New system won't boot

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Cams
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New system won't boot

Post by Cams » Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:51 pm

You can all imagine the feeling. You do research, you decide to wait, not enough money to upgrade, wait a while. Finally the day comes, you order your bits then wait for them to arrive. They finally arrive, you set aside an evening of fun building the new system. You spent time doing it as neatly as you can, hiding cables, etc. You hit the power button, the fans spin and then... nothing.

Yep, that's right. There is nothing getting through to fire up the monitor from standby. I know the PSU is fine. I know the monitor and video card are fine. The CPU, motherboard, RAM are all new; I just bought them.
  • Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.66GHz 12MB-cache (1333FSB) Processor - OEM
  • Asus P5Q Pro Turbo Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
  • Kingston HyperX 8GB (4x2GB) DDR2 8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel
With or without my hard drive plugged in, nothing happens. I'm not sure whether the case speaker works but it's not making any beeps. How do I check what's wrong? Do I just repack the whole lot and send everything back for testing? I built it so carefully so I'm sure that the CPU is seated properly, same with the RAM. This is so disappointing.

moobags
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Re: New system won't boot

Post by moobags » Tue Aug 11, 2009 11:47 pm

Heh.. Rule #1 of building a computer - Before spending hours cabling/putting everything into your new case and finding it doesnt work, install the CPU/RAM and see if the thing posts. That way, if it doesn't, you haven't wasted hours both putting it all together and pulling it apart. I too learnt that lesson the hard way.

Now that you are at this point tho, there is a million things it could be. Are you 100% SURE that the GFX/PSU is fine? do you have spares that you can try booting it with? sounds to me like it could be one of them...

If you are sure, you need to eliminate the other things.

- ensure all the mobo cables are in the right spot and plugged in.
- eliminate the RAM (try booting it with only 1 stick at a time). better yet try it with a different stick altogether (if possible)
- Try a CMOS reset.

The mobo and CPU will be harder to test. I'm guessing you don't have a spare mobo with that socket type/a spare CPU that will fit in that mobo? Does a friend?

Otherwise yeh, its off to the manufacturer..

Cams
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Re: New system won't boot

Post by Cams » Wed Aug 12, 2009 12:32 am

moobags wrote:Heh.. Rule #1 of building a computer - Before spending hours cabling/putting everything into your new case and finding it doesnt work, install the CPU/RAM and see if the thing posts. That way, if it doesn't, you haven't wasted hours both putting it all together and pulling it apart. I too learnt that lesson the hard way.
Tell me about it. I could have saved literally hours if I'd just tested the damn thing straight out the box. Grrr. Lesson learned the hard way.

I'm sure about the PSU and video card as I my PC died recently and I had the parts tested to diagnose what turned out to be a fried motherboard. I did have one query about the PSU power connectors. The 20-pin connector is obvious. Usually I would also use the 4-pin connector, and indeed that is what I did. That's the 12v connector, isn't it? However, the motherboard has a socket for an 8-pin connector with a cap over four of the holes, thereby making it effectively a 4-pin socket. So I put the 4-pin connector into the four holes that were exposed.

The PSU (Seasonic S12 SS550HT) has three 6-pin connectors (for video cards I'm guessing) and I think it also has an 8-pin connector. (I'm at work just now and can't check). I did look up Seasonic's site, but it was no help, nor was the motherboard manual. Could it be worth trying the 8-pin connector in the motherboard?

Cams
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Post by Cams » Wed Aug 12, 2009 1:01 am

I found an image that shows the connectors on the PSU

Link to newegg
  • There's a 20+4 pin connector, which fits in only one place on my motherboard.
  • There's a 4-pin CPU power connector, which I've put in the four exposed holes on the 8-hole socket (with the left-most 4 holes covered with a cap).
  • There's also an 8-pin CPU power connector. What's that for? Could I expose the other 4 holes and try the 8-pin connector?
Here is an image of the motherboard layout:

link to Asus.com

You can see the 8-hole socket in the top right hand corner, between the two heatsinks. There are no holes exposed in the image.

I'm sincerely hoping that that's all I'm doing wrong!

lodestar
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Re: New system won't boot

Post by lodestar » Wed Aug 12, 2009 2:03 am

Cams wrote:I'm sure about the PSU and video card as I my PC died recently and I had the parts tested to diagnose what turned out to be a fried motherboard.
Given that history I would be extremely suspicious about the PSU. It may be that it passes a basic diagnostic test, but it does not necessarily mean that it is able to handle the startup current produced by a motherboard.

If the PSU is working and the board is being powered there should be a status LED illuminated in the bottom centre edge of the motherboard. The LED is located in the gap between the round battery and the 1394 socket. It is labelled SB_PWR. It should be illuminated when the PSU is connected and powered from the mains.

Now just checking the obvious, your power lead to the PSU is OK is it? Not a blown fuse, can you substitute a known to be working alternative.

The eight pin PSU plug (black and yellow wires) - yes by all means try it, but it should not make a difference. It is really there just to provide some margin for highly over-clocked CPUs.

Cams
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Post by Cams » Wed Aug 12, 2009 2:56 am

Just dashed home -- one of the few perks of being self employed!
I tested the 8-pin power connector and it made no difference. I then took a working PSU from another computer and got the same result.

The green light on the motherboard lights up with both. I didn't actually consider the power lead, though I suspect that if that were faulty the green light wouldn't come on and the fans wouldn't power up?

i'm going to call to get an RMA, check the processor tonight (just a visual check to make doubly sure it's in the right way) and start again. I don't have a spare motherboard or processor.

Just as a matter of interest, is there a device that will test motherboards?

Thanks all for your posts. I do not know what I would do without SPCR.

Cams

lodestar
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Post by lodestar » Wed Aug 12, 2009 3:26 am

I think that your tests eliminate the PSU.

What I would do next is this. Disconnect any drives, - hard, optical etc - both power and data leads. So that all you have is the motherboard, cpu, memory and video card. Remove one pair of your four RAM sticks. Try to start. If this doesn't work, then remove that pair and replace with the other pair and try again.

Is is possible to substitute the video card? Other than that I think you are into RMA territory.

Cams
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Post by Cams » Wed Aug 12, 2009 3:34 am

Already tried all those things lodestar. The one thing I haven't yet tried is to clear the CMOS. I called the supplier and he suggested that as well. I'll have to try and dash home later to try that, otherwise I'll lose a week (RMA pickup, we're on an island, no pickups on Friday/Monday, that sort of thing). If only my wife was tech enough to try it for me...

alleycat
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Post by alleycat » Wed Aug 12, 2009 3:39 am

Sorry to hear of your problems. It might be a long shot, but make sure there is nothing shorting the motherboard or anything else. I once had a similar problem and luckily noticed the video card was just touching part of the case.

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