New Custom Build Won't boot up, red lights on motherboard.

[matthewcroton]

Hi,

This is my first ever custom build so I am a bit stumped by this issue.

I have connected all of my parts but when I try to boot up my PC, I am not getting to the BIOS screen. My Asus Z170-A motherboard has a Nvidia GTX 980 Ti graphics card and when I hit the power button, a red light appears next to the 'input' for where you plug the card in. This stays on for around 15 seconds then goes off. (The graphics card does light up and powers on, the fans start spinning when it tries to boot then they stop spinning after a period of time.)

Once the red light turns off next to the graphics card, another one comes on next to the BOOT_DEVICE_LED, however this also turns off after around 15 seconds.

I have read that red lights turning on and then going off after some time indicates that things are working okay but I am not sure on this.

I am going to try taking the graphics card out and booting from the motherboard which hopefully will let me install Windows then I will be able to plug the graphics card back in.

Any other help/advice would be greatly appreciated since this is my first build so I don't know all of the tips and tricks yet.

Thanks.

 

[Mellon Head]

Don't be insulted, but I'm going to ask the obvious questions:

1. Have you plugged in ALL of the appropriate power connections, including the 12V CPU power connection and the graphics card?
2. Is your CPU fan plugged in?
3. If so, does it turn on bootup?
4. You have a lot going on in that PC. How big is your power supply. (in Watts)?

Nice build, by the way.

 

[matthewcroton]

Cheers,

Yes everything is plugged in, all fans are connected.

It does turn on and all of the components turn on however I can't access the BIOS screen. Another thing I forgot to mention is that my monitor says that there is no connection despite there being a cable plugged into the motherboard. (I have tried HDMi and VGA. I intend to try DVI as well and will pick up a lead for that soon.)

I also have a 600W power supply. I bought this on the basis of: I chose all of my components on a website called uk.partspicker.com which showed me all of my parts as well as the combined power usage which came out at 460W.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[essenbe]

Try this. Check the 24 pin connector and the 8 pin CPU connection. Make sire they are oriented correctly and fully seated. There should be no space between the connection and receptacle. Disconnect both wires fron the hard drives, remove the graphics card and use the on board graphics, disconnect both wires from the hard drives and the DVD/CD. Remove both sticks of ram and reinstall only 1 stick making sure it is correctly seated. Try to boot up. Do you have a case speaker installed? If you get into BIOS, select optimized defaults save and exit. You will have to do a hard shutdown.

 

[oscer1]

I would also suggest taking everything out of the case and bench testing it before putting in case. So should have motherboard on a non conductive surface like the box motherboard came in and cpu and heating one stick of ram check manual for one stick operation. And use the on board graphics. Then power on can you get to bios? If so then try adding in graphic card. If boots and shows a screen then add more ram then hard drive if all good put in case and make sure you installed all stand offs. If not booting in case might have a short somewhere

 

[matthewcroton]

Thanks for the help, I have managed to get my PC working now.

I removed the graphics card from the motherboard and booted up via the motherboard. This allowed me to install Windows. I then put the graphics card back in but had to use a DisplayPort lead as opposed to HDMi or VGA plugged directly into the GC to be able to view my PC.

The issue I'm having now is that for some reason the PC won't recognize my external hard drives which are WD My Passports. I have tested all USB slots on the PC with my mouse and keyboard and they all work. I know that my drives work because I used them on my previous laptop which I have been using up until I bought this PC a week ago. Not sure why I'm not able to access my drives.

Also, whilst I was building, my internal 3TB Seagate Barracuda drive slid off my workstation and landed on a tiled floor. It was in a plastic air bag however the PC will not recognize the drive despite it being plugged in via the same method as my SSD. I'm wondering how easily can a hard drive be damaged to the point where it won't work? And would it be cheaper to get it fixed or buy a new drive if it is broken? It cost around £78.

 

[matthewcroton]

Thanks for the help, I have now managed to get my PC working. I removed the graphics card from the motherboard and booted up via the motherboard which allowed me to install Windows. From here, I put the graphics card back in but this time had to plug in a DisplayPort lead directly into the GC to be able to view the PC.

The issue I'm having now is that the PC won't recognize my external hard drives for some reason so I am unable to access them. I have tested all the USB slots with my mouse and keyboard and they work. I also know that my drives work since I have been using them on my laptop until I bought this PC a week ago.

Also, whilst I was building, my Seagate Barracuda internal drive slipped off my workstation and fell onto a tiled floor. As a result, the PC is not recognising this drive either. It is plugged in via the same method as the SSD so my fear is that it could be damaged. I'm wondering how easily a hardrive would become damaged to the point of not working? And would it be cheaper to get it fixed or buy a new drive? It cost roughly £78.

 

[essenbe]

It's pretty easy to damage a hard drive when dropping it. There is no fixing it, you may have to replace it. Please plug your Seagate in the computer and your Western Digitals in and reboot. Then post a screenshot of Disk management. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/274797-disk-management-post-screen-capture-image.html