Computer Issue

I'm building a new computer and I'm at the stage where I just need to put in a hard drive and graphics card. I tried turning it on without these, the fans turn on and it looks promising for a second but then it turns off. Is this due to my lack of graphics card or have I messed up putting it together?

Thanks for any help,
Matt

What are you expecting to see without a hard drive and graphics card?

Just make sure your motherboard/CPU/RAM are compatible with each other, and go through the motherboard manual, then go through it again - twice - to check you have all the jumper settings right.

After that, you're away.

Yeah, i think most BIOS defaults to having a hard disc in. Don't know if not connecting one will alow it to work.

Also, if you motherboard doesn't have ONBOARD graphics, then you ain't gonna see anything.

Also, check to see if you have put the square power connector in the motherboard. Most pc motherboards i've seen all have this.

Ensure the CPU is seated properly. and the memory is seated properly too. Do you get any beeps?

Most motherboards also have a jumper you can set that will boot to BIOS only...

Don't think I've ever seen one that does that...

Most Intel mobos do

I know my Intel mobo does

my asus board boots to bios with no hdd, don't know about without a graphics card, all i get is a blank screen :-p

Plug the system speaker in you may get some audio diagnostic codes (beeping)

First thoughts:
You NEED a graphics card in place if there is no onboard one, if its still the same, check the CPU is sitting correctly and has all heat removal stuff (paste, heatsink, fans etc) correctly in place and working. Also check the PSU is powerful enough if upgrading an old case it may not have the muscle.

The HDD will not effect the initial bios startup and are not detected until after the video, ram etc. Not having a harddisk present (or if its a damaged one) does not effect bios control access.

Could be.

It could also be that you put the connections between the powerbutton and the motherboard in wrong -- if those leads are in the wrong spot you might hit the wrong pin or complete the wrong citcuit, which can register as you holding down your power button continuously -- which on an ATX system will power it down after several seconds.

It's highly unlikely that the HD has anything to do with it, since those are not necesary for the system to POST. At worst, it would halt at a 'no boot device found' prompt or try to boot from the network or something.

All motherboards boot to Auto for all hard disks this leaves it to the BIOS to get the data from the hard disk. It has to have a video card in tho as this is one of the things the system will require you will get a post warning telling you there is a video error this could be one of the reasons it wont start.

As everyone has said check all cables and jumper settings.

Thanks for all the help.

Turned out the issue was one of the power connectors wasn't plugged in (*ahem*).

Had another problem - couldn't get the stock heat sink to connect properly so the cpu temp starts at about 70 and keeps rising until it turns itself off. I think I need some sort of hydraulic system to push the pins in. Just wanted to moan about that.

Thanks again for the help,
Matt

That's actually pretty common -- you need to put a lot of pressure on them for them to snap in... More than you might feel comfortable with applying.

Also, note that some heatsink/fan combos have little plastic pegs that you may need to rotate a quarter turn before you're even able to snap them in. In my experience it tends to be easier to do if you push down two of the pins that are diagonally opposite from each other, then then finally do the remaining two.

Finally: never, ever run your computer without the heatsink. They can literally burn up in seconds. While most moderns CPU's do have overheat protection and shut themselves down, it's not always fast enough. you're still taking a big risk by powering it on without the heatsink firmly in place.

i saw a youtube where someone did that

had the mobo on a bench no heatsinc and turned it on
didnt even get to post before it blew
one part went up and the other smashed through the wooden bench

scary crazy seeing as its a home computer

Lol we did that once with an old AMD K6 for a laugh. The ceramic top of the chip shot up and got embedded in the polyestyrene ceiling :D

ram, cpu and gfx you need to get to the bios

No offense or anything, but if you don't know the answer to this (never mind the heat sink thing), why on earth are you assembling your computer yourself in the first place?

i havnt built a pc in 10 years (and it was a crap wage too) dont think id know one end of anything from another now

i opend up this box to put my old hdd in to dump the data and the heatsinc/fan is bloody huge
its like a 50 cd spindle case
its mostly silent though

It's working fine now. Turns out I left the plastic cap on the processor holder.

I'm off now to live with the Amish.

Even Amish know how to read instructions. :-)

and they can tell the difference between a bull and a cow when it comes to milking :))