New HTPC Won't Get Video Out on First Boot

[pratik97]

NEED HELP TECHIES!!

I have one of thsoe small Shuttle like cases and I finally got around to putting my system together. Got a DVD drive in there, with a 2.0 GHZ Celeron, put in a Hauppauge PVR card and an ATI Radeon AGP card with 512 MB of Kingston and a 120 gig 7200 RPM hard drive. When I press the power button the lights come on the front panel (blue and orange) but nothing comes up on the monitor. I'm plugging my monitor on the on board video currently. The monitor just acts as if it were idle. The interesting thing is even when the machine is on the DVD does not even power up (I can't open or close the tray) and I'm sure the connections are all solid and everything has power.

Does anyone have any idea what is causing this? Is it possible that something is wrong? Or shoudl I perform a diagnostic by taking out the cards and just using whats on board to start? Please let me know with any suggestions!


UPDATED - Still not working

Well I put in a working DDR stick from another machine which was known good. In fact I put in my Kingston RAM into the old machine and that booted up fine so the RAM isnt defective. The Centon RAM I put into my HTPC got the same result. The only thing I have hooked in is the processor and the memory and a monitor. Still get nothing from the video. What baffles me is even if the DVD drive isnt hooked up to an IDE channel it should still power up shouldnt it? Atleast open and close the tray so I know that its getting power but instead it doesnt do anything. My monitor is known good. Actually I've tried 2 monitors. The other thing I'm gonna try is hook up an S-Video from my machine to my HDTV but dont want to damage that.

Any other suggestions? Thanks guys.

 

[justaguy]

I had a similar problem with the first one I built because I didn't seat the CPU properly. It might be worth a try. Clearing CMOS to reset the BIOS might also be a good idea. It doesn't sound like a monitor issue, so don't bother with the HDTV. Your DVD not working means that something is screwy beside the monitor.

Where there's a will, there's a way-even when it comes to screwing up.

 

[pratik97]

I did reseat the CPU and get the same problem. Is it possible that the machine can't handle Centon or Kingston DDR? I'd rather not get new RAM just to try it out and have it not work either. Is it possible that the power supply can power up the fans and led's but that is whats causing problems and the reason why the DVD drive wont even open?

 

[justaguy]

There are far more experienced and knowledgeable people than me roaming around in here. I would try clearing cmos and just double check all your connections to be sure. You may have a DOA motherboard or CPU. Anybody trying to troubleshoot this is gonna need to know all the parts in your system, so you should post that and hope Crashman or another system builder helps you out.

Where there's a will, there's a way-even when it comes to screwing up.

 

[Zoron]

If you're going to connect the monitor to the onboard video, make sure you pull out the AGP card. Most mobos with onboard video will automatically disable it when you plug an AGP card in.

Unplug the DVD altogether... if it's defective, it may be preventing the system from booting... even if it's unplugged from the IDE. If you still don't get anything, see if you can grab another PS. If your DVD isn't getting power and you know it's not defective, then I'd definately suspect the PS.

<font color=red> If you design software that is fool-proof, only a fool will want to use it. </font color=red>

 

[RCPilot]

Can you get into BIOS?

Dazzle them with Brilliance, or Baffle them with BS!

 

[pratik97]

No after a bunch of trouble shooting I've come to the conclusion thats its just the processor. Unfortunately I dont have a spare Intel processor laying aroudn to put it in there. I'm an AMD guy myself. Will have to see if I can find one.

 

[RCPilot]

Ok. If you can't get into BIOS, your doing the right thing then.

BTW, I'm a AMD Man myself.

Dazzle them with Brilliance, or Baffle them with BS!