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Computer Problem - Calling All Computer Whizzes


nmt_oli

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Ok, came back from uni today and was very happy to find my new computer in boxes on the bed, and put it all together. The only problem is, it wont boot.

Its a shuttle, and has a FN25 mobo.

i have installed:

western digital 250gb hdd

LG cd/dvd combo

2gb mushkin RAM

n-videa 6600gt (pci-e)

athlon 64 3000+ venice

I followed all instructions, so im pretty sure things are in correctly, but will check again.

When i plug the power lead in and turn the PSU on, the DIMM power led comes on on the mobo. when i press the power button, the system turns on, fans are on, hdd led flashes, CD drive can be opened/closed.

however, the screen doesnt even think theres an input, and nothing else seems ot happen. the keyboard leds don't even light (but interestingl they do flash when the power lead is plugged in).

I have not heard a bios beep, but i have a feeling there is no internal speaker due to it being an SFF. there dosnt seem to be a plug on the mobo for one according to the manual, and i cant see one.

I have replaced the cmos battery, and cleared the cmos, and its still the same.

Anyone got any ideas? should i take it all apart and put it all back together?

Oli

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just a couple of things to consider.

Can the system deffinately handle 2gb of ram? Chances are it CAN but just double check the SFF spec.

Have you plugged in the front USB ports correctly? I built a system last week onto a dfi motherboard and having the cases front USB connectors in incorrectly stopped the system booting up.

Finally, does the system have sufficiant power? Again, in previous computer building ive come across not having enough power, and my cousins system is an SFF on a similar spec, only has a 300watt PSU and it struggles.

If none of this works, there is no harm in re-building the system, take it down to the bare minimals to reduce the amount of error, ie, take out optical drives, hard drive etc etc..

good luck

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Check you have all the power cables you need plugged in inside your PC.

As well as the 20 or 24 pin main power connector, there is usually a 4 or 8 pin additional connector too.

Some graphics cards need extra power too. Check you card to see if it hs a molex or pcie power connector.

If that's all OK, remove all your cards and RAM from your system and reinsert them. You may have a dodgy connection somewhere.

Edited by Hoot
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will do after dinner guys.

system can support 2bg ram. i can't do anything about front usb connectors- they are integrated and i cant get to that part of the mobo. Its a 350w psu, designed to be able to run up to 3hdd's in this chassis, so i dont think its a power problem. Graphics card doens not have external power, def gets it through pci slot.

Would it be worth installing a floppy drive? even if its just to get it booted/set up. Its just the mobo manual says use a bootable floppy to format hdd and stuff.

thanks guys

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will do after dinner guys.

system can support 2bg ram. i can't do anything about front usb connectors- they are integrated and i cant get to that part of the mobo. Its a 350w psu, designed to be able to run up to 3hdd's in this chassis, so i dont think its a power problem. Graphics card doens not have external power, def gets it through pci slot.

Would it be worth installing a floppy drive? even if its just to get it booted/set up. Its just the mobo manual says use a bootable floppy to format hdd and stuff.

thanks guys

Have u connected the 4 to 8 pin power cable to the mobo, as well as the 20-24 pin power cable?

Do you have a spare graphics card you can swap the 6600GT for to test?

Take the graphics card out and see if it beeps then.

Take the RAM out and put in a single stick of known working RAM and try again.

Have you plugged the power cables into the motherboard? :

IPB Image

Edited by Hoot
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You shouldn't need to plug anything into the motherboard on a Shuttle, because they come semi-pre-assembled. However it would probably be worth checking, in case the Vietnamese chimp who built the thing got it wrong. And like Stubert said, check the USB. I don't see how you can't get to it. You might have to take out the HDD/CD-ROM tray, but I'm sure you can reach it.

