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Please reach us at techsupport@apexalphalabsllc.com if you cannot find an answer to your question, schedule service or need extra guidance.
Make sure the monitor is plugged in and powered on.
If it’s powered on, there should be a light on or near the power button and you should get an error message such as “No Signal”.
Most monitors have a button that lets you choose between the different monitor inputs. Check that the input source on your monitor is set to the same connection as the cable you’re using (HDMI, DVI-D, or DisplayPort) using the correct button on the monitor.
Sometimes Windows will put the PC to sleep/hibernation and when you wake the system it will produce a blank screen with the system tower on and functioning. Power down the system by holding down the power button on the front panel until the system turns off. Alternatively although not recommended- you can hard shut down the PC via the back switch located on the power supply. This is represented as Binary 0 and 1 (0 is off and 1 is on). Follow the steps below after turning off your system.
-Confirm the display cable is plugged into the DVI-D, HDMI or DisplayPort ports on the horizontal graphics card and not the vertical HDMI port. The onboard ports on the motherboard will only work with a CPU with integrated graphics chip. The exact layout of your PC may be different, but generally you will want to plug in the monitor cable to the graphics ports that are below the green, pink and blue audio ports.
-Confirm that the monitor cable is plugged into the monitor output port, not the input port if any. Some monitors will be able to send a display to another device, but that same port will not be able to receive a display from the computer.
-Confirm good connection on both sides of the DVI-D/HDMI or DisplayPort cable. Unplug and re-insert on both the output (GPU) and the input on the monitor.
-After confirmation, turn the power supply switch to the on position (1) and turn the system on via the front panel power button.
If you have followed these steps and the PC Boots normally & a display image is presented, you're all set! If not, follow the steps below.
For any following steps, please make sure that the computer is shut down, PSU switch turned off, system is unplugged and the PC is laying on its back with the components facing the ceiling.
To re-seat the graphics processing unit (GPU):
To re-seat the GPU, first check the back of your case and see if there is either a sliding bracket with 2 screws, or a single hinged bracket with 1 screw. If you see a bracket, you will need to loosen that screw and move the bracket in order to expose the GPU screws. After you have moved the bracket, or if your case does not have a bracket on the back of the case, open the side panel (usually glass) and remove the screw(s) mounting the GPU onto the bracket on the left side with a Phillips-head screwdriver. Press plastic tab on the right side of the motherboard slot that the GPU is inserted to in order to release the card, with your finger or carefully with the screwdriver tip. Once the card is released, slowly rock the GPU back and forth horizontally towards yourself to remove the GPU. Reinsert it, making sure it is firmly secured. You should hear or see the plastic tab lock back into place. Reinsert the screws and close the bracket if necessary.
To re-seat the RAM:
First open the side panel (usually glass) that you can see all of the components. To the right of the CPU cooler, there should be one or more vertical sticks. These sticks are the RAM modules. To remove them, check to see if there are locking tabs on the top or bottom of the slot that the RAM module is inserted in. Press down on the top and bottom slot (if applicable) to release the module. Then, insert the module back in the slot, one side at a time, making sure that the center notches align correctly and that the locking tabs on the top and bottom (if available) snap into place. We find that it is easiest to slide the module in the bottom of the slot first, pressing against with your thumb it until you hear it snap into place, and then press against the top of the module. Whether you have one or two locking tabs, you still should hear 1 or 2 clicks when inserting the module into the slot for each side.
If you have more than one RAM module, check each one at a time in order to isolate the defective component. You can also re-seat a single RAM module in a different slot to see if the original slot is the culprit.
Ensure that the CPU power cable(s) on the top left of the motherboard is inserted securely by removing it and plugging it back in. To make sure that it is plugged in correctly, there should be a clip on the slot and the plug itself. Confirm that these plugs are lined up and not bent or shifted.
CMOS battery removal:
Take the CMOS battery (silver coin) out, wait a minute for the system to drain from total power loss and then reinsert it into the motherboard battery slot. Sometimes this battery is located under a metal plate on the motherboard or connected via a small cable on ITX (SFF) systems. Press the power button on the front panel a few times to drain any residual current stored in the systems capacitors.
