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I have built pretty much every computer I have ever used but this issue has me scratching my head. My home computer recently decide to not turn on any longer. I figured no big deal I'll just go buy a new powersupply and throw it in there and life should be wonderful. So I went to Fry's and bought a power supply and plugged it in and the computer turns on but nothing shows up on the monitor it stays completely black. I happen to have a LCD and an old 21 inch CRT and neither one of them will get a picture.  I also happened to have two PCI-E video cards and that didn't seem to make a difference. The only other thing I could think of was the PCI-E slot on the motherboard had gone out so I bought an El cheap-o motherboard on Newegg and it made absolutely no difference.

Current Computer Specs and or parts attempted to use to fix the POS

JetWay 939GT4SLI-G-VC Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail     Cheap-O Replacement Motherboard http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813153030 (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813153030)

XFX PVT43GNDF3 GeForce 6600GT 128MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail   Replaced ATI card because WOW froze intermittently on it

NEC 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE Model ND-3520A BK - OEM

Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6B250R0 250GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA133 Hard Drive - OEM

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Winchester 2.0GHz Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3200BIBOX - Retail

Antec Solution SLK3000-B Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

OCZ Value Series 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ4001024V3DC-K - Retail 2GB Total

POWERCOLOR R43C-TD3D/BULK Radeon X800XL 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - OEM Alternate video Card

CHAINTECH VNF4 Ultra Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail Original Motherboard

When I get home I can post the power supply info but I don't have it at work with me.

If you made it through all of that and you can think of something I'm missing I would love to hear it.

It still won't show you any picture (even bios output on bootup) with ether of your video cards? Do you have any indication that computer actually boots up?

Try pulling memory sticks if you have multiple, I have seen bad memory preventing POST.

I don't get any post indications at all. The fans all spin up (including the video card fan) and the power light on the case comes on, but nothing other than that. With all of the other noise going on the only thing that I can't for sure verify is if the hard drive is spinning.

I will try pulling half the ram when I get home.

Unplug everything one thing at a time and try to get it to POST. You know new MB is good...

Had the same problem with my last computer... When I went to replace the motherboard (was still under warentee) I got THREE bad motherboards in a row. Fuck you Asus, never buying from you again.

Open up the case and put your finger(s) on the hard drive to feel if it's actually randoming seeking when you power it on.

It may also be your CPU; although pretty rare, I think you can have that kind of behavior (aparentely normal mechanical functions but no post) with a damaged CPU. Have you extracted your CPU lately for any reason? Sometimes the pins can get jimmied at an angle, especially with a 939 socket. You can straighten them again with some tweezers, by looking down the row of pins in both directions to make sure they're all upright.

Start pulling peripherals until you can get it to post.  If it isn't posting there is something wrong and you need to isolate what it is.  I did have one lab computer CPU die once and it did the same thing (blank screen, power on, no beep or other activity).  I've also had a bad stick of RAM cause that too.  A hard drive shouldn't prevent post, but it's easy enough to unplug and check.

Try opening up the case and sticking your finger(s) into the power supply to see if any power is actually getting through.

(Hmm, guess the above should be in green for the Americans... :mrgreen:)

Open case.  Remove everything.  Visually inspect MB and PSU connectors for scorch marks.  Place MB with CPU installed and videocard on static free plastic that came with MB, no RAM no HD.  Connect Video Card to to monitor, connect PSU to MB connect case speaker to MB.

Power up.  Nothing but fans and LED?  Pull video card and try again.  If it beeps then your problem is Video Card.  If it doesn't beep then your problem is MB or CPU (good chance it's both at that point, anyway I wouldn't put a new CPU into a MB that had just fried one and good luck with having a stable CPU if the MB just fried).

If the initial power up with MB, CPU and Video Card posts.  Install RAM and try again.  Posts?  Good RAM.  No Post?  Bad RAM.

If the Ram is good add HDD's.  One at a time.  Then other peripherals.

Good luck.  This is called isolating the problem.

The antistatic bag is antistatic because it is conductive. Put the motherboard on dry cardboard. Other wise good advice.

Actually, the point is that you don't want to build up a charge.

Edit:  Ideally, you (with a wrist strap, but you can cheat by touching the PSU CASE while you are working) and the surface you are working on should be grounded.  You will ground the MB when you connect it to the PSU.  What you don't want is a difference in electric potential, by say, placing a non-conductor into your circuit loop.  For instance the surface you are working on is at one potential, the MB is at another (due to the non-conductor) and you accidentally bridge the gap, with your hand between the two.  The path to ground is then THROUGH your motherboard...

Actually, the point is if you plug it in while it's on a conductor, things could go badly.

Please explain, in layman's terms how a capacitor works.  Hint, look up the term dielectric.

If you want to come to Boston I'll take you on a tour of our ESD lab where we assemble devices susceptible to the voltage potential change of your arm moving through the air.  I assure you the best safety precaution you can take is to be sure everything is adequately grounded, NOT insulated.

The point is to keep everything grounded so a charge can't build up. 

I had a weird one once with a computer that wouldn't start up. Turned out it was a bad floppy drive. I pulled the data cable off it and the computer booted no problem. The funny thing was that I *thought* I was pulling the HD cable. It was an older Dell which had the HD mounted vertically at the bottom. I was just going from top down looking at every thing sideways and said, 'Oh, there's the HD cable - yoink'. Imagine my surprise when Windows 2000 started to load. I thought I was going out of my mind. Well, farther out than usual.

I appreciate everyone's help.

It was completely my fault and now I feel like a moron. I was in a hurry when I put it together the first time and I didn't hook up the 4 pin power connector. So yeah it works all is well.

Then one upside out of this is I did convince the wife to let me build a new gaming rig over the next few months.  :-D

Glad to hear you got it working. Nothing quite like the feeling of finally fixing a problem yourself. Even an ID10T error  :-D

Yeah it felt good finally getting it working. I would have rechecked it the first time I put it together, but I was in a hurry and it gave me the exact same problem I had before I replaced the motherboard so I just figured I misdiagnosed the problem.

Final Toll on the computer
One Video Card
One Motherboard
One Powersupply