One for all you computer experts

[srvben]

Ok, I'm putting together a new PC, and need a bit of advice. I've done this before, but not for a few years and the technology's moved on a bit!

What I have is;

Asus P5B motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo processor
2Gb RAM
2 x Maxtor 250GB SATA2 Hard drives - I'm planning to use these as separate drives, not in a RAID configuration
Asus EN7600GS Silent Graphics card (512MB)
Antec Sonata II case
DVD+/- RW
New XP Pro OS

This is all brand new out of the packaging, so discs are unformatted etc.

I'm using my existing Iiyama 19" CRT monitor for the moment, looking at 20" LCDs. My old PC has a floppy drive which I can stick in the new PC if I need a floppy boot disc or anything.

So, I've assembled everything, double checked, hooked up the CRT to the analogue VGA O/P of the graphics card (it has DVI & TV out too), fired it up, and....well, it started, PSU and fans going, bit of hard drive noise, but no picture - it didn't wake the monitor at all. I had hoped I could go straight into the BIOS to format the drives, then install windows, then the graphics drivers etc, but with no image that's a bit difficult!

The monitor works fine with the old PC, so it's not a problem with that. The motherboard has no graphics output on board at all, so it had to use the graphics card from the off.

Any ideas? I should be able to borrow an LCD monitor with DVI input tonight, might that work?

All advice greatfully recieved!

Ben

 

[Goldie Punto]

 

[jug]

usually this problem is the video card is not getting sent a wake up signal from the motherboard because it is not 'plug & plug' compatible with the default motherboard settings. there is usally a jumper switch you can change on the motherboard to allow automatic video card initialisaiton. this type of problem usually only happens on a motherboard with an onboard video card, and you use the jumper setting to disable the onboard card and activate the pci-e or agp slot for primary video. as you dont have on-board graphics this cant be the problem, BUT!!! on the P5B motherboard there are 2 pci-e slots. only one of these is a full x16 pci-e slot. the other only runs at x4 and x1 speeds. if you stuck the video card in this slow speed pci-e slot you wouldn't get a video signal. i suggest you try moving the video card to the other pci-e slot and see if that works. the high speed slot is the blue coloured one, the black one is the slow speed slot.

if that doesnt work you need to check the motherboard manual for video card settings to see what the default settings are and which jumpers change them.

 

[jug]

found a thread from another forum with same problem as you on same mother board, turned out to be a bad mother board, and it worked fine when replaced.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=32&threadid=1921616&enterthread=y

 

[srvben]

Very interesting...sounds like exactly the same problem. I'll try using the DVI out of the graphics card tonight, re-double check all the connections, and if still no joy then it's going back. Unfortunately I bought it from MicroDirect, and I've read they can be a nightmare when it comes to returns....we shall see!

Thanks for the advice.

 

[jug]

another thread, also suggesting shoddy build quality on the P5B is a problem, or that the ram seating or voltage can cause it. the standard settings give ram 1.8v, try 2.2v and see if that has any effect. also reset cmos and bios.

 

[Liam]

What Jug said, motherboard may have onboard graphics so you get no output from your card, needs switched in the bios but only if you get a display through the mobo gfx port.

Liam

 

[Trancendental]

Your Graphics Card might need its own Power Supply, make sure it is plugged into the correct power outlet on the MainBoard.

 

[ArcticBeast]

Do you have the speaker attached to the motherboard? (I dont mean the ones that plug into the back off the machine) when you power on the system do you hear a sequence of beeps? normally when everything is working you should hear just one beep these will generally tell if something is wrong and what, make sure everything is seated correctly, try removing other cards from the system and also the hard drives see if you get a display then.
but it sounds as if either the motherboard or the graphics card are fubar'ed

 

[jug]

true, the error code beeps can save a lot of hassle

 

[srvben]

Sorted.

Having got no beeps at all when it was turned on, I removed the RAM and got I think one long and two short beeps when powered up. the RAM I've bought is G-Skill DDR2 6400 double sided - I don't think the Bios version the board shipped with likes it. Borrowed a 512MB Crucial value stick from work, cleared the CMOS, and hey presto. I now have the first hard drive formatted, XP and the graphics card drivers installed. A new Bios revision is the next step, followed by the installation of me own RAM.

Many thanks for all advice!