Adapters & obsolete display protocols:
If your monitor uses a port that is not on the graphics card such as VGA, you may need to use an adapter. For VGA, you will need an ACTIVE adapter to convert the digital HDMI, Display Port, or DVI-D signal to an analog VGA signal. An active adapter has an additional cable to receive power, usually from an outlet or USB.
We do not recommend using an outdated display that does not support at least 1080p resolution, DVI-D, HDMI or DisplayPort natively or, the use of converters/adapters and strongly advise upgrading your monitor.
Confirm to see the power cable is securely plugged into the power supply unit (PSU) in the back of the computer and into a powered outlet or surge protector. Check another outlet or surge protector if possible.
-Check to make sure the outlet or surge protector is not damaged, showing a ground fault or has any odor of burnt plastic or hot to the touch.
-Make sure the switch on the PSU is set to the ‘1’ or line side, not the ‘0’ or circle side.
-Short the PW_SW pins (usually located on the bottom right corner of the motherboard) with a metal screwdriver by touching the two pins in order to attempt to turn the PC on without the power button.
Only perform the following steps with the system unplugged from power and the PC laying on its back with the components facing the ceiling:
-Re-seat the 24-pin motherboard power cable (next to RAM) and the 4/8 pin CPU cables (top left corner).
-Locate the PW SW/RES SW headers on the motherboard and re-seat them.
-Perform a power cycle by unplugging the power cable, turning the switch to the ‘0’ side and taking out the CMOS battery from the motherboard. After a minute has passed, press the power button repeatedly in order to drain the capacitors. Plug the power cable in, turn the switch to the ‘1’ side, reinstall the CMOS battery and press the power button again to see if it turns on.
-Check the motherboard and GPU and see if there are any burnt or bulging capacitors or signs/smells of burning/smoke.
PC must be shut down with the power cable unplugged and the PC laying on its back with the components facing the ceiling:
-Re-seat the 24-pin motherboard power cable (next to RAM) and the 4/8 pin CPU cables (top left corner).
-Re-seat the RAM module, making sure that the center notches align correctly and the locking tabs on the top and bottom (if applicable) snap into place. You will hear 1 or 2 clicks when the modules are correctly inserted, 2 clicks total.
Do not force the RAM sticks or motherboard 24-pin connector into place or apply force sideways- only gentle yet firm downward pressure is required.
Your system comes with a power cable rated for the power supply installed. If you lose this cable, please do not connect any other cable (even if they look the same) or attempt to rig the pins with a non-standard cable.
Contact us for a replacement.
Most modern systems come with a DR. DEBUG set of LEDs & LCDs to indicate Boot steps & issues.
LED Debug lights have writing next to them: (DRAM/VGA/CPU/BOOT). If any of these stay lit and you cannot use the computer, please contact us and provide the LED signal light (and LCD numbers if equipped) details so we can help you out.
Please be aware:
Some motherboards will have an LED continually lit and the PC will work normally, while others will only illuminate once a problem is detected.
If the PC is turned on for the first time, has been powered down for an extended amount of time or had an unexpected error or crash: The system will memory train and LEDs will be present until it has finished memory timing- the system will then boot normally to windows. On some systems this can take up to 2 minutes.
Some have LED debug lights and a 2-3 digit LCD display with numbers while others just have a LCD digital readout. LCD digit readouts will either fluctuate with numbers (CPU Temp) during normal operation, go blank or display a steady set of numbers (Ex: A0).
-Open up the case and check that the USB 3.0 cable is plugged into the appropriate header on the motherboard. It is usually located under the 24-pin power connector on the right side of the motherboard. sometimes located above, behind or below the GPU.
-If possible, try a different USB 3.0 front panel connector in order to check if it is the port that is defective.
Contact us for further diagnosis if unsure.
-Perform a power cycle by unplugging the power cable, turning the switch to the ‘0’ side, unplug any display & USB connections and remove the CMOS battery from the motherboard.
-After a minute has passed, press the power button repeatedly in order to drain the system of power.
-Reinstall the CMOS battery, plug the power cable in, only plug in the display cable, keyboard & mouse.
-Turn the switch to the ‘1’ or line side and then turn the PC on.
-After the system has passed POST and booted to your OS environment (e.g. Windows), connect your USB peripherals.
If you have NVMe SSD(s):
-Check in BIOS that there is a drive detected via BOOT MANAGER or BOOT tabs (sometimes under advanced mode).
