Ok here's the situation, my friends old computer stopped working so I decided to help him build a new one. He bought a couple of new things like motherboard, processor and power supply. I hooked everything up for him then when I went to turn it on nothing happened. The power is working cause the lights and all come on, but nothing is showing on screen or any beeps. So could somebody help point me in the right direction to solving this issue? Thanks
First thing to do is check that all the connections are correct and firmly seated. Is there an add on gpu ? If so it might be worth connecting to the onboard graphics, assuming you have this. Boot with the onboard graphics connected and go into bios settings. Look to see what the primary graphics is setup to use. If you are going to use an add on gpu then make sure you set it so that gpu is used first. Save settings and exit bios. Reconnect the monitor to the add on gpu and reboot. Hopefully this will sort you out.
The thing is I can't even get to the bios screen because nothing shows up at all. Also I am using the onboard graphics just for testing purposes. The only thing that I'm not sure if its hooked up correct are the little power wires for like Reset, H.D.D LED and Power.
Pull and reseat the memory modules. If you have more than one stick, use only one stick to TS.. You should have a schematic for the board. There are only two wires for the power supply......trace to the switch or jump with other wires or screwdriver..if all is good, the fans will at least work. be sure the supplemental power is plugged to the motherboard. it is the four pin 12v...usually next to the CPU. really sounds like components need to be re-seated...power or otherwise.
I've reseated everything and put it back together still nothing. The fans do come on, so they are getting power. Also it sounds like normal when starting up everything spinning and all, just nothing shows up.
Could be a number of things, if you have already tried reseating things like CPU and memory, clearing the bios with the reset jumper and such, then I think you have a faulty board. It could also be the power supply not providing a stable current on one of the rails, but that normally just causes random crashes and other unstable behaviour. I take it the board doesn't have any diagnostic LEDs to show you were it is in the post process?
I take it you have installed the main 24 pin power plug (20 pins plus the 4 pin addon), the other 4 pin power plug, and even another (that is, every power plug required). With the reset etc plugs, the lettered face should be facing outward. What ram and system did you go for? Many DDR3 modules are NOT compatible with Intel Core i3/i5/i7 etc CPU's, as their required startup voltage is too high. Without looking it up, I think its 1.6V? Check the voltage of the RAM from the packet (or if its printed on the side). If you use RAM with a higher voltage, it can do damage to the memory controller on the CPU. AMD CPU's memory controller is a little friendlier with higher voltage RAM.
Some motherboards I believe have a jumper (not sure if they still do)! that can force the slow FSB (for startup compatibility). Try setting that if its available to you...
Maybe problem with SMPS (not enough power) or RAM. Also if you are not getting any beeps check whether the onboard speaker is connected. Also if you can post more details about the computer, like CPU, Mobo, RAM, SMPS etc details, it might be more helpful.
You could disconnect all hardware except cpu ram keyboard mouse and monitor if you are still having the same problem there are really only 4 things it could be PSU, RAM, MB or CPU, then try swapping those components and you should then know what your problem is