How to detect a faulty motherboard

[passy]

I have just bought a Gigabyte motherboard with build-in Video.

I plugged everything in and when I switched on nothing happened. The fan of my Zalman was working, I could see a led on for my PCI TV card but my monitor did not receive any signal and I cannot hear any beep that could give me some clues about the problem.

I believe the motherboard is faulty and I'll send it back.

Now my questions:

If the processor/memory... was faulty I should still be able to access the BIOS. Correct?

Is it possible to have access to the BIOS by just power on the motherboard (without installing anything)?

 

[FarFarAway]

Mate what to do is strip the system down to the essentials:

CPU/HSF

1 x Stick RAM

1 x HDD

1 x DVD-RW

1 x Graphics card

1 x PSU

Then try it again

Whats the betting it works

No seriously its worth a try. Also maybe try putting the RAM in another slot (other dual channel slots) if that doesn't spark it into life

 

[FragTek]

Also try taking the mobo completely out and putting it back in carefully making sure there is nothing behind the mobo that could be grounding it out. This is a pretty common problem after an initial build up.

I'd say I've only got a solid fire maybe 5 out of 10 times I've built up a new computer and hit the power switch for the first time. Follow kemps suggestion and you should be able to get it working. DOA brand new mobo's are fairly uncommon so I wouldn't resort to RMA just yet.

 

[passy]

Thanks for your advise.

have already tested it with a minimal conf:

- built-in video (I do not have a PCI express video card)

- CPU

- 1 RAM

- tried 2 different PSU

And it still does not post and no beeping which I would expect if there is a faulty part.

On a US forum I have seen that few people reported same issue with this new motherboard (GA-K8N51PVMT-9).

I have always used ASUS or ABIT in the past with no problem, Gigabyte does not look a good choice.

 

[FarFarAway]

Have you tried using an old PCI graphics card to see if its the onboard video thats the problem?

 

[passy]

No unfortunately I have only AGP cards but if the onboard video is the problem there is no point to keep this board as it is one of the reason I bought it.

 

[RollerCam540]

Did you firmly plug your 4 pin PSU connector into the 12v header on the motherboard. (If your don't then your computer will most likely be unstable and chances are it won't boot)

Did you plug in a powerful fan into the CPUFAN header on the motherboard? (If your fan drains a lot of power the computer is likely not to boot)

Did you forget to plug a fan into the CPUFAN header? (This will also cause the computer not to boot).

 

[nathan]

usually either motherboard or cpu that stops vga.

/me goes of to break some more pc's