New PC build, power but no BIOS

I'm doing something wrong and I'm at the point where it's smarter to ask for advice than continue to google and come up empty.

Motherboard is an MSI B450 Pro VDH Max, CPU is a Ryzen 5 2600x with the included Wraith cooler. The CPU is oriented correctly according to the manual. Case is a Phanteks P300. Hard drive is a 500 GB Corsair MX, M.2.

Two sticks of 8GB Corsair Ram in the recommended DIMM slots. Keyboard and mouse that work on other machines, same with the monitor. I've tried DVI-D and Display Port, both on-board and the installed RX580 card.

When I boot, the CPU fan spins, a light on the mouse comes on, but the monitor goes straight to sleep mode. No POST, no beeps, no BIOS. I have a flash drive ready to install Windows 10, but can't without getting into the BIOS.

I've plugged in the motherboard and power (right next to each other), the CPU power, the CPU fan, the USB 3.0 cable, the power button, and the VGA power cable for the video card. The PSU is a Seasonic S12iii, fixed cables.

I've reseated the RAM, and I'm going to try booting with one stick installed. I'm realizing now I have not reseated the video card, and I'm going to try that as well, but I feel like I'm missing something else - the integrated video should have worked even if I have the video card seated incorrectly?

The monitor going straight to power save mode makes me think the mouse and keyboard input aren't being recognized, even though the mouse seems to be getting power. I've tried different USB ports, both 2.0 and 3.0.

Can anyone think of anything obvious I'm missing? It's been a long time since I built from scratch and I'm thinking I'm missing something basic.

Weird. I don't know what the issue could be other than a bum motherboard. Mine actually has a display for error codes which would have been nice in your situation. Good luck! Hope you figure it out or the RMA process goes well!

If it's the motherboard, I'm in good shape. I got it at the local Micro Center and paid $10 for 2 years of "stuff went wrong" protection. I'm not ready to blame the hardware quite yet, though, I'm pretty sure I could have messed something up. I just mailed Phanteks for clarification on the proper screws to mount the motherboard. Their Quick Install manual says "use the M3 screws" with no clarification which of the 4 types of included screws are M3. I'm wondering if I used the wrong ones. Adding that to the "try this next" list.

Yeah, like you, I would assume I did something dumb. You will win if it was something dumb since it all starts working or if something is faulty and it wasn't your fault.

Took out the RX 580, took out one stick of RAM. Changed out the motherboard screws (pretty sure I had the wrong ones in initially). When I power on, the CPU fan spins, the light on the mouse scroll wheel goes on, the monitor speaker lights up, and then the monitor says "entering power save mode" and goes to sleep. No beeps, nothing else on screen.

The fan on the PSU does not spin. I don't know if that's normal or not - should it spin at boot, or does it wait for a thermal threshold? Power is moving through it if the CPU fan spins and the mouse lights up, I think?

I think I'm going to double-check the CPU is seated properly next.

"Graphically, the Ryzen 5 2600X 3.6 GHz Six-Core AM4 Processor does not contain any integrated graphics, meaning that users will need to purchase a dedicated graphics card of their choice."

Ok, maybe I'll put the RX 580 back in and test before I mess with the CPU...

sithload wrote:

"Graphically, the Ryzen 5 2600X 3.6 GHz Six-Core AM4 Processor does not contain any integrated graphics, meaning that users will need to purchase a dedicated graphics card of their choice."

Ok, maybe I'll put the RX 580 back in and test before I mess with the CPU...

Definitely check the motherboard manual. There should be some sort of beep indications that tell you what is going on.

I think I might have a couple problems. I'm working through this troubleshooting list on the MSI website. First, I don't think my RAM is compatible; it's not listed in their compatibility guide. The 3000 MHz version of my Corsair memory is compatible; mine is 3200 MHz.

After you mentioned it, I did discover that I have LED error codes on the motherboard. The DRAM and CPU lights are lit.

I'm going to reseat the CPU and see if the light goes out. If it does go out, and the DRAM light stays lit, I'll be shopping for RAM, I think.

Oh! Well, if incompatible RAM is the issue, that'll be an easy solve apart from $. The stupid little things can still always happen with PC building. My current PC has weird, weird USB power issues that will apparently never be solved.

I may see if I can swap out the motherboard for something that supports the 3200 MHz RAM. I can't get the CPU light to go out on the EZ LEDs either.

Rookie mistake - Micro Center didn't have the motherboard I had in my PCpartpicker build, and instead of being patient, I pulled the trigger without thinking it through. I'm ok with rookie mistakes, though, since I haven't tried to do this on my own in a long time.

Thanks for keeping me company while I worked through it

sithload wrote:

I may see if I can swap out the motherboard for something that supports the 3200 MHz RAM. I can't get the CPU light to go out on the EZ LEDs either.

