Newly built X99-based PC no signal to monitor

[Faisal_Almalki223]

Hello fellow forum members,

I'm at a loss of what to do, i need your help guys. 🙁

I'm done building this kickass PC for a friend, but i faced an issue that i might not be quite familiar with, which is the infamous "No signal to monitor" issue .

A few things to declare before we dive into the situation :
I have proper knowledge of PC hardware assembly and software, i've already built more than 6 computers in the past 7 years including a variety of PC platforms.
I also made sure to be grounded at all times when working around inside the computer, such precautions are : 1- ESD strap, 2- Standing ESD grounded foil mat 3- Marble tiles with no carpets whatsoever 4- Painted wooden table with a thin static-dissipative foam layer on top.

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The specs i picked for him are :
Processor : I7 5820K
MoBo : MSI X99A SLI Krait
Power Supply : Seasonic 1050W (Seasonic SS-1050XM2 ATX 1050 Power Supply)
RAM : Corsair Ven. 2666MHz (PC4-21300) 32GB "4x 8GB sticks"
Video Card : Gigabyte GTX 1080 Founder's Edition
Drives : WD Black 3TB, Samsung EVO 500GB "VNAND" Sata SSD
CPU Heat sink/Heat spreader : Phanteks PH-TC14PE , Used Arctic MX-4 Thermal paste.
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First of all, i performed a "Breadboard" test involving the main components before installing the motherboard into the case.

Thankfully, the motherboard ran flawlessly, with the "MSI_LED" debug light not lighting up which means there are no issues at all.

But of course, i couldn't see video output from the computer since it obviously doesn't have integrated graphics, so the only way i'd get video is to install the MoBo in the case and install the videocard.

I successfully installed the motherboard into the case, and then i installed the video card and attached the required 8-pin power connector and made sure to plug it in the correct slot in the modular power supply.

I proceeded to plug the computer to the monitor and the keyboard, and made sure that the electrical outlet is grounded and properly wired for use.

I turned the PC on, everything was going well except that there wasn't any video output through both the HDMI and DVI ports.

Remember the MSI_LED debug light? It didn't light up at all thus nothing went wrong according to the MoBo.

Also, i noticed that the "GEFORCE GTX" light-up LED logo on the card stays on for almost 20 seconds from pressing the power button, then the logo turns off.
But the weird thing is that ~5 seconds later the LED logo lights up again and the monitor detects an output but only a pitch black screen shows up, pure nothingness......

In addition to all of that, i noticed that the Keyboard backlight doesn't lightup, while the transparent LED-lit scroll wheel and logo of the mouse still lights up....

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My attempts at fixing the issue :

First attempt to fix the issue is of course resetting the CMOS, thankfully the MSI X99A SLI Krait has a nice CMOS reset switch in the rear I/O plate, which only lets you reset CMOS when the PC is off by lighting up in blue whenever the PC is powered off incorrectly or by the power button.

That didn't do a thing, so i resorted to manually reset the CMOS by removing the battery and reinstalling it after 30 minutes.... but still nothing changed.

I also tried every single PCI-E slot in the motherboard, and that didn't make a difference.....

"Oh boy!, it must be the 8-pin power cable that connects to the card!" i thought, and i swapped it out for another one and yet again, things didn't change a bit.

Well, i had to go full retard and rebuild the machine from the ground up, but...... that didn't do jack schitt....

There is only one solution that might fix the issue and i'm still holding off from doing it which it leaving only 1~2 sticks of ram "i believe X99 requires two sticks to boot" and try to boot the machine.......😱

What do you think guys? Would this solution rid me of this haunting?

I really do apologize for the extremely long paragraph "more like the thread post which is as long whole Harry potter novel series ", but i knew i had to provide as much information as i could since that could come in handy.

I greatly appreciate your time and patience for going through all of this, and i also greatly appreciate your help and information towards fixing this issue.

Hoping for the best for everyone! 😀

 

[alexoiu]

Hi,
Can you test different graphics card?

 

[Faisal_Almalki223]

Hi,
Can you test different graphics card?

I have been thinking about that for a while....

I believe i have an old GTX 560 SSC in my old Dell desktop, i might try to install it to see if its the problem.

But what do you think, should i try the RAM method first? or try swapping the cards first?

I guess i will go with the card swap method, thanks for encouraging me to go for it!

I'll report once i try it out...

 

[alexoiu]

Try leaving single RAM installed and testing with the GTX 560. If still no go, move the RAM to different RAM slot. Test each slot. See if the same.

 

[Faisal_Almalki223]

Back from the abyss!

