So finally got my pc put together and time for the initial bootup and nothing happens I've checked all of my wires and the mobo powers up and the cpu and front fans turn on, but other than that it is a lame fish. Anyone have any ideas what could be wrong?

 

You don't even get a BIOS screen?

Check:
Video Card
115/240 volt switch on power supply
Jumper settings on the Mobo


I'd say unplug all unnecessary peripherals (Harddrives, cd rom drives, sound card, mouse and keyboard) and try from there.

 

well i know the voltage switch is right along with the video card. if i unplugged all peripherals should i get the BIOS then?

 

and oh yeah the sound card is integrated

 

Unplug the things that are unnecessary and try to get it to boot that way. Bad memory can cause it to not boot as well. You'll just have to try different things to figure out the broken link.

 

Add to that, take out the ram and see if it'll boot.

 

wouldn't a bios screen come up without the memory?

 

I don't think so, unless it has some onboard memory. I don't know enough to be much help.

 

Nevermind pulling all the ram at once. I just tried that on my brother's comp and no boot whatsoever. Try pulling all but one ram stick, and if no boot, try a different ram stick.

 

well i pulled both and it did something it beeped alot and the mobo crystal display said f6???

 

Yeah that's most likely the error code for: No memory. Lol.
Well you know the mobo is at least partially alive.

 

ok well pulled one of the 1 gig sticks and is now supposedly booting XP from the cd drive so we shall see

 

anyone know why it would boot with one of the mem sticks in but not 2?

 

are they identical? can the PC run that much RAM?

 

Are you saying it will boot from one or the other but not both at the same time?
One stick could be dead.

 

ok i got it to run with both sticks now, i had to do the initial boot and xp install with one then just installed the other once xp was working. But now my computer won't recognize my CD drive, any pointers? Under BIOS it shoes my CD and hard-drive but once into XP i can't get to my cd drive

 

could it be that i have my CD/DVD set up as the master and the hard drive set up as the slave or would that not make a difference?

 

Set the jumpers on your CD and hard drives to CS- Cable select. You're hooking them up piggyback style with a parallel cable yes?

 

yeah i'm hooking them piggyback style but do what?

 

up to 10 gigs or so it says