New Build - No Display or Beeps

[vemerce]

Hey all.

I've already read the Step-by-Step guide for troubleshooting these problems. It didn't help.

I'm hoping that someone can help me. I've just built a new machine from scratch.

*Cooler Master Elite 130 Mini-ITX Tower Case
*ASRock Mini ITX DDR3 1066 NA Motherboard FM2A78M-ITX+
*AMD Athlon X4 860K Black Edition CPU Quad Core FM2+ 3700Mhz
*Crucial 16GB Kit DDR3 1600 MT/s (PC3-12800) CL11 Non-ECC, UDIMM 240-Pin
*Thermaltake TR2 500 Watts ATX12V v2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Power Supply
*Corsair Hydro Series H55 Quiet Edition Liquid CPU Cooler
*Seagate 1TB Desktop HDD SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive
*Sapphire Radeon NITRO R7 370 4GB GDDR5 DVI-I / DVI-D / HDMI / DP Dual-X OC Version

I put everything together (and took apart and put everything together again) and...

The lights come on. The hard drive starts functioning. All the fans turn on.

There is no display in ANY of the display ports, be it on the video card or the motherboard. (I've even tried launching the computer with the video card extracted and only using the integrated graphics.)

I've tested the new video card, power supply, and the RAM in a separate computer and I can confirm all three of those parts are functioning 100%.

Also, there is never any beeping coming from the motherboard. All of the previous threads I've read about these kind of issues talk about beeping, so I figured I would mention that.

Can someone please help me figure out what the heck is wrong here?

Thanks!

 

[alexoiu]

Hi,
1. The CPU has no integrated graphics, therefore always connect the monitor to graphics card (motherboard video not working).
2. Try checking the board's BIOS version: http://www.asrock.com/support/images/FindBIOS-1.jpg
(Px.xx)
3. You'd get beeps only if a case speaker http://images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/12-201-032-TS?$S640W$ attached to the motherboard.

 

[vemerce]

Hi,
1. The CPU has no integrated graphics, therefore always connect the monitor to graphics card (motherboard video not working).
2. Try checking the board's BIOS version: http://www.asrock.com/support/images/FindBIOS-1.jpg
(Px.xx)
3. You'd get beeps only if a case speaker http://images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/12-201-032-TS?$S640W$ attached to the motherboard.

Okay. The part about not having integrated graphics makes sense. But why am I not getting any video from the video card then? (The card works just fine in another PC.)

I don't think I can update BIOS without being able to see anything on my screen at all.

 

[alexoiu]

What BIOS version is installed (try checking it when able to)?

 

[vemerce]

Looking like it's BIOS 2.60 and the manual even says it's supposed to support FM and FM2+ chips.

I'm confused about this situation. I've built 4 computers so far and I've never dealt with an issue like this.

What would make the system power on and everything seems to function, but I can't get any display out of a working video card? What are the possibilities here?

My initial thought (though I hope I am wrong) was that the motherboard is DOA, but Amazon doesn't have any more in stock for exchange and there's a month wait.

Any ideas to help would be appreciated.

 

[alexoiu]

Then CPU is supported. Try connecting a case speaker to the motherboard and see if any beeps.

 

[vemerce]

Did you ask about the BIOS because this CPU requires a certain version to work in this board?

 

[alexoiu]

Yes, P1.60: http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/FM2A78M-ITX+/?cat=CPU

 

[vemerce]

Okay... I might be wrong about the BIOS. So if I buy https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0095VPBFY/ref=ya_st_dp_summary and put it in, I should be able to update the BIOS and use my good processor?

 

[alexoiu]

Can you post a picture of the motherboard, so that we can check the BIOS chip?

 

[vemerce]

I'm at work right now and I don't have a high quality enough image on my phone to read the chip. When I get home I can.

 

[vemerce]

Never mind, I found a good pic. P1.30

 

[alexoiu]

Then you can order a BIOS chip on ebay and replace the board's one:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xbios+chip+FM2A78M-ITX%2B.TRS0&_nkw=bios+chip+FM2A78M-ITX%2B&_sacat=0

 

[vemerce]

Wouldn't that require me to solder the motherboard?

I was thinking about just buying another processor to update the BIOS, then put the good one back in. That method would also work, right?

 

[alexoiu]

It would work, but a BIOS chip is cheaper. It's on socket and easy to replace: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLEQoWRq41k
If contacting ASRock, they might also send you a chip for free.

 

[vemerce]

Okay. I already went the route of ordering that other processor... I'll just end up doing a browser build around that later.

I didn't know a BIOS chip was so easily replaced so that's useful knowledge for the future.

The new processor will be here tomorrow and I'll post an update as to whether or not everything is working now. Thank you for your help!

 

[alexoiu]

You're welcome.