New parts, seems to run, no output.

[jreddick]

My laptop recently went out and I have to wait for it to be fixed so I ordered some parts from Newegg to piece together an adequate computer (the one I"m on now really sucks... It's old school with a pentium II that maxes and lags out if I load a video.)

Anyway, I received my parts today and was very excited. I hadn't built a barebone before, so my friend and I (he knows more about computers than I do) put it together and followed all of the instructions perfectly (We actually spent a really long time, because we wanted to do it right.)

The parts I purchased were:
-AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Brisbane 2.2GHz Socket AM2 65W Processor

-PC CHIPS A13G+ (V3.0) AM2 NVIDIA nForce 6100-405 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

-Athenatech A3603BB.400 Black Steel MicroATX Mini Tower Computer Case 400W Power Supply

-Kingston 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit

I already had an 80 GB HDD @ 7200 RPM with Windows XP Pro installed on it (that's what is in this computer I'm using now,) and a disc drive which I also put into the computer. I used Arctic Alumina as my thermal paste.

Everything was installed and I was excited, and when I booted up the computer, the front lights came on (Power LED + HDD LED), the lights on the keyboard flashed once and stopped, the power supply fan works fine, the processor fan works fine, the case fan works fine, the hard drive is on and running, and the disc drive works and detects when I put discs in... However, there is no output onto my monitor at all.

The video is on-board. I plugged in audio and got nothing (that was expected though) so I tried plugging in my lan cable (because my router lights up when a PC is turned on and connected) but nothing lit up, so the router does not detect the computer.

So in all honesty, I really don't know what's wrong. I'm going to try contacting PC Chips tomorrow when I can and see if they can help out, but I'm just getting some opinions on here.

My two thoughts are that
a) The integrated video is no good
b) The processor came DOA (I dunno for sure on this one, because I dunno what happens if you boot up a computer with a dead processor...)

I get absolutely no out-put onto my monitor at all. No words, codes, or anything. Just a blank screen that acts like nothing is hooked up to it (except the "cable not connected" light goes away when I connect it; it just acts like the computer isn't turned on.)

Any thoughts?

 

[AlbertLionheart]

take the motherboard out and check that you have not got too many stand-offs underneath the board - they will short it out. Also have you got the front panel connections all correct?

 

[jreddick]

The front panel connections are correct. I took the system into a computer store and asked for tips (I'm persuasive and got him to look at it for free. ) and he thinks that it is most likely the motherboard that is defective. He says there is a possibility that the processor could be out and it would do the same thing, but he says that most likely it's the motherboard and he recommended that I RMA the motherboard.

I somewhat regret having purchased a PC Chips motherboard, as I trust MSI, Gigabye, and Asus much more.

 

[Herbssat]

Good evening. You should have trusted your instinct. As a builder; I would not use pc chips even as a last resort.

 

[jreddick]

Another sad day...

Well, I returned the dilapidated piece of trash that PC Chips sent me and got an MSI. This one works, however I am no having issues that I don't even know how to deal with...

I put in the processor and ram, which I bought from Newegg and then I put in a cd drive that I already had and an 80 GB hard drive I already have with windows XP Pro installed. I tried to boot it up and it told me the NTLDR was missing, so it wouldn't let me. I messed around in BIOS and checked the hardware and what not, and it finds everything just fine and it's set up correctly, was running at 36C.

So I put this hard drive back into the computer I am on now (I don't have two with a working OS on them) and it works fine on here. I tried to get the fix for the NTLDR thing and burn it on CD, but for some reason it won't burn (I used Alcohol 120%, as the file is an ISO.) I don't have a floppy, so I can't do that, so I'll borrow a jump drive from a friend tomorrow and try that version...

Anyway, I found out that only way that XP Pro is working is when I have it as a slave with my 4 GB hard drive as the primary, which is how it was set up in this computer. The 4 GB hard drive is old and ghetto, but it had Windows 2000 on it, so I just put in the 80 GB, booted up 2000 and installed XP on the 80 GB drive and it worked to boot up just like that. I don't actually have an XP disc right now, so I can't do a new install, but I have Windows ME so out of curiosity I tried to install it on the 80 GB drive while it was in the new computer and it started to do some crap and then told me no and restarted...

After it restarted, it tells me it can't install because of an error in the partition, so I tried to format the drive and it tells me I CAN'T format it. Something like, "program has caused a divide error" or something weird like that. So I put it back in this computer and it didn't work, I got a blue screen so I tried again in safe mode and then fixed it so it works again...

I realized that for some reason, this drive only works as a slave with the 4 GB as a master (although it doesn't have Windows 2000 on it, since I started formatting it, but for some reason it never finished and left traces, so it still gives me the option of WIndows 2000 or XP at boot up.) Anyway, after I fixed XP, I put both hard drives in the new computer and it found the NTLDR this time and gave me the option to boot up Windows XP or Windows 2000, so I tried to boot up XP and it gave me the Blue Screen of Death... So I tried safe mode, and it still gave me the BSoD.

I realize this whole situation is totally screwed up, but when I put the drives back in this computer it works fine. To be totally honest, I dunno what to do. I don't have money right now to go buy a new hard drive.

 

[Herbssat]

You have got a rough situation there. If I were in your shoes, my approach would be to first find someone who has a windows installation disc(XP Pro) and a product key you can possibly use to try a repair install on the 80 gig drive. If windows does not see the installation and does not give you the option, your only option will be a clean install. In some cases you will have to wipe the drive fully to get the os to install. I use a linux based utility called Drivewasher here to write zeros to the drive. If your motherboard is compatible with windows me, which it probably isn't, you could attempt the same thing. No matter what you attempt, you are going to need a disc. Your main problem is that your chipset drivers from the old hard drive do not match the new motherboard and windows will BSOD. If you get the disc you could try the recovery console to try and fix the boot.ini files but you will still probably run into the same roadblock.

 

[nickc]

just get the XP disk format from it and reinstall Windows and the computer should work, when I was reading the long story I knew what was going to happen u cannot go from one computer to another with the same hard drive without starting over with the OS as the drivers will not work on two computers the same.

 

[Grafficks]

The previous two posts are correct. The thing is, Windows XP is really sensitive to hardware changes. In your situation, it's a huge hardware change (a whole new computer). Usually when you make a large hardware change and don't want to do a clean install of Windows XP, you would run a repair install: https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic8356.html
Though for that, you would need to find a disc.