Built a new computer, doesn't wanna turn on.

Digito

Well, I'm typing this from Knoppix on my old computer since I got my shiny new computer built, all the parts put together, everything hooked up... then I hit the power-on button? And nothing happens. Checked the power supply switch, power supply is on. And the motherboard standby/power light is on as well, which seems to indicate that the motherboard IS getting power. Any idea what might be preventing my computer from turning on? To clarify a little bit there IS an older drive in the computer, an IDE drive that is using a borrowed (and quite old, but still functional) IDE cable, since that's the harddrive that has all my data. There's also a newer, SATA drive in the computer, but I'm not sure if improperly hooked up drives can actually prevent a computer from even powering on.

So uhh... help?


EDIT: Oh, could the PC speaker do anything? As the PC speaker cord was... nowhere to be seen. So whereever it is, it isn't hooked up, but from googling around it doesn't seem like that should actually hurt anything.

EDIT 2: It's working, but now there's a new problem. Swiftly, to page 2!

Khavall

Ooh ooh!


Ok, there are going to be 2-3 little tiny plug things, like, maybe a quarter of an inch if that, coming from the case, near the front.


Those plug in to the motherboard. I did the exact same thing the first time I built, had no idea what was wrong, noticed these few little cables, then realized that oh, they're what give the Mobo the command to actually start.


Alternatively, take a flathead screwdriver, and put it on the power button connector thingy(the two prong thing in a mess of little metal prongs), and see if it turns on then.

First make sure the cables are connected though.

Digito

For the record the power button and such in this case is located on the top of the computer, but yeah I see what you're saying. The system panel/case leads, but I already plugged those in exactly as the motherboard's instruction manual told me too. I even unplugged them all and carefully redid them one at a time to be sure, and so far? No change, the power button still seemingly does nothing.

Khavall

hm. Then I'm stumped. I'd still try completing the circuit manually, like with a screwdriver or something, since that'll at least tell you if the power switch is faulty or if there's another problem.

Digito

That sounds... REALLY unsafe.

Khavall

It's really not, if you look in the Seared cable thread, around page 6 or so they mention ways to ghetto-turn on a PC. Basically the power switch just completes a circuit with the motherboard that turns on the signal, and all you're doing is, well, that.

Digito

Hrm, well... so I look for the part of the motherboard that the power supply switch plugs into, then put a flathead screwdriver inbetween the two metal prongs, then see what happens when I try to turn it on? Could putting a case jumper/plugin the wrong way around affect anything too?

Ego

Is your CPU fan connected to the power connector that's specifically for the CPU? Lots of motherboards won't power on at all if the CPU fan is connected to the connector the system identifies with a case fan, for example.

Otherwise, reseat all hardware and power cables carefully but firmly (if a system won't POST at all but everything IS hooked up right, it always seems to be that something wasn't seated quite right).

You said you connected the switches to the front panel prongs on the mobo, did you hook them up going by the manual, or the by the silkscreening on the motherboard itself? Sometimes that tiny writing is pretty confusing for FP connectors.

Digito

I'll double check all of the cables, and yes the CPU fan is connected to the power connection specified for the CPU fan. And I hooked them up going by the manual, as well.

EDIT: Fixed a typo.

Ego

Digito wrote: »

Hrm, well... so I look for the part of the motherboard that the power supply switch plugs into, then put a flathead screwdriver inbetween the two metal prongs, then see what happens when I try to turn it on? Could putting a case jumper/plugin the wrong way around affect anything too?

http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?id=1192&cid=19&pg=20

Just to be sure we're all on the same page, your motherboard will have a bunch of pins sticking out of one clump like in the first picture on that page (though rarely in such a nicely colour coded fashion.)

You just take a screwdriver and bridge the two pins that the power supply switch lead connects to. That closes the circuit the same way pressing the power button on the case briefly does.

edit: nm from your previous post we ARE all on the same page .

Ego

Oh, and make sure your memory doesn't need to be in some odd slot configuration, though from the sounds of it you would have checked in the manual.

Forgot to say, but yes some jumpers could stop the system from booting at all, generally a 'clear CMOS' jumper will let the system turn on at which point the speaker BEEPS at you incessantly, but some model mobos (the one in the system I'm typing on right now for example) don't power on at all while the CMOS is being cleared. You just press the button, it's cleared, you hit the PSU switch and put the jumper back to the normal spot. Check that one, should be listed in the manual for sure, and in general it's a handy one to know regardless.