Rookie mistake - Micro Center didn't have the motherboard I had in my PCpartpicker build, and instead of being patient, I pulled the trigger without thinking it through. I'm ok with rookie mistakes, though, since I haven't tried to do this on my own in a long time.

Thanks for keeping me company while I worked through it :)

So funny I'm the only one on here at the moment. I am very out of touch right now. I did delid a CPU and got kinda crazy with overclocking a couple years ago, but life stuff means my PC is now at work and hardly used.

Anyways, it's ALWAYS fun to read about people going through bizarre technical issues. I want all of humanity to know the "pain" I have experienced.

Weird. I went to PCpartpicker to see if I could add a compatible motherboard to the build, and it says the RAM I have is compatible with the motherboard.

MSI support has their number all over Newegg and Amazon reviews, I think I'll call them tomorrow and see what they say about the RAM and the error codes.

The normal approach when you're troubleshooting like that is to go to the simplest possible configuration that should boot. Pull the motherboard out, mount it on a piece of cardboard (or something else non-conductive that won't be damaged by the sharp pins underneath), plug in the CPU and one RAM stick, both power cables, the video cable into the onboard video (edit: or the discrete card, since you don't have onboard video), the mouse, and the keyboard. Power it up, see what happens.

If it doesn't show any signal, try moving the RAM around to other slots, and try the other stick of RAM. If that super-simple config won't boot (and if your chosen CPU has a video chip onboard), then you've probably got a bum motherboard.

edit: oh, I looked it up, and that CPU doesn't appear to have onboard video. You'll need the video card as well. If you have one that you know works that you can use instead, see if that will get it booted.

sithload wrote:

Weird. I went to PCpartpicker to see if I could add a compatible motherboard to the build, and it says the RAM I have is compatible with the motherboard.

MSI support has their number all over Newegg and Amazon reviews, I think I'll call them tomorrow and see what they say about the RAM and the error codes.

If it's not turning on at all, it could be bad RAM, but incompatible RAM with that machine is far less likely. "Compatible" means the specific model of RAM has been tested by the motherboard manufacturer, and the manufacturer has added that model to the BIOS table. That used to mean more with the original Zen architecture and 3xx motherboards. Starting with Zen+ and 4xx motherboards nearly all of the RAM out there will work fine out of the box, and can be run at its advertised timings by going into the BIOS and turning on AMP.

Thanks. I'll try the super-simple approach and see where I get.

Lou, that's reassuring, and would explain why PCpartpicker wasn't worried about it when I put the RAM and MB together.

TL;DR - I followed Malor's suggestions and (later) Lou's RAM suggestions, and it's all working.

I didn't get back to the build until today.

My gut says, in my desire to not force connections to the motherboard, I probably had something not plugged in fully. At minimum config, out of the case (MB/CPU, PSU), there was only a VGA error because I didn't have a video card installed yet.

Put it back in the case, CPU and VRAM errors returned. A short interval of double-checking how the RAM was seated and installing the video card later, and it booted and I could change the BIOS boot order.

The rear fan wasn't spinning. The system fan connector wasn't attached, or labeled, or mentioned in the Phanteks "manual." Quick google search helped me find the cable and the right spot to plug it in, and then I booted off USB and installed Windows. And Steam. And drivers And I enabled AMP in the BIOS to change the RAM to 3200 like Lou suggested.

Keeping my fingers crossed everything is stable, and I can start to customize things and figure out what I want to buy next. I need a storage HD, and a monitor that supports 144 mhz, but I think I'm going to start by adding at least a couple more case fans, based on suggestions from reviews. And now I know where the next couple fans plug in on the motherboard

Thanks for the advice! I'll be a happy gamer very shortly.

My gut says, in my desire to not force connections to the motherboard, I probably had something not plugged in fully. At minimum config, out of the case (MB/CPU, PSU), there was only a VGA error because I didn't have a video card installed yet.

Yeah, I didn't realize at first that you would require the discrete card, and tried to edit that part in when I realized that your Athlon model had no GPU. Obviously, I did a poor job.

Another possibility, one I used to sometimes see, is one of the motherboard posts shorting out against a trace. That's not very common anymore, and many cases have built-in, non-conductive mount points that you can't really get wrong. If you do still have to mount them yourself, that's a thing to check: be sure they match the holes in the motherboard exactly. Shine a light from above or below, hold the motherboard flat in the air, and look through each screw hole to ensure that every one has a match. I also counted holes and then counted posts, to be sure there wasn't one sticking into a blind area.

This sounds ridiculously anal, but I got that wrong several times and killed one motherboard. This was the method I reached to be sure it was right: count posts and holes, and visually verify alignment before mounting. I never had a problem after that.