If you have SATA HDD or SSD's:
-Check and ensure that the SATA data and SATA power cables are connected to the hard drive disk (HDD)/ solid state disk (SSD).
-Follow the data cable from the HDD/SSD(s) to the motherboard and reseat those connections as well.
If you’re still unable to boot into Windows and continue to get this error, please contact us.
For secondary SATA drives:
-Check and ensure that the SATA data and SATA power cables are connected to the drive. If the drive is connected and visible in BIOS but not reflected in Windows, perform the following steps:
For secondary NVMe drives:
-Check and ensure the NVMe drive is there and connected with a screw/tab to the motherboard (sometimes a heat spreader metal shield is present and will need removal and will require the removal of a GPU/PCIe card to check).
-or-
-Reboot the system and hold the DEL (Delete) key while the system powers up. You will enter BIOS/UEFI and look under BOOT or drives tab to check for DISK 1 or 2 (Disk 0 will be your primary drive with Windows on it).
If drive is present in BIOS/UEFI:
-In Windows, right-click the Start menu icon or press the Windows key on your keyboard + X at the same time and select ‘Disk Management’.
Right-click the missing disk and click ‘Initialize Disk’. Click OK to accept the default settings.
Right click the unallocated (black) region on the missing disk and select ‘New Simple Volume’.
Click ‘Next’ through each of the options and then click ‘Finish’. The missing drive should then appear.
If secondary drives are not present in BIOS/UEFI and Windows, but are connected to the system; contact us for further assistance.
Check to see if your cable terminates into a single male jack.
If this is correct, the male jack will provide both input and output for laptops, consoles & phones but not desktop systems.
To use this style connector on your desktop, you will need a splitter to use it for PC. Make sure the speaker jack goes into the green (headset icon) port while the microphone jack goes into the pink (microphone icon) port.
If the above does not apply to your situation:
-Make sure the speakers are receiving power and are plugged into either the green or blue colored port on the motherboard.
-Check the volume control by clicking the speaker icon on the bottom right and selecting ‘Volume Mixer’. Confirm that the devices and applications are not muted.
-Check the default audio devices by selecting ‘Sounds’ from the menu before and make sure that the correct audio devices are set.
-In Windows, right click the sound icon, open sound settings and ensure the input (microphone) and output (speaker) devices are set to the correct devices and not muted.
*Be mindful that IntelXE graphics, AMD and NVIDIA will default sound output to the display via the GPU and require manually switching it in the sound options menu*
-Visually check to make sure the HD_Audio front panel connector is plugged into the motherboard header (usually located on the bottom left side of the motherboard towards the rear of the PC). If it is not connected for any reason, insert the cable connector to the onboard audio connector.
-Make sure you have the latest drivers for your graphics processing unit (GPU), as they may contain fixes concerning any game-related issues you are experiencing. Restart the PC after installing graphics card updates.
-Check the GPU in order to see that it is connected properly. If the GPU cannot be detected, the computer may use the integrated graphics in order to output a display.
-Check to see if processes such as Windows Update, Steam, Epic Games Store, etc. are running in the background.
-Run an anti-virus/anti-malware scan (Windows Defender or Malwarebytes) to see if malicious processes are running in the background.
-Check task manager (CTRL + ALT + DEL) and see if there are any background processes running taking a lot of disk/CPU or memory resources.
-We install a program called ‘HWMonitor’ on every system we build for you to check system health. Open the program and check the temperatures and utilization of your CPU and GPU to make sure they are not at or above their maximum threshold. Temperatures at or above 90°C (194°F) can cause damage to your components and crash your software.
We STRONGLY advise against using Avast, McAfee or Norton anti-virus suites, as these programs are notorious for inferior system protection and causing system slowdowns/crashes with bloated, poor resource management.
-Check to make sure your display cable and display power cables are securely connected.
Although we disable this by default, Windows will sometimes force it on after updates to the OS.
Try turning off hybrid sleep. To do this, perform the following:
-In Windows, go to Settings > Power options > Additional power settings > Change plan settings >Change advanced power settings > Sleep > Allow hybrid sleep > Setting: Off > Apply (if applicable)
-Check to see the CPU fan/All-In-One CPU water cooler 3/4-pin power cable is plugged in correctly to the motherboard CPU_FAN or AiO_PUMP header and re-seat it.
