New Motherboard won't Post

[Carpot Muncher]

Symptom:
Power on system, no beeps heard, and screen is blank (it has a signal, but it is a blank signal).
HD light indicates HD running continuously.
All other components seem to have power:
Able to open/close DVD drive pressing button on front face.
Keyboard num-lock and caps lock light up.
Ethernet connection LED lights up on modem.
All fans running.

I tried holding down the DEL key and every Function key (F1, F2, ... F12) while restarting, though none have any affect except for DEL, which consistently gives same result:
That result is a DOS type of screen, displays the BIOS rev, and some of my sys info correctly,
says press F11 to enable some popup, though pressing F11 or any other Function key, ESC or DEL (or Ctrl + Alt +DEL) have no effect. Also does a mem test and verifies the RAM is good.
I am just stuck on this screen and can not do anything from here.

Background: This is a brand new CPU, motherboard, and RAM. The case, DVD drive, HD, monitor, mouse, kb, are all new within the last year.
Motherboard: ECS A790GXM-A
CPU: AMD Triple-Core Phenom X3-8650

One more interesting note: Even holding DEL yields no result when I am using the on-board video, I have a pretty old vid card I had to stick into one of the PCIe16 and use that in order to see the results when I hold down DEL. Its an old Nvidia Geforce 6800 (forgot the suffix).

I haven't tried removing the CMOS battery and using the CMOS jumper yet, perhaps I will try that. Any suggestions?

Thanks

[GoNz0]

cmos reset is the next logical step, after that pull the video card and any other add on cards, boot with cpu and 1 stick of ram.

try all the ram slots one by one after that.

[Jay]

make sure everything is fully connected including the 8 pin power just next to the CPU socket

[Bugbait]

First thing I do for every new build PC is reset the CMOS. Also check all power is connected as per Jay's suggestion. Both very common new build mistakes/oversights.

[Carpot Muncher]

Thanks for the responses. I checked all connections, reset CMOS, searched around for more info while delaying the inevitable...

Finally did strip it down fully, and removing it from the case got me back on track again. Had similar issues with mainboard I am replacing within same case, so wondering if I might have done something to create a condition in the case when earlier replacing the PSU, CPU fan, and claeaning out all the dust.

Am now following up subsequent minor issues in a different thread (had multiple threads going and want to bring closure to them).


Thanks again!

[Carpot Muncher]

I was looking for a way to denote this thread as resolved, though perhaps this forum-site doesn't have such feature(?)
If they do, perhaps a moderator could mark it as resolved, thanks!

[GoNz0]

check you dont have a motherboard stand off in the wrong place ?

[Carpot Muncher]

Actually, I did move one of the standoffs,

within an ATX case, there are nine fastening locations, correct?

Six of the nine locations within my case had brass standoffs,
and three had plastic standoffs (the kind that expand to lock in the board after it has been pressed down upon them).

When removing the old motherboard, I removed/destroyed one of the plastic standoffs,

And when installing the new mainboard, I'd stripped out the brass standoff in the center (accidentally used a larger sized screw, as I assumed they were all the same size). This was in the center location.

I removed it and put it in the top right location, to provide standoff at that corner - this was where the platic standoff used to be.

Though I wouldn't think that this makes a difference, i.e., could decide to use brass standoffs w/screws in all nine locations, or plastic standoffs in all nine locations. Unless all ATX motherboards & cases require the use of plastic standoffs in the same three locations(?).

[Higgs Boson]

Hi Carpot,

As previously stated the standoffs would be my first look, but it sounds like you have all of them as they should be now!

I recently had exactly the same issue with an XFX 790I motherboard the cause seemed to be the fact that I was using a PS2 keyboard and mouse. After RMA'ing back to Scan with a full fault report on how to emulate the issue they told me they had it working fine! When I queried this I was told they used a USB keyboard and mouse and completely ignored my fault report.

I tried again on a replacement board and exactly the same thing happened, so I switched to a USB Keyboard and mouse and hey presto it worked, and the funny thing the PS2 keyboard and mouse worked after the operating system was installed!

not sure if this is your problem but its something else to try.

[Carpot Muncher]

Thanks Higgs,

I'll go shopping for a new case this morning; Am hopeful that I will be able to find one with plenty of space and extra hardware, including plastic/rubber washers to insulate the board from the brass standoffs.

I had an extra USB mouse lying around so I tried plugging that in. It didn't work for me, but I was able to get past the security screen by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Esc. I only have one user account so I assume it just defaulted to that one.

Then immediately, windows started detecting a bunch of new devices (of the new motherboard) and asking to load drivers. Most all of them were on the disc that came with the mainboard (with one exception surprisingly). Including one that got the mouse working on the next reboot.

So now, I have a pre-existing installation of XP running with new drivers. I decided to switch to Vista (I have it on my laptop already). I entered BIOS to set the boot priority so that CD/DVD drive is first.
Then have to press any key upon subsequent reboots to confirm boot from cd/DVD drive. Then it loads all kinds of files from the Vista installation disc....

...and finally, I get the Vista background (the blue glass) and a mouse cursor, but no windows or taskbar. No options to load Vista or do anything else. Only option seems to be to reboot using the buttons on the front of the case. I am thinking that it is detecting something of the xp install on my hd, and that if I start with a newly reformatted HD, then it will behave properly and give me the option to do a fresh install. but then perhaps not. Any suggestions on how to proceed?

I was thinking perhaps I could load into xp from hd, then format drive, though not sure what the result would be (if I attempt to format drive which contains the active OS). Also would like to re-partition the drive sizes, but there is no option for this using htis method. I know I could do that after loading vista, just seems to be a slopy way to do it.

[Carpot Muncher]

I figured out that the reason I was unable to install vista on boot up was because I bought Vista for a new system (my laptop) - previously unused HD, whereas if I wanted to upgrade an older HD that already had XP installed, I would need to use a different CD, one for upgrading Windows.

I went and got a new HD for the new system figuring it'd be best anyways, so everythings working fine now.

Thanks for everyones' suggestions.