I have this gfx card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102719

And this MB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813130136

This is my first time building a PC from scratch.

So far I have gotten everything assembled (At least I think so) and I can get the computer to start running when I hit the power button. But after that I can't get any display on my screen. I'm not sure if the problem is whether the MB and GFX card aren't compatible, the monitor isn't compatible with the GFX card, or if I screwed up with the wiring.

I'll find out what type of monitor I have once I get home later tonight. If anyone can help me, thank you.

P.S. I'm not very familiar with all of the technical terms yet so a brief description would help.

Are the fans running? Any beeps? Is there a cable connected between the video card and the monitor? Is the monitor plugged in and turned on? Is the video card inserted properly? Is it connected to the PSU?

did you reinstall your os ( operating system)?? that is a must. if you did reinstall your os try and get into safe mode ( you keep hitting the F8 key right after you push the power button) if you can get into safe mode but not windows you probably are having some kind of driver/hardware issue. you dont happen to have a 45nm processor do you?

+1.

If you can't get a bios screen, it's not a driver issue.

Use the top PCI-e 16x slot (pci_ex1).

What power supply are you using? And again, is a power cable connected to the video card. Look at the 6 pin plug on the end of the card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Show [...] Video+Card

Barney, I didn't realize AMD made any 45nm CPUs. Its also not what you are thinking of, if it were, it would be able to get to the windows splash screen, then constantly reboot.

Assuming the card is fully in the slot and plugged in, I'd look elsewhere. Are both the 24 and 4 pin bundles fully plugged in? Are both ram sticks in? (make sure one end isn't loose.) Make sure the CPU is correct, and that the fan is plugged into the CPU fan header. If your lucky, its probably something dumb, so double check everything.

If your unlucky, you have a bad part somewhere. My guess stays with either bad ram or CPU. (or GPU...) Are any of these parts second hand? The only way to tell is to start swapping parts out one at a time and see if it boots. Try PSU, GPU, Ram, CPU one at a time and see if that causes it to work.

Yes I plugged the cord you showed into the PS. My PS is this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817139006

Ok here's something else that might help. The GFX card said in the instructions that it had to be connected to the PS and the HD. So what I did was connect both the GFX and the HD to the same PS cord.

I used the PCI-e 2.0x16 slot. Dark blue on the MB. I don't hear any beeps when it starts up. I have the cable from the monitor to the GFX plugged in.

I haven't installed the OS yet on my new PC. Is there a way to do that without getting any display on the monitor?

MY HD is this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822136218

My CPU is this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103759

EDIT: I bought all of the parts new from newegg; everything. I'll try to double check everything tonight and see what happens.

How did you connect the HD and graphics to the same power supply cord? The only one that fits the 3870 should be the PCIE 6 pin, and it definitely should not be in any way connected to the HD.

I took the PCIE 6 pin, plugged it into the GFX card, and then I plugged the other end (the 4 pin) into a PS cord. With that same PS cord I plugged another branch of it into the HD.

EDIT: Thanks for the help, I gotta go to football practice. I'll get back with you later. I'll mess around with it later tonight and I'll let you know how I make out.

EDIT2: I have 4 sticks of DDR2 RAM in my MB right now at 1MB each for a total of 4MB. I'm not sure if I can do that or not so I'll remove two sticks and see what happens.

You should install vista with only 2GBs max. There was a bug that causes issues (not this one) if you try to install it with 4GB. I'm not sure if this is still the case.

I agree with the other posters, I don't see how you could do this PSU "trickery" as you've described it. There should be a 6+2 plug that you put into the 3870. There aren't any other connectors on that cable. I also don't understand what the manual says you should do. There are no links between the video card and the harddrive.

oh ya sorry 4745454b. i read the post and thought back to when i built my computer i didnt reinstall the os and that didnt work to well. and no as far as i know amd does not have a 45nm processor(yet) i just know that 45nm processors dont allways work unless you do a bios update.

You have two dark blue PCI-e 2.0 slots, on that mobo, make sure you use the top one if installing one card.

How is that possible? Are you using a molex to PCI-e power cable adapter? You don't need that adapter with your power supply, just hook it straight up to a PCI-e 6-pin connector from the PSU. That adapter if single molex to pci-e 6pin could be the problem.

OK. First of all, READ the damn motherboard manual. I am SURE with a single card in that motherboard, it HAS to be in a specific slot. SECOND, make sure you plug in the power on the back of the card. and lastly make sure all other connections, HDD/cdROM drive, power and data cable, memory, and cpu, which usually has another connection for power onto the motherboard. (other than the 24pin connection) plus the cooling fan. Again I say, "Read the manual" please don't make us read it for you...

OK, I have it in the second slot. I'll switch it and see what happens.

>.< Bear with me, I'm new to this.

Hey, no problem. We just want to see you get it running. Swap it to the top slot I think you'll be fine. Although I would remove the molex adapter and just use the power supplies 6-pin PCI-e power cable instead. That adapter is only for people who's power supply doesn't have a PCI-e power cable.

Agreed on the power supply - you'll probably get better power out of the dedicated PCI-E 6 pin.

Ok I swapped the GFX card to the top slot, removed 2 sticks of RAM, plugged the PCI-e 6 pin from the PS directly into the GFX card, and I still don't get any display.

I get the error message: "No input detected," on the monitor.

If you took the 6 pin to dual 4 pin molex adapter from the graphics card box and plugged it into the graphics card, then hooked one of those 4 pin molexs from that adapter to a 4 pin from the PSU to power the video card and the other 4 pin molex from the 6 pin adapter to power the hard drive, you may have did some damage to your hardware including, video card, MB and CPU. Was there any smoke when you did that?

No, I didn't see any smoke.

Which input do you have the monitor hooked up to? Is the monitor set properly for the input? I've never seen a monitor that said "no input detected" unless the cord was physically unplugged from the graphics card.