No Video, any ideas?

[Raphael Argus]

Ok, hopefully someone can help me. I cannot figure out what I am doing wrong. I inherited 3 motherboards with processors from work. They upgraded to all high end systems and allowed employees to take the old stuff.

Let me say first, I have only done one motherboard install, and it went smooth.

Ok, I have three ATX cases with 400Watt PSU's. All the PSU's test fine. I tested the 3 processors, all fired up well. I pop any of these boards in a box, attach all the cables, turn on the power and everything kicks on, fans run, CDROMs access as does the hard disk. But NO video. I tried 4 different video cards, and 2 different monitors. NOTHING. I figured I must have bad boards and gave one of the three to a friend that's a PC tech at CompUSA and he said it fired up fine. What in the heck am I doing wrong???? I honestly can't figure this out. I started thinking maybe I had the power/resist and LED cables on wrong but one of the Mobo's is an ABIT that has a power/reset button right on the board. Please, if anyone has an ideas please share them. I keep reading and reading but I can't fo the life of me figure this out.

 

[Nubius]

When you gave the board to the friend did you give him a CPU with it too? If not perhaps you have a bad CPU. Was there any beeps or anything like that at POST

 

[Raphael Argus]

I tested all three CPU's in another machine. But yes, I did give him the MOBO and CPU. They are all P4 1.9ghz CPU's. I get no beeps. I tell you if I could just get something on the darn screen I could figure it out. I tried removing the Cmos batteries on one of the boards and booting up again, and same thing. I even eliminated everything except for 1 ram stick, (Ram also tested and works), Hard Disk, Video Card, Keyboard/Mouse. The Keyboard/Mouse also test fine. Clueless, just clueless. I'm doing something wrong for sure, but I cannot figure it out. Sigh.

 

[Nubius]

well usually a sign of no beeps is the CPU failing. That's what happens when there's no beeps, no video signal no nothing except fans spinning and power going through your computer. Maybe your PSU is weak because your friend had it in a different case and PSU right? You made sure to plug in the 4pin connecter that's shaped like a square that's purely for the processor power right? It takes about 7a from the +12v Rail. So if your PSU has a weak +12v Rail or is just crapping out, that could be an issue too.

 

[Raphael Argus]

I definitely connected the 4-prong CPU power connector. I put the CPU in a third PC I have and tested them all, they all worked properly. Let me try a better quality PSU, I have a 500Watt in my main PC and I'll see if that works. The fact that I am getting the same thing from 3 boards and now I KNOW one of them works means it's on my end.

Nubius, since you are taking the time to help out, can you briefly explain why a CMOS would need to be reset? I mean, when you get a new MOBO and start sticking things on it do you generally need to clear the CMOS? I'm just trying to understand exactly what could be happening :/ And not to sound like King Newb, but the CMOS settings are basically just your saved BIOS settings, correct?

 

[-AnGuiSh-]

Maybe somethings not compatible.

 

[Raphael Argus]

How sensitive are motherbords about touching metal? In the cases I am using they do not have screws, but some funky hooks. These are generally cheap cases (obviously) and it looks like there could be some metal contact. Could that cause a "No Video" problem?

 

[Nubius]

Motherboards grounding out on the case is very common, but with plastic hook things ( and I know roughly what you're talking about ) it should REALLY prevent that from happening. And in response to your first question, you don't HAVE to reset the CMOS when buying a new mobo. It'll already have the default settings and you'll need to go in there to set the CPU to it's right speeds and whatnot. The CMOS does indeed save the data that's in the BIOS so thats why if when people overclock and they push to far and they can't reboot. Normally a CMOS clearing is in order, but now some motherboards come with automatic BIOS Defaulting so if you push your comp too far it'll automatically reset to BIOS defaults on restart.

 

[Raphael Argus]

Nubius, if you are still following up on this post (or to anyone else that is) my problem was a matter of proper grounding of the motherboard. All of the ATX cases I was installing into did NOT use mounting screws, but instead, some metal hooks that you pushed through the screw holes on the motherboard. I evidently was touching metal somewhere on all of these cases. After picking up a new ATX case with proper plastic grounding screws and REGULAR screws to mount it, the PC booted. Hopefully this information can help someone out.

 

[killians45]

Good God, metal hooks? Yeah, best thing to do for future reference after eliminating all the other peripherials is remove the MBD from the case and try that way to make sure it isn't grounding out to the case.