Previously Working PC No Video Output After Faulty Reassembly

[tonold]

Here is the PC build: PC build

Because the everything else arrived much sooner than the case, I decided to assemble the PC without it. It worked perfectly. I ran Windows 7 on it, and began customizing and installing the necessary software to turn it into a nice little gaming rig. When the case arrived, I disassembled everything and reassembled it inside the case. Focusing on the problem...

The power cords plug into the power source with a 6-pin plug, and the video card's power cord plugs into the video card with a similar looking 6-pin plug. To reiterate, the standard power flow for this little section is:
Power Source (6 pin female) <--> cord (6-pin male to 2 molex females) <--> cord (2 molex males to 6-pin male) <--> video card (6-pin female)
My mistake was that I mindlessly plugged the 6-pin male meant for the power source into the video card, and the 6-pin male meant for the video card into the power source.

After a few failed attempts at powering on, I discovered my mistake. I fixed it, and tried starting the computer again. The video card's fan wasn't receiving power and no video was coming to the monitor (other fans and drives were working though. A computer-savvy friend postulated that the video card was dead, so I ordered a new one, which I just mounted and plugged in (correctly). When I powered on the computer, the video card fan now spins (along with the disc drives and the CPU fan, although no video comes to the monitor; not even BIOS; just a blank "no input detected" screen.

So what's wrong here? Have I fried the motherboard too? I wanted to consult some people with a better understanding of the matter before I went and bought more replacement parts I might not need.

 

[sunder25]

Your power supply should have direct-to-pcix cables, without going using the molex connectors.
Try plugging those into your card.

 

[Airm3n]

Do you have a built in gpu that you could try? I would recommend that if you put too much power through your card you could have fried your pci-express slot. If you do have a built in gpu and it works then I'd lean towards motherboard replacement. Also check to make sure your memory is fully seated. Partially installed ram can give that sort of problem as well.

 

[tonold]

Do you have a built in gpu that you could try? I would recommend that if you put too much power through your card you could have fried your pci-express slot. If you do have a built in gpu and it works then I'd lean towards motherboard replacement. Also check to make sure your memory is fully seated. Partially installed ram can give that sort of problem as well.

-I checked my 2 4GB sticks of ram, they're secure.
-I'm not sure it has built in gpu. BUT, it does have DVI-D, VGA, and HDMI plugins directly on the motherboard. I tried the VGA and HDMI plugins (yes, from completely off with each cord already plugged in by itself).
-I tried moving the video card to the other PCI-express slot, tried both VGA and HDMI.

...and never any video. No change.

 

[Airm3n]

Try running the ram in the other slots perhaps? When you tried the onboard video did you have the graphics card removed from the board?

 

[tonold]

Your power supply should have direct-to-pcix cables, without going using the molex connectors.
Try plugging those into your card.

I have an 8-pin to 6-pin cord in the power source's box back home (just came back to school from break), so I could get that mailed to me. But I assure you, the computer was originally working perfectly with the current configuration. And there is no damage/melting/burn marks on the cords being used right now.

 

[tonold]

Try running the ram in the other slots perhaps? When you tried the onboard video did you have the graphics card removed from the board?

-Just tried moving the ram to the other 2 slots, then tried both the video card's HDMI & VGA plugins, AND the motherboard's HDMI & VGA plugins.
-Also tried the motherboard's HDMI & VGA plugins without the video card mounted.

...no video. No change.

 

[Airm3n]

I'm starting to think you may have toasted your motherboard. If you have another system the best way to check would be to take one piece at a time out of your current system and test in a new one to see if its something else. Aside from that you could take it to a computer shop and have them test it for you but they may do just the same thing.

 

[tonold]

I'm starting to think you may have toasted your motherboard. If you have another system the best way to check would be to take one piece at a time out of your current system and test in a new one to see if its something else. Aside from that you could take it to a computer shop and have them test it for you but they may do just the same thing.

I can confirm now that the motherboard was also affected. I just ran and got a new one, set everything up and it ran perfectly. For any future fools who make the same mistake as me, I'll reiterate: I assembled my PC incorrectly as described in the first post up there. I replaced the video card (yes, it was actually bad), but still got no video. I replaced the motherboard, and everything is back to normal!

...with the exception of a few startup repairs I had to do with the software. Turning it on, then cutting the power over and over again when I was testing various configurations/solutions was a little tough on the windows installation on my HDD (I didn't have the common sense to unplug it during all this). Luckily these were a piece of cake to fix.

Thank you guys for letting me bounce ideas off of you.