No video signal

[drx9175l]

I'm just about ready to give up on this and simply sell all the parts. I started out by buying a used ECS K7S5A mobo, Athlon 1GHz, 512MB SDRAM and 32MB GF2 AGP card to build a low budget rig for one of the kids in my neighborhood. The seller allowed me to test to POST at his place before buying. I got everything home and mounted it all in a case with HDD, DVD and my Enermax 300W PSU. It powers up - fans spin, HDD LED blinks, etc. - but the monitor doesn't come on. I reset the BIOS jumper, still no video. I swap out the video card for a GF3 Ti200 that I have, still no video. I try a different monitor, still no video. I disconnect everything except the motherboard, CPU/HSF, PSU, videocard, RAM and power button - still no video. I remove everything from the case and bench test with just those parts, still no video. I try swapping the SDRAM out for a stick of PC2100 DDR (the mobo can use either), still no video. Thinking that I must have somehow destroyed the processor, I swap out to a Duron 1.2GHz, still no video. Ok, must be the motherboard. So a quick trip to Fry's yields me a PC Chips M811LU. Guess what - still no video! My friend let me borrow his Athlon 1.9GHz CPU out of a working system, still no video. I buy a new 400W PSU, still no video. I try a new Radeon 7000, still no video.

To date I've tried 3 processors, 3 video cards, 3 monitors, 2 motherboards, 2 sticks of RAM and 2 PSUs in every possible combination and still get no video signal. It's unlikely that all of these parts are damaged, so the fault is probably my own. What could I be doing wrong that isn't allowing a signal to travel from the video card to the monitor?

 

[upriverpaddler]

Wow......

Monitor is plugged into the wall socket. Wall socket has power (No tripped breaker).

Pins on VGA plug are not bent before plugging it in.

The above are meant to be "Doh" questions.

Are you getting a POST beep? Getting to the BIOS, then no video?

Seems like you bought a whole new PC to troubleshoot this.

 

[drx9175l]

Ok, just wanted to see if anyone else could come up with something I was maybe missing. I messed around wiith it some more this morning, again trying every possible combination - including adding a known good PCI videocard into the mix - without any luck. The PC Chips board will be taken back to Fry's (gotta love their return policy) and I'll sell the rest of it on Craigslist as-is. Hell, all the components can't be bad and I'll be damned if I can figure out what's wrong. Basic troubleshooting says that you swap in known good parts one at a time until the problem identifies itself. It's just not working in this case. Next time Fry's has the Sempron combo for $60 I'll pick one up. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[pstang]

have you tried testing the components outside of the case, maybe the case has something that is shorting out the board or its components

 

[drx9175l]

have you tried testing the components outside of the case, maybe the case has something that is shorting out the board or its components

Oops, when I said "it's just not working in this case" I didn't mean there was something wrong with the ATX chassis, I meant that my troubleshooting technique isn't working in this instance.

I actually had a problem once a few years ago where the motherboard was making contact with the sheetmetal tray and causing a short. Taller standoffs fixed the problem, but then the board wouldn't line up with the I/O shield and the cards wouldn't mount properly. I ended up using some insulating foam tape. Thanks for the suggestion.