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General discussion

No Video During Bootup - Building a computer

Dec 7, 2003 9:51AM PST

I am building a new computer based on the specs I saw on the Alienware Website. After carefully following the instructions and putting everything in piece by piece and powering up, I cannot get the computer to show anything on my monitor. After pressing the power button everything seems to proceed normally. Computer boots, processor and case fans run, floppy and drives are checked. I would expect to be taken to the bios screen or something on bootup but no signal is being sent to two monitors I have checked. My first guess is it's the memory but I made sure I bought Intel recommended memory.

Here's what I'm building...
Processor: Pentium 4 3.0 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, Hyper-threading
Motherboard: Intel D875PBZ
Memory: Two 512 Mb PC-3200 400 MHz Non-ECC memory from Viking. Went to Intel's site for this exact board and made sure I ordered the exact part number of the memory that had been tested by CMTL labs. Put them in the Dim 0 of Channel A and Dim 0 of Channel B as recommended in the manual. Also tried them one at a time in different slots.
Hard Drive: Sea Gate 120 GByte Serial ATA 150. Brand new, nothing installed on this yet.
Video Card: NVidea GeForce 5700 Ultra FX 128 MB (Also checked it with two of my older cards that I know work)
Power Supply: New ATX12V 430 Watt
CDRW: TDK (have left unconnected to rule this out)
DVDROM: Creative (have left unconnected to rule this out).

HELP. Does anyone have any suggestions? Should I buy some new memory to troubleshoot (it's kinda expensive). The memory, processor, and motherboard were brand new out of the box. Could any of them be bad? How would I know.

Looking for some help here.

Thanks,
Darren

Discussion is locked

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Re:No Video During Bootup - Building a computer
Dec 7, 2003 11:02AM PST

If you aren't getting any error beep sequences, then it's not the memory.

Unless you're getting an error beep code, my initial thought would be to make sure there's not an integrated video card on the motherboard. If there is, and you haven't disabled it, THAT is where the video signal will be going NOT to the video card you installed.

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Re:No Video During Bootup - Building a computer
Dec 7, 2003 12:45PM PST

make sure its working with one monitor before you even attempt the 2nd monitor. Remove 2nd video card and monitor. Now attempt to start-up. If it works, aloow to finish all, like updates, etc. and/or the latest drivers, then try the 2nd monitor install. Also, if the system doesn't work with 1 monitor, use the CMOS clearing pins to reset to defaults. Power down and make sure you use a pci type video card if you're using orginally any AGP type setup. Once it works, then proceed with install.

good luck -----Willy

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Re:Re:No Video During Bootup - Building a computer
Dec 8, 2003 12:12AM PST

Thanks for the reply. Sorry, but I wasn't clear.

I am only using one monitor at a time. I tried it with a different monitor just to rule a bad monitor out.

Also, no integrated video on the Intel D875PBZ motherboard so the video should be going to the AGP card.

I'll try using the CMOS clearing pins although this is a new board. Shouldn't they already be at the defaults. Worth a try though.

Thanks,
Darren