Help required - New gaming Pc.

[Testmaster]

Hey Guys,

I was wondering if you guys could give me some advice. I recently got some hardware from aria. I am however struggling to put it together. I cant seemt to figure out whats wrong. When I start the pc, the monitor lights up, however it never displays anything. The following is the hardware that I got, is there any incompatibilities ammong my choices?

HP dvd1070 20x DVDRW LightScribe Black SATA (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/CD%2FDVD+Drives/Internal/SATA/HP+dvd1070+20x+DVDRW+LightScribe+Black+SATA+?produ ctId=30646)
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz (Retail 775) (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/CPUs+%2F+Processors/Intel/Core+2+Duo/Intel+Core+2+Duo+E8400+3.0GHz+%28Retail+775%29+?pr oductId=30243)
NZXT LEXA Black-Line Classic Series (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Cases/MIDI+Tower/NZXT+LEXA+Black-Line+Classic+Series?productId=28420)
Asus ATi Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB PCI-E With Company of Heroes Game!! (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/PCI-E/ATI+Radeon+3000+Series/Asus+ATi+Radeon+HD+3870+X2+1GB+PCI-E+With+Company+of+Heroes+Game%21%21+?productId=308 33)
160GB Samsung Spinpoint SATA2 8MB (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Hard+Drives/Serial+ATA/160GB+Samsung+Spinpoint+SATA2+8MB+?productId=27006 )
Asus P5E3 Premium WiFi iX48 Socket 775 Motherboard (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Motherboards/Socket+775+%28Intel%29/Asus+P5E3+Premium+WiFi+iX48+Socket+775+Motherboard +?productId=30848)
OCZ 4GB PC3-10666 Reaper HPC (2x2GB) (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Memory/DDR3/DDR3+1333+%28PC3-10666%29/OCZ+4GB+PC3-10666+Reaper+HPC+%282x2GB%29+?productId=30588)
Corsair 620W HX V2 Series Modular PSU (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Power+Supplies/500w+%2B/Corsair+620W+HX+V2+Series+Modular+PSU+?productId=2 7954)

I have been struggling for the past 8 hours and attemped another graphics card as well.

Any help would be appreciated. :mrgreen:

[wonderlust]

Ok, lets start with the basics,

The motherboard requires 2 powersupply inputs one is a 20/24 pin plug the other is a 4 or 8 pin plug, do you have them both plugged in?

[Testmaster]

Thanx for the quick reply m8.

I have both cables in. 20/24 pin plug and 8 pin plug. Needed to remove a plastic bit to change the 4pin into an 8pin plug.

[wonderlust]

ok, have you tried a minimal install with just the mobo, power switch, power cables and the graphics cards connected, everything else disconnected?

[Testmaster]

yes, currently have mobo, memory, cpu, psu and gpu only connected.

[Testmaster]

I am leaning towards that the motherboard is incompatable with either the memory or the cpu. Might require a bios flash. However, I dont have any other ddr3 memory or another cpu to test my theory with.

[Testmaster]

Do you perhaps know this motherboard has any error reporting methods?

[marsey99]

bleeps from the speaker plugged into pin headers, does the gpu have both an 8 pin and 6 pin pcie power cable plugged into it?

[cleggypdc]

i'm pretty sure this motherboard requires a BIOS update before it can support the 45nm CPU's, best bet is to put a cheap 65nm CPU in and updatre the BIOS or take it back to the store and have them do it

[cleggypdc]

yep, just checked, the motherboard needs BIOS 0204 to support the new generation CPU's, which came out on 24th March 2008.

You can download it from here
http://dlsvr02.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket775/P5E3_Premium/P5E3-ASUS-Premium-0204.zip

[marsey99]

it should work off the bat even if it doesnt know what its called, the 35/38 chipset was designed with the 45nm's in mind a x48 should not have any trouble with a e8400.

my money is still the gpu power cables.

[cleggypdc]

it should work off the bat even if it doesnt know what its called

Designed for them or not, the support was not added until the second release of the BIOS and is not guarenteed to work on the first revisions.

[marsey99]

much like mine, im on bios f7 and offically i need f11 for my cpu, yet it still works fine and ocs quite well.

you are right in that it should have the right bios but if it was the bios it would still show the post screen saying i dont know what the cpu is.....flash to unleash the full potential....something else. its not even showing the post screen so me thinks its gpu.

[cleggypdc]

Ok, mine didn't lol it just went beeeeeeeeeeep. You could try any of these:

Have you tried different memory slots?

[Testmaster]

hey Guys,

turns out the the motherboard needed an bios update to support the gpu. I swopped in another, much older graphics card. (Same processor though) and it started up fine. Used the easy flash utility that comes with the bios to flash it quickly and bobs your uncle. (or nelson :O )

Thanx for all your help, much appreciated.

[marsey99]

thats a new 1 on me, glad you got it sorted m8.