Hey, So I built my Mum a new computer for her birthday from my old parts and when I went to boot it up today after imaging the hard drive I get nothing on the monitor, no post, no bios, nothing. Everything powers up, the fans spin, the HDD whires as does the DVD drive. I have ruled it out being the graphics card as it works in my machine, same goes for RAM & CPU. The only thing I can think of is that something on the motherboard (possibly the PCI-E slot) isn't working. The specs are as follows: MSI P67A-G45 Motherboard G530 Celeron 1155 CPU 4GB DDR3 RAM Nvidia 7900GT Samsung 750GB HDD Antec 350W Antec Basiq VP 350P-GB I can't think of anything else that it could be. The motherboard is still in warranty so I can send it back for repair, but before I do that I was just wondering if I could try anything else?
Can't you try putting the GPU on the other PCI-E plug? Also, make sure that the motherboard 6-pin ATX power connector is plugged in. I know there is cover on 2 of the pins, making it a 4 pin.. but you want full power. Usually, motherboard manufacture says to use the 6-pin (or it could be sometimes a 4-pin molex power connector if the board only has a 4pin ATX connector), when you use some kind of powerful CPU, or SLI. But a single really power hungry GPU, can be too demanding for the board, so you need to provide it additional power. I had the same problem as you, when I got my GTX 260 with my old computer. I had to get give it full power, despite my motherboard instruction manual saying that it's only needed for SLI, or when 2x no-additional power needed GPU's is attached.
I have had this problem with an lg screen,when connected up there was a certain 'power on' sequence. Check the monitor manual to rule that out. Have you got the ram in the right slots? I had that problem once too doh!
Might sound daft, but have you tried turning the pc off, switch the power off on the PSU switch, remove the power cable, wait 30 secs. Then, plug power cable back in, switch PSU back on, switch PC back on. I had the same symptoms a while ago and thought I had a GPU or mobo problem, turns out that the above was the solution. Good luck.
Thanks for all the suggestions. All the power plugs on the motherboard are plugged in 24 pin & 8 pin. Also 6 pin in the GPU. Have tried both PCI-E slots still nothing. Have also tried a different power supply just in case and nothing there either. It is odd as a month ago it was working fine in my computer, now it just doesn't want to.
Have you changed the video cable? Have you tried another monitor or perhaps plug it into another PC/laptop?
Yep tried 2 different monitors that work with her old computer and my computer both with different cables. It's really bizarre, I've double checked all the cabling inside the case over and over but think I'm going to get someone else to have a look just in case, for some reason, I have missed something obvious.....
Did you check the processor and RAM? If its not getting to BIOS POST then it may not be seated correctly.
Since it looks like you've tested/confirmed everything else I'm leaning towards the motherboard. The only suggestion I can make is to remove everything that not essential to powering on the system ie, disconnect everything except the MB, CPU, RAM and Video Card.
Presumably the motherboard has a built-in GPU of some sort, have you tried booting without the GPU installed at all? It it doesn't boot, it isn't a GPU issue but something else. If it does, then you know where the issue is. If it doesn't boot, I'd suggest the same as munkey: strip the PC back to motherboard, CPU, PSU, RAM and HDD and see what happens. You'll know if it gets past POST because the HDD will begin to load the OS. Then add the components back one at a time to see where it breaks (and be careful not to overload the PSU as you do, all the components could be find but if you're out of power nothing will load). It it does boot, then you know it's either an issue with the PCI-E slot or the GPU (or the PSU). If you can, try a different GPU in the same PCI-E slot and see if that works, and try the power cables on different rails of the PSU. Through a process of elimination, you'll work out where the issue is. Incidentally I know I've raised it a few times, but most of the issues I've had with PCs not booting has been down to power problems, with the PSU basically not giving out enough juice with all the components plugged in.
does it stay "on" despite the blankness? i've got v similar issues atm but my restarts itself every 10 secs or so...
Yeah, stays on, going to RMA the motherboard tonight as all other components have worked in my PC. Will update when it returns.
Well I sorted it, feel a bit dumb but nevermind. Turns out it was the BIOS. Just needed to be upgraded so that it was compatible with the celeron chip. Works like a charm