"Help, Mr. Wizard! HELP!!"

[TJS]

Alright, I just got done assembling my latest masterpiece yesterday and fired it up... with two notable problems, the larger being that I don't get any connectivity to my displays. Here's a rundown of my system...

Intel i5 650 w/Tuniq 120 Extreme HSF

MSI GD-85 mobo (P55)

Gigabyte HD Radeon HD5870

OCZ Vertex Turbo 60GB (x2, non-RAID)

Ultra LSP 750W PSU

GeIL DDR3-2133 2x2GB RAM

El Generico DVD burner (can't remember the manufacturer)

Chieftec SMART case

Logitech keyboard/USB and mini-keyboard/PS2

The story starts off by me checking the PSU and making sure its set to 110V, which I thought it was. When I powered it on it turned on for a second... then wound down and off... then 3 seconds later powered on again (for a second)... then wound down and off... repeat a few times...

I then shut it down with the PSU switch, checked the voltager selector, and decided that maybe I thought seeing '110V' was meant as "flip it up for 110V", so I did just that. Then my nice new computer stayed on and on, and I was overjoyed... until I realized that no BIOS was showing up on my 32" Samsung HDTV, nor the Acer 24" monitor I also had hooked up. After a good half hour of trying to get either monitor to connect in a myriad of configurations I acquiesced to defeat for the night and decided to tackle this problem tonight (now) and during the weekend if need be. (So Murphy and 'need be' is what I'm looking at.)(Damn Murphy!)

The lesser problem I noticed is that neither my USB mouse nor keyboard would light up and work, nor did the PS2 minikeyboard I favor for a gaming keyboard (for typing, I use a speedpad for the actual gaming). This makes me wonder if there is a problem with the video card, or maybe the motherboard. I bought an Ultra PSU tester to make sure the PSU was supplying power through all the connectors and sure enough they all put out. I went so far as to 'borrow' a monitor from work, one with a lower resolution than the 1920x1080 of my HDTV and 24" monitor, but still no luck. But something happens to all three monitors when I hook them up to the video cards connectors... they all pretty much stop working. Instead of showing 'No cable attached' (or some such) they all go blank screen on me... but I know they all detect the video card. I should say the HDTV doesn't go blank, but rather just ignores the video card and says 'no signal'. The Acer just goes blank; the Dell says 'press a button on the keyboard or move mouse' (to which neither work) and after 3-4 seconds goes blank.

If you're wondering about the rest of the system, it seems to work just fine. The fans are spinning, the lights are lighting up, the dvd drive opens and closes, but after that your guess is as good as mine until I get something on a display.

Any thoughts? All are welcome...

thanks in advance

TJS

[TJS]

Well I took my video card to the local CompUSA here in sunny Puerto Rico and had it tested... apparently it was the culprit. So I plunked down the plastic and grabbed an HD5770 for a replacement until such time as my Gigabyte comes back from Newegg, and then I can have my HD5870 goodness once again.

D'OH! Turns out the new card doesn't work either. o.O Or is it the video card? Could it be the PSU after all? Maybe the motherboard? My money is on the mobo, but I'm going to grab a new PSU anyway and see what I shall see.

*Just out of curiosity, anyone have one of these Ultra PSU testers? I noticed that the lights come on except for '-5V' and 'PG'; the manual says that some PSUs don't have -5V (or it won't show up on the tester, whichever), but doesn't say what the 'PG' stands for. Anybody got a guess?

Right, feel free to comment.

TJS

**While I am spending a good deal of money, the bright side is I will also have a good amount of spare parts/test equipment. I always try and find the 'glass half full' part of life. ;]

[AMD_PBz]

Sorry to hear About Your troubles pal, have you checked your power connections inside the case just to make sure they are seated correctly I have run into the same problem before only to find I didn't have the pcie connector seated properly on the graphics card it might be worth a try.

Cheers

[TJS]

Actually I did check all the connections, even went so far as to use the 2 Molex-to-6pin PCI-E... nada.

One thing I did notice a minute ago was that I accidentally mis-seated a USB header... I covered 5 of the 7 pins, noticed a glint of light when I ran my flashlight inside the case, saw two pins uncovered. ;[ Will this possibly be the culprit? It might actually explain the USBs not working, maybe even the PS2...

Meanwhile I'll throw in a new PSU and see whats cookin'...

Thanks for thoughts, AMD_PBz, got anymore by all means throw 'em at me.

TJS

[AMD_PBz]

Just another thought have you tried another pcie slot on your board to rule out the possibility of a bad pcie socket did your 5870 and now the 5770 fan spin up?

Cheers

[TJS]

Originally Posted by name='AMD_PBz'

Just another thought have you tried another pcie slot on your board to rule out the possibility of a bad pcie socket did your 5870 and now the 5770 fan spin up?

Cheers

Yup yup. Did the ol' switcheroo on both, no luck. The fans would spin on both, but that was about it.

Put in another PSU, did what the first PSU did... power up, power down, wait, power up, power down, wait, power up, etc... so I took the HD5770 back for a 'refund', told the CS agent I wanted to trade for a mobo, price was exactly the same for an MSI GD85... will give a sitrep in a couple hours. (I honestly thought it might be the mobo from the get go but such a pain in the butt to switch out, why couldn't it have been just a stick of RAM?! ;[

[AMD_PBz]

Because ram is easy and cheaper than graphics cards sorry to hear of your frustrations hopefully the only issues that I encounter with my current build is stock levels psu graphics card and hard drives back orderd and amd hasn't released Thuban and asus hasn't released the 890fx extreme mb yet.

[TJS]

Originally Posted by name='AMD_PBz'

Because ram is easy and cheaper than graphics cards sorry to hear of your frustrations hopefully the only issues that I encounter with my current build is stock levels psu graphics card and hard drives back orderd and amd hasn't released Thuban and asus hasn't released the 890fx extreme mb yet.

I don't know why but I always treat VCs with extreme care, probably because they are so damn expensive, but also HUGE and unwieldy. RAM is small and easy, and also less expensive like you said.

ALL IS WELL NOW! ;] Loading Windows Ultimate 7 64-bit as I type, here's to hoping no more issues arrise. (Take THAT, Murphy! ;} ja rly

Thank you to AMD_PBz and VonBlade (pm'ed), good to have you in my corner.

TJS

[AMD_PBz]

Awesome glad to hear that you are up and working again.

[VonBlade]

Great to see it's all worked out!