, nothing else. See if you get a picture. If not, put some cardboard washers under the metal standoffs that are between the motherboard an chassis. That is to solve a ground problem, something touching both the motherboard or its circuitry and the chassis at the same time. It causes a direct short.

Then go from there. If you get picture at that point, add one component at a time until it's built, starting with floppy drive.

If you still get no video, then try another video card, then diffent memory. But first make sure everything is plugged in well and properly seated. If you're using more than one memory chip, try just one.

Start bare bones, add one thing at a time. Makes troubleshooting lots easier, soon as it acts up you know it's the last component you installed...

Oh, and if you're dealing with an ATX case/power supply, be SURE the power is OFF or unplugged before you remove ANYTHING.

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[Greekguys]

Got ya Pete. I'll try this tomorrow. Done for this evening. I think I'll get the washers and use them regardless just to rule them out with later addons. I'm gonna get this going and I know you guys will see me through it.

Again thanks !!!

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He who is the Lord of the Rings answers the phone first...

[Whyzman]

Also, Greekguys,

Just a couple "small" items that I'm sure if PETE were here right now he'd heartily AMEN!

Since we're not sure which MB you are going to use...some have an LED (as on my ASUS) that when lit means that power is still being delivered to the MB. You would want to check with your MB manual to make sure when power is truly not being supplied to the MB if you don't have such an LED on board.

If you decide to unplug to ensure that the power is off to the system, you'll want to make sure that you are properly grounded so as not to discharge an static electricity (ESD) that might "smoke" components.

As we were discussing the other day, it takes approximately 2000volts for us to be able to feel a discharge...however, it takes only about 200volts to fry a component, or less! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/eek.gif

A grounding wrist strap can be obtained from your local computer shops or a Radio Shack I would guess.

Good luck with this....it's an exciting venture and quite rewarding! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

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May all your dealings in life be win/win!

Whyzman

[diurnal]

Yeah Pete i meant to say that http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

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Sledgehammer will save the day!

[Greekguys]

Gotcha on the Electrifying results Whyzman. RadioShack is a good place to go. My son works there so I can get a discount. As far as a MoBo I have a Shuttle AV40 and it has a green LED. I don't think I caused any problems with ESD since I've always made sure to touch the case frame before any other parts. I'm usually good about electricity and power it off then I make sure it it drained before messing with wires and whatnot.

I'll keep you guys informed of my progress.

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He who is the Lord of the Rings answers the phone first...

[Greekguys]

Assuming I can get the PC to start recognizing components I have additional questions. I have (1)floppy & (2)IDE MoBo connectors. I want to include these components. DVD, CD-RW, Floppy & IBM HDD. What is the recommended ideal order to attach each to the cables and position them as slave or master?

This is what my initial set up was:
1st cable-Floppy is the only device attached to this cable(pin size)and is connected to the MoBo using the floppy connector (again based on pin size).
2nd cable-HDD is the only device attached to this cable(pin size) and is connected to the IDE1 MoBO connector. I've assigned it as MASTER.
3rd cable-DVD & CD-RW devices are attached to this cable and connected to the IDE2 connector on the MoBo. One is a SLAVE. The other I don't have documenation on to confirm it's position yet.

So am I doing this correct? http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/tongue.gif

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He who is the Lord of the Rings answers the phone first...

[ranchdog]

IDE.

Floppy looks good.

HDD looks good. Make sure it is plugged in at the end of the ribbon cable rather than in the middle. IDE #1

I like to go with the CD-RW at the end of the ribbon cable and set as Master. DVD plugged in to the middle and set as Slave. IDE #2

When you power-on and you place a couple of fingers on the top of the HDD you can feel it spin up. Doesn't your case have a HDD LED on the front.?


Luck.

RD

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....How long is a minute... depends on which side of the Bathroom door you're on. ......Indecision may or may not be my problem......
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[Whyzman]

Same goes for the floppy drive...always terminate if only using one device on a cable. The middle connector is for a second device, not for a nice way to keep the cables shortened and out of the way...you can tell I've been there done that! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif Needless to say...it won't fire up! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif

Oops, almost forgot...most of the devices are keyed nowadays so there is only one way to connect them to the cables. The floppy may not be keyed...so make sure that the side of the ribbon with the red edge is connected to the #1 Pin on the drive.

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May all your dealings in life be win/win!

Whyzman

[This message has been edited by Whyzman (edited 12-17-2001).]

