New build - Monitor keeps losing signal

joker77

Hi all

I received my new build from Hardwareversand last night, and after getting a hold of 2 Irish kettle leads (it came with German ones) I powered it up. No problems so far.

I went through the process of trying to install Windows, but the first couple of times it would get about 3/4 the way through, then the monitor would just stay black - the power light was on but slowly flashing instead of continuous. I hadn't screwed it in to the back of the PC so thought it may have been that.

Another attempt and I finally got Windows installed. The problem happened again though, so I tried reseating the graphics card. And I also ensured the monitor cable was screwed in properly at both ends and the power cable was in tight.

I'm a bit stumped as to what the problem is - when I got Windows running I installed the drivers that came with the graphics card + monitor. I then went to install the chipset drivers but lost signal to the monitor, it was late so I had to just leave it.

Before I go back to it later on - is there something necessary to do with a new build like this that I'm missing?

It arrived with no O/S on it, as I requested.

goodlad

The first thing that would come to mind is heat, keep on eye on the heat of your graphics card. Start the machine with the case open and see if the fan on it kicks in.

Is it an ATI card? Recently a mate had a similar problem and it was a bios problem controlling the fan on the graphics card.He installed riva tuner which sorted it

joker77

The card is an ATI one - Sapphire Radeon HD 3450 256MB DDR2, PCI-Express
It doesn't have a fan.

Here is my build: link

joker77

goodlad wrote: »

The first thing that would come to mind is heat, keep on eye on the heat of your graphics card. Start the machine with the case open and see if the fan on it kicks in.

Is it an ATI card? Recently a mate had a similar problem and it was a bios problem controlling the fan on the graphics card.He installed riva tuner which sorted it

Would the fact that the PC was built in Germany cause any problems?

far2gud

Disconnect everything from the board - bar psu, board and processor. Then test the memory slot by slot module by module. I had a simialr problem caused by dodgy memory.

joker77

far2gud wrote: »

Disconnect everything from the board - bar psu, board and processor. Then test the memory slot by slot module by module. I had a simialr problem caused by dodgy memory.

There's 2x2Gb in it at the moment, plus the graphics card. I'd taken out the Wireless Card + USB controller.
Do you mean disconnect the hard disks, audio etc?

Do you mean take out the graphics card and use the on-board?

I'm a bit of a n00b here (as you can probably tell)

joker77

far2gud wrote: »

Disconnect everything from the board - bar psu, board and processor. Then test the memory slot by slot module by module. I had a simialr problem caused by dodgy memory.

How do I hook up the monitor without the graphics card? I'm aware there's onboard graphics, I just don't see anywhere to plug the monitor into...

joker77

Just to rule out a problem with the monitor - I've plugged it into the laptop here - working away fine

joker77

I've just swapped out the graphics card with another one, and put the 2 RAM sticks into the slots number 1 and 2 (they were in 1 and 3). Still no joy.

I think it's the actual system going into some kind of suspend rather than the monitor - the num lock / caps lock keys don't respond.

Anybody got any suggestions? Pulling my hair out here

joker77

The swapped graphics card is after getting pretty hot, pretty quickly

joker77

The system didn't get past the Memory Testing stage. Swapped back the original graphics card, and put memory back to slots 1 and 3. Still not getting to the memory testing phase

joker77

Ok - I'm an idiot. I had a USB flash drive plugged in, which was causing the memory testing thing.

I'm trying 1 RAM stick at a time now.

1 constant behaviour is that the system will not restart. When I hit restart it shuts down but does not come back up.

joker77

Thought it was running fine on just the 1 memory stick, so decided to wipe the machine and reinstall Vista (on a safe build).

Machine hung during install. Rebooted, hung again. Rebooted, continued install, setting up Windows, then this:

"Windows Setup could not configure Windows to run on this computer's hardware."

AlmightyCushion

How much ram was in it when you tried to install windows?

joker77

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

How much ram was in it when you tried to install windows?

Initially there was 4 Gbs. I then tried with just 1 stick of 2

AlmightyCushion

Hmmm, I thought you may not have enough ram. That clearly isn't the case though. Sorry I can't be more help.

joker77

No worries, I'm definitely thinking it's a hardware problem anyway

joker77

The system appears to be going into some kind of suspend.

I was thinking it could be something like the processor overheating, so it could be worth trying to reseat it. Although because it happens when I try to restart, it might not be

joker77

I've tried everything I can think of in terms of reseating the graphics card / RAM / processor. I've tried using each hard drive separately. Still no joy.

I've just installed XP and it's completed the installation process ok (something which didn't happen with Vista - and I tried 3 different DVDs, multiple times). I've rebooted the system a couple of times and it seems to be working away ok, it hasn't frozen at all yet.

This kind of behaviour is leading me to believe that some part of the system is incompatible with Vista. I find that hard to believe as it's all new components, and they all seem to have 'compatible with Vista' emblazoned all over them.

Here is my build - can anybody see anything that would give the problem with Vista?