If it won't even POST (The BIOS testy thing whenever you switch on a PC) then it won't matter whether you have a floppy or not. Until you can get something on the screen I would suggest that it's either a motherboard or a graphic card problem. I know Shuttles used to be a bit notorious for having dodgy mobo's, if that's the case you may need to RMA it :(

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i can't unplug the front usb's without taking the whole mobo out by the looks of it, due to the way it is, hard to describe. i don't have any ram or a graphics card that i know that work unfortunately, unless i nick a ram stick out of our family Dell, but i have beel told dell are picky on ram or something. might still work. definately dont have another pci-express graphics card though.

about to take everything out, and try with dell ram and not a lot of stuff.

Oli

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now im getting somewhere! ive booted it with one of the sticks of ram, no hdd and no optical drive and with the card reader (interanlly usb) disconected, and its ready to enter bios. My prob now is i don't knwo which factor was causingthe problem, and i broke the usb wire when inplugging it, so need a new one of them now lol! :$

will keep you posted.

ok, still works with both ram sticks :)

time to try some drives!

whohoo! works with both drives plugged in too, must have bene the built in card reader. will it cause problems if i get a new cable and plug it in once the computer is up and running?

Oli

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I had the same problem built a new machine with an Abit Fatal1ty AN8 SLI board. It all started up LEDs came on hard drives started and no error message on the board. But the screen wouldn' t come on. First i thought i had the PCI-e card in the wrong slot so tried the other PCI-e slot then tried the SLI swith in both positions still wouldnt work. In the end i found out that the memory was in the wrong slot, soon as that was in the right slot it booted straight up.

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Thanks for help guys. all working now, apart from the card reader (need a new internal USB cable for that).

"My computer" seems to think theres a floppy drive though, when there isnt, do i have to disable it in the bios or something?

may try overclocking too, but will do a bit more reading first.

Oli

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So why is there a thread asking how to fix a broken mac :P

Plus, im not too familiar with macs, there very expensive, i wanted to build my own machine, PC stuff is generally more compatable, PCs are now outperforming macs, even on territory macs used to own (graphics ect).

To me there is no benifit whatsoever in getting a mac, apart from the lovely OS.

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Shuttle? You can run OS X on a PC I think. Ner ner :P

You can but that would defeat the whole point of Macs being simple, and having everything made by apple, work on their computer systems.

Also, I said it had to be pretty and small.

Typical PC's running Windows are neither of them. My Mac is about 7 long, on its longest side. Put it that way.

And I suspect the OsX Rip will be shockingly bad.

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Im not bothered about having a tiny comp, hence why i got a 'big' shuttle (about an inch longer in each direction than old ones).

Im bothered about compatability and upgradeability.

I have heard you can run OS-x on PC, but i have to say i am LOVING XP Media Centre, got a remoete control and everything. It was cheaper than XP pro, and its built on XP pro but with media features built on lol!

It really adds a whole new dimension to the PC, all i need is a USB Tv card, as shuttle went and put in a PCI express x1 slot instead of standard PCi slot, fools, and i will have a full media solution :D.

Also when i get my new screen after xmas, Dell 20" widescreen TFT (and apple guys, ite the same actual TFT as your cinema 20", just with more inputs and cheaper surround (and half the price) :P ) it will be a proper beast.

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Thanks for help guys. all working now, apart from the card reader (need a new internal USB cable for that).

"My computer" seems to think theres a floppy drive though, when there isnt, do i have to disable it in the bios or something?

Yeah, I think you might have to. I remember having this problem a while back, can't remember how I fixed it though. Sorry, that's not much help is it? :P

OS X on the PC is at the moment a bit of a waste of time at the moment. In fact I think it always probably will be on non-Apple hardware. I installed it on my A64 3200+ and it was ok, except loads of stuff didn't work. Like it wasn't compatible with my network card so I had no internet, and it also wasn't compatible with my keyboard. That would have been ok if I could use the on-screen keyboard, but that didn't work either :rolleyes: Kinda good for braggin rights (in certain circles) but not much else...

But yeah, OS X rocks. Apple hardware might be expensive, but it's good quality, and the OS more than makes up for the fact that it's expensive. Even though my Mac is probably a bit slower than my PC, I find I can get things done faster because of the way OS X is made. If you've never used it, then shut the f**k up :P

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