970m Pro 3 New Build, Won't Post? Any Ideas?

OK here's the deal guys, I decided to build my son a PC for Xmas because I only had $500 to spend and a pre-built one at that price wasn't gonna do. I put this together from a suggested "cheap Gaming PC build"--however cheap it's better than the laptop he's using--you don't even want to know the stats on it. But, I can't get it going. It's my first new build,  so anything is possible.  It turns on...PS fan running, 2 chassis fans running, and the CPU fan is going. Screen shows "no signal" and there are no beeps at all from PC speaker. I went through this:  http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-perform-steps-posting-post-boot-video-problems just to see if I missed anything.  Also, even though it's my first complete build, I've changed out drives, PSs, memory, so not a total newbie and I build avionics computers at work--which BTW have much better pics and instructions than any of the manuals I had out putting this together. So I'm confident I can plug in wires but know nothing about testing them or software (those guys get paid a lot more).
Tried the graphics card in other son's PC and his in this just to eliminate that, tried alternate monitor cables, tried with 1 stick of RAM, no RAM, etc. Did not try bread-boarding.  I don't know what else to try other than that. Don't want to return the board or CPU if I did something wrong and it's not actually bad? Sorry I'm so wordy! According to the troubleshooter, bad PSU, MB, or CPU are most likely causes of this problem. Should I try bread-boarding and if that doesn't work, do I return 1 at a time and just keep trying new parts? Sigh. I really wanted my son to have a better computer and it's not even usuable.

Anyway, here's what I have in the cursed thing:  970M Pro3 with AMD FX-6300  (says supported)   and Ballistix Sport XT 4GBx2 DDR3 1600 CL9 @ 1.5V  (said compatible). Using GeForce GT 610 2G (working in other PC), and Antec VP-450 PS. Just have a regular seagate 1TB HD, but that doesn't matter since I can't boot to format it, right? Have it unplugged for now, didn't work either way.



Edited by 3BoysMom - 04 Jan 2017 at 10:23am

If it's the bundle coming from the power supply, then yes it's already plugged in. It had 2 pieces that go into the into the 8 pin.

Also didn't mention that the LEDs don't come on, thought this might be due to my plugging them in backwards, since the manual shows + and GROUND (as does MB), but the connectors are not marked with anything. So I looked up PC wire connections and found that black or white is usually ground, and power is usually colored. So I went with that, making black ground and the grey power +. With the speaker wires, I put red + on #1 +5v. Still not beeps or LEDs.  The case is a deep cool ATX midtower Tesseract. It came with a wire loose out of a connector (for 1 of the fans), so I took out the contact and it had 2 wires going into 1 contact, and only wire going in the clamp, so no wonder it pulled loose.  Doesn't really assure that the rest of the wiring is good though.

3BoysMom wrote: If it's the bundle coming from the power supply, then yes it's already plugged in. It had 2 pieces that go into the into the 8 pin. Also didn't mention that the LEDs don't come on, thought this might be due to my plugging them in backwards, since the manual shows + and GROUND (as does MB), but the connectors are not marked with anything. So I looked up PC wire connections and found that black or white is usually ground, and power is usually colored. So I went with that, making black ground and the grey power +. With the speaker wires, I put red + on #1 +5v. Still not beeps or LEDs.  The case is a deep cool ATX midtower Tesseract. It came with a wire loose out of a connector (for 1 of the fans), so I took out the contact and it had 2 wires going into 1 contact, and only wire going in the clamp, so no wonder it pulled loose.  Doesn't really assure that the rest of the wiring is good though.

Your description of the wiring to the fan does not make sense. A PC fan will never have two wires going into one contact. A fan that comes with a PC case will have three wires, each to its own contact. If a fan had two wires going into one contact/pin, then it was wired wrong. DO NOT use it like that! Disconnect that fan at least temporarily.

Yes, cheap cases won't have any polarity markings on the connectors, but the wires might.

What is telling you your memory is compatible? Crucial's website? It's not in the memory support list for your board, but that list is not perfect.

You won't get any beeps from the board until the POST beep speaker option is enabled in the BIOS, it is disabled by default. Yeah, I don't like that either.

Is the video card in the PCIe slot closest to the CPU socket?

The wiring from the PC case to the board can be confusing for the first time builder. Be sure to use the mother board's manual as a reference for the pin locations.

The PC case has separate power and HDD LEDs and wiring?

Your memory should be in the A2 and B2 slots.

Since you've moved things around so much, you could try clearing the CMOS/BIOS with the board's jumper, NO POWER connected to the board (PSU off and unplugged from AC power.) Move the jumper to the clear position, and then move it back to the normal position. Shown in the manual.

Some monitors won't be set to auto-detect the input when they have multiple inputs. Be sure to select the input you use (HDMI, DVI, etc) on the monitor itself manually.

