PC building trouble...

Sonet

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Hey peoples...

As the topic title makes reasonably obvious, I'm trying to put together a PC. Well, no, that's misleading. The thing is, for all extensive purposes, put together. There's a bit of a snag, though... It doesn't work. At all. Here's what I've got going...

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3800+
Motherboard: Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe Socket 939
PSU: Antec 500W ATX12V
RAM: 2GB Patriot DDR400 PC3200
Video card: ATI Radeon X1800XL (Asus)
Hard drive: Hitachi Deskstar 7K80 (x2)

And I've also got an Asus CD-RW drive, and Samsung floppy drive (as incomprehensible as that seems to be to some people). Well, like I said, I've got all of that put together, and the case stuff all hooked up, but when I turn it on, not a damn thing happens, and the monitor says it's getting no input signal. Now, I've never built a computer before (I put it together with a friend who has), but apparently what's supposed to happen is the BIOS will load up, where I can then tell it to boot from the CD drive to install the OS. But, like I said, nothing even shows up on the monitor. Everything should be connected properly - the motherboard's light turns on, the video card's light turns on, all the fans start spinning, the case lights turn on... Just nothing shows up on the monitor when I switch it on. And I've tried on both my monitor and the aforementioned friend's.

One thing mentioned to me is that it ought to beep when I turn it on, which it doesn't. The sound wires are connected to the motherboard (to the four red-orange pins in that group where the power switch, reset switch, etc. are connected to), so that might indicate... what?

Someone please help me out here... I dropped about $1400 on this setup (and I was lucky enough to get a free case), so I'm a bit less than pleased, and a bit more than disheartened over the fact that it's thus far been completely unsuccessful. There are a few possiblities I'm considering, but I'm certainly no expert, so I'm hoping someone here can suggest what the problem might be. Or better yet, what the problem definitely is.
 
The computer is powering on, with no post beeps, and no display, just a blank screen. This is typically associated with memory, either one of the sticks is not installed securely, or is bad. Take out one stick, and try to power it up. If it doesn't post, turn it off, take that one out, and put the other in by itself, and retry.
It could also be a grounding issue. Make sure all the screws in the rear of the case are secure- and try to boot again.
It could also be a CPU issue. CPUs are easly damage by ESD.
It could also be an issue with the power supply. Make sure everything is connected properly.
Try a bare minimum boot, meaning only connect what is necessary to try and get it to post (ie, do not connect the hard drive, dvd burner, floppy, or any PCI cards). Try these suggestions, and post back. If none of these solve the issue, it's possible the CPU is damaged. Also, make sure the internal speaker wire is connected properly- if it's not, it won't make a sound at all anyway. Post back after you check these.
 
Some Motherboards come with the Bios jumper set to reset, you'll need to change that. Also some motherboards requires both the 24/20 pin and the 4 pin power connector to power the motherboard.

Do you hear any of the fans power up?

BullDog(UK)
 
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