Motherboard turns on and all lights / fans working, but not outputs.

[jamie.vazey]

As the title says: Mobo turns on and all lights / fans working but no outputs working (USB, onboard graphics, etc)

I’ve just set up my first computer:
Intel i5 2400s LGA1155
Gigabyte GA-H77-D3H-MVP
Radeon RX 560
350 watt Corsair PSU
2 x 8gb DDR3 memory
1 Sata 7.5k 1tb HDD
240 gb SSD

I put together my first computer yesterday, transplanting the CPU, RAM and hard drives from my old computer.

At first I hadn’t plugged in the ATX 12v CPU power cord and so the computer would only turn on for a second and then die.

Now that I’ve sorted that out, the computer turns on and all fans in the case light up and spin as well as the GPU fan, and I can hear the hard drives spinning, but absolutely nothing else happens. My keyboard and mouse are not recognised, the DVI from both the GPU and onboard graphics both don’t work, I.e no outputs are functioning at all but everything else seems fine as far as I can tell.

The mobo speaker is functioning as I took out the ram and booted and got the beeps for that, but otherwise when I’m running everything there is no beeps at all so nothings wrong as far as I can tell.

Could I have fried my mobo or CPU? Or could my PSU not be powerful enough so that power to the fans and lights works but everything else doesn’t?

Interestingly I’ve noticed that although my phone doesn’t show that it is charging when I plug it in, it does actually go upon battery percentage so I would say there is power getting through to it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Darkbreeze]

Is this a new motherboard? Was the CPU taken out of the motherboard socket and then put back in?

Did you check both ends of the monitor cable to make sure nothing is bent, or try a different monitor cable?

What was the reason for the swap of hardware to a new home?

 

[jamie.vazey]

The motherboard is new but not brand new. It was bought online and reset by the seller before I got it. I’m sure the monitor cable is working as it works on everything else but I’ll try another one shortly. The reason for the change was that I bought a new case and GPU and they didn’t fit my old motherboard, so I bought a new mobo and PSU aswell and put everything on the new mobo.

 

[Darkbreeze]

So everything you have worked prior to putting them in this motherboard?

If the answer is yes, then I'd make sure you have connected the CPU fan to the CPU_FAN header. If it is, great, move on. If it is not, connect it and try again.

If that was not the problem, then pull the cpu cooler and cpu back out, and check the motherboard to see if any of the pins in the CPU socket were bent during installation. This is a common issue for first time builders, and I've even occasionally seen experienced builders make the mistake of not properly installing the CPU and bending pins. If no pins are bent, then I'd contact the motherboard seller and tell them that the unit is faulty.

If you did not remove the graphics card from the motherboard when you tried to use the onboard graphics, then I'd remove the graphics card and reconnect your monitor cable to the motherboard output and try again.

Also, if your graphics card requires supplemental power, make sure you had connected those cables as well.

Probably a good idea to check EVERYTHING here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-perform-steps-posting-post-boot-video-problems

 

[jamie.vazey]

Thanks darkbreeze, there’s a lot of good suggestions there. I’m at work right now but I’ll try those out when I get home.

I did plug a fan into the CPU_FAN plug but just one of the ones for the case, not an actual CPU fan so I’ll try that again.

I’ll also try unplugging the GPU and just using onboard graphics for now.

Also, there is definitely a possibility I’ve bent the CPU pins. I also had no idea how much thermal paste to use so I could have gone overboard and got some onto the CPU. I’ll have a better look at home tonight and try all your suggestions

Cheers mate

 

[Darkbreeze]

Doubtful thermal paste would cause this kind of issue, instantly, unless you REALLY used a lot. Honestly, for almost all configurations, a blob about 1/4 the size of the part of a #2 pencil eraser that sticks out, or a rather fat grain of rice sized amount of thermal material dead center on the top of the CPU should be plenty. Methods that show wiping thermal paste across the entire CPU lid, drawing smiley faces or creating gigantic X's on the CPU lid are just ridiculous.

