PARTS:

XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - Retail
Item #: N82E16835233003

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor Model BX80562Q6600 - Retail
Item #: N82E16819115017

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DS3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Item #: N82E16813128344

SAPPHIRE 100242L Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card -

Thermaltake Purepower W0100RU 500W ATX 12V 2.0 Power Supply - Retail

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM


ALSO 2 gigs of GSKILL DDR2, and a case and a DVD player.





PROBLEM:

When I press the power button on the case, the fans spin up and the LEDs on the mobo light up. 2 red lights on the gpx card light up.

But nothing ever shows on my monitor. It stays in standby. Sounds like there is one beep when I power it on.


Things I have tried:

Disconnected the HD and DVD and powered up. Same result.
Reseated the memory, moved memory to different slots. Same result.
Removed the GPX card and powered it on: No difference in startup sounds
Reseated CPU and heatsink.
Reseated the 20+4 main power cord.
Tried a different monitor.
Reset CMOS


Questions:
What do you think is the problem/broken part?
There is another 8 pin power connector beside the 20+4 -- Do I need to plug anything into this? - The PS as nothing to fit it.


A big Thanks to anyone who can help!

The 8 pin you speak of needs atleast a 4pin plugged into it or it wont work. It will be fine with 4pin or 8 pin either way it has to have something.

Next time read your manuals.

There is only 1 way the 4 pin CPU power connector can fit into the 8 pin motherboard CPU power connector so you can't hook it up wrong.

Thanks guys, I tried that. Still not working right, but there are differences.


Monitor still stays on standby the whole time.
No beep on boot this time.
Computer powers up, fans spin, then it powers off after a variable amount of time and a few seconds later powers back on again and repeats

The 2 red leds that were lit on the graphics card now flash once and remain off.


Any ideas?

The Cpu isn't seating properly in the socket. I had that happen to me once. So just reseat the cpu.

reset cmos

Just want to check on that cpu cooler u have, does it use a backing plate?

if not its prob the cpu

It's extremely rare for a CPU to fail outside of bent pins and such.

Anyway, try pulling out one stick of ram, seeing if it boots, if it doesn't take that stick out and try the other. While this issue likely isn't RAM it never hurts to make sure.

I would take your mobo out of the case and set it on a (non metal) table and try powering it up like that, if that works then something is shorting your board (say.. a misplaced riser)

Personally, my biggest suspicion is that you have a bad motherboard.

So I got this working.

I removed one of the memory sticks and it made it to BIOS screen.
Then tested booting with each memory stick separately and it worked.

The MOBO has 4 ram slots: 2 yellow and 2 red.

When the 2 memory sticks were plugged in the same color slot the computer would not boot.
When they are in different colors(1 yellow, 1 red), it works fine.


Any ideas why this would be? Don't the memory need to be in the same color for DUAL channel?

Thanks for your help.

-Ryan

Yes, the ram needs to be in the same colored slots to run in dual channel mode.

First, make sure your ram is the exact same speeds and timings, differences there could easily cause problems in dual channel mode.

It could also be a glitch in your BIOS, if you are comfortable doing a BIOS update then that may be a good idea, if you are not, contact your motherboard manufacturer (a failed BIOS update can brick your board)

Have you tried running memtest86+ on each individual stick, if you haven't it is still possible that there is some faulty RAM there.

Failing in dual channel mode could also be a sign of a defective motherboard.

Hope this gives you something to work with.