Problem with New Computer

[CIVPhilzilla]

Today I assemblied my new computer. All the parts are compatable with each other. I got eveything in and hooked up, with only extra extra power cords. I started the computer, all the fans (CPU fan, Case fan, motherboard fan, and video card fans) worked fine, meaning no power problem, but no display came up on my monitor. It registered the video card, but wouldn't display anything. The DVD drive doesn't open or close.

I think I may have identified the problem, as both the hard drive and dvd drive have another spot for a cord, but I lack that cord. Is their another cord I have to use besides the power and the SATA cord for the HD, and the IDE for the DVD? Any other ideas of the problem.

According to an error display on my motherboard it says one of the four things is wrong:

1. BIOS chip inserted incorrectly.
2. Incorrect BIOS update version.
3. Mainboard problem.
4. Add-on card inserted incorrectly.

I'm not sure what to make of these, as everything looks like it fits were it should. Any help would be greatly appriciated.

 

[Zelig]

Hard drives and optical drives only have 2 connectors each, power ones and data ones.

Try unplugging all of your pci cards, hard drives and optical drives, and turning the computer on with that, it should initialize display at least, if not you can work from there to diagnose the problem more exactly.

Make sure *every* available power plug-in on the mainboard has a power connector, and make sure your ram, video card and cpu are all seated properly.

 

[CIVPhilzilla]

Okay, I did what you said. I checked the RAM, Vid Card, and Process, all are properly seated. I then unplugged the hard drive and optical drive (no PCI cards). Started it up still nothing. I did however try the DVD drive as that was still powered and just disconnected from the motherboard. The dvd drive works when it isn't attached to the motherboard meaning its a problem with the motherboard.

 

[Zakharov]

Have you set the jumpers correctly? (ie. master/slave)

 

[CIVPhilzilla]

I believe they are all set to master, (isn't that the default). I only have one hard drive and one optical drive.

I also have the optical drive connected to the master connecter, for the plug into the motherboard. The Hard drive just has the SATA connecter no slave line.

 

[Zelig]

What exact motherboard do you have?
And are there any beeps?

edit: And have you made sure the front panel connectors are plugged in properly? With finnicky mobos, I've even seen a reversed power LED connector stop it from booting properly.

 

[CIVPhilzilla]

I have the Epox Series 9NDA3 nForce 3 Ultra Motherboard.

http://epox.com/USA/product.asp?id=EP-9NDA3plus

Edit: I plugged in the front panel plugs exactly as the manual stated.
Edit 2: No beeps, except for one when I turn it on.

 

[ainwood]

Did you plug in the CPU power-supply? (the little square socket to the left of the main motherboard power supply connector).

 

[Tatran]

Did you plug in the CPU power-supply? (the little square socket to the left of the main motherboard power supply connector).

Maybe his power supply hasn't a CPU connector.
Happened to me,old case,nothing worked,after installing a
new power supply all the new hardware worked fine.

 

[The Person]

I had a similar problem when I assembled my computer. It turned out that the motherboard was faulty. I went back to the computer store and got a refund for a new motherboard, and everything worked.

 

[CruddyLeper]

Have you tried turning the data cables to the optical drives over? They are supposed to be keyed.

It doesn't hurt the drive if the data cable is the wrong way around, but the drive won't respond if the data cable is upside down.

EDIT: I'd try starting up without any drives attached at first. See if you can get a boot screen.

If you still can't get a screen up, then there's a problem with the video card. Suggest you power down, take it out and reinsert it.

 

[CIVPhilzilla]

Did you plug in the CPU power-supply? (the little square socket to the left of the main motherboard power supply connector).

Yes I have the CPU power-supply plugged in securely.

Have you tried turning the data cables to the optical drives over? They are supposed to be keyed.

They only fit one way, the only way to turn it would to forcefully push it in which I know isn't supposed to happen.

I had a similar problem when I assembled my computer. It turned out that the motherboard was faulty. I went back to the computer store and got a refund for a new motherboard, and everything worked.

I think that might be it, I am going to toy around with it some more. I have had previous computer problems where I did everything right and it was just faulty.

 

[Zelig]

1 beep usually means everything is working alright (though it obviously isn't)
You could try booting without ram or video card, and seeing if it will properly generate the extra beeps.

 

[CruddyLeper]

They only fit one way, the only way to turn it would to forcefully push it in which I know isn't supposed to happen.

Quite true - but the person making the cable could have put the connector on back-to-front.

I STILL recommend you try it without any drives connected, just to see if you can get it to POST (Power-On-Selt-Test).

 

[CIVPhilzilla]

POST doesn't work. I think I may have identified the problem, I went to go try and reseat the processor again, and noticed something the I overlooked before, which was a few of the tongs were bent. I am not going to try and fix these, I'll just return it to newegg for a new undamaged processor. I think it wasn't registering the processor before and thats why it didn't do anything.

 

[gonzo_for_civ]

Did you inspect the cpu out of the box? I had a CPU sent to me damaged, luckily I got a picture of it right out of the box and newegg took it right back and replaced it. They even covered shipping. They are pretty good as far as customer service is concerned.

 

[Comraddict]

what GPU you have?

 

[CIVPhilzilla]

Yeah I reread neweggs warranty and I saw that I just couldn't request an online RMA, so I just emailed the support staff to request it. Hopefully it won't be a problem, I have a picture of it, kind of hard to see the small pins.

 

[CIVPhilzilla]

Did you inspect the cpu out of the box? I had a CPU sent to me damaged, luckily I got a picture of it right out of the box and newegg took it right back and replaced it. They even covered shipping. They are pretty good as far as customer service is concerned.

Got the RMA approved. Did they cover you shipping it out to them, or just the shipping back to you?

 

[gonzo_for_civ]

Because i was able to prove the damage was in shipping they covered that too, I didn't even have to complain much. My sister had to get an RMA a little while ago but couldn't prove fault so she had to cover the shipping out, they covered the shipping back.