I have no idea what it could be, but here's what happened...

[DoubleKrossed]

Hello everyone, I'm hoping someone here can give me a bit of help. Here's the situation: I was putting in a few new pieces this evening;
1GB ram (2x512)
A new video card (GeForce FX5700 VE, 256mb DDR)
and a second drive (Seagate 200GB, Ultra ATA/100) with new power cord (as recommended by the manual).

After installing, I had problems with startup (no display and the hard drive wasn't running, I was also getting a beep) So I disconnected the second drive and futzed around, finally replacing the new cord with the old cord, at which point the hard drive kicked in and started humming. But still no display. (By no display I mean a completely blank, black screen) I switched out both the ram and the vid card for their original counterparts and *still* nothing.

After a while I switched the ram *back* out and replaced it with the 1GB set, but left the original card in (A PNY "Nanya"? It came with the computer) I doublechecked the seat of both cards, and felt confident that they were fully seated (my ram tab/holders are pretty fussy, and will fully lock even if the card(s) aren't properly seated) This time the startup was a success. Everything was running, and I had full display. There was a slightly longer pause than usual during the boot, but I got no error messages, and everything seemed great.

I shut down (using the usual process) and moved on to the vid card. I took out the Nanya and replaced it with the GeForce, triple-checked the seating, and hit the power. I got nothing. And by nothing, I mean an absolute and total nothing, save for a little green light on my motherboard. No drives running, no fans humming, certainly no display. Except for the li'l green light, my computer is completely dead.

I thought perhaps the power supply (a 300w FSP) but I have no idea how to be sure, or if I'm even close to guessing right.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[mailpup]

I think you should have uninstalled your old graphics card driver, shut down, installed the new card, booted up and installed a new driver, in that order.

At this point since you can't get the computer boot, try putting the old graphics card back in. If it boots up and runs, try my suggested way to install the new card. If that works, install each of the other components one at a time.

 

[DoubleKrossed]

I tried replacing the new graphics card with the old; still nothing. Except for the teeny-tiny light, there's a total lack of life. More suggestions?

 

[Abraxas]

Still not working?
Not sure, but sounds like some components don't work together (old ram and old vid card with new drive...probably nonsense) and others produce too much load on the PSU (all of it together).
Perhaps try and pull the plugs of everything and back in again - or distribute power in a different way - because sometimes the easy way can unexpectedly gain surprising results.

 

[DoubleKrossed]

Oh, I probably should have posted the resolve of this thread, silly me >.< I talked to one of my techie friends, and she told me it sounded as though I blew my motherboard. An in-depth examination revealed a teeny-tiny burnt/melted looking patch, so we agreed a new mobo was the way to go. While I was at MicroCenter getting the mobo, I also picked up a new case with a 500w PSU. The new system has some problems that need tweaking, but overall, everything's working fine now.