It's been awhile since I've put a machine together, since my machines are still running beautifully - not to mention a lack of finances.
A buddy of mine wanted to build a machine for his wife to play Oblivion on and asked me for help. We went to Fry's and picked out a bunch of parts to build this machine and he wanted to go all out.
He picked out an MSI K8N Diamond motherboard and a 3.6ghz Athlon FX 64 dual core processor (we double-checked and they're compatible if the information is correct).
Powered up the machine after getting everything installed and it powers up just fine, just there's no video at all. Monitor works just fine on another machine, so it's not the monitor.
We installed the little D-Bracket that comes with MSI motherboards and booted again to find out what the problem was. 4 solid red LEDs, which according to the chart means the 'processor is damaged or installed incorrectly.'
It's a socket 939 processor and can only go in one way - and wasn't forced. So he took the processor back and got it replaced, only to bring it back and get the exact same problem.
I'm loathe to admit it, but my lack of building machines for such a long time has led the hardware to be just a little over my head and I keep trying to look at it and figure it out using common sense and the knowledge I already have.
I can't find anything -wrong- with the setup and am at a loss for what could be happening.
The video card he purchased does not require additional power and the fan on it spins up when powered (it even came with a little card that says it doesn't need additional power).
He got an Antec P150 case and we replaced the power supply with a Silverstone 500w power supply (testing the bootup with the preloaded 430w yields the same results).
There's no PC speaker, so we're not getting any beeps or anything on bootup - it's REALLY nice and quiet. Just... no POST or video at all. Monitor never leaves standby.
Both of my machines use AGP, his is PCI-Express. And the MSI K8N doesn't have AGP slots. And my boards don't have PCI-E slots. So we can't cross-test.
Regardless, the LEDs are either incorrect or it doesn't like the processor.
Therefore I decided to come here and talk to you guys and pick brains for troubleshooting ideas and see if any of you may have worked with this board before and maybe have an idea of what I'm overlooking. I fear it's something simple and stupid, so help me out if you can.
Thanks in advance!
.From the story you just told me I would say two things:
PSU problem or Motherboard Problem
quote:
TheOriginalZane was listening to Cher while typing:
PSU problem or Motherboard Problem
He's tried two power supplies.
Seannodus Says: Motherboard's a brick. 
It's not something people hear about.
quote:
Out of a possible 10, Sean scored a straight 1 with:
Seannodus Says: Motherboard's a brick.
Is my thought as well. We're gonna take it back for replacement tomorrow.
The video card is a PCI-E 256mb GeForce 7600 (I think). It's back at the house and I'm at work so I can't swear on it. The reason I didn't mention it before is because I don't think it's the video card, it's just the whole "powers up nice and smooth with no video" is what caused the troubleshooting to begin.
The D-Bracket display lit up claiming the CPU was bad, so we switched it out for a new one. But Fry's was closed by the time all this was sorted out, so it's gotta wait.
quote:
Out of a possible 10, Niklas scored a straight 1 with:
Once you get a replacement it should all be good except you also need to remember to switch off the nVidia hardware firewall. That thing is a piece of crap
If I can get it to POST
