New PC build issues

Just put a new PC together today. Used a Q9650, Asus P5Q-E, 4Gb OCZ DDR RAM, 4870 1GB etc.

Plugged DVI cable into monitor and graphics card. Turned PC on, nothing. Checked I was on DVI mode then I got a message saying "No Input detected". This was using a DVI cable I bought as I was told the monitor didn't have one with it. It did, albeit a DVI at one end and HDMI at the other. The 4870 came with a HDMI/DVI adapter so I used the monitor supplied cable and still nothing, so not the cables. I tried the new monitor on my old PC and I got an image on the screen that I expected. So the monitor works.

I then tried using my current GPU (x1800XT) in the new PC. Still nothing. So perhaps the mobo? So to be sure I tried the 4870 in my old PC. Nothing. More likely to be the GPU now instead of the mobo? Then I decided to resurrect my old PC so I could go online and find some help. Uh oh! Now this won't boot. My old monitor saying no signal coming from PC which surely implies static discharge as it was working before I put it in new PC but not after. However the new PC had the PSU in and plugged into the mains.

I then used my Mum's laptop (am using it now) and realised that there should be some BIOS beeps if there were errors. So I plugged the speaker back in so I could listen for any beeps on power up. Nothing. A check of the manual and a successful boot should result in a single short beep. No beep at all. Does sound like the mobo has gone.

The manual also says that if no RAM or GPU is detected then there will be a pattern of beeps. So I remove RAM and the beep pattern expected for no RAM doesn't occur. Same for removing GPU. Sounding increasingly like the mobo has gone. So no BIOS beeps at all on this mobo (successful boot or otherwise) suggests the mobo is definitely gone. Either damaged in some way or I've somehow been careless and somehow caused a static discharge which could have affected the 4870. But for pretty much the whole day the new PSU has been plugged into the case and into the mains so the new case should have been earthed for most of the day. However if there has been static discharge putting the 4870 into my old PC could possibly have carried the static discharge over? And putting my x1800XT into the new PC the same. So that could explain why neither PC will boot and both PCs prompt the monitors to say "No input detected".

The only thing that makes me not believe static discharge has affected my old PC is that it was definitely earthed. So only the 4870 coming over already affected could have caused an issue with my old PC.

I've tried taking one stick of RAM out and booting with that. Nothing. Used the other stick on its on and same result. Took the sound card out and nothing. Reset the BIOS by moving the BIOS jumper over for 10-15 seconds. Still nothing. I also unplugged the Samsung 1Tb drive and the Pioneer DVD-RW drive from their SATA sockets leaving the WD640Gb disk on its own. Nothing.

So after a long ramble can anyone else suggest anything I can do with the two PCs I have to test. My old PC is a 939 so I can't swap the CPUs. I want to do as much testing as I can before I have to RMA anything. If I do have to RMA what should I RMA? The mobo and GPU?

Please accept my apologies for this long post but it has been a long day and I've no idea what is wrong and how I can fix it.

What im really wondering what power supply the pc has and what wattage it is?

07 No Tsm Track Pack__GPGSL08 Mod__range">97 TeamArt
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Turned out I'd forgotten to plug the additional power supply cable in. The 8 pin one. Oops!

MarcLister Wrote:
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> Turned out I'd forgotten to plug the additional
> power supply cable in. The 8 pin one. Oops!

Yep the pci-e express power supply connector.

Really happy you got it working.

Kind regards
J-C

07 No Tsm Track Pack__GPGSL08 Mod__range">97 TeamArt
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no, thats 6 pin. the 8pin is for the cpu

It's the RAM. You need DDR2 for that board.

Glad you got it working Marc. Shame on someone as PC literate as you for forgetting such a simple thing.


_tux_ Wrote:
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> no, thats 6 pin. the 8pin is for the cpu

PCIe power is both 6-pin and 8-pin. The new dual-GPU cards (as in the only one currently available) requires both 6-pin and 8-pin connectors to enable OverDrive (ATI's built-in overclocking tool), though it will function fine without OverDrive with just two 6-pin connectors.

gav Wrote:
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> It's the RAM. You need DDR2 for that board.

Lol.

> Glad you got it working Marc. Shame on someone as
> PC literate as you for forgetting such a simple
> thing.

