Building My First Computer And Suprise It Isn't Working

Question

I've had many years of experience working on and around computers, but this was my first foray into building one completely from scratch. So far that foray has been a disaster.

My rig is completely assembled, and on its maiden power-up plus many power cycles I noticed three things:

1. There were a few beeps from the BIOS POST upon powering up the first time, but I wasn't paying attention completely to the sequence. However, every time after that there are 0 POST beeps, even after taking off all hardware except the CPU and MB.

2. There was no video being sent to the monitor. I run a HDMI cable from my video card to the monitor.

3. The video card was LOUD. My card is a Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 which is known for not only being a powerhouse, but being pretty quiet. A few times during my power cycles it ran a lot quieter, but most of the time it was just super loud.

Can anyone provide help for any of these issues?

My MB, CPU, and Video Card are:

MB: ASUS P6X58D Premium LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard CPU: i7 920 Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 5870

Answer 1

Just going from what you've said, what I'd try is:

1. Test your monitor with another computer or component to ensure that it works (if you don't already know so).

2. Try connecting your video card to the monitor with a DVI cable instead of your HDMI cable, if you have a cable handy and assuming your monitor supports it.

3. Remove the Radeon and dig up or borrow another video card to try in your system.

As long as the computer appears to be powering up now, I wouldn't worry too much about the beeps you heard the first time you booted it up. If you want some measure of assurance that it's still getting as far as the POST in its boot phase, you might try removing all the RAM and then making sure it gives you some sort of beep code when you try to turn it on.

Good luck...

Answer 2

I just finished building my rig about a week ago, haven't built a PC in about 10 years. I can't really say what your problem may be, but I had one problem keeping my PC from booting up that took me a couple of hours of troubleshooting to figure out. It was the power cable from the Power Supply to the motherboard. There should be a 20/24 pin slot on the board AND a 4 pin slot. Be sure BOTH cables from the Power Supply are plugged into these slots. It's not just one cable from the power supply that is used to power the board, but two. I forgot that, or things have changed in the last 10 years.

Answer 3

Yep, pkiyan nailed it; I didn't have the 4 pin connector plugged in (8pin on my MB) and now the system boots like a charm.

However I have a new issue, The system will randomly power down. It is in random intervals, but usually within the first 5 minutes of powering it on. I ran the system with the 8 pin connector removed and it never just powered it self down. I connect the 8 pin connector and it boots up fine (recognizes all my drives and I even started loading the files to start installing Windows 7), but after a minute or two it will just shut down with no warning. I didn't skimp on a PSU either. My PSU is a Crossair 650W (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005).

I'm soo close >.<

Quick side question, if it successfully boots up, recognizes all my drives, and I even started loading windows 7 does that mean my CPU was properly installed (I was a little worried I might have damaged the pins when installing it)?