Digito

Let's see, I'm about to go double check the jumpers, while the case-motherboard plugins all appear to be in order. Would having any of those plugged in backwards/turned around stop things from working? And my RAM is indeed dual channel, but according to the motherboard manual appears to be installed correctly.

However while double checking the drive connections, I noticed the power supply plugin for my SATA HD is titled "S-ATA 1" while the one used in the DVD drive is "S-ATA 4", do these HAVE to be plugged in in order? Could this be the cause of my computer refusing to power on/POST?

EDIT: To clarify, do I have to use S-ATA 1 to plug in one drive then S-ATA 2 for the other, power-supply wise?

And does it matter where their SATA cables actually plug into, or does any old SATA slot work?

Khavall

SATA, since it has no Jumpers, really are pretty much plug+play, as far as I know, unless you have some fucking insanely awkward Mobo.

Q_Prime

sata arranges drives based on the slot it's plugged into, they're all numbered so it doesn't need jumpers to specify master/slave, etc.

Digito

Tiiiiny question, how can I tell if my CPU needs a 4pin power supply plugin or an 8pin? I just realized none of my manuals specifiy this, and I'm not sure if I could do any damage by giving the CPU too much power via plugging in both of my power supplies 4pin CPU plugins. (called CPU 1 and CPU 2 respectively.)

Q_Prime

what kind of processor is it, and what kind of motherboard is it?

Q_Prime

it appears that i'm not allowed to edit my posts, so i should revise my request, just post everything in your new computer.

LaCabra

Wait, so you tried the screwdriver thing and it's not working?

Digito

Ok I just tried the ghetto-boot thing with the screwdriver? And it WORKED.

... so uhh, what do I do from here? I can't keep doing that, my parents would KILL me if they knew I was using a screwdriver to trick-boot my computer.

Ego

Generally speaking if your motherboard has power connectors, you'll need to connect your PSU to all of them, the motherboard itself regulates the voltage that goes to your CPU. But yes, as Q_Prime said, please post your cpu/motherboard.

The power supply plug-ins you're talking about are each four prongs in a 2x2 square, right?

Ego

Nevermind! Haha, if your power switch is broken, you can buy new ones at electronics stores (or a doorbell at a hardware store if you can't find a computer switch in town), and for now you can connect your reset switch to the power switch leads and use that to turn on/off your computer.

Congrats, first build and you did everything right.

Q_Prime

ah, then just take the front panel off the case, pop out the reset button, move it to where the power button was and plug it in, that's what i did when i busted my power button and it worked great till i replaced my case. (my old case was 6 years old.)

Transparent

Or for a temporary solution just plus reset into the power button connector and use the reset button.

Q_Prime

the actual outer reset buttons on most cases are half or 1/4 the side of the power button, which is why i suggested moving the actual trigger pieces around so that he can use the reset trigger with the 'power button'

Ego

Ah yes I see what Q_Prime is saying. The actual switch mechanisms for the reset and power switch are (generally) identical, swapping the mechanisms would mean that Digito could use the power switch instead of the reset switch to trigger the power-on.

Digito

Alright, bit of an update as to the situation. Computer more or less works, I even got Win XP on it. Huz-ZAH do I feel good or what.

... except the internet isn't working on it. I plug the Ethernet cable into the LAN port, the LAN port commences with the epic nonstop blinking that LAN ports usually do, aaaand nothing. Windows won't go online (says it can't get a "network address") and even the Asus Express Gate won't go online, simply saying that it's disconnected/nothing is in the LAN port.

I already installed the motherboard Ethernet controller, which I'm assuming would be the driver for it... what else might I have missed? Should I just go ahead and make a new thread for this too?

Transparent

Do you have a router, or do you plug right into a cable modem?

If you don't have a router, power cycle your cable modem between unplugging it form your old system and plugging it into your new one.

Digito

No router, we use a hub instead, although hooking it up directly to the modem didn't work either.

And... power cycle? Do you mean like unplugging the modem itself/killing the power to it and then powering it back on from scratch? Mind if I ask what that might do/how might that make a difference?

Not to sound snappy, I'm just trying to get a better understanding for what's actually happening when I do all this stuff.

Transparent

The cable modem gives out IP addresses based on MAC addresses. So if you're paying for one address, and you hook two computers into a hub, only the first computer to talk to the modem after you plug it in gets the internet.

