New hard drive -- get power but no boot screen

[gastr]

1st post...thanks for allowing me to share my issue.

Installed a new hard drive into my HP a6750f desktop with an MSI MS-7548 (Aspen) motherboard. Upon powering up machine, I get no screen response. It does the power self-check or whatever and doesn't continue enough to even activate the monitor. Powering off & on the monitor just says No Input Detected. I've tried BOTH my aftermarket GeForce VGA and the onboard VGA ports to no avail. No BIOS screen...no anything screen.

Power is indeed up. I swapped to an old PS/2 keyboard to see if I could trigger BIOS via F10 or F1 keys as HP doco says. It flashes the LEDs on it upon first power, but doesn't respond after that (the newer USB keyboard wouldn't even do an LED self-check flash). It won't respond to Num Lock or Caps Lock key with the LEDs after its self check flash. I can hear the drive spinning. I can open both my optical drive trays. Fans are operational. Power is a go.

I've tried different combinations of SATA ports -- nothing.

My Windows 7 DVD is ready and waiting to load the OS, but it can never get that far. Maybe it is and it forgot how to display it -- I wouldnt know because I see nothing (again, from either VGA).

Should I just clear the CMOS? Just got that tip from a Windows server guy at work this morning. Any other diagnostic tips/pointers I should be aware of? Thanks again...

 

[MindoverMaster]

Yeah, clear the CMOS first. It could also be your PSU. It isn't getting you enough power.

 

[gastr]

Thanks. Good to know I'm on a potentially successful path.

After clearing CMOS, will I have to perform a slew of tasks like re-activating the SATA controllers, etc?

My plan:
Remove all after market PCI cards (audio & video). Remove my USB keyboard & mouse. Plug in the old fashioned PS/2 mouse & keyboard. Reset CMOS. Gulp fearfully and turn the machine on.

I'll have plenty of bandages on hand too. If it doesn't work, I'll likely lose a fist fight with the motherboard.

 

[MindoverMaster]

All your settings are put to default. Everything should work. I would use your USB keyboard, actually. It's really no difference from a PS/2. But do run on bare minimums. Take out your drives and any PCI cards. Run on only one stick of RAM. This sounds more like a hardware problem than software.

 

[S0ULphIRE]

After you've reset the CMOS (if that fixes the issue) then you'll need to change only a few things in BIOS probably.
Check ram speeds, sometimes default doesn't get it right.
Set Sata ports to AHCI mode
I also usually enable quick boot, disable floppy drive controller, and turn off any services I don't use (like JMicron advanced RAID utility ultimate probeifier, etc)