Won't boot, looking for input

[C1leader]

Hi everyone,

I've got my stepbrother's system here with a GIGABYTE G31M-ES2L motherboard, an Intel Q6600 2.4 GHZ, Kingston 2GB PC2-5300 DDR2 (just 1, yeah), and a Geforce 7900 GS.

When i turn the power on, the fans spin and the hard drive starts whirring, but it just idles like that until I turn it back off.

It's been a long time since I've dealt with this kind of stuff, so please consider me to have beginning-level knowledge.

Are any of these parts incompatible with the others? Would the hard drive come on if the processor were bad, and if not, does this sound like a processor problem?

As far as I know, he hasn't got this setup working at all before.

Any input you could provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time.

 

[mpilchfamily]

If all connections are properly seated and the PSU has enough power to support the system then its time to check for beep codes. Chances are the motherboard doesn't have a built in speaker so you'll need to get one.
This will give you a speaker.
http://www.frozencpu.com/produ..._0014.html?id=tZZmIYeL

If it has one already then there sould be a beep coming out to indicate what isn't working. If i had to take a guess i would say its that old 7900GS. If the card is dead the system won't boot. If something else was dead then you would at least get an image on screen but the system just wouldn't post.

 

[C1leader]

Wow, thanks a ton for that link. You're dead-on about the speaker; neither the motherboard nor the tower has one built-in that I can tell.

I gotta bookmark that site, that's just awesome.

Truly, thanks a ton.

 

[C1leader]

I ordered the product that you suggested, and once we installed the internal speaker we started it to find out there's still no beeps. Also, there's onboard video on this motherboard and we get the same symptoms when we try and use that.

Does anything come to mind as to what's causing these symptoms?

 

[mpilchfamily]

Make sure you have it plugged into the right pins. All motherboards give a beep. If you get just a single beep then everything checks out and your good to go. Since your not even getting a beep you have one of 2 possible problems. Either the PSU is bad or the motherboard is bad. I suggest trying another PSU first.

Yes the fans and lights can still start up if the PSU is bad. That just shows only one of the voltage rails is having a problem.

 

[pcgeek11]

In my experiance, These symptoms are indicative of a PSU or Motherboard failure.

Check the PSU power:
Guide: http://www.fonerbooks.com/power.htm

Or replace it with a known good PSU.

pcgeek11

 

[KGB]

Is your Kingston memory on THIS LIST?