Black Screen

[Ann Petersen]

The Mc Coy:

Mobo: Asus A7N8X Deluxe Gold rev. 2.0
CPU: AMD Athlon 3200 barton 400 fsb
Cooler: Thermaltake Volcano 12 mounted with heatsensor underneath the CPU
Memory: 2 x Samsung 512 Mb DDR 400 PC3200 Model M368L6423DT M-CCC
VGA: Asus V7700
Cabinet: Aopen H700A Super Tower
PSU: Aopen standard 350 watt ATX
HDD1: 1 Maxtor 6Y080P0 80 GB IDE ATA 133 Connected as master on primary
IDE Channel
HDD2: Segate Barracuda ST3160023AS160 GB SATA Connected on primary SATA
Channel
CDRW: Plextor Premium
DVDRW: LG GSA 4040B DVD -/+R/RW/DVDRAM
DVD: Toshiba SD1712
Cables: CoolerMaster ULTRA TUBE ATA 133/100/66/33
Monitor: Proview 772M

Problem: After finishing assembly of the above mentioned Mc Coy dream
machine and connecting the powercord for the first time -
the disks started spinning, the drives blinked and powerleds went green -
all coolers turned- everything al right, except that THE SCREEN
STAYS BLACK AND NOTHING HAPPENS - all jumpersettings verified and jumpers
changed just in case - cmos cleared and tried again -
NOTHING - just stays black and i cant even reach setup of bios - HELP ME
please....

 

[Paul]

The Mc Coy:

Mobo: Asus A7N8X Deluxe Gold rev. 2.0
CPU: AMD Athlon 3200 barton 400 fsb
Cooler: Thermaltake Volcano 12 mounted with heatsensor underneath the CPU
Memory: 2 x Samsung 512 Mb DDR 400 PC3200 Model M368L6423DT M-CCC
VGA: Asus V7700
Cabinet: Aopen H700A Super Tower
PSU: Aopen standard 350 watt ATX
HDD1: 1 Maxtor 6Y080P0 80 GB IDE ATA 133 Connected as master on primary
IDE Channel
HDD2: Segate Barracuda ST3160023AS160 GB SATA Connected on primary SATA
Channel
CDRW: Plextor Premium
DVDRW: LG GSA 4040B DVD -/+R/RW/DVDRAM
DVD: Toshiba SD1712
Cables: CoolerMaster ULTRA TUBE ATA 133/100/66/33
Monitor: Proview 772M

Problem: After finishing assembly of the above mentioned Mc Coy dream
machine and connecting the powercord for the first time -
the disks started spinning, the drives blinked and powerleds went green -
all coolers turned- everything al right, except that THE SCREEN
STAYS BLACK AND NOTHING HAPPENS - all jumpersettings verified and jumpers
changed just in case - cmos cleared and tried again -
NOTHING - just stays black and i cant even reach setup of bios - HELP ME
please....

1) Try to get the Voice POST Reporter working. AFAIK the sound will be
on the Lime colored line out connector, so connect an amplified
speaker to the back of the machine. Since many people have trouble
disabling the POST Reporter, you should get some kind of
unintelligible sounds out of it (many people hate this feature).
Consult the manual for the text of the voice messages and try and
line up the message heard with the text listed in the manual

2) Remove the Thermaltake and the heatsensor. Try the retail HSF until
you have a working system. Maybe the heatsensor is preventing the
processor from seating properly in the socket ?

3) A common mistake in installs, is putting brass standoffs on the
motherboard tray that don't line up with holes in the motherboard.
A brass standoff can short copper tracks on the bottom of the motherboard.
The problem is common enough, that if you call up Asus tech support,
based on your symptoms they can even tell you where you put the
standoff. For example, one location under the A7N8X will short out
the sound system.

4) Your problem probably isn't the AGP Warning Red LED, because your
fans are spinning. If you put the wrong kind of AGP card in the computer,
the symptoms would be refusal to ask the PS to turn on, and no fans
could spin that way. Your video card is a Geforce GTS and according
to this post, it works fine in a 1.5V only AGP slot.

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&[email protected]

5) While commissioning a new system, it is best to start with just
CPU, ram, video card, and motherboard, so you can see the BIOS on
the screen. Add a floppy, then run memtest86 from memtest86.com to
test the memory. That way, you'll find out quickly whether the
motherboard is good enough to install the rest of the stuff.

Maybe the Voice POST will give you a better idea of what to look for.

HTH,
Paul

 

[Ann Petersen]

1) Try to get the Voice POST Reporter working. AFAIK the sound will be
on the Lime colored line out connector, so connect an amplified
speaker to the back of the machine. Since many people have trouble
disabling the POST Reporter, you should get some kind of
unintelligible sounds out of it (many people hate this feature).
Consult the manual for the text of the voice messages and try and
line up the message heard with the text listed in the manual

2) Remove the Thermaltake and the heatsensor. Try the retail HSF until
you have a working system. Maybe the heatsensor is preventing the
processor from seating properly in the socket ?

3) A common mistake in installs, is putting brass standoffs on the
motherboard tray that don't line up with holes in the motherboard.
A brass standoff can short copper tracks on the bottom of the motherboard.
The problem is common enough, that if you call up Asus tech support,
based on your symptoms they can even tell you where you put the
standoff. For example, one location under the A7N8X will short out
the sound system.

4) Your problem probably isn't the AGP Warning Red LED, because your
fans are spinning. If you put the wrong kind of AGP card in the computer,
the symptoms would be refusal to ask the PS to turn on, and no fans
could spin that way. Your video card is a Geforce GTS and according
to this post, it works fine in a 1.5V only AGP slot.

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&[email protected]

5) While commissioning a new system, it is best to start with just
CPU, ram, video card, and motherboard, so you can see the BIOS on
the screen. Add a floppy, then run memtest86 from memtest86.com to
test the memory. That way, you'll find out quickly whether the
motherboard is good enough to install the rest of the stuff.

Maybe the Voice POST will give you a better idea of what to look for.

HTH,
Paul

Thank You very much Paul - problem solved - was the cpu fan from
thermaltake, that due to the direct powerconnection from the ATX-PSU, the
mobo halted due to failing registration of fan rotation - original boxed fan
installed and evrything runs beautyfully AND FASTTTTT

Than You very much for your helpfull hints.