No display after building a new computer

[briantheman890]

Hello everyone,
so my friend recently purchased new parts for building a computer.
He got:
gtx 660i
b85M-M Asus board.
i5-4440 CPU
620w power supply and 8 gb of ram.

He used the same HD as his previous computer had.
Another friend set the board, and hooked it up. When the computer is turned on no display is shown on the monitor.
The green light shows on the board so it has power, but that is all that occurs.

Has anyone experienced this issue before? Does anyone have some advice, or suggestions to try to fix the situation?

Thanks everyone.

 

[madcratebuilder]

What are the beep codes?

 

[briantheman890]

What are the beep codes?

I havent tested that yet. My friends were the ones attempting to get it working I am going to try tonight.
I was told it makes no beep with everything hooked up (memory, card HD).
I am going to attempt and determine what the beep codes are tonight.

 

[poolmon]

He used the same HD as his previous computer had.

It is unclear what you mean by this.

Are you saying he just plugged in the old HD with its previously installed OS & drivers (which would be an issue)?
Or did he re-installed the OS with new drivers to the old HD, after he hooked it up to the new motherboard/CPU (which would not be an issue).

Do you get any display if you boot to the bios vs the OS?

I believe this Asus board has its own onboard video chip. In that case, try unplugging the monitor from the new video card and plugging it into the motherboard's video output for to see if you get any video that way.

Let us know if you have any progress or not.

 

[AddRAM]

Remove the video card and plug the monitor directly into the motherboard, use only 1 stick of ram.

As asked, do you see the bios on the monitor or is it completely blank ?

 

[briantheman890]

He used the same HD as his previous computer had.

It is unclear what you mean by this.

Are you saying he just plugged in the old HD with its previously installed OS & drivers (which would be an issue)?
Or did he re-installed the OS with new drivers to the old HD, after he hooked it up to the new motherboard/CPU (which would not be an issue).

Do you get any display if you boot to the bios vs the OS?

I believe this Asus board has its own onboard video chip. In that case, try unplugging the monitor from the new video card and plugging it into the motherboard's video output for to see if you get any video that way.

Let us know if you have any progress or not.

Yea he has used the same HD as he had in his previous computer. I dont think this would be the issue. Just last year I built a computer, used the same HD without formatting and it worked.

they have tried removing the new video card and running off of the board but still nothing happens. The screen remains blank. Nothing will display, even the bios menu or any form of start up display.

 

[briantheman890]

Remove the video card and plug the monitor directly into the motherboard, use only 1 stick of ram.

As asked, do you see the bios on the monitor or is it completely blank ?

They have tried to remove the card and place connect the monitor to the board with no success. They tried to switch the slots in which the ram was hooked up to.
When starting it up it does not make a beep like a lot do, so I am going to try and remove all of the ram and boot it up. Hopefully this will then give off a beep code. If not I am thinking they could have fried the board or the board is faulty.

 

[AddRAM]

Or the cpu is not compatible.

 

[Kaktussoft]

Not directly related to the issue but.... you cannot simply swap the harddrive and boot. You have to uninstall unused drivers and install new drivers. But that's only possible if it boots. To make it bootable (after your main problem has been solved):

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/292068-make-windows-7-bootable-after-motherboard-swap.html

 

[briantheman890]

Or the cpu is not compatible.

I really dont think that is the issue. He purchased it at the big computer store here in my city and they mount the CPU on the board. They typically do board/cpu combo deals and I believe thats what he has purchased.
Even if they bought seperate I dont believe they would mount the CPU to an un-compatible board.

 

[briantheman890]

Not directly related to the issue but.... you cannot simply swap the harddrive and boot. You have to uninstall unused drivers and install new drivers. But that's only possible if it boots. To make it bootable (after your main problem has been solved):

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/292068-make-windows-7-bootable-after-motherboard-swap.html

I did that with my computer just last year.
Removed nothing, popped in the HD with my old drivers on it and plugged the monitor into the board.
Removed the drivers once I had set up the new machine and installed the new required drivers.

Maybe something could be un-compatible I believe he had re-formatted last night and tried it again to get the same results.

