Computer bulit, but monitor & maybe hard drive not working...

[Cobblers]

Hope you sort it - major pain in the ###### all the messing about.

[Zeealex]

yeah, i've done enough of that in my building time (6 years) fiddling about with these things, so much easier and beneficial to chuck it out the window.

[ROCO*AFZ*]

Also to add to this when testing, you can unplug all sata, ide and power connectors for everything but the mainboard, and video card. (That includes any fans) All you want is mainboard, video, ram and of course power supply for testing. That includes removing any pci sound cards or devices. That narrows it down as to post, that is all you need. (post as in show the intial screen where it has memory count and processor or the mainboard manufacturers cover screen. if it were to post then it's a component. if not, it's one of the 3. Next, try the ram as i said 1 stick at a time. if that doesn't work then probably not the ram. then your down to video, processor, mainboard and power supply. From their ask a friend if he has a pci express card you can borrow for a night to test. any card will do just to post. if it posts then its your vid card. if it doesn't your down to mainboard and power supply. Also as stated the beep codes would help us narrow it down even faster.

As stated before also if it's the wrong processor for that mainboard it also won't boot or may need a bios update using a lesser processor before inserting.

[Kyle_K_ski]

And then add some paprika.

Salt to taste.

Stir.

And serve.

I've been up since 3:30 AM, and I'm about to start all of this blasted testing now.

More later (if time permits before heading off for work).

[Zeealex]

hey kyle, no offence but i dont think computers like you

didnt you have trouble with a turtle beach card that STILL isnt fixed?

and GRAW 1 realism mods refused to work so you gave up and uninstalled it?

you have the patience of a saint, if that was me, the PC would be out of the window by now.

[Kyle_K_ski]

Patience is a virtue I'm abundant in. Just don't tell my wife that I told you so.

I've merged together Roco's two detailed and comprehensive testing recommendations into one, with my responses for what I accomplished written in red font, and if there's any related commentary by me it'll be either in the dark red or dark purple font.

TESTING PROCEDURES

make sure all power connectors to mainboard from powersupply are plugged in.

Done, and all were in place.

remove all front switch cables from mainboard. use screwdriver to short power pins. see if it boots.

See next entry below.

remove bios battery after removing power from power supply. turn it sideways and use the battery to short the 2 connectors. This will reset the bios. put the battery back, test.

Done. Used motherboard's Start button, yet no picture on monitor. I pressed the CLR_CMOS button at the back of the case, pressed the Reset button on the motherboard, and then shutdown system.

unplug all sata, ide and power connectors for everything but the mainboard, and video card. (That includes any fans)

All you want is mainboard, video, ram and of course power supply for testing. That includes removing any pci sound cards or devices.

That narrows it down as to post, that is all you need. (post as in show the intial screen where it has memory count and processor or the mainboard manufacturers cover screen. if it were to post then it's a component. if not, it's one of the 3.

Done. Used motherboard's Start button, yet no picture on monitor. I pressed the CLR_CMOS button at the back of the case, pressed the Reset button on the motherboard, and then shutdown system.

Next, try the ram as i said 1 stick at a time.

Take all the ram out. Start with 1 stick. Try in 1st slot. if no post, try 2nd stick, 3rd ect. then move slot. It is possible also 1 memory card not seated can stop the whole boot.

if that doesn't work then probably not the ram.

Done. Used motherboard's Start button, yet no picture on monitor. I pressed the CLR_CMOS button at the back of the case, pressed the Reset button on the motherboard, and then shutdown system. I'd like to add that if having one stick of RAM "not seated" can cause the whole system not to boot up, then isn't it possible that even just one faulty stick of RAM, seated properly, could also cause the system to not boot properly? How can I tell for a certainty whether it's a bad seating or a faulty stick of RAM that's potentially causing the problem?

then your down to video, processor, mainboard and power supply. From their ask a friend if he has a pci express card you can borrow for a night to test. any card will do just to post. if it posts then its your vid card. if it doesn't your down to mainboard and power supply.

