Posted a few days ago... Having trouble wiht components installation

I decided to go upgrade to a new Radeon 6870 HD, new HDD, and buy Windows 7. I installed the new components last night, and now the computer refuses to start, even if I try using the old parts (I've tried every combination of old/new parts, and I've had no luck). Tried resetting the motherboard, and I'm pretty sure the RAM is fine.

It's not outputting to the monitor, nor is the "hard drive activity light" turning on at all. Does anyone have any ideas as to why this might happen?

 

How many sticks of RAM? If you have more than one, try one stick in different slots (and try all sticks that you have like that).

If you can see the BIOS, does it show the HDD connected? Is it in AHCI mode?

If you're not seeing anything on the monitor (not even the BIOS), does it have multiple inputs that you might need to set?

You did ground yourself and removed the power cable and battery before you started switching out components?

With regards to the RAM again: you did verify that the new RAM was identical to the old RAM (DDR3, both of them correct)?

Just curious: did you get a good deal on the new parts? And, did you stay within your budget?

 

Thanks for the quick response!

I have two sticks of RAM, which I've tried individually and together (in different slots) - no luck there.

It's strange, I'm not sure if the BIOS is running simply because I'm getting no video output (on my old and new GPUs and on integrated graphics).

I did remove the power cable when replacing the parts, although I didn't remove the battery from the motherboard (I've since removed it and put it back in to reset the motherboard).

The RAM on the new GPU is DDR5, whereas I think I have DDR3 RAM on my computer. Would this make a difference? I did try to run the compute rmy old (DDR3) card, and it's still not outputting any video.


I ended up going over my budget slightly (thanks to paying full price for Windows 7), but I managed to get the lot for ~$300 (it ended up being a bit more w/ tax). I think it broke down like:


Didn't get any great deals, ended up going (fairly significantly) over budget, mainly due to deciding to upgrade to 7 (from XP). Otherwise, I would have been comfortably within budget.
GPU ~$160
HDD (500 GB) ~$ 70
Windows 7 ~$100
(all USD).

 

I haven't actually seen a HD6870 for laptops that is MXM... is your computer a laptop or a desktop?

Anyways, regardless of the above, what brand is the card and your computer? Did you upgrade your bios to the latest version? If there is no display, but you can hear the Windows startup sound or hard drive activity light or even the fans spinning, then it is a display problem. If there is absolutely no activity, then it could be a power/bios problem. Make sure you plugged in all the cables/wires and such properly.

 

OP, you were told to post these questions on the Desktop Review forums.

DesktopReview.com - PC Forums - Desktop Computer Forums and Discussions

Mods will close this again, and you probably won't get another warning.

 

Thread closed...