Becoming angry at the PC is not helping you. It clouds your thoughts, and is distracting.

parsec wrote: 3BoysMom wrote: If it's the bundle coming from the power supply, then yes it's already plugged in. It had 2 pieces that go into the into the 8 pin. Also didn't mention that the LEDs don't come on, thought this might be due to my plugging them in backwards, since the manual shows + and GROUND (as does MB), but the connectors are not marked with anything. So I looked up PC wire connections and found that black or white is usually ground, and power is usually colored. So I went with that, making black ground and the grey power +. With the speaker wires, I put red + on #1 +5v. Still not beeps or LEDs.  The case is a deep cool ATX midtower Tesseract. It came with a wire loose out of a connector (for 1 of the fans), so I took out the contact and it had 2 wires going into 1 contact, and only wire going in the clamp, so no wonder it pulled loose.  Doesn't really assure that the rest of the wiring is good though. Your description of the wiring to the fan does not make sense. A PC fan will never have two wires going into one contact. A fan that comes with a PC case will have three wires, each to its own contact. If a fan had two wires going into one contact/pin, then it was wired wrong. DO NOT use it like that! Disconnect that fan at least temporarily. Yes, cheap cases won't have any polarity markings on the connectors, but the wires might. What is telling you your memory is compatible? Crucial's website? It's not in the memory support list for your board, but that list is not perfect. You won't get any beeps from the board until the POST beep speaker option is enabled in the BIOS, it is disabled by default. Yeah, I don't like that either. Is the video card in the PCIe slot closest to the CPU socket? The wiring from the PC case to the board can be confusing for the first time builder. Be sure to use the mother board's manual as a reference for the pin locations. The PC case has separate power and HDD LEDs and wiring? Your memory should be in the A2 and B2 slots. Since you've moved things around so much, you could try clearing the CMOS/BIOS with the board's jumper, NO POWER connected to the board (PSU off and unplugged from AC power.) Move the jumper to the clear position, and then move it back to the normal position. Shown in the manual. Some monitors won't be set to auto-detect the input when they have multiple inputs. Be sure to select the input you use (HDMI, DVI, etc) on the monitor itself manually. Becoming angry at the PC is not helping you. It clouds your thoughts, and is distracting.

#1 I hate to waste space on this, as I doubt that the loose fan wire is causing any real problem--but since you mentioned it, wish I could put a pic it's hard to describe things here. The 2 fans have the same wiring--a red, black, and yellow coming from the fan going into that 3 pin connector. ALSO coming out of the same connector are another black and red wire. So, 3 pin on the connection side yes, but 5 wires coming out of the wire side. The yellow is single, but the 2 black wires go into the same slot, and the 2 red wires into the same slot. The black wire was hanging loose, so I removed the contact from the black connector, which is when I saw that 2 wires are crimped onto the same contact, or would be if had not been loose. Some of the strands were broken so I cut and  re-stripped the wire and tried to bend the contact back to put the wire back in, but it seems like a very weak connection for 2 wires--but then I'm used to aircraft standards so when I see this type of thing it always throws me off. I did build a cable (at work) with 2 wires going to 1 contact before, but it was connected with a solder sleeve on the 2 wires to 1, then the 1 goes to a contact. I've never seen 2 wires going into the same contact, there are too many strands to fit in, the wires are way to wide for the contact. The fan works, but if any force is put on it it would come loose again. BTW the other black and red wires from there have the large connector on them that I hooked up to the power supply, hopefully that is where it goes.

#2 (not sure why I'm using numbers as I skipped some) The memory may indeed be the problem. I couldn't make heads or tails out of the compatibly chart in the listing , it only showed a few 1 and 2 gig for this brd, but I was using new egg and many more showed as compatible, and I know that crucial guarantees it and I've bought memory from them before for upgrades. I was in a marathon online xmas shopping spree at 2 am with a cappuccino in hand and I wanted free 2-day shipping so I bought on Amazon. I could have easily purchased the wrong type. Mine indeed do not show up on the crucial list as compatible. So it seems like my next step is to buy the correct memory and see if that was the only problem.  

#3 sucks about the speaker beep, but helpful to know that's probably not me.
#4 the video card is in the slot closest to the CPU socket not because I knew any better, but that was where the manual told me to put.
#5 the case has a PW SW, reset SW, HDD LED, and a + & - PLED
#6 memory is in A2 & P2--again because that is where manual said to put it.
#7 I did try clearing the CMOS per the manual, but will probably do that again when I'm ready to try it.
#8 I will try that with the monitor as well. The monitor is not new, so who knows what we did with it last.
#9 I'm sorry that I seemed angry to you. Perhaps you mistook my sarcasm as anger? I'm very sarcastic and sometimes people don't get my sense of humor or it comes across wrong in text form. I am not angry at the PC, just frustrated as my son has been waiting so long and he can't use it yet. If you picture my throwing tools around I assure that is not the case. I haven't even tried to pick it up and throw it, for 1 thing it's heavy and another it's so shiny and pretty.


Edited by 3BoysMom - 06 Jan 2017 at 2:58pm

Hi,

Just built a very similar PC myself, and was a little held up by forgetting to plug in the CPU 8-pin power connector .

However, a couple of things I suggest.

1) The CPU fan has four wires and connects to the header above and to the left of the CPU socket. The system will not post without this connection.

2) Bad RAM can cause this. Remove all the RAM and try again. You should here some beeps to signify the absence of RAM. If you hear beeps, power off and try one module and, if no POST, then try the other. It's unlikely both modules are goosed and it's unlikely the RAM is completely incompatible (DDR3 is very forgiving in my experience).

3) Case fans do not need to be connected to the mobo for the system to POST. Mine are powered from a sata power connector and controlled by a three speed switch on the case, so my system thinks I don't have any case fans!

4) After some misadventures with over-tight sata power cables and then RAM overclocking, I found that to properly reset the mobo (and allow it to POST) you need to:
I) Remove the kettle lead.
II) Unplug the drive sata cables.
III) Press the ON button to discharge any remaining charge in the system.
IV) Plug everything back in and try switching on.
V) If it still doesn't POST, hold down the power button to force the mobo off, then try starting up again. The max number of times I needed to do that was about 4!

Hope that helps!