After going through this process, it looks like one (or more?) of the three is defective, yes? I'm hoping that I can secure a PCI-based graphics card tonight, but am unsure of what the odds will be for something like that.

Also as stated the beep codes would help us narrow it down even faster.

Now this is interesting: I kept the motherboard's speaker plugged in. There wasn't a single beep the entire time that I was doing the testing, and that included a lot of start ups. What does this mean, as it beeped twice when all of the other devices were plugged in? I'm quite sure that I had it seated properly after removing all of the other cables and chords.

Take the processor out. Look for bent pins on mainboard or processor if that one has them. put it back. try to boot. (Reseating can help sometimes)

Won't try until a friend's graphics card won't get the system to POST.

As stated before also if it's the wrong processor for that mainboard it also won't boot or may need a bios update using a lesser processor before inserting.

[Kyle_K_ski]

I forgot to mention that the only fan that I did NOT remove from the panel was the Cool Master CPU Cooler's fan. Literally, the only way that I could remove it was to take EVERYTHING out, including the motherboard.

[Kyle_K_ski]

I just acquired a used graphics card that works. It has several blown capacitors, but it's used for testing situations such as the one I'm stuck in. It'll produce a picture, but it'll have artifacts in the image. That's perfectly fine with me if it'll get the job done.

Here's the card I'll be testing with tonight:

GeForce 8800GT link

[Zeealex]

dont mess with a blown capacitor whatever you do, nice big zap to look forward to. plus it might blow the mobo, highly doubtful i've only had it happen once.

and besides i'm a girl, apparently i dont know what i'm talking about.

Edited April 19, 2011 by Zeealex

[Kyle_K_ski]

Cleared the CMOS, and tried out the GeForce 8600GT 256MB graphics card, with no graphics being displayed.

Now, not to sound like a complete idiot, but I was unable to find a socket for a power supply chord--am I correct that it gets its juice via the PCI Express connection that it has? I did a keyword search, and the results I got weren't explicit.

If I somehow missed the power socket, please link me to the article that mentions it so that I can find it. Not even NVIDIA's official site was helpful My link

Assuming that I did hook up the GeForce correctly, what's next for diagnosing? Do I need to remove the PSU, the CPU cooler, and then the motherboard so that I can extract the processor and see if its pins were (somehow) damaged when it was installed? What if the processor looks fine, how do I determine "for sure" that it's broken/okay, and that the only real remaining candidate for causing the circuit parity is the motherboard? How likely is it that the RAM's the culprit?

I don't know if I'm going to have access to a lesser-powered and ASRock-compatible processor to do any further testing. As always, any and all advice warmly accepted.

.

[Buehgler_AS]

It looks like your MB has a diagnostic port that may help -- if you can get back to two-beeps. There should be two 7-segment LED displays close to the power and reset switches on the MB. In addition to telling us about the beeps, a two-beep startup will result in this display having an error code on it -- it should sequence through a bunch of numbers quickly as the system goes through the POST sequence. If you get that far and can tell us what that display says that would help a lot (see pages 29-31 in your MB manual for the translation of the codes). To be honest, I am a bit stumped no beeps would indicate power supply issues, or processor problems.

[Zeealex]

Cleared the CMOS, and tried out the GeForce 8600GT 256MB graphics card, with no graphics being displayed.

Now, not to sound like a complete idiot, but I was unable to find a socket for a power supply chord--am I correct that it gets its juice via the PCI Express connection that it has? I did a keyword search, and the results I got weren't explicit.

If I somehow missed the power socket, please link me to the article that mentions it so that I can find it. Not even NVIDIA's official site was helpful My link

.

it's a low profile card, it gets it's power from the motherboard no need to worry there the processor has a 30% chance of being the culprit, IF the processor wasn't inserted in the right way (little triangle on it should be on the bottom left corner) i think they have fool proofed it theese days so you can ONLY put it in the right way. Buehgler has the diagnostics sorted for you can you tell i dont know the board?

