Won't boot, no display??

[blueonblack]

So I went in and unhooked just about every cable in my system tonight, simply so that I could do some much-needed cable management. That being done I hooked everything back up (I thought) and powered up.

My system made this really high-pitched continuous beep I had never heard before. It was obviously a buzzer of some kind but I couldn't tell where it was coming from. It happened the second the system powered on.

After several power-on attempts looking at different things to figure this out I discovered that I had failed to connect the 6-pin power connector to my video card. Problem solved, I thought.

Now, with everything hooked up, when I power on the buzzer doesn't sound, the fans all spin up (inlcuding the CPU fan), the drives spin, but that's it. No signal to my monitor. I thought I fried the card, but a different PCIe card yields the same result, as does a different monitor.

I unhooked everything but the hard drive with my OS on it, and it is not even booting to Windows, since it never makes the Windows startup sound. I have even gone as far as cutting loose all of the cords and cables that I had painstakingly moved and tucked away, thinking something might be crimped or pinched, no help. ?!?!?!?!?!!?!?

I am completely at a loss here, could I have fried my board simply by not connecting the external power to my video card??
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Honda Ft500 (http://www.cyclechaos.com/wiki/Honda_FT500)

[blueonblack]

I got it, after much trial and error, it turns out I *did* fry my motherboard, or at least part of it. Seems my #1 RAM slot is now not only inoperative, but prevents the system from doing anything when RAM is inserted into it. Both of my RAM chips are functional, and #2 slot works fine. Pull the RAM out of #1 and it works like it should. All from forgetting plug the auxilliary power into my video card! Touchy little things, aren't they?

$#^*#@#^&*!!!!!!!
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Honda Racing Corporation history (http://www.honda-wiki.org/wiki/Honda_Racing_Corporation)

[Eclecticos]

How long ago did you purchase it. If it is still under warrenty you could RMA it.
Never heard of auxilliary power knocking out a ram slot. May be defective.

[Dane Bramage]

yeah... that doesn't sound right to me either. not unless you had one of the molex pins touching something when you powered that bad boy up. :think:

[slytherock]

have u tried to take a look at the beep code?


Linky (http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm)

[blueonblack]

Actually, it was the beep code that led me to the RAM. Code definition was DRAM error. I don't know how it happened but it did. As long as I only have one RAM chip in slot #2 (doesn't matter which chip I use) everything works fine. As soon as I put one in slot #1 (whether there's anything in slot #2 or not) it will not display ANYTHING.

It MAY actually boot up, I don't know. The reason I wasn't hearing the startup sound before was because I had reset the CMOS in my experimentation and it was waiting for me to tell it to do something before it booted, but of course with no display I didn't know that.

Bottom line is, leave that one RAM slot alone and it works fine. Put anything in it and it doesn't. I've had this board for over a year now with no problems at all. Wasn't until I left the power off of this video card that this happened, and as soon as I plugged the card in, the beep code went away and I was left with this. Very odd, but at least I can use it, albeit at reduced capacity. Have a replacement board in route now. :)
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DREAM E (http://www.cyclechaos.com/wiki/Honda_Dream_E)

[J-Roc]

My guess would be static discharge then. Did you have your wrist strap on while tinkering inside? The discharge can be so minute that you dont even feel it, but powerfull enough to fry the delicate cuircutry inside a microchip. Another reason why i think this is because with electronic components, they either fry during the break-in phase or from the ravages of time.

2¢

[crenn]

I've built computers for a while, a wrist strap helps, but normally just touching the case is enough. I've yet to have a computer fry on me (except for a few capacitors, although I think that's something else.) but it is good to be safer than sorrier!

[Lancelot59]

True that, my computer sits in an anti-static mat and I'm grounded to it whenever I work on my machine's insides.