New Motherboard, No Video

[tool_462 0]

I just installed a new motherboard and when i turn it on no video display will come up. I tried my vid card in more than one slot and originally tried it in the onboard slot with no video card in the pc. My mobo is Aopen S661GMX-U and is new. Everything else boots up like a normal boot (fans, hdd, drives, lights) but my monitor looks like its in standby. when i unplug the monitor cable while the pc is on, it makes the noise as if it was just turned off normally, both when the vga plug is in onboard or pci slot. the mobo has an 8x agp slot so could that be the problem? im not using the pci card in slot 1, but i tried it there too. I am pretty sure my mobo isnt 'doa' but who knows. Any ideas?

[Relic 0]

Originally posted by tool_462:

Quote:

I just installed a new motherboard and when i turn it on no video display will come up. I tried my vid card in more than one slot and originally tried it in the onboard slot with no video card in the pc. My mobo is Aopen S661GMX-U and is new. Everything else boots up like a normal boot (fans, hdd, drives, lights) but my monitor looks like its in standby. when i unplug the monitor cable while the pc is on, it makes the noise as if it was just turned off normally, both when the vga plug is in onboard or pci slot. the mobo has an 8x agp slot so could that be the problem? im not using the pci card in slot 1, but i tried it there too. I am pretty sure my mobo isnt 'doa' but who knows. Any ideas?

 

Okay, let's start fresh...

 

You got a new mobo, it has onboard video.

 

You tried installing a vidcard(which vidcard? AGP/PCI/PCI-E?)

 

It still doesn't work.

 

Have you tried disabling the onboard video in your BIOS?

 

We need a lot more to go on here.

[tool_462 0]

wait timeout i should slap myself, but the motherboard manual was not in the box and there doesn't seem to be one to download on the website, but... it also didnt come with a driver cd! If i download the drivers and burn them onto a cd on a friends pc, do i just put the cd in the drive and boot up?

[Relic 0]

No, you should be able to dwnld the drivers and run them right through Windoze, no need to run them off a CD, once they're unzipped, or if they are dwnlded as an .exe file, just run them. If they create a folder(save it to your desktop), open the folder, then run the setup.exe inside the folder.

[tool_462 0]

but still we have the big problem here, nothing comes up on my monitor I tried a PCI video card, but first i tried the onboard. I am good with bios settings and stuff for installing video cards, that was my first post on this site and has led me back every day since! But the point is, no video is showing up at all, like my monitor is in sleep mode, so its tough to get into the bios any clue? ive built a couple pcs but they all booted up without hitches so this is new to me. Thanks!

[Relic 0]

Are you sure the RAM from your old mobo is compatible with your new mobo?

 

Full system specs are needed.

 

Even without that, I'd pull everything but the CPU off my mobo and reseat it, then make sure that every single molex/power connection was plugged in.

 

 

[tool_462 0]

Here is a link to the mobo:

 

http://usa.aopen.com/products/mb/s661GXm-U.htm

 

Sorry I didn't include all info, I was late for work But im at work now so I can do this right.

 

System Specs:

Intel Celeron 2.8 Ghz (socket 478)

1 GB SuperTalent PC2700 (2 x 512MB) (Could be the problem? I was told by multiple people, that my pc 2700 would run in the pc 3200 slots, just at 2700 speed)

160 GB Western Digital 7200rpm HDD

Nvidia GeForce MX4000 128MB PCI slot vid card. I can get others to try if needed, but the card was working just fine on the other mobo.

Lite-On 52x DVD-Rom

Lite-On 48x CD-RW

Antec 400watt PSU

And the above mentioned mobo

 

Tomorrow I am going to find a stick of 3200 and give that a shot if I cant get it taken care of tonight.

[mjwebb007 0]

So are you saying that not even the BIOS screen comes up? If that is the case and you have tried different slots and even the onboard video than it is (in my opinion) either a PSU problem (I had a similar problem because I had not seated my ATX connector quite all the way and also another time I had not completely plugged the power cord into the back of the PSU), your memory (not very likely as your assumption is right in that it would work just at a slower speed, unless of course the memory was incompatible) or the motherboard is DOA. Do you have the ability to swap out PSU's?

[tool_462 0]

hehe, i just returned a higher powered psu to best buy a few days ago. i may go buy another and return it again if that doesnt help. i've tried unplugging and reseating everything and im out of ideas. though the psu ran all the same things before just on a different mobo.

[mjwebb007 0]

How old is the monitor you are using?

