I have just bought the following parts

AMD Phenom 9850 Black Edition Socket AM2
Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-DS5 790FX Socket AM2
MSI Radeon HD 3870 XT 512MB GDDR4 2250MHz
Corsair 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2 800MHz
750GB SATA II Hard Drive
Hi-Power Black 1000W Modular 13.5cm Fan Power Supply Unit
LiteOn DH-20A1S 20X DVD±RW sata
Pioneer DVR-215BK 20X SATA

This is not my first ever build far from it infact but it is my first time using sata drives and only noticed that they need to be of an even number so i took one of the dvd drives out of it until i can get another hard drive to make the raid config even. The system all powers on and fans all seem to be running as normal but there is no video out at all I tried another vid card that I had and still no video. I was wondering id I need to update the bios on the mb for it to work with the Phenom 9850 cpu? I do not have another am2 skt cpu to test this theory out and I dont know how i would flash the bios without an alternative cpu and ive never flashed a bios ive always been to scared but ill try anything once.

any guesses or some really good technical knowledge is much apreciated

Hello and welcome to PC Help Forum.

Firstly have you removed the PCI GPU and tried booting using just onboard graphics?

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It is all in the hardware..........................................
Sources:
http://www.microsoft.com/en/gb/default.aspx
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I wish I could but theres no onboard graphics

I would check all connections inside.Make sure everything is pushed in properly etc.

__________________
It is all in the hardware..........................................
Sources:
http://www.microsoft.com/en/gb/default.aspx
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/Home/
http://www.petri.co.il/index.htm

PCHF Rules Scan Computer for Driver Updates Pre-Work

Yeah its all pushed in so far as i will break something if i go at it any more, even stripped it right down to 1 dvd 1 hdd and the gpu still nothing

Yup same mainboard as yours,it has been ordered and paid for.

I am not saying this is right but I just read the Phenom black is not compatable with that board,I thought they were compatable together.

Here checkout the CPU support GIGABYTE GA-MA790FX-DS5 (Rev. 1.0) | Motherboards - CPU Support List

AMDPhenom X4 98502500Mhz512KBx42MBAgena65nmB3125W4000F4

Thats listed there.

You know that CPU is listed as buggy?

__________________
It is all in the hardware..........................................
Sources:
http://www.microsoft.com/en/gb/default.aspx
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/Home/
http://www.petri.co.il/index.htm

PCHF Rules Scan Computer for Driver Updates Pre-Work

LOL I was just looking at that list before i saw that you had posted it on here, perhaps i should have looked at that more carefully first instead of making assumptions that it would work i have mailed gigabyte and will wait and see what they say before trying to swap the cpu for one thats on the list

That would be the best thing I am sure they are not compatable or if they are.Try that list on CPUs and see wich you would like to have instead of the Phenom.

But wait and see what gigabyte have to say first.Unless CPU is just plain failed?

__________________
It is all in the hardware..........................................
Sources:
http://www.microsoft.com/en/gb/default.aspx
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/Home/
http://www.petri.co.il/index.htm

PCHF Rules Scan Computer for Driver Updates Pre-Work

Hey bud,

Actually, the CPU and motherboard are compatible, I triple checked with different sites, and the 9850 is the new version with the B3 stepping, so it's actually the "fixed" version of the phenom line.

However, since you're saying everything is powering up but it's not loading up the BIOS, then it sounds like it's a CPU problem. If you have another CPU you can drop into it, do so, but I'm fairly certain it's the CPU.

Also, you don't *have* to RAID SATA drives, you can run them as single drives

Cheers for that darklord sadly i dont have a spare skt am2 cpu to hand as that would have been my next step (skt 939 in this pc). It does say that the 9850 was compatable with bios version f4 but I have no way of checking what version is already installed on the motherboard at the moment. So i was thinking if it was an earlier version of the bios then thats why its not going to post