Rizen

The last paragraph describes my problem the rest is all back story.

Here is the story, I decided to build a new gaming rig because my current one is a little out of date. However I am on a really tight budget so i needed to build it for cheap. I decided on a $800 budget and went with these parts

AMD Athlon 64 X2 (could have gone intel but i like to go with the underdog)
DFI Infinity CFX3200-M2/G
8 gigs of ddr2 800 (I technically went over budget here but i got rebates so i don't count it)
Sapphire HD 3850
600W PSU
2 maxtor 80gig Sata hard drives (given by a friend)

So heres the problem, all of the parts arrived tonight and i assembled the pc ( i have built a few before so i have a pretty good idea of what i am doing). After i finished i double checked all connections and tried to fire it up and nothing. After going over everything again i figured it would work better if i plugged it in, and it did it powered up all the fans started spinning and i could here the drives spinning. however thats all it did, nothing appears on my screen at all. so i went over all my connections again hopping for another stupid mistake but no it is all set up right this time. i tried booting it up with only one stick of ram at a time but it did not change i even tried putting the graphics card in the other pcie x16 slot but still nothing changed. i am begining to think the MB was DOA however i don't want to needlessly RMA it, also i have no way of testing the graphics card to determine if that is the source of the problem.

if anyone has any ideas or thoughts on this any help would be greatly aprieciated.

thank you in advance.

ChaosMinionX

Try booting with no devices cept for 1 stick of ram and your videocard in and see if it does anything, dont even connect HDD's and see where it goes from there.

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cozumel

Same as above. If it doesn't POST with the first stick of DDR2 then move on to the second etc.

Edit: Welcome to Driverheaven

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kris23

i also think that you should check each individual stick of RAM before you RMA the board.

and im not sure but i dont think AMD processors can run 8 gigs of memory without major heatup on the northbridge and internal memory controller..... but eh it would still work....

the RAM and vid card are my first guesses before the mobo, so no friend can test them for you?

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Rizen

Thanks for the advice chaos, i gave it a try but it is still dead. i even tried using a vga cable thinking maybe the something was wrong with the dvi port on my monitor.

also is it normal for the cpu heatsink fan to start spinning almost 2 seconds after i power on the system? my intel always started right away.

no friends can test for me, all of their systems are about as old as mine if not older.

i will try testing all of the sticks of ram though

cozumel

And just to double-check and make sure Rizen. All you've got installed is the CPU, GFX, 1xDDR2 and you've plugged the PSU into the 24-pin ATX power connector, 8-pin CPU power connector and the Saphire 3850.

Are you getting any bleeps?

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Rizen

thanks cozumel, yeah all i have installed is the cpu, graphics card, and one stick of ram. i just got finished testing each stick 1 by one still no change

I am starting to agree with Kris in thinking its the vid card (when i did have the drives installed i could hear them spinning up)

and no beeps, i wish i had beeps then at least i would have a clue.

cozumel

I don't know what to suggest. The DDR2 are probably ok as you've tried each one. You've reseated the CPU the Radeon yeah?

The fault could lie in the PSU, mobo, GFX, or CPU. Are you able to test any of them with a friend, family, college/university at work or even a local shop?

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ChaosMinionX

Also what sort of heatsink did you use? Is it using a backplate, because sometimes if its a pressure mount type system too much pressure can cause the chip not to boot...

Also a long shot, but try clearing the CMOS and see what it does.

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Rizen

Thanks for your continued help guys (or girls I don't really know which you are )

but no i don't really have anywhere i can test the parts at, though i could check some of the local shops tomorrow.

and i am using the heatsink that came with the chip (no backplate)

edit: oh and i tried clearing the cmos still did nothing.

ChaosMinionX

*checks* yep still man....phew reminded me to make sure

Anyways, sounds like your mobo is dead to be honest.

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cozumel

And an even longer shot....is there a voltage switch on PSU?



O rly? Then why are you a bird in your avatar then? Answer that!!!

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kris23

imma dude,

the vid card is plugged in (6-pin PCI-e connector) right? if so, is the heatsink fan spinning?

try to find a shop that can test the card for you.

and lastly, i'd liike to point out that it would be a much better move to buy a better motherboard than the one you have currently as AM2+ boards are alot better as you get PCI-E 2.0 and CrossfireX (4 GPUs) using the AMD 790FX boards

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kris23

another thing, i know that certain 2 gig sticks require more volts to run properly, its a long shot but i know some boards just dont run if the memory cant even boot at 1.8v

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Rizen

well i think i will call around to find a shop to test the card for me tomorrow from there i will decide what to rma.

and Kris my motherboard supports Crossfire with both pcie slots running at 16X in crossfire mode, whats the difference between what i got and crossfireX and pcie 2.0 (i know pcie 2.0 has more bandwith not sure how much though)

