'No Signal' monitor...

BlueBomber · January 24th, 2006, 05:29 PM

What I got (that I think matters to my situation, anyways) –

Motherboard - ASUS P4S800
Videocard – ATI Radeon 9550 256mb

So. I just bought a new Codegen Briza-63-CA case and a Zalman CNPS7700-ALCU 92mm 2 Ball heatsink. I switched everything I had into my new case, and attached the new heatsink during the process. After I got everything connected and ready, everything powered up, except for the monitor. It says ‘no signal’. I was pissed. I still am.

To troubleshoot the problem, I took everything out of my case and tried to start everything while it was laying bare on a big piece of cardboard. No luck, so I don’t think this is a grounding issue. I also know my monitor works, as I tried it on my roommate’s computer. I don’t think it’s the videocard either, since I tried using his videocard in my motherboard as well, once again with no luck. I also reset the BIOS (or I think it’s the BIOS, anyways) by removing the battery from the motherboard and switching those jumpers around for a couple of seconds, then replacing everything.

THE ONLY changes that I made to my motherboard while I switched it into a new case was that I noticed that the jumper on my harddrive was sideways, so I just straight up removed it. My dad installed it way back when. I don’t think this would matter anyways. ALSO, I removed two jumpers that were on my front audio connection, as this new case I got had front audio connectors, and those jumpers were in the way. Once again, my dad put this together like 3 years ago, and has no idea if he put those there or if it came like that. Anyways, I don’t really think this would make any difference as well. I suppose the new heatsink is also something that I added, but I tried booting up the comp without it attached as well (is that a really dumb thing to do?), with no luck.

My AGP slot could be broken, but I like to think that is not the case. It doesn’t look like there has been any damage to my motherboard, either. It still almost looks brand new.

I’m running out of ideas here, guys. I could bring it to a local store where they say they would run a ‘diagnostic’ on it to see if anything was wrong with it for $30, but I don’t even know what that really is or what the procedure for that is, and I would rather try and talk to you guys first before I go out spending money. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Blitzkreig75 · January 24th, 2006, 06:20 PM

Welcome to TechIMO!

Turning on the computer without the heatsink attatched was not a good idea at all. When you turn the computer on, do the fans spin and all the power LEDs come on? You may not have power getting to the board.

This is a start, there are a few different avenues to go down, but we'll start from the top.

johnnyis42 · January 24th, 2006, 06:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blitzkreig75

Welcome to TechIMO!

Turning on the computer without the heatsink attatched was not a good idea at all.

i missread this the first time too, but i reread and do not get the impression he actually did that.

did you connect the pc speaker, and if so does it beep at all? have you tried pulling out everythign except the processor, video and ram from the baord? and have you doublechecked the heatsink installation?

i had an asus board that freaked out when it did not detect any RPM signal from the CPU fan... does this new heatsink have one of the 3 pin connectors or just the bigger molex connector for the larger fan?

Blitzkreig75 · January 24th, 2006, 09:14 PM

Good point about the fan plug...

It's kinda unclear...did you, (the original poster), have ANY heatsink attatched to the CPU when you powered-up?

EDIT: I just built a socket A system,m (last week), that would not post because I had the USB port improperly plugged in. Try putting tose jumpers for the audio back where they were. Sometimes motherboards, (at least in my expeirince), can be very tempormental over little crap like that.....and it WILL piss you off....trust me....

BlueBomber · January 24th, 2006, 10:24 PM

When I try and turn the power on, everything seems to be working just fine. The fans come on, and I can hear everything sort of power up. Just no signal to the monitor.

I also don't know about the whole beeping from the pc speaker, as I don't have one installed. Could this be a potential problem?

I believe the heatsink is plugged in properly, as it powers up and starts spinning as soon as I turn it on. Its connected to the motherboard via the little 3-pin connector.

I put the jumpers back into the front audio panel connectors as well, and still no luck

.

I've even tried hooking up only the ram and videocard to the motherboard with nothing else, and have been having the same problem with no signal being detected...AHH THIS IS FRUSTERATING.

Blitzkreig75 · January 24th, 2006, 11:57 PM

Do you have a PCI video card to try?

BlueBomber · January 25th, 2006, 12:45 AM

Ya know, I was just thinking that. My old videocard was a cheap PCI card, but it's at home, along with my system speaker and all of my old parts. I'll have to get my dad to send up some of that stuff so I can try some of these troubleshooting ideas out.

Or be very impatient and go out and buy it all at a cheap computer store...

johnnyis42 · January 25th, 2006, 05:53 PM

you could try to take the old heat sink fan (3 pin motherboard connector type) and just plug it into the motherboard so the cpu fan sensor gets some kind of reading, and then see if you get anything.

yes, not having the pc speaker hooked up might be leaving you without a vital piece of information if the motherboard is reporting beep codes, which would indicate among other things, no cpu, no memory, no video, etc.

BlueBomber · January 25th, 2006, 06:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnnyis42

you could try to take the old heat sink fan (3 pin motherboard connector type) and just plug it into the motherboard so the cpu fan sensor gets some kind of reading, and then see if you get anything.

yes, not having the pc speaker hooked up might be leaving you without a vital piece of information if the motherboard is reporting beep codes, which would indicate among other things, no cpu, no memory, no video, etc.

My new heatsink also has the 3-pin connector, and it seems to get power and run just fine. This 3-pin connector is also the only thing that I plug into the motherboard...is there anything else that I might be missing? Do heatsinks require some other external power from the power supply, or is this 3-pin connector the only thing that should be plugged in?

Also, I just went and picked up a PC speaker, and plugged her into my 20-pin system panel. When I switch on the computer, it makes 1 long beep (about 5 seconds), and then is silent for about 5 seconds, and then repeats. What’s weird is that I wasn't sure which way the speaker was supposed to be plugged in, so I put it in both right side up and upside down, while achieving the same results. When I put the speaker in upside down, I shouldn’t hear any noise from the speaker, right?

johnnyis42 · January 25th, 2006, 06:26 PM

no, the speaker is analog so putting it in backwards yields sound, it's just that any software that playse with the tones of the speaker will not play the tones properly if it is in backwards. single tone beeps will be about the same either way.

that beep is telling you somehting very important. probably a CPU or memory issue. typically the long beep followed by a short beep is the video card, but you definitely have a hardware problem somewhere. i would start by inspecting the cpu and memory.