It does not take a lot of thermal paste to fill the micro-pores between the heatsink base and CPU lid, and that is all you are trying to do. The actual portion of the CPU lid area that needs to have thermal paste in contact with it is actually quite smaller than the entire CPU lid, and a very small amount will generally spread quite far anyhow as the tolerances are within thousands of an inch for out-of-flat and micro porosity anyhow, usually.

Some cheap or stock coolers might be minutely more, but the theory still applies.

Case fan isn't essential to POST or boot, usually only CPU fan. Case fan is essential for cooling however, but it won't cause this problem.

Check CPU socket for bent pins. Most likely problem. If it's not that, we can go from there.

 

[jamie.vazey]

That's a bit worrying, I definitely put much more than a fat grain of sand. I would say about the size of a bottle cap in spread, and some of it got onto the circuitry but I was quick and delicate to clean it off so I'm hoping it hasn't caused any issues. I'll update the thread again once I've tried your suggestions, thanks again.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Not grain of sand. Grain of cooked rice. A fat grain of cooked rice. Like, long rice. Still far less than what most people end up applying. There ARE some thermal pastes that recommend applying a lot more than that, but I think that is mostly so you'll use it up and have to order more. None of the builders I know ever recommend using as much or anywhere near what the thermal paste manufacturer recommends.

 

[Darkbreeze]

-Some methods "Recommended" around the web-

-The likely, but undesirable results of those methods-

I don't recommend any of those, and to clarify, I'm not claiming to be an authority or trying to indicate there is no other way but mine, but it is one that has worked on literally hundreds of builds over the years without issue. I personally prescribe to the cooked rice grain sized application when using any of the commonly available pastes that come in a tube applicator like the Arctic Silver 5 or most of the included pastes that come with premium coolers.

I've never had excess paste squeeze from between the CPU lid and heatsink using this method nor had an issue with inadequate cooling due to any lack of sufficient TIM. You can make your own decision on what works best for you. Depending on the cooler, a very small snow pea sized dab will work well too, so long as you don't get carried away or misconstrue the definition of snow pea. For our purposes, perhaps a dab about 1/4 the size of the part that sticks out of the metal on a number 2 pencil eraser is a better description.

-More promising methods-

-Probable results-

Notice that even with this method there is substantial filling of the heat pipe seams. It is NOT necessary to lay multiple lines along seams.​

Nearly every novice builder thinks more will be better, until they learn for themselves how wrong that way of thinking truly is. The paste is only there to provide a thermal interface between the metal of the cpu lid and the base of the heatsink. It's only job is to bridge any convex or concave tendencies of the lid or heatsink base and to fill microscopic pores in either surface.

It's not there as a magic cooling pad and it's use would actually be entirely unnecessary were both surfaces to be completely flat and non-porous. But since that is unlikely, a thermal interface material is required.

 

[jamie.vazey]

Wow darkbreeze, thank you for the great information! A little paste goes a long way and now I know for all future builds to use much less than I did!

Regarding my pc, I tried taking one component away and booting it and seeing if that made a difference, and then trying another component. I took the GPU out and left everything else and it booted. Turned out it was a simple solution of changing the bios settings to use PCI graphics rather than automatic configuration.

I’m not too sure why it would have caused a problem, as it was previously just automatically using the onboard graphics and even with the DVI plugged into the mobo it wouldn’t boot at all.

However, it was my first build and these are all great things that I’ve learnt for the next one so I’ll remember these and hopefully won’t have issues next time!

Thanks again for all your help and resources

 

[Darkbreeze]

That IS weird. For future reference, I've quite a few motherboards that if you move the display cable to the motherboard output but do not remove the graphics card from the PCIe slot in the motherboard, it will not switch to the integrated graphics automatically. Maybe that was the issue. Anyhow, glad you got it sorted out and if you ever have more questions feel free to ask. Thanks.