Edited April 20, 2011 by Zeealex

[Kyle_K_ski]

I don't recall seeing any LED's on the motherboard being lit.

Here's what I'm going to do:

Clear the CMOS, hook up the power supply to the outlet, start up the system with just the HIS Radeon card, motherboard, processor, and CPU cooler being connected, and, whether the two-beeps are produced or not, and thoroughly-check to see if any LED's are lit.

Then, hook every cable and chord back up (yay, such fun!), clear the CMOS, hook up the power supply to the outlet, start up the system, wait for the two-beeps, and thoroughly-check to see if any LED's are lit.

And then report back to you all. I've got to make breakfast for the family, and then I'll get my hands back into that case. Let me know, hopefully before I start the latest testing, if any of my above procedures could be better refined.

Yours!

[Kyle_K_ski]

I think that I finally found THE CULPRIT that's been plaguing me!

I used the previously mentioned testing method, but I then went one step further: I added one device at a time. A major pain in the butt, but a method I'll be MOST pleased with if it results in a positive outcome. To speed things up, I did NOT have my monitor hooked up to the graphics card (I can only place the case on the ground for the monitor hookup; it was a lot faster for me to go monitor-free, and just keep the case on the worktable. Also note that I cleared the CMOS before each and every additional change indicated in the table below.

Here's my One Part Added At A Time checklist. Each part is listed in the order that it was installed in.

Part Installed Motherboard Beeps? Dr. Debug LED #

HIS Radeon graphics card None None

Rear case fan None None

AC'97-Front case panel audio switch None None

Power Switch/HDD LED/Reset System panel head None None

USB-Front case panel None None

SATA port-Front case panel None None

Top case fan None None

Front case fan None None

Seagate Barracuda 320 GB hard drive None None

SATA connection to optical drive (this device does not yet have power) None None

Lightscribe Optical Drive (power now connected) YES, two short & rapid beeps None ?

One might wonder why it is that I did the Lightscribe Optical Drive in two steps, and the only reason why I did that was because ALL of the other device-hookups produced no sounds, and I wanted to "tightly corner" the Lightscribe device just to better ensure and detail it should it prompt a beep. Here's a listing for the Lightscribe Optical Device: Lightscribe product description link .

So, the question is now this: what is the significance of the 2 short beeps finally sounding out when the Lightscribe is fully connected, and why did the Dr. Debug LED system NOT display a code after the beeping?

Is it safe to assume that the Lightscribe is the faulty device, or does the motherboard have a malfunction in handling said device, or is it the AMD Phenom II processor that's faulty when the device is plugged in, or...?

I need a short break from doing this. So I haven't yet bothered to plug it into the monitor to see if it results in anything different, but then I can't imagine how the consequences would be any different if I did.

Are there any additional tests that you would like me to run, or did my methodology prove something (hopefully) conclusive?

Edited April 20, 2011 by Kyle_K_ski

[Cobblers]

So Kyle, I'm taking it you aren't up for building my system once the parts are delivered?

[Zeealex]

well considering he'll have to pay for flights, the chances are slim

good job by the way kyle.

Edited April 20, 2011 by Zeealex

[Kyle_K_ski]

I hope that the congratulations aren't too early. I just received an email from the friend who supplied the graphics card, and while he doesn't supply any reasons in his email (he's at work) he highly doubts that the Lightscribe Optical Device is the culprit.

He wants me to basically go through the same procedures that Roco originally advised. Here's what Adam (who supplied me with the GeForce graphics card) recommended to me:

I really doubt that a dvd drive would stop a motherboard from booting, but I suppose it could happen. For the step you are on, you should really just be trying to get into the bios/cmos setup.

If you have a power button on your motherboard ( not power supply, or a front panel ) you should just have these installed/connected:

-power cable hooked to power supply

-keyboard hooked to motherboard

-cpu

-cpu fan

-1 stick of memory

-a 20-pin/24-pin power cable from the power supply to the motherboard

-a video card hooked to a monitor

-aux cpu power cable from power supply to motherboard ( if your motherboard has this )

-aux video power cable from power supply to video card ( if your video card has this )

If your motherboard doesn't have a power button on the back of it, then hook up the power button to the motherboard.

