bulding a new PC but i have no video... any suggestions?

i just bought some stuff to build a pc to goof around on and i put it all together and i am getting no response from my monitor. im guessing its not reading my video cards. i tried my nvidia geforce4 64mb and my old school 16 mb voodoo 3. the parts i bought were

~western digital 80gb 7200 harddrive
~pentium 4 2.4 ghz processor
~my mother board is a ABIT AI7 Guru
~430w power supply
~256mb drr ram (upgrading to 1 gig)
~PCI nvidia geforce 4 64mb videocard
~ and my monitor is a HP v70s if that has anything to do with it.

i turn my computer on and then the lights come on and the harddrive clicks and starts booting up and then the light on the monitor just turns yellow. kinda annoying and ive run out of ideas. im a noob when it comes to computer hardware so if anyone could offer some helpful tips or suggestions that would be awesome. thanks

 

Well, I'd take the motherboard out of the case and have it sitting on a flat surface (the motherboard box is excellent for this), to make sure you don't have some al short. 2ndly, while your there, strip your configuration down to just the motherboard, CPU, 1 stick of memory, and a video card. If that 3dfx card is AGP, do not use it, as it requires a different voltage than what is supplied by the motherboard. You don't need your hard drives hooked up, or anything else not absolutely necessary to boot up the motherboard at this point---in fact, less is better for troubleshooting.

Make sure that both the 20-pin ATX power lead and the 4-pin 12V auxillary lead from the power supply are connected.
Okay, once you have it out and down to a bare minimum setup, see if it will boot. If it does, start adding in any additional memory and PCI cards one at a time and booting the setup again.
If that works fine an dandy, check the mounting holes in the case. Make sure they line up with the ones on the motherboard (you did use them, right?). If they all do, you're good to go....

 

ya so i tried what you said to do. i striped it down to just the motherboard, the processor and the video card and a stick of ram. and it still didnt work. the monitors light turns yellow when i plugged it into the video card but when i turned on the comp it still didnt come on. i dont know what to do. so if you have any suggestions please let me know.

 

Have you tried with an agp card ? (It has to be 4x or 8x as that board doesn't support anything lower than that)

 

i havn't read the thread due to the fact that i am lazy and at work, but check that your board doesnt have onboard video.. if it does then you will have to disable it physically on your motherboard.. or:

power up, turn it off a.s.a.p (at post screen)
power it up again (do this relatively fast)

(if you have onboard video, powering on / off and on again will disable your onboard video no most motherboards..


IF you dont have onboard i can almost bet it is one of these things:

One of the main reasons i have had this problem in the past is my memory..

make sure that your memory is seated properly and if you only have 1 stick make sure its in slot 1, also try using some different ram if you have any..

and make sure that your CMOS has been cleared.. you can find out how to do this via your motherboard manual. (just remove a peice of plastic that covers 2 out of 3 pins on the motherboard, for a around 3 - 10 seconds then put it back on) the plastic cover covers 2 out of the 3 pins, make sure your CMOS is in the right configuration, then boot ur machine up.

i highly suspect its just you have not cleared your CMOS, if this doesnt work i would test your ram, (remove your current stick and try another if possible)

if this still doesnt work, its likely that your grphx card is stuffed.

hope this helps, if none of this helps i suspect your video card is just shit.

Your symptons i have experienced to many times!

 

i had a similar problem with mine and i think its the motherboard.
the hard drive and cd drive clicks and nothing comes on the screen, doesn't even POST. I hope it is the mtherboard vuz i've sent it back to the manufacturer...

 

i had that same prob with my ex gf's computer, i had no clue what to do i tried everything. she called some place up and they took a look at it, they said something about the vid card. but i think he wasnt being completely honest. well, i wish the best of luck to you.

 

i have experienced this so much over the last few years, pc's being built and not posting because the CMOS has not been cleared, unfortunately alot of new motherboards by default, come set so that the CMOS is in the wrong position.

this is going to be the main cause of your symptons.. if it isn't.. it will probably be your graphics card, make sure it is seated properly, if it's PCI/AGP try any other available slots.