Hi
I bought an Asus A8N-SLi Deluxe (PCI-Express) and a Gigabyte Geforce 6800 256mb online the other day to go with my Athlon 64 3200+ Winchester and a gig of DDR400 (2x512) I had lying around. I assembled the system barebones as usual and tested it with the video card, CPU and memory installed. The motherboard shows a good standby light and the system appears to powerup, with the CPU, chipset, VGA and case fans all activating. I get no display output however, and no apparent beeps from the system speaker. I've tried the system with one stick of ram and some old RAM, with the same result. Booted with just the motherboard and got no speaker beeps or voice output from the asus "bitchin betty" POST reporter, which leads me to believe the system is not reaching the POST at all (it should at least beep or "speak" a No CPU, No Memory or No VGA error).
I've tried the system out on a desk (no chance of a short with the system case then) and I've checked every essential connector on the motherboard, from the SLI "EZ" Selector to the PCI-Express connectors, and my PSU should be sufficient (480W, 18A on the 12V rail).
Any ideas? Ideally I'd like to know if the motherboard or the graphics are borked so I know which to return but I dont have any other PCI-Express equipment to test with. At the moment it all looks like an expensive doorstop.
Thanks
Edit to add I was "wired" to the system at all times and assembled everything on an antistatic mat, so I dont think I've fried anything
Also, the physical locks on the PCI-Express slots were floating in the bag when I opened it up; would the fact that I've tried to power it up despite this damage (it's just a lock for heavier cards, mine doesn't even use it and it doesn't affect operation) affect my chances of getting a return? I'd imagine if the board itself is fried, they're not going to care about a couple of bits of plastic.