Question for you computer geeks out there

[gab9681]

Aight, well, I am building my first PC for my new company and I am having some issues. Basically, when I turn on the power supply, the green LED on the motherboard lights up as it should. But when I hit the power switch on the case, nothing happens. Literally nothing happens. No beeps, no booting, no fans, nothing. I have triple checked all connections against the wiring diagrams and reseated everything on the board. I pulled the board out of the case even and just connected the video card, CPU, memory, and monitor and still nothing. I have reset the CMOS as well. If my CPU or memory were bad, it should still boot and tell me that they suck, so what could it be? Bogus motherboard??? All components are brand new right out of the box as well. Here is what I got:

-ASUS P4C800 Deluxe-E motherboard
-P4 2.8 processor w/intel heat sink fan
-Radeon 9600 pro video card
-Geil 512X2 platinum memory

Any help would be much appreciated. I need to get this badboy rolling ASAP.
-

 

[Burning_Inside]

ugh man theres so many things that can go wrong when building a system. ANY one of the parts you have could be defective and you'd have to troubleshoot to see which it could be.

I don;t understand however how the motherboard could be recieving power but you say the power switch (the switch on the front of the case or the switch on the back of the power supply?) won;t work? could you explain more?

 

[gab9681]

ugh man theres so many things that can go wrong when building a system. ANY one of the parts you have could be defective and you'd have to troubleshoot to see which it could be.

I don;t understand however how the motherboard could be recieving power but you say the power switch (the switch on the front of the case or the switch on the back of the power supply?) won;t work? could you explain more?

It's the power switch on the case that isn't doing anything, and yes, I do have it plugged into the board correctly. The switch on the actual power supply seems to work fine. But when I hit the case switch to actually boot the PC, I get nothing.

 

[Dial_tone]

Are ALL the power connections set? These newer supplies have 2-3 connections.

 

[gab9681]

Are ALL the power connections set? These newer supplies have 2-3 connections.

I have the standard 20 pin power connection and then a 4 pin for the P4 ready motherboards plugged in. The power supply also has that older 6 pin connector, but there is no place on the board for this one.

 

[digger]

And is it set so that you have to hold the power button for three seconds? New boxes can be funny that way. Check that the power button is on the right pair of mobo pins.

 

[gab9681]

And is it set so that you have to hold the power button for three seconds? New boxes can be funny that way. Check that the power button is on the right pair of mobo pins.

Checked and double-checked. Even tried reversing it just for fun. Nothing. It is a Raidmax Scorpio 686W case by the way.

 

[digger]

If it spun up for two seconds and then quit, I'd say it's not detecting CPU fan RPM -- or the BIOS might be fried. I've got an Athlon mobo in that condition.

If it's not spinning up anything at all, then it's not getting an OK signal on something major... check the CPU seating, memory seating, and my all-time favorite, a loose screw trapped behind the mobo. Try it with no drives connected just to see if you can get the CPU fan to spin.

 

[gab9681]

If it spun up for two seconds and then quit, I'd say it's not detecting CPU fan RPM -- or the BIOS might be fried. I've got an Athlon mobo in that condition.

If it's not spinning up anything at all, then it's not getting an OK signal on something major... check the CPU seating, memory seating, and my all-time favorite, a loose screw trapped behind the mobo. Try it with no drives connected just to see if you can get the CPU fan to spin.

It's not spinning up at all. The mobo is not even in the case anymore so no trapped screws, no drives attached either. Reseated the CPU, memory, heat sink, video card and all connections once again. If the CPU or memory were bad, it should still boot but I would be some beeps right? That was my understanding. I am not getting even to that point. Nothing appears on the monitor and nothing else fires other than the green LED on the mobo which is on as soon as I turn on the power supply. Any other ideas? I am still waiting on a callback from ASUS, but from what I hear, they will suggest the same things you bros did here.

 

[digger]

Sounds like it's DOA to me. If you've got another ATX mobo, you could verify the power supply by seeing if it gives you Power On Self Test (POST) beeps. Not many things left to check, you're right about that. Looks like either a bum board or a bad power supply. Neither one should have made it through quality control, but stuff happens.

 

[gab9681]

Sounds like it's DOA to me. If you've got another ATX mobo, you could verify the power supply by seeing if it gives you Power On Self Test (POST) beeps. Not many things left to check, you're right about that. Looks like either a bum board or a bad power supply. Neither one should have made it through quality control, but stuff happens.

Shit, that's what I was thinking. I will try yanking the power supply and trying it in a different PC. I'm gonna be pissed if it is the mobo. I can get a power supply anywhere, but no one around here carries that mobo so I had to order online, and I want it now damnit, right now. Oh well. I would through more K at ya Digger if I could, but "I must spread more......".

Thanks for ruining my day by the way. Just kidding.

 

[digger]

I Feel Your Pain. Got a nice case, big stick of memory, shiny new Athlon, and a useless piece of square green crap. Bought a replacement ROM and it didn't work.

On the other hand it would be the fourth machine under my desk.

 

[Burning_Inside]

ok so the wire from the motherboard to the case power switch in the front is connected?

did you check the thing on the back of the power supply, that little switch, usually orange, that you can slide back and forth to make sure it's in the right position?

 

[gab9681]

ok so the wire from the motherboard to the case power switch in the front is connected?

did you check the thing on the back of the power supply, that little switch, usually orange, that you can slide back and forth to make sure it's in the right position?

Yup, checked that too. I am going to take my supply in tonight to have it tested. That way I can at least narrow the issue down a bit.

 

[Code]

First, reseat every damn thing in the case.

If it still fails and you have the time/parts, swap shit out until you find the faulty hardware. If it never passes post, it might be a bad motherboard.

 

[Burning_Inside]

does the mobo come with an led troubleshooting bracket?

 

[Bonkme2]

Im with Digger on the power supply or the BIOS.

With nothing else connected the bios should beep to alert of a problem. So there's either not enough power to the bios to even start it, or the bios is bad.

 

[Ulcasterdropout]

been there, done that....
Good luck.

 

[B0ARDIN087]

where did u get it from, rma it from newegg if thats where u got it

 

[Buddy_Christ]

ASUS get back to you yet? i had some issues with my ASUS motherboard and their tech support was excellent.

 

[Board]

yo this sounds exactly like a problem i had:

i think the problem is you might have tightened the screws on the mobo too hard. i remember when i was buidling my computer, i did that and the the light on the mobo would light on but nothing else turned on when i flipped the switch. if you tighten the screws too much, it fucks up the mobo completely. i went through 3 boards before i reazlied what the problem was.

 

[gab9681]

Thanks for all the replies guys. Karma to you all. I had the power supply tested last night and it is good to go. I checked my VGA card, my memory and the CPU on another PC and they seem fine, so I am leaning towards the mobo being shit. ASUS finally got back to me and they just said to do the same things I already have done. I ordered it from www.computerbrain.com. They had the best price on www.pricewatch.com. So will RMA with no problems, so I should get the new board before the end of the week. Then I should be in good shape......hopefully...... It's frustrating, but it will be worth it in the end. Thanks again for the help and I will let you know how it goes when the new mobo gets in.