i'm building a new comp, and nothing shows up on the monitor so i cant access the bios or anything. i know enough about comps to at least be able to narrow the prob down to either the cpu or the mobo. my questions are... 1)is the processor needed to access the bios? 2)disk drives or harddrives wont spin if the ide cables are plugged in but when they're pulled out, they spin. what does this mean?
Well I'll take a shot at this, (1) the processor needs to be installed along with video card (if applicable) and one stick of memory (for starters) (2) the reason your hard drives won't spin is because the ide controllers are not yet installed, I would install at least these 3 items before attempting to access the bios. Oh and b.t.w. don't even consider running the processor without heatsink and fan installed. I'm sure that someone will correct me if I'm not 100% on this. Good luck!
1: processor is needed to access the bios. 2: if drives don't spin when connected to the motherboard but do when not connected than check to see if ide data cable not in reverse as in pin 1 to pin 40 & not pin 1. do you get any beeps at all? remove all cards & ram except for videocard & 1 stick of ram. reseat those 2. remove all cables from drives. reseat power cable(s) to motherboard. does that motherboard need 2 power connectors & if so, are they connected?
To POST, it needs only CPU, memory and video. If it won't POST, this indicates either misconfiguration of the motherboard (jumpers/switches etc.) or a physical problem in the mounting of the mobo. Sometimes there is a standoff on the case without a corresponding mobo mounting hole; these can dead-short your mobo! Apart from that, you could of course have dead CPU, memory or video. It would be best to remove power and battery, and short CMOS jumper to clear BIOS settings. Then after checking everything out, try again... What model motherboard are you using? Regards
