New system no video / boot

[DWTB]

ok so building a new system from scratch and it's my first intel build (always gone amd in the past). i got asus maximus II formula board with a q9550 cpu, 4gb pc-8500 corsair xms2, corsair 750w psu. 2 sata HD and 2 sata dvds. all new from newegg. I took the 8800gt and soundblaster fatal1ty from my old system.

here's my problem. when i turn it on, i dont get any video. possibly not posting. the mobo's light comes on when i plug it in, and the hdd light comes on when i turn it on. keyboard lights up, drives spin, cd rom reads, but I don't get any video (video card was working fine when i took it out of my old system). The reason I think it might not be posting is because the little asus LCD poster display doesn't change. it will say welcome the first time i power up, and then after nothing happens (no video) and I turn off the comp (holding down power for 4 sec) it changes to PWR_OFF. and then from that point on it will keep saying power off even when I turn it back on.


does anyone have any thoughts? case doesnt have a speaker but I'll grab the one from my old machine tomorrow and see what beeps im getting.

[BipolarBill]

Remove the board from the case, place it on a soft, non-conductive surface near the case and plug in the ATX power. Leave in the CPU and RAM. Place the vid card in and connect the monitor. Connect the power. Nothing else needs to be connected. Press down hard on the vid card and use your screwdriver to short the POWER BUTTON pins. See if it POSTs.

[DWTB]

ok yanked everything out. mobo w/ cpu+heatsink and fan, ram, gpu all sitting on a towel on my dining room table. still nothing. thoughts?

[BipolarBill]

Could you please take a few seconds to be more descriptive? Did you test it with the power supply and the monitor? It won't work without power and you can't see without a monitor. You need to actually tell us.

If everything is seated right and power is connected, crossing the power pins should show something on screen. If not, assume that;

1. something is not connected properly.

2. The power supply is bad.

3. the motherboard is bad.

...in that order.

[RicheemxX]

I would jump to that big a conclusion right off, there are several other things to test before saying its something faulty.

Bill is right though that you need to make sure everything is firmly seated, make sure you've got all your power connections made correctly, double check the video card connections.

Check to make sure your cmos jumper isn't in the clear position (I'd clear it then move it back to norm just because). Use only one stick of ram, try one then the other, try each slot.

[DWTB]

reseated everything multiple times, except for the cpu. video card is good as it works in my other machine. how would I tell if it was the cpu vs the mobo? I don't have another intel setup i can test them with.

[DWTB]

after all this, and it turns out to be the first thing i always check. make sure everything is plugged in!! i didn't realize there was a second power plug for the mobo since it ships with some weird cap in the 8-pin plug housing! now i just have to put everything back together... grrrr. at least nothings broken! thanks for the help

[BipolarBill]

Ahhh. Reading the manual is *not* overrated. It was in there, I'm sure.

Be careful and deliberate when installing the motherboard.