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"HELP - Computer builders lend me your ears!"

A small problem:

Got a new motherboard - Asus P4PE.

I've wired it up etc, but try as I might, I cannot get any picture output. It seems to ignore the fact that I have an AGP card in there (there is no built in graphics port).

It powers on fine, it even warns if there is no processor/RAM present. It doesnt, however, warn if there is no AGP card present! It just seems to simply sit there and I have no idea why!

Any help GREATLY apprecited! Suggest the obvious, I may have missed it!

Cheers everyone

It was the RAM.

GAY GAY GAY RAM.

Not entirely sure why the motherboard recognised it and then didnt warn me it was buggered though.

Having said that, it all works great now.
Mental note for future - RAM failure will stop your PC booting and will do sod all to warn you about it!

Valentino Rossi wrote:
> I had a similar problem about this time last year, when I bought lots
> of bits to put my own PC together, all powered up OK but no display
> on monitor no matter what display card I used. Ended up sending the
> bits back, spent far too long getting it to work to no avail. Not
> saying you'll have to do the same but things never go according to
> plan.


Indeed, I despair sometimes at people who say building your own PC is easy. Sure it is, but when something like this goes wrong (as it seems to ~30% of the time) and you have no clue as to what it could be, no other parts to swap in and no-one around to help, then you're stuffed.

I had a similar problem about this time last year, when I bought lots of bits to put my own PC together, all powered up OK but no display on monitor no matter what display card I used. Ended up sending the bits back, spent far too long getting it to work to no avail. Not saying you'll have to do the same but things never go according to plan.

Only RAM, graphics and processor are plugged in. No hard disks etc

I have swapped power supplies, still didn't work. Both had P4 4 pin adapters but neither power supply made a difference.

I am beginning to think the motherboard needs returning.
I think its buggered.

Maybe the previous owner has flashed the bios and its gone wrong or something. Even then, I would have thought that I'd see the inital 'Ti4200 128mb' screen, before it complained about a naffed up bios.

Maybe there is a blown capacitor or something preventing power going to the AGP and PCI slots properly

If the fan is not going round on the Video card and it is not a physical fan problem then it sound like the AGP slot is not recieving the right amount of power, I assume when you are testing this that you only have the Motherboard, Cpu, Ram and Video card plugged in and nothing else, if you have other things plugged in then remove them from the motherboard and PSU, also have you plugged all the power supply connector into the motheboard and do you have a P4 compliant power supply with the 4 pin 12 volt connector? because if this is not plugged into the motherboard as well as the normal ATX connector your system will not boot.

Hope this helps

Colin

Turbonutter wrote:
> Okay what happens if you plug in the AGP card and just leave it? Is it
> booting windows? What about if you hold down shift or delete or F12
> and all that?


The problem is that the monitor shows sod all.

It has an orange LED for when its not getting any signal, and green for when it is. Its staying orange at the moment.

If I boot with no RAM, the Motherboard beeps at me. If I boot with no processor, it does another type of beep. if I boot with no graphics card, it doesnt seem to care.

I dont know if it is actually going into windows (it could be as XP is installed on the drive) as I can't see anything.

I did notice that the fan isnt going on the graphics card though. The motherborad obviously has power though as otherwise it would beep at lack of RAM etc.

Also tried it with a PCI card, and that has the same probem!

i have a weird motherboard me thinks.

Is it giving out any signs of life? Does it beep at all? How about if you take out the video card?

Okay what happens if you plug in the AGP card and just leave it? Is it booting windows? What about if you hold down shift or delete or F12 and all that?

When I said state the obvious...... ;-)

Yeah, the monitor is plugged in fine. I have just plugged my old system in (same monitor) to come online.

Graphics card is a Ti4200 which is brand new. I have tried it with my old Geforce 256 pro (the card I am now using as I type this), and that has the same effect.

Its got me baffled!

Cheers for the reply though Turbo. Any other suggestions?

Are you sure your graphics card is still working? Can you use a PCI card of some sort?

Are you sure it's not something obvious like your monitor isn't plugged in?