I put together my system all but, the video card in
which I plan on intalling tommorow but, anyways I decided
to turn on the computer without the video card to see if
the system would run. I immeditetly turn it on and 5 seconds
later it completly shuts down. Now, I use 431 enermax p/s, a
Volcanoe 9, and artic silver III. Is the system turning off
because of no video card?? I just wanted to see if the
components and hardware were all working. I made sure
that the heatsink was connected to fan1 and rechecked
all my cables and wires. Did I fry the CPU by doing this?
Please help!

strange i left them out before on purpose just to hear the beep codes in the past it should of gave you some long beeps? but your motherboard being a more modern one and could have a automatic shut down,///http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci214577,00.html
The patterns of beeps contain messages about the nature of the problem detected. For example, if the keyboard is not detected, a particular pattern of beeps will inform you of that fact. An error found in the POST is usually fatal (that is, it causes current program to stop running) and will halt the boot process, since the hardware checked is absolutely essential for the computer's functions.///

http://www.tmp-houston.com/BeepCode.htm
There is one beep code that is often misunderstood. With no video card installed, or if the video card is failing, the motherboard will generate a long-short-long-short beep code.

make sure the jumpers are correct with the cd rom as slave the cd burner as master, the primary harddrive as master ect. if both are masters say the cd rom and the cd burner that could be why it is shutting down.

I just have a simple solution.
TEST IT WITH A WORKING CARD, D00D!

It'll be impossible to troubleshoot exactly whats wrong without a complete system.

Jason F

I don't think that is your problem. Actually, you had a good idea to test before loading everything in. When I build my units, I first sit the mobo on the static-proof package, plug in the monitor and the power cable from the Power supply and see if it detects the BIOS. If I see the BIOS come up on the screen, I can be pretty sure the mobo is good. If the mobo won't detect the BIOS, its probably bad and its better to find out before I get everything installed! I never damaged anything all the times I have done this.

I got my ATI 9700 and I got eager to test to see if
the system will now POST and still does the same thing
and shuts itself off in 5 seconds. Took my computer
to have the motherboard tested and it turns out that
my Volcano 9 was defective. I got it replaced at it
fired up. What a relief!! Thanks to all for their
input.