A question about my system?

[jrpilot]

I just built a new gaming system and it seems that when  turn on my comp. the motherboard shows no video...waht can cause this problem...no video?


thanks

[Skittles]

1. I just have to say it, Is the monitor pluged into the vidcard?

2. Make sure the card is seated correctly. The card on my second computer keeps coming out if I move it too much.

3. Some cards require an external power source. Did you miss that?

[Dan]

If you have an old card installed, take it out and rub the connecters gently with a normal pencil eraser. They should look nice and golden.
Dan

[Gixer]

Does that card require a molex to be connected to it? i.e. a power cable from your CPU.  I cant remeber if the 9800pros do, I think they might.  If so make sure this is plugged in correctly and that there isnt anything else on that particualr rail either.

Check the card is seated correctly, and also check the ram is seated correctly.

[jrpilot]

It is all brand new...i made sure everything was in correctly...the mobo is a Aopen mobo..and on the support forum there are pages and pagesof prob....so I guess I just joined the list

[congo]

Your spec shows everything but your mainboard so It's hard to know what we are up against.

Common simple problems......

1. BIOS or mainboard jumper setting is set to onboard video... or

2. You have the monitor plugged into the onboard adapter and not the addon card......

3. Inverse of above

4. Check ALL Jumper settings for correct position

5. make sure there isn't a jumper cap on the CMOS RESET jumper.

Ok, we still don't have enough info.

Is it posting? In other words, does it "beep"?

If it beeps, it should beep once for a good post with no actual hardware errors

If it isn't posting, is the CPU fan turning?

Have you tried to reset CMOS by jumper cap?

Is your power supply inadequate?

[jrpilot]

The MoBo is an Aopen AK79d-400VN. I reset the cmos (via the jumper). I tried both a 32MB PCI vid card (in two different slots) and the Ati 9800 Pro AiW AGP (making sure it was locked and inserted correctly). The Ati does require power (which I have hooked up). The 32MB vid card was installed in an older system (AMD 533), but worked great. I will try the cleaning of the cards. The MoBo doesn't have on-board vid and the power supply is a 420W unit, powering the CPU heatsink/fan, HDD, CD-Rom (not dvd or CD-r/w), and 3 case fans.

For the case speaker, I'm having trouble trying to match the schematic for the MoBo to the speaker connector. The MoBo has a wiring arrangement of +, -, NW, SPEAKER. Like I said earlier, I asked assitance from the eForum from Aopen about this. The wiring from the speaker is a four wire connector, with this arrangement: +, NW, NW, -. I was going to switch the - so its next to the +. (NW means no wire). So it doesn't *beep*. From the sound from the HDD and the HDD LED, I can tell it starts and resets.

Someone on the Aopen forum said it might be bad RAM. I'm using 2 Kingston PC3200 512MB sticks, which are brand new.  I think it might be a compatibilty issue with the DDR400 and the MoBo. I also made sure the the other 4 cable connector from the PSU isn't needed on the MoBo.

Also, forgot to mention, upon start up, the keyboard lights will not stay lit (only come on for a short sec. then off). I tried the Num, Caps, and Scroll, to which none of them lit.

Would this sound reasonable if it were a compatibility issue between the DDR400 and MoBo?

[Gixer]

Just been looking at your Mobo on the Aopen site.  Found this statement:

We would like to recommend two tips:

1. nVidia nForce2 chipset can support DDR400 only when integrated (on-chip) VGA controller is disabled.
2. If you are not sure whether your DDR400 module complies with industrial standard or not, we recommend you to use maximum two DDR400 DIMMs only.

Go into BIOS and check this is disabled.  Looks like you gotta put the ram in slots 1&3 for Dual Band mode.  Your right about the extra four pin connector not being used, there is no socket for it to go onto anyhow.  Try re-seating the ram again, it can be very fussy stuff.  You only have to knock your case a bit and it can unsettle it to the point where it causes problems.

I hate connecting those wires up at the front too, but I dont think you can do much wrong.  I usually look for a common (earth) then once I worked that out the rest is pretty easy.

[jrpilot]

See going into the Bios is pretty hard for me, since I'm unable to view anything on the monitor. I tried resetting the cards, cleaning them, and tried the memory in 1 and 3 (and individually in the other slots). I think the default is if there is an AGP installed, then the VGA controller is disabled.
Thing(s) I don't like (besides it not working) is how AOpen offers about 10 memory modules that are compatible with my MoBo (which they tested, ranging from DDR266 to DDR433), but when you go to that vendor for that particular memory module, it isn't listed or its out of production. Also usualy the vendor will have a compatibility document listing what is compatible with that MoBo, but I rarely see any vendor listing anything for AOpen. I guess this was a bad move on my part going with that MoBo, live and learn.

Thanks for all your inputs.