Some AiO liquid coolers (such as NZXT or Corsair) will require a SATA power connection to function, make sure to:
-Open the rear panel on the system and ensure the SATA power cable is attached to the AiO power cable
On some of our custom liquid looped systems, they do not have a PWM connector for the pump and the CPU FAN WARNING has been disabled in bios to prevent this error. If you updated the systems BIOS/UEFI and then received this warning:
-Confirm that there is flow, disable the fan warning in BIOS and continue to Windows.
If you're still experiencing any issues with this error, please contact us for assistance.
Many new graphic cards that are installed into our PCs have fans that do not spin when the card is idling. The fans will spin while playing a game or benchmark that pushes the card enough to reach a certain temperature threshold.
Many retro games (such as DOOM 1993/Quake 3 Arena/StarCraft) will not push a card beyond idle and the fans will not spin.
If the fans do not spin when running an intensive game or graphics benchmark, please contact us for assistance.
-Check to make sure the 3/4PIN RGB cable is connected to the motherboard RGB header
Some RGB fans/AiOs and hubs require SATA power for operation.
-Open the back panel and make sure the SATA power cable is connected to the hub.
Check to make sure there is a display signal, if there is and the light is lit- this is a normal function.
If there is no display output to a screen and you have either a solid or blinking light- this means there is a problem with the power connector input. This can also be an indicator of a power supply issue or a brownout on your utility lines.
Shut down the PC, unplug the power cord from the computer and re-seat the cable connecting to the GPU and the Power supply and retry.
If this issue still persists, please contact us.
-Check to make sure the 3/4PIN fan cable connector is connected to the motherboard SYS_FAN header
Some fan hubs require SATA power for operation.
-Open the back panel and make sure the SATA power cable is connected to the hub.
If you are experiencing no/poor Wi-Fi connection, please ensure that the included antennas are screwed on to the golden connectors on the back of your PC.
-Move the antennas away from any other electronic device or appliance
-Move the PC to an area away from appliances such as microwaves, TV's, refrigerators, or any other large metal object or motor-driven devices (such as ACs/Fans).
-Reduce the distance between your PC and the internet gateway (router).
-If possible, try a different Wi-Fi adapter or Ethernet cable on the PC.
Try uninstalling and reinstalling the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card in Windows. To do this:
Check to see that other devices are receiving internet. Try rebooting the router if not. Please call your ISP for more information.
Try the following steps in Windows 10/11:
Like all custom loops- the fluid level in your distro plate/reservoir/pump housing can be affected by atmospheric pressure, temperature and will be subject to evaporation over time.
Outside of an obvious leak:
If you notice your loop level has dropped dramatically, immediately turn off your system and unplug it. Inspect the case for evidence of liquid and liquid damage to your components. Use a paper towel or tissue around all the fittings, tubes and blocks to see if liquid wicks onto the paper. Also check for cracks in any plastic parts (this can happen from thermal-cycling). If a leak is suspected or present- contact us for service.
Microsoft employs TPM 2.0 digital serial signing for all computers, as a result it registers all components to the OEM key we provide at its initial build configuration.
If you change or upgrade the following components but keep the same boot device:
You will need to validate the new system in your Microsoft account in order to migrate the digital license over to the new PC or, if you don't have a Microsoft One Drive account; purchase a new key from either us or via Microsoft.com.
If you require assistance, please contact us.
Microsoft Windows 11 Operating system can sometimes cause lag or stutters on the mouse cursor, menu drop downs or window minimizing/maximizing. This can be frustrating!
Make sure to update your computers chipset firmware, USB & I/O drivers first. This can be located at the motherboard manufacturers website under support. DO NOT update the BIOS firmware unless absolutely necessary.
The easiest fix in Windows 11 is to Turn off (Disable) animation effects:
Disabling animations has cleared up 99% of issues users have experienced.
If you require assistance, please contact us.
Microsoft Windows 11 Operating system can sometimes cause lag or stutters with video playing on one screen, and playing a game on the other at the same time (or on the same screen if using PiP or Split screen).
Make sure to update your graphics card drivers to the latest (WHQL) release. DO NOT update the GPUs vBIOS firmware or motherboard BIOS unless absolutely necessary.
The most effective remedy is to disable hardware acceleration in your computers browser.
Chrome:
FireFox:
Edge:
If you require assistance, please contact us.