The only thing I can think of is a piece of hardware is bad.

 

[AddRAM]

Let`s not worry about whether the hard drive is a problem or not.

You did not answer yet.... Can you see the bios on the display or not ?

 

[poolmon]

Are you sure the monitor is turned on and still functional? If so, you should at least be able to boot into the bios, even if the HD with the old drivers is an issue. At that point I'd begin to suspect the motherboard and/or a mis-seated cpu (or no power getting to the cpu by its own cable vs the motherboard power).

Also, as was previously recommended, one stick of memory in the correct slot is best to start with. And most importantly, that memory needs to be compatible with the motherboard. Check the compatibility list with Asus for your motherboard. The newer motherboard/cpu combos can get pretty picky on the specific memory they will accept.

 

[briantheman890]

Let`s not worry about whether the hard drive is a problem or not.

You did not answer yet.... Can you see the bios on the display or not ?

In a previous post I had said
"The screen remains blank. Nothing will display, even the bios menu or any form of start up display."
Nothing at all will display.

 

[AddRAM]

Take it back and have them test the motherboard.

 

[briantheman890]

Are you sure the monitor is turned on and still functional? If so, you should at least be able to boot into the bios, even if the HD with the old drivers is an issue. At that point I'd begin to suspect the motherboard and/or a mis-seated cpu (or no power getting to the cpu by its own cable vs the motherboard power).

The monitor is fine. He took out the new parts and placed in his old parts last night and the monitor is on/working.
I believe its the mother board issue but another friend was adamant that the old hard drive was the issue. Which I did not believe to be the case considering I have done it before.

I do think its the mother board I am going to try the beep codes and see what it gives off and hopefully my friend just wired it wrong.

 

[synth]

Are you sure the monitor is turned on and still functional? If so, you should at least be able to boot into the bios, even if the HD with the old drivers is an issue. At that point I'd begin to suspect the motherboard and/or a mis-seated cpu (or no power getting to the cpu by its own cable vs the motherboard power).

The monitor is fine. He took out the new parts and placed in his old parts last night and the monitor is on/working.
I believe its the mother board issue but another friend was adamant that the old hard drive was the issue. Which I did not believe to be the case considering I have done it before.

I do think its the mother board I am going to try the beep codes and see what it gives off and hopefully my friend just wired it wrong.

You can never rule out anything when you are troubleshooting computer hardware, you should still definitely try plugging in a new or another HDD that is clean. If it worked for you once it doesn't mean it would work for your friend. You can argue with your point that it worked for you before if both of your computers are the same exact specs, models, and brands. But please, common mistake for troubleshooting is failing to test and assuming. There's be no harm in trying hey.

 

[AddRAM]

But he says he`s not even seeing the bios, which should show up with or without a hard drive connected. That`s why I said don`t even worry about the hard drive yet. If he doesn`t even see the bios, then something else is wrong.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

1st thing I'd check is that there are just the right number of mobo stand off's being used and especially not too many?
2nd thing to check is all mobo power connections and front panel connections and connections back to PSU are made proper?
3rd thing is it could be that the bios isn't seeing the Haswell chip and needs an update(remote chance)
4th thing is either mobo or CPU are bad or both.(likely)

 

[synth]

But he says he`s not even seeing the bios, which should show up with or without a hard drive connected. That`s why I said don`t even worry about the hard drive yet. If he doesn`t even see the bios, then something else is wrong.

True true, but, based from my experience, we had one workstation (I work as an IT Site Support for an Animation Company, so we have custom built PCs) that had power but isn't displaying anything as well even the bios. We had tried everything you guys suggested earlier in this post to no luck, last thing we did was swap the hard drive with another workstation, and surprisingly it worked. We suspect that the old hard drive was somewhat responsible for black screen because when we tried putting that same drive on a working unit, it showed the same problem, black screen with not even the bios showing up. If im not mistaken I think I have posted that problem here, i'm just not 100% sure. Anyway, like I said, no harm in trying since hardware troubleshooting is isolation. It may have worked for me but it may not work for you, you just got to eliminate all the possibilities is what i'm saying.