Edit: Kris as far as the ram goes its from 2 different manufacturers G skill and ADATA i know the Gskill is rated to run at 1.8-1.9 volts

kris23

it's not very good to run memory from 2 different manufacturers in the same rig, I'd stick to the G.skill exclusively.

and back to the motherboards, the 790X/FX boards have PCI-e 2.0 which is a higher bandwidth solution for future graphics cards, double the bandwidth of existing x16 solutions.

it also is capable of having up to 4 PCI-e 2.0 slots for Quad-CrossfireX, that HD3850 in particular is designed for this purpose, very powerful.

lastly, the board has better support for AMD Phenom processors with HT 3.0 a whopping 5200MT/s it is fast and it is future-proofed.

it also has better support for DDR2 1066

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unga

do you have another vid card you could try. Doesn't need to be PCIe. Just to see if that's working. Also did you try your vid card in both slots? Could be a bad slot on the mobo.

Rizen

yeah i tried it in both slots but still did not work, if i do rma the MB i don't know if i will go with am2+ they are nice boards but a bit out of my price range i will get a different mb though.

anyone got a good recomendation for a am2 or am2+ MB that supports Crossfire?

edit: the only other card i got is an x 800xt (8x agp)

ChaosMinionX

AMD Phenom is a huge flop, dont even waste your money on it... it can barely keep up with kentsfield, and penryn is going to bury it.

Just an FYI

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kris23

well... for some reason, rizen here wants an AMD system fully knowing they suck so hey, im just following what the buyer wants. lol

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Necrosis

Ignore the Intel fan boys

BTW, I would say dead MB or PSU. What brand is your PSU?

Judas

Last resort is to only have the psu connected to the motherboard, and the cpu in it, and see if the motherboard starts beeping and honking for lack fo memory or VGA.

it SHOULD technically start beeping giving a beep code to signify lack of memory present... at which point pop a memory stick in...... if the beep code remains the same or changes.... try the video card next..

on some motherboards.... at least quite a number of them, even with no CPU in the sucker, it will give a beep code as a completely LAST resort to determine if at least the motherboard is doing something (cpu is one of the first on the list to check)


I have done this to determine what is the cause, and in 2 instances, found the CPU to be the cause and not the motherboard.

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Dyre Straits

Again, welcome to DriverHeaven!

I do have at least one other suggestion to make before you go through with any RMA:

Take the motherboard out of the case, lay it on a non-conductive surface, hook up the minimum items again and see if it boots. This will, at the least, point out or eliminate possible shorts with it being installed.

Good luck!

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Rizen

thanks again for your help and patience, Dyre i tried what you said but it did not make a difference. As for what you said Judas I tried to boot it without the cpu and got no beeps at all, so would that mean its the motherboard?

btw my psu is a Rosewill

temeteus82

If you don't get any beeps it means two thing your PC speaker isn't connected or you have dead motherboard. Best way to solve this would be looking at the motherboards manual and figure is the PC speaker connector connected to the speaker. If there isn't speaker in your computer's case then it's hard to say what's wrong in here. Then the best solution might be to get new motherboard.

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Rizen

when i read your post Temeteus I couldn't help but think does this guy think i am not smart enough to check if the speaker is connected in my case, well apparently I'm not . So after i connected the speaker i repeated all of the tests again still no beeps, no beeps with missing vid card, no beeps with missing mem, no beeps with missing cpu, and no beeps with missing everything. So now I am almost positive that my MB is faulty (hopefully that is all thats faulty) I think I will call for an rma when i return from work.

ChaosMinionX

Im sorry, but that doesnt have any correlation to fanboism... Phenom is a joke, and it only does better on higher bandwidth encoding... and that only has an enterprise/server application.

AMD Just canceled 4x4 (QuadFX) because it wasnt that great a platform, heres a quick graph of some of the dual core matchups, phenom was done using disabled cores.




Source: PCGH - Test: Duell der Dual-Cores: Phenom X2 vs. Penryn Dual-Core vs. Core 2 Duo

Was not a fanboy statement, but a statement of fact when it comes to performance reviews like this are up all over the place, and nobody can really recommend Phenom/Barcelona to anyone.

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Judas

definitely none working motherboard i would say...

i'm just hoping that nothing was to critically wrong to damage any other components...

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Rizen

Thanks alot everyone for your help i returned the MB to new egg for a refund and ordered a MSI K9A Platinum to replace it. I will update y'all next week when the new MB arrives and let you know how it turns out.

Necrosis

A. My comment is meant as a bit of banter.

B. So you're telling me the previous P4's were a joke in relation to their performance to AMD processor's at the time? The point being is that is the situation we have now reversed. The ratio is about the same w/ the AMD vs Intel. It would take an AMD processor to be clocked 300-400MHz faster to compete w/ a current gen Intel processor. A joke would be half the performance of what it is right now. It is viable as a drop in replacement, and/or in the future if AMD can ramp of clock speeds & keep prices low or lower them.