1.Did you carefully read the motherboard owners manual?
Yes. Multiple times. It even included some youtube videos to follow as instructions for setting the power switch and LED cables, which I made sure to follow suit.
2. Did you plug in the 4/8-pin CPU power connector located near the CPU socket?
Yes. The G55 mobo I have has an 8-pin socket, which corresponded with an 8-pin cable my PSU, which I'm sure isn't the cable(s) to that goes to the GPU.
3. Did you install the standoffs under the motherboard?
I am using the Thermaltake Urban S31, which has 9 pre-installed standoffs. I removed the motherboard twice to make sure there were no other standoffs touching the motherboard. No other metal seems to be touching it.
4.Did you verify that the video card is fully seated?
Yes, I heard it click into place and made sure to screw it down into the corresponding PCI-e door. Also plugged in the two connectors from the PSU mentioned earlier.
5.Did you attach ALL the required power connector(s) to the video card?
See above.
6. Have you tried booting with just one stick of RAM installed?
I will try this when I get home today, but something tells me this couldn't solve the issue. I guess we'll see!
7.Did you verify that all memory modules are fully inserted?
Triple checked that they are clicked into place.
8. Did you verify in the owners manual that you're using the correct RAM slots?
The G55 mobo has 4 DIMM slots, 2 blue and 2 black. I am using the black slots currently, the ones that are further from the CPU.
9.Did you remove the plastic guard over the CPU socket?
Yup! I didn't do the "pop" method; just removed it with my hand when installing the CPU.
10.Did you install the CPU correctly?
To the best of my knowledge, yes. This was the part that made me a little nervous initially, since pressing down the CPU latch gave a lot of resistance, and seemed to emit a very faint crumbling noise (how-to videos say that is normal?). I even removed the processor after doing this and checked if any pins were bent. Cosmetically, it all appeared fine, so I put it back in. I also made sure the gold corner of the CPU was in the bottom left of the socket and that it was in correctly in line both times I inserted it.
11.Are there any bent pins on the motherboard/CPU?
For CPU, see above. On the mobo, everything seems to check out fine. I really made sure not to force anything in when attaching my cables.
12. If using an after market CPU cooler, did you get any thermal paste on the motherboard, CPU socket, or CPU pins?
I am using a Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO. I used the (small) dot method to apply my thermal paste in the center of the CPU. I checked everywhere around the socket to see if any excess got anywhere, but it seems to be fine, thank heavens!
13.Is the CPU fan plugged in?
Yes, this fan is plugged in to the "CPUFAN1" pins on the top of the board.
14. If using a stock cooler, was the thermal material on the base of the cooler free of foreign material, and did you remove any protective covering?
Not using one at the moment.
15. Are any loose screws laying on the motherboard, or jammed against it? Are there any wires run directly under the motherboard?
Although I'm sure there are no loose screws hanging around currently, I was a little concerned about some dropped screws hitting the mobo when I was at the stage of securing the board to the case. They fell from about less than a half of a foot's height. Of course I picked them up and made sure there were no others, but it was a small concern. Any thoughts?
16.Did you ensure you discharged all static electricity before touching any of your components?
As far as my memory permits, I made sure to get grounded by touching one of my case panels each time I had to touch the inside of the machine. There may have been a couple of times I forgot to do so, but I didn't notice any peculiarities.
17.Did you install the system speaker
Yes, with the text writing "SPEAKER" facing downwards, like the MSI tutorial video(s) suggest. No sounds have been emitted from there at all.
18.Did you read the instructions in the manual on how to properly connect the front panel plugs?
I made sure to follow this exactly how it's presented in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPELIdVNZUI
I even tried switching the reset and power SW cables, but that didn't change anything. The only indication of power entering the system I'm seeing is a faint red light coming from the hard drive reading light. I have tried plugging in only the power SW and reset buttons as well, but nothing happens.
19.Did you turn on the power supply switch located on the back of the PSU?
Yes. The PSU DOES start running, albeit very quietly. Not sure if the fan is running or not, but I definitely hear electricity running inside of it. However, this does not allow me to power the system.
20.Is your CPU supported by the BIOS revision installed on your motherboard?
My CPU is an i5 4670K, placed in an MSI z87 G55. I'm not sure how to find this information, but I would think these two items would be compatible with eachother, as they are from around the same time?
21.Have you tried resetting the CMOS?
Yes. I removed the BIOS battery for about 30 seconds and placed it back in. I haven't actually pressed the CMOS reset button, but it wouldn't hurt to try.
22. If you have integrated video and a video card, try the integrated video port. I tried booting the machine with no video inputs attached at all, with the GPU completely detached, and there's still no power. I don't think it's a video issue at this point.
23. Make certain all cables and components including RAM and expansion cards are tight within their sockets.
I checked all necessary cables (24-pin PSU, 8-pin PSU, HDD power, Power/reset SW, indicator LEDs) were secured and reseated numerous times. Nothing seems to be loose or in the wrong area.
I even tried the PSU jumpstart trick - I removed all the PSU's connectors from all parts of the computer and inserted a paperclip into the green and black areas of the 24 pin cable. Once the PSU was plugged into a power source and switched on, the PSU did in fact start running, fans and all, which leads me to believe this PSU isn't totally dead.
Other info: I have not noticed ANY indicator lights on the mobo, nor do I think there is any area on it where lights were included.
-I also checked to see if any capacitors/transistors on the mobo were busted, and everything looks fine to me!
I'm stumped by this. I work in the IT field and work on issues like this frequently, and all my troubleshooting ideas are mostly exhausted! A couple things I still need to try:
-Plugging the PSU INTO all necessary areas of the computer, THEN jump-starting it to see if it powers on.
-Someone mentioned trying to rapidly click the power button and seeing if it kicks on then. I don't know if this will lead to anything, but I guess I'll see!
Any other suggestions are GREATLY appreciated. I'd hate to see money go to waste on this machine, or find that one of my components is dead.
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