No beep No Video

[LouisM]

I know there are tons of threads on this, but I have read everyone of them and tried every thing but none have fixed my problem. I just built this computer last night. Today I plugged it into my monitor for the first time and turned it on. All the lights, fans, CPU fan, everything started going and I heard some things happening on the inside of the case. I was happy that it seemed to be working, except...my monitor stayed in standby as if the computer was off. A few moments ago I took my ram and video card out, and the motherboard wont beep, so now I believe its the mobo, except for the fact that the cpu fan runs...I am really confused. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Specs:
Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 (rev 1002)
Core 2 Duo E6600
2 gigs RAM (geil DDR2 800 PC 6400)
2 250 gig WD 7200 RPM 16 mb
Gigabyte 8600 GT

[LouisM]

turns out either my CPU or mobo is bad. Great. Well thanks for the...help?

[odannyboy000]

Probably your CPU. It might be the case where your heat sink fan is on too tight, shorting the motherboard. Easily fixable by loosing the screws.

[Sylvander]

"All the lights, fans, CPU fan, everything started going and I heard some things happening on the inside of the case"
So the on-switch works and the PSU is going to full power [PC isn't "dead"].

"my monitor stayed in standby as if the computer was off"
Startup failed to get to the point where the POST initialised the video card, but is the POST running at all?


"I took my ram and video card out, and the motherboard wont beep"
So either the internal speaker isn't working [the POST is running and generating beep(s), but the speaker isn't turning the signal into sound]...
OR...
THE POST ISN'T RUNNING AT ALL. [much more serious]

"so now I believe its the mobo"
It could simply be due to bad/inappropriate BIOS configuration settings [the configurations don't match the connected hardware, RESET THE BIOS CONFIGURATION DEFAULTS]...
OR...
A failure of the POST to run could be due to faulty/inappropriate hardware, so do a "bare-bones-boot" with only the following connected:
[B]PSU, mobo [out of the case on a non-conducting surface], CPU+heatsink+fan, internal speaker.

[alternate]

Did you power on for first time before or after you installed the MB into the case? I wonder if you did the latter...

From my own experience, assuming the fault is not with the components, the biggest opportunity for one to go wrong is in over-tightening the screws during installation. Assuming care is taken in installing the processor, video cards, and memory, a big remaining opportunity to go wrong is in installing the mobo into the case. I would test it outside of the case on top of a piece of cardboard (and not on a piece of metal). Proponents of this position may state that one determines if the system is defective before one screws everything in.

Everything else on the case, you can tighten until it tightens no longer, like the outside of the power supply that attaches to the case rear, but not with the motherboard. If you have an XP-90C heatsink that uses screws and brace to attach to the motherboard, be careful here too, son.

;)