That is it. You shouldn't have anything else plugged it. The things listed above is enough to get you in the bios/cmos setup. If you cannot get into bios/cmos setup, you need to focus on these things.

You've tried a different video card, so it's probably not the video card. Make sure you are testing it with the above parameters/configuration.

Try these:

-Make sure all of the power connectors are plugged in completely

-Try moving the memory to each slot, and trying to boot it each time. Try each memory stick you have.

-Remove the CPU, and re-seat it.

-If you can, try a different power supply. I don't have any spares, sorry.

If this doesn't help you, try contacting Newegg, AMD, other your other manufacturers.

I've already gone through the whole RAM-testing bit. The monitor didn't produce a picture.

According to Adam's email, his four biggest culprits are the RAM, the motherboard, the power supply and the CPU.

How do you feel about this? Is it VERY likely that I identified the real problem (the Lightscribe), or do I now need to strip everything out just to get a look at the processor, visually see whether its damaged or not (and if not damaged, risk damaging it by reseating it into the motherboard). The lack of an additional power supply is a major headache. I might know people who could have a powersupply, but the odds of it being as beefy as a 600W one are pretty slim.

I want this mess OVER WITH, you know?

[Zeealex]

the Light scribe drive could be shorting out the system, so many different reasons, drawing too much power, the power supply is defective, the IDE Data socket could be bust, or something isn't configured properly.

thats ASRock for you their fault really for not supplying what the beep code meant. would have been so much easier if they did. cocky ######.

ASUS and Gigabyte are very informative when it comes to trouble shooting.

Edited April 20, 2011 by Zeealex

[Kyle_K_ski]

I called ASRock support here: 1-909-590-8308

And the gentleman I spoke with, Derick, made reference to taking the motherboard out of the case completely, having it just hooked up to the PSU, the cooler, and with no RAM. When I start it up, it should make 3 beeps, which means that the motherboard's fine, and that the RAM is missing. He mentioned that I ensure that I have the power firmly plugged into its 24 pin and 8 pin sockets, at which point I interrupted him and said, "Uh, what 8 pin power socket?"

"Well sir, there are two power sockets, one for a 24 pin and one for an 8 pin."

Guess who did NOT have the 8 pin power hooked up?

Yeah, that's right, ME !!!!

So, I hooked up the 8 pin, cleared the CMOS, started it up, and got SEVERAL beeps, saw the Dr. Debug LED system light up, flash through a score of numbers, only to settle on #85, which according to the manual reads...

Display errors to the user and gets the user response for error.

Now, I have no idea what that means, and I'm guessing that it might be saying that because I don't have it hooked up yet to a monitor. So I'm going to go and do that now. If you have more details on said error report, please post here.

ARRRRRRRRGH!!!!! I am SO sorry for missing something SO obvious. Only, it's not obvious, because even after I got off of the phone with the man, it took me a long several minutes just to find it because the CPU cooler makes it almost impossible to see.

I feel like such a CHUMP!

Forgive me all ! :'(

Edited April 20, 2011 by Kyle_K_ski

[Tinker]

Jeez I nearly asked that last night, but then saw this bit:

TESTING PROCEDURES

make sure all power connectors to mainboard from powersupply are plugged in.

Done, and all were in place.

I though well I`ll not ask a silly question then, looks like that is in place.

At least it is resolved and you can relax.

[Zeealex]

:rofl: :rofl:

stuff happens Kyle

now enjoy the buld and i hope ou dont get Yet more ###### from it

[Kyle_K_ski]

I cannot find words to adequately describe how bad I feel about this small, but HUGE mistake.

I know that some of you put a lot of time into trying to help me, and I know that time is a precious commodity for all of us. So, not only did I waste my own time, the time of my wife, my two darling kids, and for yourselves, but to be perfectly honest, the stress that I've felt from trying to figure this out has made me, well, grumpy, and that isn't fair to those who are closest around me either.