Well, first thing i did was installing the GTX 560... still no go

The second thing i did was leaving one ram stick... nothing

Third thing i did, two ram sticks..... nothing

I thought "Wait, why not scavenge an old motherboard speaker from my stash!"
And i found one still in pristine condition!

I decided to install the RAM in slots 1, 3, 5 , 7 as instructed in the manual, and i also connected the speaker to the motherboard making sure the polarity is correct.

But when i power on the PC, the speaker won't beep or do anything!

"Well, the polarity is reversed!" i thought, so i flipped it and nothing happened..

The weird thing is that the numlock, scroll lock and caps lock still respond!!!!!!!!!!!

So i thought "Hurr i need to reseat CPU durr" and done that, FOR THE FOURTH TIME so far 😛
That of course didn't so anything.........

But from how the speaker behaved, seems like the motherboard is dead!

 

[alexoiu]

Try starting the board without RAMs installed. If no beeps, then board, or CPU does not work.

 

[Faisal_Almalki223]

Back again,

I tried starting it without RAM and it beeped! (Three long beeps, invalid RAM)

What a surprise! i thought the MoBo was dead, but what could the current chain of events mean? is the PSU the culprit? since many people pointed out if a faulty PSU can't provide enough current "no matter its rated wattage" the MoBo won't post successfully.

Really weird, since i found out the V. card isn't faulty, could it be the processor? even though it beeped now and the keyboard lock keys respond?

 

[alexoiu]

"Well, first thing i did was installing the GTX 560... still no go"
Are you sure that the 560 does work?

 

[Faisal_Almalki223]

Yes, i have tested the GTX 560 and it works very well in another computer.

But as i posted above, the motherboard actually beeped out the "RAM invalid" beep code when i removed every stick.

Its also important to notice that when i install a single stick of RAM "each time in a different slot" the motherboard doesn't beep, so the RAM seems to be OK.

I guess its down to the power supply, because the motherboard doesn't beep about the CPU "and it gets warm if i left the PC in stasis for a while" and it only beeps for the RAM when i uninstall the sticks.....

What do you think?

 

[alexoiu]

I think that it's a memory related issue. Try removing the CPU and checking the socket for bent pins.

 

[Faisal_Almalki223]

Last time i reinstalled the CPU, i thought why not check for bent pins to fix with a tweezer, but sadly i wasn't able to find any pin out of alignment and all the pins are level, even when using my soldering magnifying glass....

 

[alexoiu]

No other idea, unfortunately. Board, CPU, or RAM, Not sure which one.

 

[Faisal_Almalki223]

Hello,

I have finally broke free from schedule and of course i earned a lot of free time to use.

So i decided to revisit my friend's PC, but this time my mind kind of focused more towards diagnosing the health of the MoBo and CPU.

I decided to first install all RAM DIMMS into the proper slots as illustrated in the manual, which are slots 1, 3 , 5 , 7.

Then i powered on the PC, i noticed that the MoBo responds to Capslock, Scrolllock , Numlock requests as i said before, and wont shut down immediately from pressing the power button.

I thought it might have booted without video but requires a prompt for it to access UEFI/BIOS in order for it to shutdown instantly by pressing the power button, so i pressed "DELETE" as instructed in the manual, and it now shuts down instantly!

I immediately rushed to my old dell and removed the 560 from it, and i installed it in the top PCI-E slot in the X99 machine replacing the 1080.

AND THE THING IS WORKING PROPERLY!

It detected all 32 Gigabytes of RAM and the CPU seems fine too, it gets warm to about 30 while in the BIOS screen and the lovely MSI krait edition BIOS/UEFI shows its specs properly!

So that concludes that the GTX 1080 we got is a potato.

 

[alexoiu]

Weird:

"Well, first thing i did was installing the GTX 560... still no go"
"The second thing i did was leaving one ram stick... nothing"

"I immediately rushed to my old dell and removed the 560 from it, and i installed it in the top PCI-E slot in the X99 machine replacing the 1080.
AND THE THING IS WORKING PROPERLY!"

 

[Faisal_Almalki223]

That is the thing that confused me, the 560 didn't work with the X99 machine back then!

I decided to reinstall the 1080 since magically the 560 started working, but it didn't work! "And many times i start the PC, it causes a boot loop every say 10 seconds"..

Then again i installed the 560 just to make sure that the 1080 is dead, and it still works beautifully! and i left it for 2 hours straight and it is stable!

So, excluding the first attempt back then with the 560, the 560 worked fine two times

I still have no idea why it didn't work back then, but i'm not sure if i installed it in the top PCI-E slot or the one below it before....

Anyways, I guess its time to RMA that 1080.....

Thank you very much for your time, and i greatly appreciate your effort towards helping me with this situation.

 

[alexoiu]

You're welcome.