Built a new computer for first time, monitor doesn't get a signal

[PabloTheTwig]

Just ordered and built a computer for the first time in my life.

Motherboard
ASUS M4A88TD-M USB3 AMD 880G Motherboard

CPU
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Quad Core Processor

RAM
Corsair 4GB DDR3 RAM

Video Card
EVGA GeForce GTX 550 Ti

Hard Drive
Seagate Barracuda 1TB

Case
Thermaltake V3 Black Edition Mid Tower Case

Power Supply
Cooler Master GX Series 650W

Monitor
Asus VH197D 18.5" Widescreen HD LED Monitor

Assembled everything to the best of my ability. Everything screwed into (hopefully) the right places. Power supply is connected twice to the motherboard, once to the graphics card, and once to the hard drive. Hard drive is connected to the motherboard. All the wires from the case have been plugged into the motherboard.

Connected the computer to my monitor and turned the computer on. My graphics card, CPU, case, and power supply fans all started running. LED lights all turn on. No beeps were heard, and the little motherboard speaker has been plugged in.

And my monitor doesn't get a signal.


Anyone know what the problem could be? I just bought everything new, so I doubt its a hardware issue. Have I missed something I should have plugged in somewhere?

Also, I've tried putting my stick of RAM into each of the different slots, and it hasn't worked for any of them.

 

[mailpup]

Power supply is connected twice to the motherboard, once to the graphics card, and once to the hard drive.

There are more connections than that. What about the 24 pin main motherboard power connection and the 4 pin CPU power connector?

 

[PabloTheTwig]

Those are the two connections i'm talking about to the motherboard.

The 20+4 connection, and the 4 connection to the CPU

 

[mailpup]

Okay. I misunderstood what you wrote. I looked at a picture of your case but it wasn't clear to me whether it had built in motherboard standoffs. It looks like it does.

To eliminate the possibility that the motherboard is shorting to the case, you could try removing the motherboard from the case and placing the motherboard (complete with CPU and heatsink/fan attached) next to it on a non-conducting surface. Leave the two power supply connectors attached as well as the front panel On switch. Install the graphics card and one RAM stick. See if will post. For test purposes the hard drive, optical drive and case fans don't have to be connected.

 

[PabloTheTwig]

Mkay. I won't be able to work on the computer again till Friday evening, but I'll try it out then.

 

[vChRiSv]

I would start off with some simpler tests. For example, try a different connection type between your computer and monitor if possible, i.e. HDMI, VGA, DVI. Also, use a different monitor with your computer to see if that works.

 

[Shiney]

I presume that you have tried the onboard vga adapter. ?
Also do a reset of the bios and check the onboard switches for oc

 

[MrBlkfx1]

Yeah, Id try the onboard graphics. You may have to use those first, then switch in BIOS to use your dedicated card.

 

[PabloTheTwig]

Oh. Took out the graphics card, and the monitor loads up .

Now to wait till Monday before my DVD drive arrives so i can install Windows 7 and my discs lol.


Thanks for the help guys.


BTW, before I posted here, I noticed a LOT of posts with a similar problem that I had. Looked through them all, but never saw this suggestion. Seems like a pretty newb mistake, but for those of us that don't deal with computer hardware much, it seems like it could also be a pretty common problem too.