New build/upgrade won't boot

Dalbrain

Distinguished
Aug 17, 2006
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old equipment included in new build:
Dell 250w PSU
Pentium 4 2.4ghz

new equipment:
CM Stacker case
PC Chips P25G v3 motherboard P4M4800CE Socket 478
(onboard audio and video)
Crucial 512mbx2 DDR400 2.8v
Aspire Apevia 520w PSU
Seagate 320gb HD 7k 16m SATA2

Was originally working with a Dell motherboard and a WD IDE hard drive that crashed. Took system to CompUSA who put in a new drive, they could not get XP to boot so told me I needed new motherboard. At least they took the drive back and didn't charge me for it.

Case has room for two power supplies and since new one is 24-pin (won't fit motherboard), thought I could use the old Dell PSU to plug into motherboard and new PSU would just power drives, fans, etc. Faulty assumption?

Couldn't get anything to power on, so tried clearing CMOS and just using the old PSU...CPU fan and case fan started working but still can't boot to BIOS, XP CD or motherboard utility CD.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Am starting to feel I was overly ambitious...
 

waylander

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Nov 23, 2004
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Ok first of all the aspire psu and pc chips motherboard both really suck... do not belong in a case like the stacker.

Second the psu is a 20+4 motherboard power connector... if you look closely at it you'll see that the last 4 pins on one end can be clipped off (not cut off) so there should be no issues with using it.

Try booting with only the motherboard, cpu, ONE (1) stick of ram (you don't need a hdd to POST). Reseat everything to make sure they are installed correctly. Make sure all the power cables are connected correctly. Make sure no pins on the cpu were bent when you installed it.

Also, if you are running XP you will probably have to format and reinstall it as it doesn't like changes in cpu or motherboard.
 

zeuson

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Aug 8, 2006
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Most Dell power supply is not standard. The motherboard connector pin arrangement is different and won't work with other motherboards. I hope you haven't damaged your motherboard yet.