[Help] Salvage Build - No monitor signal

I recently put together some parts I had with a new i5 & liquid cooler.

As far as I can tell all the components are working and in good standing, but for the life of me I cannot get the monitor detect a signal. (BENQGWS27)

I suspect the problem may be from where I am using my SSD from current PC which has different drivers & settings.

I’ve tried using the DVI & VGA ports on both the motherboard and the HDMI & DVI ports on the GTX660 GFX card, but still no signal.

I tried resetting the bios by replacing the jumper switch and also tried all the button configurations when booting the PC to try and get it to go straight to bios. This includes removing the SSD with the OS.

Additionally, I tried removing GTX660 and using on the motherboard GFX to no success. I don’t have another screen I can test this all out on and was planning on using a friends current HDD for the OS etc. However, I can’t make the journey to his to swap out the HDD only to have my plan fail miserably.

If I buy a new HDD and put an OS on their am I likely to at least get a signal from the monitor? (I don’t know why this would work honestly) I still have the driver’s discs for the ASRock B85 itx board and the card etc. I’ve never done a salvage build like this before so I can’t really tell where issue is originating from. Everything is hooked up correct, the GFX card is good and there is no reason why the processor shouldn't be working as its brand new.

There's no windows log in sound on start up which is most worrying i suppose.

All hardware is less than a year old. Only the CPU+cooler is brand new.

Any ideas? Would like to get this build finished for my friend so i can put the money towards a R295x2

Sounds like a dud monitor.

Can you try it with a known good computer and cable?



You mention no Windows sound upon boot.... That sounds like a OS issue/hardware issue.

Can you see the BIOS?

Screens good, works fine with the GTX660 and 680 in my main rig

mostly nice said:

Screens good, works fine with the GTX660 and 680 in my main rig

Click to expand...

Same cable?

Silver_Pharaoh said:

That sounds like a OS issue/hardware issue.

Can you see the BIOS?

Click to expand...

also i plugged the SSD with my OS back into my main rig after and no problem, just had to re install a lot of my ancillary drivers.

mostly nice said:

also i plugged the SSD with my OS back into my main rig after and no problem, just had to re install a lot of my ancillary drivers.

Click to expand...

So the OS is fine and the monitor works?

Sounding like bad mobo or something....

Silver_Pharaoh said:

Same cable?

Click to expand...

Yah, i tried several cables/ports

I feared it may be the mobo. I wasn't particularly gentle with it when having to affix the water cooler backing plate

Think i'll pick up another one on the way home tonight and grab another 1TB HDD and just do a fresh install of Ubuntu.

Is there anything i could be missing here? Maybe the screen is not detecting settings because drivers for the i5/mobo aren't installed?! is that even possible?

mostly nice said:

Think i'll pick up another one on the way home tonight and grab another 1TB HDD and just do a fresh install of Ubuntu.

Is there anything i could be missing here? Maybe the screen is not detecting settings because drivers for the i5/mobo aren't installed?! is that even possible?

Click to expand...

Naw, that would only apply if you can't even see the BIOS on the screen.

Try re-seating the RAM and all power cables and such. blow the dust out, maybe it'll save you from buying a new mobo

Pretty confident she is dust free. Gave her a good blast with the compressed air and gave the RAM equal cleaning.

Tell me though, if there was piece of plastic/foam mount touching the backing of the chip set casing (on back of mobo), would this cause a fault on the board? The Zalman LQ310 I have installed, only goes on one way for the LGA 1150 socket holes (supposedly supported, though holes are only annotated for other sockets) and as such, the backing plate touches one side of the chipset casing. This is where I fear I may have gotten a pressure fracture on the board when screwing it down. There is no cut out on the cases (bitfenix prodigy) motherboard bracket and as such it had bowed slightly until I untightened the screw.

I appreciate your help so far, I know trouble shooting via my loose explanations must be frustrating

mostly nice said:

Pretty confident she is dust free. Gave her a good blast with the compressed air and gave the RAM equal cleaning.

Tell me though, if there was piece of plastic/foam mount touching the backing of the chip set casing (on back of mobo), would this cause a fault on the board? The Zalman LQ310 I have installed, only goes on one way for the LGA 1150 socket holes (supposedly supported, though holes are only annotated for other sockets) and as such, the backing plate touches one side of the chipset casing. This is where I fear I may have gotten a pressure fracture on the board when screwing it down. There is no cut out on the cases (bitfenix prodigy) motherboard bracket and as such it had bowed slightly until I untightened the screw.

I appreciate your help so far, I know trouble shooting via my loose explanations must be frustrating

Click to expand...

It's possible, but unlikely.

Something like a short across the back of the socket sounds more likely.
If you can, take the mobo out of the case, and try to boot up windows. If it works, the must have been a short somewhere.

Maybe the case could be touching something it shouldn't.