Possible solutions / Repair costs for particular issue

GrezzC

Howdy lads, first time poster in this particular area and I'm completely stumped.

Description of issue:
I opened up my system to install a hard drive, something I've done before as a hobbyist and when I closed it back up everything seemed to work except there was no familiar beep, and no display output. Everything spun up, the motherboard's LEDs are solid, my crucial tracer memory lights up too. The aftermarket cooler spins up, the fans on the GPUs spin up as do all case fans, and the wireless PCI adapter's light comes on. I have assignments and exams to study for and need to get this sorted asap, (ironically for a business and computing degree) but it's beyond my knowledge. So I'm not sure if any of the lads on here do repairs, can recommend somewhere, or have an inkling as to what's wrong. I'm convinced it's something simple, and would be very surprised if any components are broken at all.

Hardware specifications:
XFX Tri-SLI motherboard 780i
2 x GTX 460 cards in SLI (512mb)
Intel Q6600
Thermaltake 850w modular PSU
Arctic Freezer 7 Pro cooler
4 X 1gb crucial tracer DDR2 memory
1 X 36GB HDD with OS
1 X 400GB HDD blank

What I've tried:
Securing all the cables with special attention to the 8pin CPU power cable, removing the arctic freezer 7 to get a better look at the LED activity.

Observations:
Removing the CPU cable yields the constant red CPU led on the board, and having it in will result in a single flash which I think is what should happen?

Any help at all would be much appreciated.

advertsfox

GrezzC wrote: »

Howdy lads, first time poster in this particular area and I'm completely stumped.

Description of issue:
I opened up my system to install a hard drive, something I've done before as a hobbyist and when I closed it back up everything seemed to work except there was no familiar beep, and no display output. Everything spun up, the motherboard's LEDs are solid, my crucial tracer memory lights up too. The aftermarket cooler spins up, the fans on the GPUs spin up as do all case fans, and the wireless PCI adapter's light comes on. I have assignments and exams to study for and need to get this sorted asap, (ironically for a business and computing degree) but it's beyond my knowledge. So I'm not sure if any of the lads on here do repairs, can recommend somewhere, or have an inkling as to what's wrong. I'm convinced it's something simple, and would be very surprised if any components are broken at all.

Hardware specifications:
XFX Tri-SLI motherboard 780i
2 x GTX 460 cards in SLI (512mb)
Intel Q6600
Thermaltake 850w modular PSU
Arctic Freezer 7 Pro cooler
4 X 1gb crucial tracer DDR2 memory
1 X 36GB HDD with OS
1 X 400GB HDD blank

What I've tried:
Securing all the cables with special attention to the 8pin CPU power cable, removing the arctic freezer 7 to get a better look at the LED activity.

Observations:
Removing the CPU cable yields the constant red CPU led on the board, and having it in will result in a single flash which I think is what should happen?

Any help at all would be much appreciated.

I'd reseat the RAM or swap it out for a spare if possible.

GrezzC

advertsfox wrote: »

I'd reseat the RAM or swap it out for a spare if possible.

I only have the four 1GB sticks, will try reseating RAM again. also tried unplugging the two HDDs. can you recommend a repair shop? Thanks for the reponse!

advertsfox

GrezzC wrote: »

I only have the four 1GB sticks, will try reseating RAM again. also tried unplugging the two HDDs. can you recommend a repair shop? Thanks for the reponse!

Apologies I read 1 x 4GB, not 4 x 1GB. In that case, try 1 stick only to see if it at least gets the display up. To me, a shop wont be necessary - can't seeing it as anything else but RAM.

GrezzC

advertsfox wrote: »

Apologies I read 1 x 4GB, not 4 x 1GB. In that case, try 1 stick only to see if it at least gets the display up. To me, a shop wont be necessary - can't seeing it as anything else but RAM.

Still no joy! Have to say I'm really surprised. maybe the ram is faulty?

advertsfox

GrezzC wrote: »

Still no joy! Have to say I'm really surprised. maybe the ram is faulty?

Did you try each stick of this 1GB individually to filter out the possibility of it being just 1?

GrezzC

advertsfox wrote: »

Did you try each stick of this 1GB individually to filter out the possibility of it being just 1?

Aye, and also is it the case that if the power button has to be held down to turn it off the CPU is getting power? I feel like the unluckiest man in the world about now! Sorry for the handholding just, bar a HDD and GPU Ive never dabbled with internals before!

macnug

Try a cmos reset, might fix it.

macnug

Try a cmos reset, might fix it.

http://m.wikihow.com/Reset-Your-BIOS

GrezzC

macnug wrote: »

Try a cmos reset, might fix it.

http://m.wikihow.com/Reset-Your-BIOS

will give it a go now in a tick, appreciated : )

Recoil12

Is anything coming up on the screen at all?Cursor Blinking in the top left corner?Can you access the BIOS menu?

