Need help: Blank screen on startup

[Geekist]

I got an old PC from a friend. He built a new PC & gave me his old PC. He took the HDD and CD drive for his new setup. He told me the PC ran fine, but he hasn't booted it up in a while since he removed the HDD and CD drive. I've built a few PCs before, but this is the first time I've worked with a used PC from a friend.

Here are the specs:
-MSI 970a-g46
-AMD 320e 3.5ghz
-gtx 750ti
-700w EVGA PSU
-Ballistix ram (2 sticks, not sure the size)

I hooked up a samsung 250g SSD to install an OS on the system. Problem is, whenever I turn on the PC, nothing is displayed on screen. The CPU fan works, the PSU fan works, the GPU fan works & a green light on the GPU comes on as well. I also cannot turn off the PC by holding down the power button on the case (I've used the switch on the PSU to shutdown the PC a few times during the trial runs). I've tried using an HMDI cable, a VGA cable, all plugged in through the GPU. (The mobo doesn't seem to have any video output cables on it, I believe there are no on-board graphics). I even tried using my brother's PSU cable, while attaching it to his monitor via his DVI cable & still nothing displayed.

I've tried resetting the CMOS while referring to the mobo's manual, but that still didn't work. The 8-pin CPU power cable is plugged into the mobo & so is the 24 pin power cable.

Any suggestions? Thanks guys

 

[R_1]

does the 750ti need power plugged in? some of the Overclocked cards needed aux power.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-perform-steps-posting-post-boot-video-problems
go down the list. step 17 is there a speaker connected to the motherboard front panel connector?

canned diagnostic speaker rant
The diagnostic speaker is the motherboard main diag feedback device.
my speakers have this plug
http://images.crutchfieldonline.com/graphics/infolib/homelib/hSpeakerSpringClip.jpg
I use lamp wire but any stranded wire will do. literally any stranded wires. strip one end like so
http://www.antiquelampco.com/Shades/CordColors.jpg
attach the stripped end into the speaker spring clips on the speaker.
the other end of the wire should be trimmed like so the semi strip
https://wesbellwireandcable.com/images/cutwire.png
by doing a semi strip the wire case is now the socket.
plug one wire to the first pin, and the second onto the fourth pin.
power on the system and listen for beeps
end canned rant