4-pin connector problem

[noexcuse4you]

OK, I just received my MSI K9N SLI Platinum motherboard and AMD Athlon 64 3500+ processor. I installed them in my Antec Sonata II case along with hard drive, cd-rom, video card, and floppy drive. The RAM hadn't come yet. Then for some unknown reason, I decided to turned it on to see if it would go into the bios so I could check the processor for DOA. Zipzoomfly.com only has a 15 day return policy on processors and my ram was on backorder.

I turned it on and I get lights and it seemed to be running, but nothing was displayed on the screen. So I look at the motherboard and the 4-pin CPU power connector wasn't connected. I plug it in....ZAP! Turns out the power was still on...I know I'm a dumb ass.

I turned it back off and plugged in the 4-pin connector and turned it back on. The power stays on for less than a second, the fans jump and the light goes on and then goes off, I hear capacitors start to charge and then stop. I disconnected the 4-pin connector, and all is well, fans spin, hard drive wrrrrrrrs, capacitors charging.

I removed the processor. It doesn't look scorched or fried or anything. I kept the 4-pin connector plugged in and same thing, starts then immediately stops. Disconnect 4-pin connector, all is well.

Before I go crazy and start spending a crap load more money, what should I replace? If anything. Because there isn't any RAM, would this problem have happened even if the connector had been properly plugged in, system starts then immediately turn off? Should I attempt to install the RAM when it gets here or will it be fried?

Could it possibly be the power supply was fried? or just the motherboard? or the CPU? or all 3?

Any help is appreciated. I've done countless searches on the internet for help, but I decided to post instead. Hopefully when I RMA they won't find out I was a dumb ass and will send me a new product.

Thank you,
Kyle.

 

[antichrysler]

If you don't have RAM it WILL NOT post, or even bring up the BIOS screen. The absolute most you will get is some sort of error code from the motherboard. Some motherboards use beep codes and others use a speech reporter which will tell you the problem through your speakers if your motherboard has onboard sound.

When you are trying this out make sure the 4 pin power connector is connected as well.

Hope that helps

 

[linux_0]

If you don't have RAM it WILL NOT post, or even bring up the BIOS screen. The absolute most you will get is some sort of error code from the motherboard. Some motherboards use beep codes and others use a speech reporter which will tell you the problem through your speakers if your motherboard has onboard sound.

When you are trying this out make sure the 4 pin power connector is connected as well.

Hope that helps

Whoops I guess this topic was posted twice...

As antichrysler said: no RAM = no POST


Your board already has a 24pin ATX connector so the square 4pin +12V P4 connector is probably NOT required.

Furthermore I do not believe the rectangular 4pin +5V -5V -12V +12V molex connector is also not required unless you use SLI.



Here's my post from the dupe post:


Your board isn't going to work without RAM.

It doesn't sound like it's damaged but I would memtest it for 8-12 hours and run prime95 to make sure.

Download

http://memtest86.com/memtest86-3.2.iso.zip

+

http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/download/ISORecorderV2RC1.msi

Unzip memtest86 and record the ISO to a CDR with ISORecorder ( you must have XP SP2 ).

http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/HowTo.htm


Also you could try running Knoppix and see if you have any stability issues.

http://www.kernel.org/pub/dist/knoppix/KNOPPIX_V5.0.1CD-2006-06-01-EN.iso

http://www.kernel.org/pub/dist/knoppix/knoppix-dvd/KNOPPIX_V5.0.1DVD-2006-06-01-EN.iso

you can get prime95 here: http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm

 

[mpjesse]

this is funny

 

[hella-d]

LMFAO, I Did The Same Thing On My Chaintech Zenith, I Coulnt Believe It, I Didnt Fry It, Just Powered It Down!, I Unpluged It, I Pluged It Back And Bingo! It Booted, Havent Had A Problem Since.

P.S Only Differance Is Mine Had Memory In It.

 

[tahirali]

I think your motherboard is screwed.

 

[linux_0]

I think your motherboard is screwed.

Why all the love???


The motherboard is most likely just fine.

 

[tahirali]

I had some experiences in the past. Let met begin.

When I had P1 266Mhz (or somthing like that)
I pulled the sound card off from the slot while the system was still running. The computer crashed but nothing happend. I turn it off and after a few seconds i put the sound card back and turned on the computer and i heard a hess and pop. I had fried the Chipset.

In another Pentium 366Mhz i pulled out a sound card. the system was in standby mode. I got a little a few amps from the sound card and made me jump. This time the Motherboard was fine but the sound cards amplifir ic was burned.

And this guy has put the four pin connector(+12,+12,GND,GND) to the mobo while it was still on(at least in standby mode). It must had destroyed some parts of the mobo. and this connector is close to the cpu and the cpu voltage regulators so it must also supply power to the cpu. just think what will happen if u suddenly supply power.

He also says that he can hear the Capcitor Chargin and then nothing. Well i never heard Capcitors Charging. It must be something frying in the mobo.

But still the mobo can be fine but he will have to check the mobo, cpu, and gpu.

 

[tahirali]

I had some experiences in the past. Let met begin.

When I had P1 266Mhz (or somthing like that)
I pulled the sound card off from the slot while the system was still running. The computer crashed but nothing happend. I turn it off and after a few seconds i put the sound card back and turned on the computer and i heard a hess and pop. I had fried the Chipset.

In another Pentium 366Mhz i pulled out a sound card. the system was in standby mode. I got a little a few amps from the sound card and made me jump. This time the Motherboard was fine but the sound cards amplifir ic was burned.

And this guy has put the four pin connector(+12,+12,GND,GND) to the mobo while it was still on(at least in standby mode). It must had destroyed some parts of the mobo. and this connector is close to the cpu and the cpu voltage regulators so it must also supply power to the cpu. just think what will happen if u suddenly supply power.

He also says that he can hear the Capcitor Chargin and then nothing. Well i never heard Capcitors Charging. It must be something frying in the mobo.

But still the mobo can be fine but he will have to check the mobo, cpu, and gpu.

 

[Sonic_Reducer]

try this , disconnect your psu from the plug and then press the power button a 3 or 4 times, then try and turn your computer on again it should not post but i should send dome beep code due to lack of memory. i hope i can help i think your board isn't burned ,but the capacitors must be charged and due to protection against burn they to that instant off thing.

just my ideia hope it can help.

 

[Grimmy]

I would say there is more of a chance the PSU on that particular rail would be most affected, maybe perhaps weakened.

Since the 4 pin on the board is for extra power for SLI mode, really hard to say if any other component on the MB was affected from the spark.

If it boots up properly with the ram installed, then only time will tell when things start to act goofey, then eventually fail if that spark took some kind of toll on the MB.

 

[noexcuse4you]

OK, I got some ram, OCZ DDR2-800 Platinum XTC 2x512mb, and hooked everything back up. I still have the same problem. Looks like I'll be RMAing this one. I'll suck it up to experience. Thanks guys!

-Kyle.

 

[antichrysler]

I just hope you didn't cook anything else in your system...

I have to admit though... after reading about the guy who tried to hotswap his sound card..... that was pretty funny. Makes for a good study break when I'm studying for my business law final tomorrow

 

[tahirali]

Becarefull when u get your things back. I forgot to mention that I also have fried two psu