Troubleshooting a Motherboard, looking for help

[Ladm]

Hi, I've run into a very annoying completly blank screen, so I hope someone here can help me translating motherboard beeps, and non beeps. This is what I have.

Completely blank black screen.

Motherboard, ASRock 939NF6G-VSTA
RAM Corsair CMX1024-400PT

What I did sofar,

I unplugged everything except CPU, FAN, Power, and powered up. Result was 3 BEEP's, which I think is a good sign

I then plugged the RAM into Dual Channel A, and got 1 beep, I am confused

I reset CMOS, still get 1 beep, not sure what to think.

I move RAM to dual channel B, and get no beep, which seems bad

I try the onboard VGA connection, but get no visual

I try plugging in a PCI-E gfx card, but still no visual.

Now Im here looking for assistance, it would seem to me that CPU is fine since I get 3 beeps at first. But then I get a bit confused, is it RAM or MOBO....possibly both which are failing later on, Im leaning towards motherboard since I get no visuals, but Im at a loss.

Can anyone offer me some golden nuggets as to what I need to replace?

Ahh yes, and happy holidays

 

[evongugg]

Did you plug in the 4-pin power connection?

 

[o1die]

You're on the right track. I can only suggest you repeat the above steps out of the case on a non-conductive surface. I sometimes let the video card lay loose without the hold down screw to insure it's seated in the pci-e slot. Got any power supply leads going to the video card?

 

[Ladm]

Yes, but you are on to something

The 4-pin was clicked in, but since my PSU has 2, 4 pins, I took the first one out and put in the 2nd one, and I got visual on the onboard VGA. So far so good, but unfortunatly that wasnt the end of it.

I started adding items, disks, drives etc and it worked fine,I put in the GFX, PCI-E (powered with its own 6pin) and went to using dual DVI output, all was good, booted into OS like a charm inbetween every new addition.

Until as the last item I added the PCI Soundcard, and lost visuals again, both VGA and DVI.

Now Im at the point where it works until I add anything to either the PCI-E, or the PCI slot. The second either of those slot gets filled, I get a blank screen. I get no error beeps from the motherboard, and it does sound as if it boots just fine, although I can't visually verify so it might not.

I've tried removing the CD and DVD drive to see if its a lack of power that causes it, but that didnt change the outcome, use a slot, loose the screen.

Now Im wondering if it's the PSU (its a 450w Chill Factor) which is quirky, or if it's the motherboard. It might be worth adding that this is a system which worked fine up until this morning, so it's not something new which isnt compatible.

 

[evongugg]

Never heard of that power supply. You need a good power supply or it can take your whole investment with it:

Top Tier PSU:

http://www.tomswiki.com/page/Tiered+PSU+Listings?t=anon

 

[Ladm]

I got the name slightly wrong, its a Chill Innovation 450w http://chill-innovation.com/ it's by no means a bottomshelf PSU, ofcourse that doesnt mean that it can't be broken. I got it mainly for it's low noise capabilites though.

Do the PCI/ PCI-E draw power from the 4 pin connection or the 24 pin one? I find it a bit quirky that the system only displays the symptoms when I use the PCI/ PCI-E slots.

Do you have a good advise for my next step in troubleshooting, it seems to me as if it's either PSU or mobo related, my best (uneducated) guess beeing the mobo.

 

[evongugg]

Go in the bios and set PEG as the video mode. Disable the onboard video.

 

[Ladm]

Problem dont seem to be the bios setting for video, its like this.

1. System works fine running onboard graphics

2. I seat a PCI Soundcard

3. Screen goes blank.

So even when I dont touch anything video related it still happens.

 

[evongugg]

Sounds like a defective motherboard.

 

[Ladm]

Yes something is not quite right thats for sure.

But something else just happened, I tilted the machine and placed it on the side to get inside it again, booted it just for good measure, and VGA was gone, and I got missing keyboard error beeps. I placed it in the upright position and it worked again.

It must be either a defective motherboard or a loose connection somewhere, I'll pull everything out and make double extra really sure every screw is mint. If that doesnt work, I'll get a new board.

Thanks alot for taking the time evongugg, it was greatly appreciate 😱)

 

[Ladm]

Not allowed to edit post, that :O) was suppoed to be a big

Happy holidays