Help the old guy please.

[Alyn Murray]

Hi I'm new to the site. I'm originally from Montreal and now live in Seattle. Well I have just built my first computer. I have had several others but this is the first one I have built. I am using a XFX 790i Motherboard and the Videocard is a GeForce 8800GT Alpha Dog edition, and 4 gigs of DDR3. The problem I am having is that when I first fire it up the computer screen gives me the message "no connection" I am at the point of setting/checking the bios and installing XP pro operating system. I have checked everything. Tried the screen on another computer (works great) Just took everything apart and reinstalled the whole works,..still no joy Any ideas? Anyone? Thanks in advance for any help.
Alyn in Seattle

[3.0charlie]

Welcome to the Forums Alyn; have you connected the monitor's cable to the video card? If so, you could try the second connector on the card. Also, did you connect the 6-pin connector from the PSU to the video card?

HTH.
John

[Alyn Murray]

Hi Thanks for the welcome. I just discovered this board,, Good stuff. Yes I connected the monitor cable to the card,.. no go. Tried the other connector No go. Removed and reinstalled the power cable to the card. - in fact I am at the moment reassembling the beast., Just in case I missed something -like a loose connection. The cable that I got for the screen to computer Video card had a series of pins and a "blade with 2 small pins on each side of the blade. Neither my screen or the connector has this blade with 2 pins on each side. So I tried the cable from my other computer. Perfect it fit. Just a blade no additional pins. But I keep getting the No Connewction message on the screen. I am using 2 sticks of ddr3 ram in the 790i mobo Should I remove one stick and try it like that first?
If it helps here is what I am working with Thanks

xfx nForce 790 i Ultra SLI
Cooler Master 850 Watt power supply
4 gigs DDR3 Ram
GeForce 8800gt Alfa Dog Video card
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 1333 mhz 45 nm
CoolerMaster 1000 case
22 inch screen

be great when its finally working !!

[Dashock]

seems like yer talking about the dvi plug as it has 2 blades but hmmm no connection you have the power plugged to the card have yu tried booting the computer without the video card?? most modern motherboards have onboard graphics try booting it up from the motherboard connection if the motherboard layout is different the 8800gt comes with adapters for the old vga hookup.


IF you could post up some pics of the whole setup maybe we can see if there is anything missing or out of place if it isnt too much work and here is a site which lets you upload the pics ImageShack® - Image Hosting

[SugarJ]

Originally Posted by Dashock

hmmm no connection you have the power plugged to the card have yu tried booting the computer without the video card?? most modern motherboards have onboard graphics try booting it up from the motherboard connection

Alyn, ignore this. The 790i does NOT have onboard graphics. Also, you can post your images on here. Use the VB Image Host at the top of the page.

Does your system give you any beeps upon power up? Also, my favorite "oops" is to plug the 24pin power connection to the mobo, but to forget the 4/8pin CPU power plug.

Here's a good no-post guide to reference:
10 Step "No Post" BIOS Recovery Guide

Also, try the video card in another system if you can, or try another PCI-E slot. Your mobo has 3 if I recall correctly.

Good luck.

[bojangles]

Definitely try the video card in other computers. I had my 8800GT go wonky on me before. Turns out it did the same thing on the other computer and so I had to RMA. If you have a friend that could lend you his computer for the test then this will help out out a lot. Did you change the heatsink on the 8800GT? If you did, you may have scratched something or crushed the GPU.

[Ogdin]

Have you tried booting with one stick of ram in 1st slot?I've heard from a few people that if the motherboard doesn't like the type of ram you have it will give you grief with 4 gigs installed.

[Dashock]

my bad i thought most boards come with onboard video my mistake.