New Computer Purchase!

[Photo-John]

Speed/power you'll get used to real quick. A week from now you'll be thinking your PC seems too slow.

I'm sure. Then I'll hate my office machine. If this goes well I'm planning to build another machine for the office and do a step-by-step stor on building a computer.

Thanks for the CPU fan suggestion. I'm going to look into that. I'm no expert in this area and I'm open to all kinds of advice.

One thing I forgot to buy is a built-in card reader. I'm going to order one and put it in, though. That's a basic component for any imaging machine.

[Mig]

Congrats John! I just ordered some goodies myself - 2 200GB SATA drives, a RAID card and an NEC Dual Layer DVD burner.

Have fun!

Danielle

[Photo-John]

It's all built! But it doesn't work. Is anyone surprised? I'm not. I knew I'd run into problems.

So here's the deal. It starts up, all the fans work, the led on the motherboard comes on, but I have no video. I've reseated the video card a few times but it doesn't change anything. I checked the video card manual and it only has instructions for installing it in a finished, Windows machine. I think there's a hole in my process. I've looked at a bunch of how-tos and followed all my manuals. But I don't know what's up with the video card and I don't know how to install Windows.

Anyone got some advice?

[Michael Fanelli]

One question...why a floppy drive? ;-P

I have heard this questions so many times!

Floppies are still the very best way to transfer small files between computers. Do I really want to waste a CD (plus the time to create it) on a 30K file? Do I have the money to spend on short-lifetime USB keys? Do the computers I use even accept the keys? I was forced to buy an external USB FD for my new laptop just so I could get my work done.

A few people live in a "100% current high-tech world." Most of us live with a large mix of old and new machines while working with limited budgets. A floppy works great for them all.

Whew... that felt good!

[Trevor Ash]

It's all built! But it doesn't work. Is anyone surprised? I'm not. I knew I'd run into problems.

So here's the deal. It starts up, all the fans work, the led on the motherboard comes on, but I have no video. I've reseated the video card a few times but it doesn't change anything. I checked the video card manual and it only has instructions for installing it in a finished, Windows machine. I think there's a hole in my process. I've looked at a bunch of how-tos and followed all my manuals. But I don't know what's up with the video card and I don't know how to install Windows.

Anyone got some advice?

John,

Is the computer monitor in the "ON" or "OFF" mode? I think it needs to be set to "ON".

Seriously, get your Specrum Analyzer out and measure the RF CW signal at pin 34 on the U454 timing modulator. You should see a 400MHz waveform with a bandwidth of about 1MHz and amplitude of about 10dB. The noise floor should be lower than -50dB so check that and any harmonics that aren't at least 10dB less than the carrier. Once verified, grab your CDMA demodulator and verify that the ....



Seriously (this time I mean it), without having looked at anything specific to your equipment I'd probably do the following. And it should go without saying that you need to make sure the obvious has already been done (that the monitor is plugged in and known to work in its current state).

1. Is there a fan on the video card? If so, does it spin when the computer is turned on?
2. Do you hear any beeps or sounds coming from the motherboard or speakers (assuming speakers are plugged in).
3. Does the motherboard come with any built in video cards? If so, are the jumpers (or bios settings) properly setup?

Read the instruction manual that came with your BIOS and look for clues concerning video cards. Usually the manual gives screenshots of what you see in the BIOS and menu items. Look for things that have to do with AGP like disabling it, etc.

When the folks installed the CPU for you did they ever have it connected up in such a way as to go into the BIOS and adjust any settings? In other words, did that have the video working there? If they just installed the CPU and never actually turned the thing on then one thing I'd try real quick is resetting the BIOS.....this usually means removing the battery and temporarily setting a jumper somewhere although the manual will instruct you how to reset the BIOS.