GrezzC

I can't get at the bios jumper comfortably, I know when I'm out of my depth. I couldn't take apart this PC to breadboard it and get it all back in you know? So as of now no BIOS, just 'no signal' on the display. Cheers for all the responses so far!

GrezzC

That would have been my go to but the xfx 780i doesn't have onboard graphics so I have to keep one 460 in for any chance of output. should i try without both and see if I get beeps anyway? Cpu and fan are sitting fine, will try everything again though. Cheers.

Baked.noodle

Try unplugging the Hard drive you just installed.

GrezzC

Sorry, should mention that's been tried, both hard drives actually. and individually. apologies. Touchscreen has me slipping.

macnug

GrezzC wrote: »

I can't get at the bios jumper comfortably, I know when I'm out of my depth. I couldn't take apart this PC to breadboard it and get it all back in you know? So as of now no BIOS, just 'no signal' on the display. Cheers for all the responses so far!

What about removing the battery to reset the cmos if you can't get at the jumper?

GrezzC

macnug wrote: »

What about removing the battery to reset the cmos if you can't get at the jumper?

I'll have a look asap, sure enough the lightbulb's gone in my room. Really not my day.. :P

Skill Magill

do you have the video cable plugged into the board or the card?
Can you check the bios, can you see both drives there?
Have you checked the boot order?

GrezzC

Skill Magill wrote: »

do you have the video cable plugged into the board or the card?
Can you check the bios, can you see both drives there?
Have you checked the boot order?

Card is the only option on this board, no on board video outputs. So sadly no and no.

Skill Magill

What happens when you try this?
1. Power on the computer.
2. Press the Del key repeatedly when the following message briefly displays at the bottom
of the screen during the Power On Self Test (POST).
Press F1 to continue, DEL to enter Setup.

Can you get into the setup?

riclad

DISCONNECT all drives , including dvd drive, remove bios battery for 3 minute.s
note which way it goes,
in,
eg voltage symbol on top.

was pc power cable plugged in when you installed drive.?
remove power cable from pc first.

bluferbl

Seeing as you haven't mentioned it...have you checked that the cable from the video card is securely screwed in at the PC end AND at the monitor end?

Also, inspect the pins on the video cable to make sure that none have been bent.

riclad

GET an old pci card on adverts ie,
10 euro,
take out grahics card,
put in pci card.
pci card fits in any pci slot,
NOT a pci-express card.
MAYBE SET up windows home network,
see does pc appear on it as say windows pc1.
use wifi card,use ethernet cable to connect to router.

bonzodog2

Are there any sounds of disk access?

GrezzC

Have one, and tried. No luck on that front. Bizarre really.
And no bonzodog, I think everything needs reseating and finding the problem out of case but that's beyond my capability, it won't all fit back in.

Edit: I can't get at the bios battery without removing everything and again, I'm not that experienced, it's too much risk for me to assume.

bonzodog2

would appear to your board, I don't see why you'd need to remove anything apart from maybe 1 GFX card to be able to remove the CMOS battery.

It may have actually just died though. :-(

GrezzC

It's because of the power cable arrangement, they're netted together if you get me? It's weird, I've only really toyed with bare bones PCs. I'm really hoping that's not the case, and the board recognizes power in all the ways it has to. Cpu fan, Blue mobo power led, ram led, on board display, gpu / pci card activity. I'm just gonna have to get it looked at by someone better who can try solutions bar reseating ram and removing hdds it seems. Any recommendations in the North Dublin area?

riclad

take out ram ,chips, except 1 dimm in slot 0, slot nearest to cpu.
Sounds like motherboard is faulty.

Tails142

Most likely that its just a loose connection on something. Did you try reseating the graphics cards?

Recoil12

If you have access to a laptop with a CD/DVD drive that can write to CDs you should look at creating a bootable CD to rule out motherboard failure.You can try a CD route or create a bootable USB.
CD-http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/(grab the ISO file from the zip and use this to write it to CD: http://www.freeisoburner.com/ )
USB-
http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd-on-usb-disk

Have you tried swapping the VGA cable with a known good cable or at least shifting it around a bit ?

(When using the CD/USB disconnect the hard drives in case they are causing the problem)

GrezzC

Sorry for the lack of response lads and lasses, took it to a professional after trying what I could, was the poxy HDD. It even blew my other one which is why swapping them didn't help. I'll be taking it back and claiming the cost of both hard drives for sure. Cheers again to everybody.