[timstone]

Paleo Pete
I'm just wondering. I am having this same problem which is on another thread. A tech support guy said it's most likely that my video card isn't compatible with the motherboard I have which is a PCChips 830LM. I have a ATi Radeon card. Would you explain a bit more about this thing about the cardboard washers and direct shorting for me please? It's sounding kind of interesting to me. Thanks.
Originally posted by Paleo Pete:
Start with a bare bones system, that means motherboard, CPU, memory, keyboard and video card, nothing else. See if you get a picture. If not, put some cardboard washers under the metal standoffs that are between the motherboard an chassis. That is to solve a ground problem, something touching both the motherboard or its circuitry and the chassis at the same time. It causes a direct short.

[Greekguys]

Well, I made up some cardboard washers (suckers hard to locate them). I put them between the screw and the MoBo. I did not put any between the supports and the MoBo. I removed all components except for 1 512MB RAM strip, video card (monitor attached) and exhaust fan.

I power up the PC. The MoBo green light goes on. The fans start up, but the Monitor is still blank and is not receiving a signal from the video card.

I noticed some responses to Timstone's Topic where he is having similar problems.

Things I do know: The monitor works (tried it with my existing PC). All parts are brand new(everything).

Things I don't know: If the MoBo is working properly regarding the AGP video card connection. If the video card is working. If the CPU is working/seated properly (the unit is locked into place properly).

What I plan on doing n this order:

1. Verify that my new AGP video card and my current PC AGP video card are compatible with my Shuttle AV40 MoBo. Then move to Step 2.
2. Remove the Mobo screws and place a piece of cardboard underneath it. Power up the PC to see if the monitor will work with my new video card. If it works I'll put cardboard screws between MoBo & supports as well. If not, step 3.
3, Take my AGP video card from my current working PC and plug it into the MoBo which still has the cardboard behind it. Power up PC checking to see if the monitor will work now. If it works then my new AGP video card is bad. If not, Step 4.
4. MoBo not working properly...return for a new one.

I am assuming that I correctly seated my P4 1.6Mhz CPU to the MoBo and connected the Heat Sink properly.


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He who is the Lord of the Rings answers the phone first...

[timstone]

yep, guess you've got a lot of problems when building PC's sometimes, probably only hits us guys that don't do it at all or to often the most. and just because components are new does not mean they work, could have got banged around during shipping and most likely subject to electrostatic discharge(ESD) I am good with usually touching my case chassis before i begin with anything on my computer, usually touch it and wait a few more seconds, touch it again and then start working after im sure all the static is drained from me, sorry to hear you are having troubles, i myself am going out today and buying a video card i know works with my motherboard since a friend has told me my BIOS IS loading if i still dont have a picture on the monitor im going to try upgrading power supply, and if that still does not work im going to think that somehow my CPU is dead

[BigBlue66]

Hey Greekdudes,

Word of caution on the harddrive assignment. If when you finally are able to boot up and you get a controller error or a disk read error, remove the jumper from the harddrive. Some newer harddrives these days don't play nice if they are the only drive on the channel, and they're set to Master with the jumper.

Been there, done all that. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

BB 66

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Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal.
- Pamela Vault Starr

[Greekguys]

I'm showing my age now. I just remembered that when installing my P4 CPU the instructions were to cut off a bit of the right hand corner. The corner that has the black dot. I did that, but not sure if I cut enough off. First, why would I need to do that? 2nd, if it needs to be done why isn't it done by the manufacturer?

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He who is the Lord of the Rings answers the phone first...

[Greekguys]

Bump...Anyone got an answer for me?

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He who is the Lord of the Rings answers the phone first...

[ranchdog]

That's Intel's secret way of telling if the CPU has been used. hehehe. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

Just j/k.

Not unless that corner may hit a capacitor or something on different Mboard versions.

Some of the "old" CPU's had a slanted corner to tell a person that the CPU would only install correctly one way.


Luck.

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....How long is a minute... depends on which side of the Bathroom door you're on. ......Indecision may or may not be my problem......
..........

[fixrupr]

I don’t know if this is an issue with your board or not. I have WD drives, and wondered what the “other” jumper settings were all about.

Note: Some systems may require you to use the 15 head logical architecture. This is because they translate a drive greater than 4 GB by multiplying the head count by 16. The result (16 x 16 = 256) is interpreted as 0 heads with a 0 capacity and is an illegal head count. Selecting the 15 head logical jumpers produces a legal translation (16 x 15 = 240). The translated cylinder count varies to achieve the drive's full capacity.


From IBM (http://www.storage.ibm.com/hdd/support/d60gxp/d60gxpjum.htm)site

[blkimbro]

This is a single partition not a dual partition. I am trying to keep the bootable file in the front of the partition so that it can boot up.
Thanks,
-bk