Again, I'm frustrated with myself for what's occurred, and I'm grateful that, thus far, I'm getting some warm and happy responses to my gaff of cosmic proportions.

Alright, now before I start to install the OS tonight, I'd like all of you to take a look at the following text, and let me know if you'd be worried about anything posted there. This is what I saw on the monitor once I hooked it up to the now properly powered motherboard:

AMIBIOS © 2006 American Megatrends, Inc.

870 Extreme3 BIOS P1.60

CPU : AMD Phenom II X4 840 Processor

Speed : 3.20 GHz Count : 4

Press F6 for Instant Flash

Press F11 for Boot Menu

Dual-Channel Memory Mode

4096MB OK

Auto-Detecting SATA3_1...IDE Hard Disk

Auto-Detecting SATA3_4..ATAPI CDROM

SATA3_1: ST3320620AS 3.AAE

Ultra DMA Mode-6, S.M.A.R.T. Capable but Disabled

SATA3_4: ATAPI iHAS424 B GL15

Ultra DMA Mode-5

CMOS Settings Wrong

COMS Date/Time Not Set

Press F2 or DEL to run Setup

Press F1 to load default values and continue

Now, I was watching the motherboard's Dr. Debug LED display during the entire of the initial loadup, and I didn't see the above till the numbers on the Dr. Debug display settled and stayed on "85." The other codes that were quickly flashed were D1, D3, D5, 2A, 38, 3A, 60, 75, 78, and finally 85. There were more numbers, but they changed far too quickly for my hand to record on the notepad. To me, all of the codes that I referenced in the ASRock manual seem to indicate that devices were detected and connections were being made--all of it sounded like "routine" stuff.

I'm assuming then, that code #85

Display errors to the user and gets the user response for error.

simply means to tell the computer's user, through the monitor, what the errors are. And from what I saw on the monitor, I'd assume that the errors to be reported deal with the following lines:

CMOS Settings Wrong

COMS Date/Time Not Set

The above sounds like "routine business" to me as well, yes? If so, what should I do first, connect my system to the internet, press F2 to have the BIOS to run the Setup (which I assume would connect it to the official website to download the latest BIOS, and get and set the correct date and time), or should I wait on updating the BIOS, and just start installing Windows 7 Professional Upgrade, or...?

And am I correct in reading the "good" news that first screen gave me? It looks like it detected EVERYTHING, and it didn't report any device-based errors, so all of that stuff, the graphics card, the CPU, etc., etc., that's all working appropriately, yes?

Thanks in advance, oh Forgiving Ones (I hope!)!!!

Edited April 30, 2011 by Pave Low
Font colour edited - Please stop using white text

[Buehgler_AS]

The "85" error just means that your CMOS non-volatile memory has been cleared. Pressing DEL should take you into the BIOS setup screens and allow you to set everything appropriately before you go ahead and install the OS. No need to worry or do anything special here.

To be honest, I had the same through as Tinker yesterday (to ask about the aux-power connector), but then I saw that you confirmed "all" were in place, which I just took to mean the two that matter on the MB

Glad you got it sorted, just a few more minor hurdles of getting your BIOS configured and OS installed and you will be all set.

Edited April 20, 2011 by Buehgler_AS

[Tinker]

Taking the CMOS battery out clears your personnel bios settings and a few other things, so you will get that message. System will load with default bios setup each time no issue. you just need to change the time and date of the system clock. All good.

This PC is just for gr and browsing, it does not even have a cmos battery anymore. Can have a few sneaky not to go into advantages.

[ROCO*AFZ*]

Just to Recap also with the dvd. - He also was testing it with that unplugged so it could never be the culprit.

I was wondering about the mainboard. they have added so many power connectors that it's easy to miss, especially if you haven't had to do a build for a few years as their was less then.

Glad that is sorted.

Info is correct. go into your bios, set the settings and save and exit. cmos error will then go away. Have fun... looks like a cool build... send us some pics of your final!