I've always said the only thing stopping me from being a genius is only a little mistake. In my defence the damned thing was hidden underneath my HUGE Noctua heatsink with two fans.

oooh! great choice of heatsink btw! :D

i nearly got myself the noctual, but changed to the scythe ninja II - bloody HUGE, but way worth their money! :D


Jenson drives it like he owns it; Lewis drives it like he stole it

Yeah it is nice. Apart from when you realise you've fitted the motherboard before attaching the bracket for the Noctua on the underneath of the motherboard.

At least the brackets are better than those bloody stock retention pins. They're bad enough on smaller heatsinks, but on things like most Scythes or my ThermalRight Ultra Extreme they're a pain in the arse.

I know what you mean. Had to use something like that on an old PC. Was hell getting the bloody pins in. Even more so getting the sodding pins off. :D In the end a mate and I had to practically force the heatsink off.

* Hi-Jacks Thread *

Im having a problem with my new built PC

I have been trying to sort it out myself for a couple of weeks with no luck.

I basically cannot play any graphic intense game's which isn't great - by that i mean Far Cry 2, Crysis Warhead etc :/

It has also happened to me in LFS, rFactor and netKar Pro at some point.

The problem is my pc will suddenly "shut down" - as if it was in standby.

I usually either have to reboot or sometime's it recover's to a atikmdag has stopped responding?!?

It can take anything from 5 minutes to a couple of hour's for it to happen.

I have tried uninstalling the ATI driver's etc, turned off "Aero", i have even put extra fan's in my case to make sure there is no overheating!

My PC Spec's are:

AMD Athlon X2 5000+ Black Edition 2.6GHZ @ 3.0GHZ
4GB DDR2 800MHZ
ATI Radeon HD3870 512MB PCI-Express 2.0
Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3
250GB Samsung Sata2 8MB Cache Hard Drive
600 Watt OCZ StealthXstream
Window's Vista Home Premium X64
Kaspersky Internet Security 2009
Latest Driver's etc.

Any idea's guy's?

I was thinking about getting a Quad Phenom and a HD4870 at some point but this has been nothing but trouble and is driving me nut's!

Cheers,

Mika19b.

*Sorry For Such A Long Post!*



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/2008 07:11PM by mika19b.

Can you paste the results of running "dxdiag" from the Start>Run?

Im starting to think that your Power supply is telling you its quitting.
Be careful mate, remember the power supply is the heart of the pc.

07 No Tsm Track Pack__GPGSL08 Mod__range">97 TeamArt
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Do you happen to have 2 monitors plugged into the graphics card? The only known driver-related cause for atikmdag failing is having dual-screens with Aero turned on, but it's far from affecting the majority.

The graphics driver failing could be down to all sorts of hardware-related reasons, not just the graphics subsystem.

Is this one of the PCs I specced up? What is the PSU?

I only have one 24" TFT running through DVI at 1920x1200 @ 60HZ.

The PSU is a 600 Watt OCZ StealthXstream and i took idea's from your spec up Gav (The one you did for me was Intel).

Here is the Dxdiag (64bit):

*Bump*

Any idea's guy's?

Date: November 21, 2008 09:41AM
Posted by: gav (IP Logged)

Do you happen to have 2 monitors plugged into the graphics card? The only known driver-related cause for atikmdag failing is having dual-screens with Aero turned on, but it's far from affecting the majority.

Which is what I suffer from. Moving back to nVidia on my next step.

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DaveEllis Wrote:
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> > Date: November 21, 2008 09:41AM
> Posted by: gav (IP Logged)
>
> Do you happen to have 2 monitors plugged into the
> graphics card? The only known driver-related cause
> for atikmdag failing is having dual-screens with
> Aero turned on, but it's far from affecting the
> majority.
>
> Which is what I suffer from. Moving back to nVidia
> on my next step.

Looking around some Nvidia card's seem to be having the problem too!

All very confusing :/

Yeah the nvidia card did it but recovers fine. The ATI one keeps doing it until it spazes out and then BSODs. It wouldn't be as bad if ATI weren't complete f**king bellends and act like complete morons when you ask them for help.

I found installing the ATI drivers only, and not the software helped the situation a LOT. In fact it happens less than half the time now, and some people reported it stopped all together.

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