[tool_462 0]

It is 2004 Samsung Syncmaster (Cant remember model number, not in my room) 19" Flatscreen (not flatpanel) The board is supposed to be plug and play but the monitor came with driver cd. I will try booting with that in the drive when i get home.

[tool_462 0]

any ideas? i dont want to return it until i am 100% sure!

[Relic 0]

Did you try the PC3200 yet?

[mjwebb007 0]

And as far as the monitor question, it isn't a driver issue. Just wanted to know age, I had a monitor that was blinking out on me and it wasn't all that old. Have anything you can swap out with it? Plus I would go Relic's path and do the memory swap. Some motherboards are extremely finicky with memory no matter what the website/manual says (MSI comes to mind).

[tool_462 0]

I have not tried the 3200 yet but my roomate has 3200 and i will give his monitor a shot! Thanks for the ideas guys, i will get back to you tom.

[tool_462 0]

Tried the PC3200 RAM to no avail. Exact same dead monitor thing. I put my old mobo back in my PC and am going to run with it until I can figure out what is wrong. Anyone know a really good mobo installation guide? Not a new install, I have done many, but an upgrade/replacement guide? I am starting to think I may have not prepared my previous hardware correctly for the switch. I found a few guides but none went into the technical software/hardware/drivers detail that I am looking to find. Anyone with any help will be so much appreciated, this is really starting to get frustrating! Could my problem have something to do with my previous video drivers? Should I reinstall my current onboard drivers and uninstall my video card drivers? And enable the onboard in the bios? I would love to have a great guide to doing this, others are lacking in info. Thanks!

[mjwebb007 0]

As far as I understood you couldn't see anything, not even the BIOS. If you can get into the BIOS and enable on-board graphics and it works then it would have to be a driver issue (assuming it goes dark once you get into Windows). If you can get into Windows in safe mode but it locks up in normal mode, then you would pretty much have to do a clean install of Windows. The problem with just transferring hardware (specifically a hard drive to another computer) without doing a clean install, is that your hard drive that pretty much stores all your hardware info is set to remember the OLD stuff. You can't switch motherboards and keep an unformatted, old installation without problems. About the only time you could do this would either be a direct switch with the same motherboard or you could probably get away with switching to a different manufacturer with the same chipset (and probably only if they are both based on the same reference design). Another idea would be to install an empty formatted hard drive and then use the old hard drive as a slave drive (and possibly use the WinXP Files and Settings Transfer Wizard).

[American Zombie 0]

Did you plug in the 4 pin power connector as well as the 20 pin?

 

Video will not work if the 4 pin one is not plugged in.

 

[tool_462 0]

Sorry i made that confusing MJwebb. I cant see anything on my new mobo but I was talking about putting my old one back in and changing settings that might effect the results of putting my new one back in. And yes, I triple checked all connections, unplugged and replugged everything to make sure that wasnt the problem. It might just be a messed up mobo and I plan on returning it and trying a new one. I also may try buying a new harddrive and trying the slave drive idea.

[American Zombie 0]

I was talking about the square four pin connector not a molex one you use for drives.

[tool_462 0]

I know which your talkin about, its plugged in solidly also! I plan on getting a cheap 40-80GB harddrive tommorow to backup my music and school files, then im going to do a clean reinstall of windows and give that a shot.

[American Zombie 0]

Good Luck

[tool_462 0]

Thanks! I really want to get this system up and running.

[tool_462 0]

So, I backed up all my stuff and tried it on a clean HDD, still nothing. But I found a post somewhere that the particular mobo claims to support my 2.8Ghz celeron, but this guy said his didnt work until he put a true pentium4 in. What makes me think this might be the problem is, if i boot with no ram in, the mobo doesnt beep as it should (am i correct) and i read that this could mean the processor isnt supported. I am going to stick a P4 2.4 in there tommorow and see if that is the problem. Anyone else heard of or have any knowledge of this situation? (Incompatible processor in a compatible socket)

[mjwebb007 0]

Well any hardware can be finicky when it comes to other components (usually is an issue with RAM compatability with the motherboard) but CPU's are semiconductors too so I don't see why this couldn't be possible. Plus I think most Intel chipsets are less forgiving as they seem to come out with new chipsets with every new processor as opposed to AMD who has the fortune of having the mem controller on-board making for easier compatability/upgradability. I am NOT, I repeat, NOT trying to start up an Intel vs. AMD discussion. Nothing I said above is false.