I recently finished my first build and of course ran into a problem The parts are as follows:

Asus P5N32-E-SLI (680i )
e6600
Psu-Corsair HX620
Corsair 6400C4D
EVGA 8800GTS
Seagate 320GB Sata HDD
LG Optical Drive

When the bulid was complete and powered up it did so with no beep codes but I could get no video on either of two monitors in order to view POST and get into bios. After posting here I received great advice. Based on that advice I bought a PNY 7600GS to test the theory of a bad video card. With that card installed I was able to confirm the mobo was reading the CPU, Memory, HDD and Optical Drive correctly. I was in fact even able to flash the mobo bios and make minor changes in bios. The 7600GS appeared to work fine so I RMAed the video card assuming it was bad.

I received the new 8800GTS yesterday and installed it this AM. On power up I was back to the same problem, i.e., no beep codes and no video. I have tried this card in both slots and have used the power adapter that came with the 8800. Nothing works. Does anyone have any idea what the problem could be? I sorely need help.

Hello. Im having a crisis myself with my RAM but I will give you hand...

A few questions:


Are you doing dual cards? SLI?
What wattage is the PSU?
Whats the wattage specifications for your gts8800?

This sounds very much like a resource conflict, an exact problem I've had myself. And the 8800 requires a LOT of IO space. I'm assuming you have no other cards plugged in, tuner card, modem, soundcard..? If so, first remove them. (Even disconnect USB devices other than mouse and keyboard) Now turn off power supply at back, turn back on, turn on the system with the front panel switch and IMMEDIATELY press and hold the keyboard "insert" key (bottom right.) This will temporarily set the bios to a Safe boot mode. If you see the Screen then release "Insert" and press "Delete" to get into Bios. Then set "Plug and Play OS to "NO"" (this may have reset to "yes" when the card was changed.) DISABLE any onboard VGA settings, if used. For troubleshooting you might also disable onboard audio, since even this can conflict with the video card. Now try again with regular booting.

Could it be possible that the psu isn't providing enough power to fully power everything? If that were the case, the fans would run, but nothing would happen beyond that. No posting or anything, as not enough juice would get to the proc to actually post the sucker. And also hence the non-functional video card, twice. Or would that just destroy everything? I wouldn't think an underpowered system would be screwed, just one that gets a big power spike from a failing power supply.

That's just an idea. The psu should be producing enough power, but you never know, sometimes even the best companies let a product or two slip that are defective...

A few questions:


Are you doing dual cards? SLI?
What wattage is the PSU?
Whats the wattage specifications for your gts8800?[/quote]

I am not doing dual cards. I am having enough trouble with one!
The Corsair is rated at 620 watts.
The specs on the 8800 are as follows:

Minimum of a 400 Watt power supply.
(Minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt current rating of 26 Amp Amps.)

This PSU has 3 rails @ 18 amps which combine for a total of 54 amps. Any help would be appreciated. I am going to individually respond to some later posts to keep this consistent. All help is appreciated.

This sounds very much like a resource conflict, an exact problem I've had myself. And the 8800 requires a LOT of IO space. I'm assuming you have no other cards plugged in, tuner card, modem, soundcard..? If so, first remove them. (Even disconnect USB devices other than mouse and keyboard) Now turn off power supply at back, turn back on, turn on the system with the front panel switch and IMMEDIATELY press and hold the keyboard "insert" key (bottom right.) This will temporarily set the bios to a Safe boot mode. If you see the Screen then release "Insert" and press "Delete" to get into Bios. Then set "Plug and Play OS to "NO"" (this may have reset to "yes" when the card was changed.) DISABLE any onboard VGA settings, if used. For troubleshooting you might also disable onboard audio, since even this can conflict with the video card. Now try again with regular booting.[/quote]

I have no other cards except the onboard audio card that comes with the mobo. I have previously removed all but to no effect. I have not yet tried your other suggestions but will do so as soon as I am able. I am pretty sure the bios defaults Plug and Play OS to "NO"(It does I checked the manual and my notes).There are no onboard VGA settings. I am going to be out of town for a few days and will try your other suggestions upon my return. Thanks.

I am beginning to wonder the same thing. Problem is I have no idea how to test the PSU to see if it is the culprit. Any suggestions? As far as the PSU itself is concerned it is supposed to be more than adequate to handle the 8800. That does not mean the one I have is not defective. But how do you check it?

One other thing that I thought of awhile ago concerned the way the monitor that I used works. Specifically, when it is on, but not receiving a signal, the power button flashes yellow. As soon as it receives a signal it turns green and displays. When this computer is powered on, with the 8800, there is never any indication that the monitor ever receives a signal i.e., the light flashes yellow. When the other card was put in it turned green and posted. I cannot help but wonder if this psu is defective and not supplying enough power for this video card. Any help here would be appreciated.