You can also try removing all of the devices from your system that aren't needed for it to boot into the bios including CD-ROM's, hard drives, floppy's, raid cards, etc. All you need is video, motherboard, power supply, monitor. You can even try removing any keyboards and mice. Remember, your goal is to see something in the video so you know whether the viedo card is working at all.

If all of this fails, it's possible something is wrong with the video card (probably not but possible) so I'd look for another card to throw in there and see if that makes a diffrence or not.

I suspect there may be some conflicts with hard drives settings, mb jumpers, etc. But these days most motherboards start beeping and hollering at you telling you there are problems.

Speaking ohf which, my current motherbaord goes as far as to send a human voice through the speakers that sounds a lot like in car's "Right door is open"....lol

[Photo-John]

I haven't tried taking out the drives. That's next. I did check all connections and just tried another video card and another monitor. I used my old Matrox Millenium II video card, ca. 1996. It popped. So that wasn't a very useful exercise. I bought the new card, a Kaser AT!-9200 SE, at Frys. You never can tell if something you bought at Frys has already been opened. There's no manual in the box, only a CD. And the CD has no read me file or other documentation. The Kaser site has no real support or information, either.

I guess a useful question is - should I be able to get video when I first start up the computer, with any video card? All video card documentation I can find says a CD is needed to install a card. If so, how do you get video, in order to install Windows, in order to install a card? Get it? Looks like a catch 22. If it should just work, fine. But I can't tell if that's the case.

Thanks for your help. I'm starting to get a little frustrated. The next step is to remove all the drives and try again.

[Trevor Ash]

I haven't tried taking out the drives. That's next. I did check all connections and just tried another video card and another monitor. I used my old Matrox Millenium II video card, ca. 1996. It popped. So that wasn't a very useful exercise. I bought the new card, a Kaser AT!-9200 SE, at Frys. You never can tell if something you bought at Frys has already been opened. There's no manual in the box, only a CD. And the CD has no read me file or other documentation. The Kaser site has no real support or information, either.

I guess a useful question is - should I be able to get video when I first start up the computer, with any video card? All video card documentation I can find says a CD is needed to install a card. If so, how do you get video, in order to install Windows, in order to install a card? Get it? Looks like a catch 22. If it should just work, fine. But I can't tell if that's the case.

Thanks for your help. I'm starting to get a little frustrated. The next step is to remove all the drives and try again.

You're correct about your assumptions and the catch 22. If the hardware in the system is functioning properly, and the bios is configured properly, then you should always see video with any video card shortly after turning on the computer.

I'm beginning to suspect your new video card. I didn't understand what you meant when you said the matrox card "popped". Do you mean it blew up on you? (with a little smoke and what not?). That surely isn't a good thing.

I'm concerned that your video card was returned. I don't know anything about the brand you mentioned, but it's custom behavior to have at least some printed material instructing a person how to physically install the card.

I've got a few minutes to kill while I wait for my laundry to dry....I'll search the internet for a bit and if I find something I'll update this thread.....if you don't see anything from me today then it means I haven't found anything valuable.

Try not to stress yourself out too much. Chances are, you did everything right and something out of your control is at fault. It happens.

[Trevor Ash]

Oh, also remove the ram you installed when you're troubleshooting this problem. Once you get video working you can reinsert them. Just be aware of any beeps you hear and refer to the manual if you do.

It's "possible" that the bios will warn you if you have no ram installed but it completely depends on how they wrote the bios software so I really don't know.

[Photo-John]

Thanks for taking the time to help with this, Trevor. I'm keeping my expectations low and being patient, since I've never done this before.

About the Matrox card - yes, it blew up. It's really old, so I'm not really worried about it. This is the third or fourth machine I put it in. I figure it was ready to go. I smelled it and found the burnt spot so I'm about 99% sure everything else is ok. I put the other card back i and tried another monitor and there was no more smoke smell. The other monitor didn't work, either.

I'm not getting any sound at all from the computer. dollop said he had some trouble with the sound with the same board. I've checked all the jumper settings and couldn't find anything related to sound or video.

