First boot problems with a P5N32-E SLI

[ReApErMaN]

Hello, everyone,

I just got in my parts yesterday and assembled them. My build is as follows:

-Asus P5N32-E SLI
-Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor Model BX80562Q6600 - Retail
-ZALMAN CNPS9500 AT 2 Ball CPU Cooling Fan/Heatsink - Retail
-EVGA 768-P2-N835-AR GeForce 8800GTX 768MB 384-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
-4 1GB 240-PIN UNBUFF DIMM 128MX64 DDR2 PC2-8500 CL5 EPP
-Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD7500AAKS 750GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

When I boot my fans turn on but I get no monitor from my speaker, and my monitor doesn't come on. Looking around the forums, it sounds like this is a fairly common problem, so I've tried to methodically go through the steps and figure out what's wrong, crossing my fingers that I didn't get a bum part.

I've reseated my videocard and my ram, as well as tried with a single piece of ram (not tried every stick to check for a single bad stick, that's up next). I've tried turning the computer on without the hard drive, video card, or the RAM hooked up (and various combinations thereof). The lights on my keyboard/mouse do not come on when I plug it in (I have a eclipse usb keyboard and a usb razer mouse), but I'm not sure if that's a problem with my hardware or because my computer doesn't have USB set up yet. I've tried multiple monitors, so I know that's not the issue.

I have a few questions. Forgive my ignorance, this is the first computer I've build.

1. From the parts I'm using, are there any obvious conflicts? I'm particularly curious about my ram, which someone told me was not certified for my motherboard.

2. What are the general causes for the computer to turn on and not do anything at all? From what little computer experience I have, I thought the motherboard gave an error beep if something was malfunctioning?

3. Lastly, What should be my next course of action? I plan to check connectors again. Should I try reseating my CPU and fan? I have heard from my roommate that it could be that it's a video issue, and that a pci video card is needed to get everything set up before I switch over to my pci-e card. I'm skeptical of this, but I have little experience to tell one way or another. Regardless, trying another video card would tell me if the video card is the problem, so I'll be borrowing his to test. I'll be doing likewise with his ram.

Again, I apologize for my ignorance here. My first boot attempt was yesterday, and I'm trying to work my way through things and learn as I go.

Thanks for everyone's time.
Philip Coffey

[shyster]

First and foremost Asus sucks.

After acknowledgement of that fact everything else falls into place. I do not have this board, but the one of theirs I did have the P5KC had the same problems, so I ended up dropping it and getting an Abit.

Just reading a few of the reviews from newegg it seems like this board is not terribly good.

By the way did you buy an open box or a retail version?

Second thing that would be useful to know, does your setup currently give you a beep-code? You did not list your case so I cannot tell if that has onboard audio, but does your motherboard have onboard audio for beep-code recognition?

If not I would say you are pretty screwed, Asus tech support is retarded to begin with, but if you do not even have a beep-code they will not even help you.

If you decide you do not want to just outright blame asus then the things you can try are pulling everything out and putting them back in. Again though without a beep-code you cannot localize the problem. It is unlikely that the video card is the problem, of course I just want to blame asus so I am biased, but trying another video card certainly will not hurt. Other than that, and trying the different ram sticks to see if there is a problem with them, it seems you have tried most of everything.

Another thing to mention would be that some motherboards even if they have four slots, do not like four slots full period, but especially for the initial boot.

As for your RAM I cannot tell what kind it is, or I have never heard of it, not that that means anything. It is possible that you picked out RAM that was not on their qualified vendor list released by the motherboard but the RAM should still work even still. If you do call asus however they will probably blame the problem on you picking out bad RAM.

Messing with the CPU and HSF should be the last thing you try since you will, or should, have to put new thermal paste on and that gets annoying after a while, plus you run out. And the fumes oh man they will send you to the moon. It was actually the cleaning solution but still.

It is possible that you will need at least a ps/2 keyboard for initialization of the computer and bios, as many bios do not automatically recognize usb drives. Of course that will be after you get video.

If you understood anything I said, and tried the things I suggested, and it still does not work. Wait for other people to respond to your post, but also consider that you might have to RMA it back.

I apologize if this post is messy I was writing it piecemeal, but hopefully you get something from it.

[ReApErMaN]

Whelp, I now return to these boards a might be embarrassed.

The problem turned out to be that I missed plugging in the CPU power. I overlooked it after installing the bulky coolant fan into my computer.

Yeah... I'm a moron.

Thanks for the help, shyster, and everyone else who read my post. I'll try to avoid wasting board space on silly mistakes from now on.

Philip Coffey