UPDATE: I took the 8800 to CompUSA today and had it tested. They put it in another machine with a 500W psu and it worked fine! What is going on here? Please help.

A power supply issue would most likely not be a "Brick wall," That is, with one video card the system works perfectly and with another, nothing. It doesn't happen that way. With the 8800 it should at least TRY to boot. --

Because...

One thing that no one has mentioned is that a 3D video card doesn't draw ANY of its rated current at boot, it is just in a basic VESA mode, no 3D clocking, no massive number-crunching of the GPU, nothing, just the bios being mapped to the video card memory. It's like a 2-meg VGA card (more or less) at POST and doesn't start to draw working current until the windows driver is loaded.

The appearance of being completely dead IS a symptom of a resource conflict however, that prevents the bios from accessing the range of memory being called by the video card. Pressing "Insert" resets resource mapping data so that the system tries other ways of sharing memory addresses.

I have to add that if a video card that doesn't require the six-pin molex will boot, and a card that draws its power from the back rather than from the motherboard doesn't boot, then there would be a specific problem with all three power lines on that six-pin connector. But that's not the scenario here.

A power supply issue would most likely not be a "Brick wall," That is, with one video card the system works perfectly and with another, nothing. It doesn't happen that way. With the 8800 it should at least TRY to boot. --

Because...

One thing that no one has mentioned is that a 3D video card doesn't draw ANY of its rated current at boot, it is just in a basic VESA mode, no 3D clocking, no massive number-crunching of the GPU, nothing, just the bios being mapped to the video card memory. It's like a 2-meg VGA card (more or less) at POST and doesn't start to draw working current until the windows driver is loaded.

The appearance of being completely dead IS a symptom of a resource conflict however, that prevents the bios from accessing the range of memory being called by the video card. Pressing "Insert" resets resource mapping data so that the system tries other ways of sharing memory addresses.

I have to add that if a video card that doesn't require the six-pin molex will boot, and a card that draws its power from the back rather than from the motherboard doesn't boot, then there would be a specific problem with all three power lines on that six-pin connector. But that's not the scenario here.

If I understand your post correctly you are saying that it is unlikely a power supply problem and that the most likely cause of this problem is a resource conflict. Do you mean an IRQ conflict or is this something else? By the way I had the 8800 tested today on a machine with a 500W psu and it worked fine. How do we know the power line on the 6pin connector are working correctly? I am sorry to sound so stupid but this is all new to me.

First, try that pressing "Insert" thing. That may be all that's needed to reset the data and get the system working. Try it.

Secondly, did both video cards you used have the six pin connector? If the one that worked DIDN'T, and the 8800 DOES, then that should be investigated.

Otherwise, any video card will show Bios boot, yes, regardless of its power rating. If the 8800 works elsewhere then it will at LEAST show the video card information and motherboard ID stuff at start up, even if it doesn't get much further. The light will turn green on the monitor. - IF it's not a resource conflict. - Assuming another video card has worked.

A "resource conflict" can be any combination of memory addressing, DMA, etc. Don't get hung up on details.

First, try that pressing "Insert" thing. That may be all that's needed to reset the data and get the system working. Try it.

Secondly, did both video cards you used have the six pin connector? If the one that worked DIDN'T, and the 8800 DOES, then that should be investigated.

Otherwise, any video card will show Bios boot, yes, regardless of its power rating. If the 8800 works elsewhere then it will at LEAST show the video card information and motherboard ID stuff at start up, even if it doesn't get much further. The light will turn green on the monitor. - IF it's not a resource conflict. - Assuming another video card has worked.

A "resource conflict" can be any combination of memory addressing, DMA, etc. Don't get hung up on details.

The 8800 has a 6 pin connector. The 7600GS that I tried, and which worked, did not. Does this suggest a bad psu? In trouble shooting I did use the molex power adapter that came with the 8800, drawing power off the same circuit as the DVD drive. Still nada. I will try the "insert" thing as soon as I can. I had the people at CompUsa put the 8800 into another machine running a 500W psu. It worked on that computer. Thanks for your help to date.

Because of the known incompatibility between an Antec Smartpower PSU and Asus P5W DH motherboard, I have to press "Insert" on my system EVERY time after the system has been unplugged, or the power switch turned off, or after a power failure, it is ALWAYS dead until I press "Insert." So this is nothing special. The causes in your case are different, but again it might be an illegal startup configuration that would be cleared by pressing Insert.

I'm not saying this will cure your dead startup, but pressing Insert is the quickest and easiest way to check for that problem. People have completely dismantled their system, reset the bios, changed power supplies, etc. etc. etc. all to find that pessing Insert would have done the trick.

Good luck when you get back!