System won't boot with GPU in?

[dannygreeny]

I'm new to building PCs and my custom build is as follows:

Asrock Z77 Extreme 4 motherboard (mb version is P 2.90-15A or something i guess)
i5-3570k
Samsung 840 pro sata 3 mlc ssd 128 gb
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000)
Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s
ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner
1000 watt bronze certified rosewill psu (overkill but it was on sale at a super cheap price 😀)

and finally for gpu

GIGABYTE GV-N660OC-2GD GeForce GTX 660 2GB oc version

I put everything together correctly following the manuals and video guides, and without the gpu in the system, i can get to the BIOS of the mb with no problem (i dont have windows right now with me so i couldn't install the os). But when i put in the gpu of the system, the thing starts up with all the fans running accordingly, but on the monitor nothing shows up except a black screen. the ram is set at the correct frequency if that has to do with anything,

Some people said that they upgraded the gpu bios or something or after installing windows without the gpu they downloaded the most recent drivers for their gpu before putting the thing in and those methods worked. Is it a problem with the gpu or driver issues or mb compatibility? because i don't have another system to try the gpu out on so i can't verify if the gpu is faulty or not and the mb is fine since i can access the bios without the gpu. What should i do?

(also on a side note, my mb came with only 2 sata cables but i have 3 sata items i.e. optical drive, hdd and ssd. does that mean i need to buy an individual sata cable?)

any sort of help would be greatly appreciated

 

[siddharthmukul007]

you don't need individual sata cables....did you plug in the pci-e power connectors to your card????

 

[cklaubur]

I think Sid may have misunderstood your post asking about individual SATA cables. You will need at least as many cables as SATA devices. With the two that came with the motherboard, you just need a third one. Most hard drives (in retail packaging, anyway) come with a SATA cable and a power adapter, so you may not need to buy an extra SATA cable.

Also, this may be a dumb question, but did you move the monitor cable to the video card when you installed it?

Casey

 

[dannygreeny]

I think Sid may have misunderstood your post asking about individual SATA cables. You will need at least as many cables as SATA devices. With the two that came with the motherboard, you just need a third one. Most hard drives (in retail packaging, anyway) come with a SATA cable and a power adapter, so you may not need to buy an extra SATA cable.

Also, this may be a dumb question, but did you move the monitor cable to the video card when you installed it?

Casey

ty for that sata cable answer the hdd was oem so there wasn't any extra. i guess ill go buy one soon then. as for the monitor cable question as dumb a question it might be, i didn't actually move the cables since i had only the dvi and vga cable of the monitor on me when testing. maybe i'll try it out with the hdmi cable i have lying around somewhere in my house. i'll post the results whenever i get around doing so

Update: i switched the video to the hdmi on the gpu and it worked! thank you so much for your solution Casey 😀 now i feel dumb for missing that after all the hard work i put into building the system 😛 now i only need an extra sata cable and windows

 

[cklaubur]

It's always something simple, isn't it?

Glad to hear your problem is fixed!

Casey