CPU Cooler Question

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Matt Walter wrote:

> I'm in the first hour of building my first-ever homebuilt PC.
> Purchased a Soyo bare-bones pre-assembled kit w/ a case, power supply,
> case fan, and motherboard. Also brought home RAM, a new processor and
> a CPU Cooler.
>
> I've hooked up all of the above components and figured I'd turn the
> power on to see if anything happens before I rip the drives out of my
> existing Dell. None of the four fans start (power supply, cpu cooler
> fan, case fan, and a small fan on the motherboard itself) however, a
> green LED on the motherboard lights up and stays lit until I turn the
> power supply off, at which point it emits a sorry sounding beep.

No offense intended but just how are you 'turning on the power'? Because
your description of turning the power supply off suggests to me that
perhaps you're expecting it to 'turn on' by simply applying power to the
PSU, but it won't power up unless you use the front panel power switch
inputs on the motherboard.


> Is it too early to tell if I have something defective, or do I need to
> hook up my disk drives and video card before the fans will begin to
> show life?

You don't need the hard drive for a 'first test' but powering it up with no
video card is razor close to meaningless because even if the 'fans spin',
just about the only thing you could possibly see with no video card, that
doesn't mean the processor, or anything else, is working properly.


> Another question, the cpu cooler had heat sink compound pre-applied to
> it. Now that I've removed the cooler, do I need to apply additional
> heat sink compound when I re-attach the heat sink?

You need to completely remove the old and apply new thermal compound.

>
> Appreciate the help,
> Matt