No video output

[claudia_2]

Hi
I just built my first PC and turned it on. I hear a long three second beep, the lights on the motherboard, the mouse and the keyboard light-up correctly; all the fans work and I even see the HD light as it is being recognised. However, I get no output on my monitor. The monitor remains in standby mode and I know the monitor works well on another system.

It seems that everything is securely in place.

The system is composed of:
*The ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe
*The ASUS extreme N6200TC turbo video card
* The AMD ATHLON 64 3200+
*WD Sata2 drive

Can this be caused by the fact that I don’t have anything in the IDE connections? No primary or secondary drives?

Any advice would be appreciated

claudia_2

[Whyzman]

Welcome tohttp://www.pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif Forums!

Video cards sometimes need a little "coaxing" to make the proper contact in the slot. I would suggest seating and reseating it a few times to make sure it is seated properly...

[Sylvander]

Download a copy of my diagnostic flowcharts from here
www.erniek.eclipse.co.uk/downloads/sylvanderdiags.zip
and print them to leaf through.
Begin on the STARTUP chart.

This (http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/socket939/a8nsli-d/overview.htm) took me here (http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?Type=All&model=A8N-SLI%20Deluxe) then here (http://support.asus.com/technicaldocuments/technicaldocuments.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&root=252) , which showed that you have an "Award" BIOS.
This (http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm) shows award beep codes that suggest you have a RAM problem.
The good news is that your POST appears to be running [as it should], but your RAM is failing the test carried out by the POST routine.
Since your RAM fails, the POST halts there and gives the warning, and it never gets to the later point where the video card is enabled.

Here is the early part of a generic Phoenix BIOS routine:
"Code_Beeps_POST Routine Description
02h Verify Real Mode
03h Disable Non-Maskable Interrupt (NMI)
04h Get CPU type
06h Initialize system hardware
07h Disable shadow and execute code from the ROM.
08h Initialize chipset with initial POST values
09h Set IN POST flag
0Ah Initialize CPU registers
0Bh Enable CPU cache
0Ch Initialize caches to initial POST values
0Eh Initialize I/O component
0Fh Initialize the local bus IDE
10h Initialize Power Management
11h Load alternate registers with initial POST values
12h Restore CPU control word during warm boot
13h Initialize PCI Bus Mastering devices
14h Initialize keyboard controller
16h 1-2-2-3 BIOS ROM checksum
17h Initialize cache before memory Auto size
18h 8254 timer initialization
1Ah 8237 DMA controller initialization
1Ch Reset Programmable Interrupt Controller
20h 1-3-1-1 Test DRAM refresh
22h 1-3-1-3 Test 8742 Keyboard Controller
24h Set ES segment register to 4 GB
28h Auto size DRAM
29h Initialize POST Memory Manager
2Ah Clear 512 kB base RAM
2Ch 1-3-4-1 RAM failure on address line xxxx*
2Eh 1-3-4-3 RAM failure on data bits xxxx* of low byte of
memory bus
2Fh Enable cache before system BIOS shadow
32h Test CPU bus-clock frequency
33h Initialize Phoenix Dispatch Manager
36h Warm start shut down
38h Shadow system BIOS ROM
3Ah Auto size cache
3Ch Advanced configuration of chipset registers
3Dh Load alternate registers with CMOS values
41h Initialize extended memory for RomPilot
42h Initialize interrupt vectors
45h POST device initialization
46h 2-1-2-3 Check ROM copyright notice
47h Initialize I20 support
48h Check video configuration against CMOS
49h Initialize PCI bus and devices
4Ah Initialize all video adapters in system
4Bh QuietBoot start (optional)
4Ch Shadow video BIOS ROM
4Eh Display BIOS copyright notice"

[claudia_2]

Thanks for your quick responses.
It turned out that the video card wasn't inserted properly even though it was securely in the slot. Luckily it didn't get damaged.
BTW Sylvander the diagnostic flowcharts were really helpful thanks for the link.

[Sylvander]

Good to hear of a successful fix, and glad that you find the charts useful. :D

[Whyzman]

Good to hear of a successful fix :DDitto! :) AGP cards are a strange beast. Since they first came out we've experienced similar problems posted here where visually it looks like it's locked in correctly, but not!

It's happened with PCI video cards also, but the AGPs seem notorious for being able to lock the tabs but not be seated completely...