PC build #2 - No power. . .kind of.

DasUberEdward

Okay so i've been trying to rebuild a PC that blew a capacitor in the motherboard. The PC was getting up there in age and if I recall the original system specs right it was 2.4 GHZ with a 120GB HD and 512MB of ram with a Nvidia Geforce FX something or other. The power supply is a 300W max Powerman.

I ordered a new motherboard

whoops. the old processor is a socket T.

I ordered a new processor.

Everything seems to be compatible unless I am missing something. Anyway I get everything plugged in and I flip on the power switch at the back of the PSU. The stand by light is on so I press the power button. . .and nothing.

I've gone through all of my connections and fiddled about with just about all I can find but I have no idea what could be causing the issue. It's just dead but there's a standby light. Any ideas?

saint2e

I think on my mobo there were actually two sockets for power connections. When I was first setting it up, I plugged one in, but not the other and got something similar.

Just make sure all the power sockets are plugged in accordingly.

DasUberEdward

Would the standby light turn on if it wasn't plugged in properly? That's really throwing me off.

saint2e

That's what happened with me. I too was very confused, then one of my friends pointed out that recent motherboards now have two power inputs, which was news to me.

Last time I had done a PC was 3 years prior. I would just scour your motherboard manual and make sure all ports are plugged in accordingly.

DasUberEdward

I changed the front panel connections and this time when I turned the power on the PSU the CPU fan spun for maybe a single rotation. Still no dice with the power button. Although on seemingly random occasions the fan will spin briefly if I press the power button.

saint2e

Do you just have the motherboard plugged in at this point, or do you have any other components attached? I'd disconnect everything, save for the motherboard/CPU and try to post.

Then if that worked, add in more components and find out what the cause is.

Tofystedeth

As with the above, make sure the 4 pin plug is also connected. Those got added with P4 motherboards I believe? Somewhere around 5 years ago I first started seeing em. Have you tried taking the switch out of the button and doing it manually?

Thanatos

You have on-board video, or a card?

Because 300W is a pretty weak power source, these days.

Tofystedeth

That's true, but it should at least be accomplishing something before it faints.

saint2e

Tofystedeth wrote: »

As with the above, make sure the 4 pin plug is also connected. Those got added with P4 motherboards I believe? Somewhere around 5 years ago I first started seeing em. Have you tried taking the switch out of the button and doing it manually?

This is what I forgot about when I was setting up my PC. Thank you for putting into words what I was trying to remember.

OP, if you've done the same things I did, this is probably your problem.

DasUberEdward

This entire job has been compromised by outdated parts. It now has power. The problem was just with the case and some outdated labeling which ended up making the manual's set up for the front panel incorrect.

Anyway now I have no video. I'm pretty close to giving up on this thing I put my first rig together with relative ease but I ordered all of the parts with a specific build in mind. This Frankenstein bullshit is getting out of hand. I was unable to acquire a video signal using either onboard or the AGP slot. Tried multiple monitors and all were failures i'm not too sure how to guess and check to see if a video card is working properly. Is there a single source that would prevent both the video card and the on board video from working properly? Thanks for all of the input so far this is incredibly frustrating. I move out in two days and if I can't get this running my parents will be without a PC.

Andrew Ryan

At a glance it sounds like a power issue. Before blaming the 300w as insufficient (a Micro-ATX tends not to be greedy) Check on the motherboard for a secondary power plug. Often there will be two plugs, the standard 24 pin connector and a secondary 4 pin connector. If the 4 pin connector isn't plugged in then the system will boot for an instant, light up, spin up fans, and then power down imeadiately.

You mentioned it will power on now but you get no video, does the computer POST? (Power On Self Test) it should give you a series of beeps, generally 2 short beeps indicate everything is working as it should.

If it does not I'd look at the ram as the next culprit, if your computer was considerably old as a Socket T suggests then the ram may not be compatable with your new motherboard.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820144151

Here is 1 gig of DDR2 533 for about 20$, if the system doesn't post I'd look at replacing your RAM with this.

DasUberEdward

I'll take a look at the ram when I wake up. There's no POST. No beeps. No video. Everything seems to be running though.