Digito

Thing is, we're paying for two IP addresses. And my mother claims she's switched computers before (thus switching the MAC address) and it continued to work fine with both the hub and modem. Plus hooking it up directly to the modem didn't fix it either, but... so I just shut down the modem completely, plug in the new computer, THEN turn on the modem after leaving the modem off for... we'll say five minutes?

I'm also gonna go ahead and reinstall the Ethernet drivers and whatnot while I'm at it, too.

Dunadan019

Digito wrote: »

No router, we use a hub instead, although hooking it up directly to the modem didn't work either.

And... power cycle? Do you mean like unplugging the modem itself/killing the power to it and then powering it back on from scratch? Mind if I ask what that might do/how might that make a difference?

Not to sound snappy, I'm just trying to get a better understanding for what's actually happening when I do all this stuff.

power cycling (turning it off and back on again) fixes about 90% of all electrical problems.

if that doesnt work then you can try updating the driver for your ethernet port or call support from your mobo. ethernet can be fickle so its hard to have a solid fix besides power cycling the modem and hub or updating drivers.

you could also go buy a PCI ethernet card if you cant get it to work.

Transparent

It doesn't even have to be 5 minutes. Turn it off, turn it on immediately, and the modem will give IP addresses to the first two computers that request them. Plugging a computer in directly looks the same to it as plugging it in through a hub, that's why plugging your computer into the modem directly didn't fix anything.

EDIT: If you leave a computer off the network for long enough its IP address lease will expire on its own, allowing another computer to connect. But this could take up to a day.

LaCabra

Transparent wrote: »

It doesn't even have to be 5 minutes. Turn it off, turn it on immediately, and the modem will give IP addresses to the first two computers that request them. Plugging a computer in directly looks the same to it as plugging it in through a hub, that's why plugging your computer into the modem directly didn't fix anything.

EDIT: If you leave a computer off the network for long enough its IP address lease will expire on its own, allowing another computer to connect. But this could take up to a day.

or you could do it manually with ipconfig /release /renew

Digito

Just popping in to say IT WORKS! AHAHAHA UNLIMITED POWER IS AT MY FINGERSTIPS.

Wow, the feeling from actually building your own computer, and seeing it all finally work is... something else alright. Well, I think that about wraps that up, although I'll drop by if I have any future problems! It's been an amazing experience, and the system is just... jaw dropping, at least, compared to what I used to have.

Transparent

LaCabra wrote: »

Transparent wrote: »

It doesn't even have to be 5 minutes. Turn it off, turn it on immediately, and the modem will give IP addresses to the first two computers that request them. Plugging a computer in directly looks the same to it as plugging it in through a hub, that's why plugging your computer into the modem directly didn't fix anything.

EDIT: If you leave a computer off the network for long enough its IP address lease will expire on its own, allowing another computer to connect. But this could take up to a day.

or you could do it manually with ipconfig /release /renew

I'm not sure if that works, but it's totally possible. Only not a renew, ipconfig /release, turn old computer off, then hopefully the new computer can get an address. If that works it'd be cool, but typically I've already got the new equipment hooked up by the time I realize I can't get an IP address. Power cycling the modem is easier at that point.

Transparent

Digito wrote: »

Just popping in to say IT WORKS! AHAHAHA UNLIMITED POWER IS AT MY FINGERSTIPS.

Wow, the feeling from actually building your own computer, and seeing it all finally work is... something else alright. Well, I think that about wraps that up, although I'll drop by if I have any future problems! It's been an amazing experience, and the system is just... jaw dropping, at least, compared to what I used to have.

Congrats!

LaCabra

Transparent wrote: »

LaCabra wrote: »

Transparent wrote: »

It doesn't even have to be 5 minutes. Turn it off, turn it on immediately, and the modem will give IP addresses to the first two computers that request them. Plugging a computer in directly looks the same to it as plugging it in through a hub, that's why plugging your computer into the modem directly didn't fix anything.

EDIT: If you leave a computer off the network for long enough its IP address lease will expire on its own, allowing another computer to connect. But this could take up to a day.

or you could do it manually with ipconfig /release /renew

I'm not sure if that works, but it's totally possible. Only not a renew, ipconfig /release, turn old computer off, then hopefully the new computer can get an address. If that works it'd be cool, but typically I've already got the new equipment hooked up by the time I realize I can't get an IP address. Power cycling the modem is easier at that point.

actually i think it'd be
-release
-turn off other computer
-renew
because when you manually release it doesn't tend to look for another one unless you unplug the network cable or something.

but that's all irrelevant at this stage, congrats to the digtron