My first build, and I don't know as much as many of you do, so I'm hoping this isn't some wacky rookie mistake.
I bought my parts, all new except for the HDD, assembled, and no video output. I tested what I knew, brought in a friend with more experience, and he said bad motherboard. I sent the motherboard back to NewEgg, they sent a second one. I re-assembled, and I was never so happy to see a BIOS screen. The only thing wrong at this point was that one of the RAM sticks wasn't recognized -- the preferred slots for 2 sticks, according to the manual, is A2 and B2, but A2 wasn't recognized. I switched it to B1 and B2, and it was fine.
That was 2 days ago. I was waiting for payday before buying the OS activation key (I'm fairly poor), and today I decided to power it up and test those RAM channels to see if it was something I did wrong the first time or if there was a dual-channel setting I missed or something, and instead of a happy BIOS screen I got no video output, same as before. Fans are running, HDD and optical drive sound like they're engaged, but nothing else. This is exactly what happened the first time.
I've tried reseating the RAM, loosening the cooler, reseating the CPU... I checked for bent socket pins, checked all the other components... is it possible that this is another bad motherboard? What else could it be and what else could I try that might tell me something?
(My knowledge is at beginner level, so please be gentle. Thanks in advance.)
I bought my parts, all new except for the HDD, assembled, and no video output. I tested what I knew, brought in a friend with more experience, and he said bad motherboard. I sent the motherboard back to NewEgg, they sent a second one. I re-assembled, and I was never so happy to see a BIOS screen. The only thing wrong at this point was that one of the RAM sticks wasn't recognized -- the preferred slots for 2 sticks, according to the manual, is A2 and B2, but A2 wasn't recognized. I switched it to B1 and B2, and it was fine.
That was 2 days ago. I was waiting for payday before buying the OS activation key (I'm fairly poor), and today I decided to power it up and test those RAM channels to see if it was something I did wrong the first time or if there was a dual-channel setting I missed or something, and instead of a happy BIOS screen I got no video output, same as before. Fans are running, HDD and optical drive sound like they're engaged, but nothing else. This is exactly what happened the first time.
I've tried reseating the RAM, loosening the cooler, reseating the CPU... I checked for bent socket pins, checked all the other components... is it possible that this is another bad motherboard? What else could it be and what else could I try that might tell me something?
(My knowledge is at beginner level, so please be gentle. Thanks in advance.)