I don't want to have to go back to Frys. That's my last resort. I think they're pretty good about repackaging things, when they do it.

I'm going to go for a bike ride. It's been a few weeks since I've had a chance. Managing my fitness, health, and stress is my top priority today.

Thanks again

[Peter_AUS]

John,

Have you got the RAM sitting in the correct 0 slot, they are usually, Slots 0,1,2,3 in that order and you need to place them in that order.

Remember the little wire connections I mentioned about that were in the picture on the bottom, the coloured ones, White, Red, Green and White, Black and Red etc. You need to ensure they are correctly place on the pins at the bottom of the motherboard, behind what looks like the floppy disk control cable, not sure as it is covering the motherboard towards the bottom.

Check the jumpers on the Motherboard are all sitting in the correct spot.

If you have an old ISA monitor card, put that in one of the ISA slots and see if you can get it to boot to CMOS. Often one of the reasons a motherboard won't boot properly, they have incorrect settings on the BIOS and that can stop the motherboard from booting up. Just in case this is the problem, if you use the jumper that you can short out the CMOS with, remove the battery, leave it out for 10 mins and then put it back in, change the jumper and try again.

Also, if you have the cable incorrectly connected on the Floppy drive, in other words, not pin 1 to pin 1, and the same with hard drives, that can cause the motherboard not to boot up as well.

Remember on the cables one of the pin lines has another colour on it, like if it was red, it would have one that is black. With Black, I think it would likely have one that is blue or white, looking at the cables I can see on the motherboard, it looks likely to be correct, so check that they are correctly connected to the floppy and hard drive.

Bottom line, also the cpu could be an issue as well, so don't count that out as well.

I will try and see if I can find info on the motherboard in the mean time as well.

If in doubt, take the connections off, just connect the power, with the power switch cables connected, usually the white and green ones, and the little speaker connection, which is usually 5 pin connections with black and red on either end, and turn the computer on, it should boot, as you saw with the LED, and give you some sounds which if you count actually tell you some info in the troublshooting of the book if you got one.

I am suspicious about the card blowing, that to me isn't a good sign as well, usually happens from incorrectly connecting to the motherboard.

Keep at it.

[Photo-John]

After not being able to vet any video, I had to come up with a new plan. Thanks to Trevor and Peter for their suggestions.

The next thing I did was remove all the drives, SCSI card, and memory, and try again. I still didn't get any video, but I did get a BIOS beep signal. It told me that the bios was having trouble with the video card

Like I didn't know that.

But that told me that the motherboard and processor were probably working correctly. And that's valuable information.

At that point I decided I should probably return the video card.

I did a little more online research and looked through the manuals some more and decided I should probably check the whole thing more carefully before returning the card. So I started from scratch and rebuilt the whole machine. And guess what? This time it worked. On startup, I got video and the BIOS loaded. I'm not sure exactly what I did differently this time. The only obvious thing is I added one more standoff screw, right in the middle of the motherboard, that I missed before. In any case, it worked. And that's what's important.

Next step, loading Windows.

[Peter_AUS]

Although that might have been the problem (I don't think likely), what I think is, you had something around the wrong way, not seated correctly, cable on backwards.

I am glad that you have been able to get it up and running, it can be frustrating can't in John.

[Photo-John]

I am glad that you have been able to get it up and running, it can be frustrating can't in John.

Since I've never done this before and don't know what I'm doing, I tried to have minimal expectations, no timeline, and remain patient. I did pretty good. I never got angry or really frustrated. And more importantly, I don't think I broke anything

All-in-all, I think it's been a successful operation - so far...

[Trevor Ash]

Although that might have been the problem (I don't think likely), what I think is, you had something around the wrong way, not seated correctly, cable on backwards.

I am glad that you have been able to get it up and running, it can be frustrating can't in John.

I'm in agreement with Peter here. And I'm very glad that you were able to get things moving forward!