Build Finished - Power surge then nothing...

[Bullion]

Just finished a motherboard swap for my old PC.

I am 90% positive I have everything plugged in correctly however, I push the power button and everthing starts to power up (CPU fan, HDD, etc.) but then it almost immediately stops and dies. Definitely 'feels' like the Power Supply is shutting itself off, I just cant find the reason

I was only unsure about the really annoying Power/Reset/LED cables, so i took them all out except for the power one (which only works one way, i tried it several different ways) but same problem.

Also, I have to switch off and switch on the PSU after each attempt, dont know if thats a significant symptom.

I am not sure if I have enough power, however, all i did was switch mobos, so I assumed it would still be ok.

Thanks in advance for any tips!

 

[Bullion]

Just for some additional info, my build is:

P4 2.8w HT
ASrock P4i65g
1GB (2x512) PC3200 Dual Channel
MSI 7600GS
250GB WD sata2
Pioneer 114 DVD-RW
450W enermax

Thanks again,

Jonathan

 

[jdunning01]

I had the exact same issue once, where I'd turn on the power and it would start the fans, then just shut back down. Hit power again, same thing. I forgot the 4 pin power connection to the MB... solved the problem .

 

[Bullion]

Thanks for the fast response jd, it actually reinspired me to unplug and replug everything to make sure it was secure and attached.

20 pin, 4 Pin, CPU fan, PSU fan, Speaker, Power Button, DVD audio, and the sata cable are all i have attached, and all are secure :?

 

[techgeek]

You could try plugging in only the stuff you need to POST, which would be ATX connector, power connector to graphics card (if it has one), and 4 pin 12V. You may even want to lose any add-in cards (if you have any). Leave all the drives (optical and HDD) unplugged. See if it will POST. If it will then starting adding things back in. It's possible that your PSU was near it's limit and changing the motherboard has pushed it too far. The other option is something wasn't connected correctly. You can check to see that all the unused molex connectors are safely away from the case. The female molex pins aren't recessed very far, so if you have one that is pushing up against a pointy corner, it could be shorting it out. Also make sure that the AC cord at the back of the supply is firmly in place. I've seen weird things happen when the cord has been loosely inserted into the supply. Check these things and let us know.

 

[olmecoid]

hi
First try to boot with the bare minimum. Even if you can, try to boot with onboard video. Also Try with a dimm. When I am tal minimum I mean minimum. If you succesfully boot, it may not be your psu. Then ad the second piece of ram. try to boot. And again witha new piece of hardware. The main thing is trying to isolate if it is your psu or a defective piece of hardware. Another thing, did you check the specs of your video card? Some require a psu with a minimum of power (belive me it happens).

8)

 

[Bullion]

I liked the idea TG and hoped it would help.

But after unplugging everything except the 4 pin and the 20 pin, and taking out the wifi card. Still had the problem.

Pulled all the unused power cables out and dangled so they wouldnt touch the case at all. Still nothing.

As far as pushing my PSU, i did consider that after I first posted, but i check out the Power Supply Calculator they have stickied in the PSU forum and after filling in the details completely and including overclocking, it only came out to something like 250W. My 430W should be ok still

Thanks again for the ideas/comments... I'd much rather wait patientially on the forums then "take it in" to be looked at , hopefully doesnt come down to that!

 

[Bullion]

Hey olmecoid,

Tried your suggestion as well with NEW results.

I took out the vid card and one stick of the RAM.

I got about 3 seconds worth of "Start-up noises" - then the fade out.

Thought maybe it was my RAM, and switched to the other stick, but exact same.

After 4-5 tries now, i am getting about 3-5 seconds of start up, then E-death.

Im guessing this means it is in fact my PSU?

Thanks agian

 

[alcattle]

The rating on your PSU is good enough but is that one giving the rated output. No way to check without a PSU tester. They put a load on the PSU then shows it is ok or bad.
Other wild ideas is something loose, something plugged in wrong, CPU and cooler not mating, all odd but nothing to lose.

 

[r0x0r]

Which part of the world are you in?

Check the voltage selector on the back of your PSU and make sure it's on the voltage applicable to your region.

I fried a PC because of incorrecct voltage selection (110V in a 240V country; lucky it was only a 486!). If it is the voltage selection then your PC hasn't been fried because the PSU probably has a safety cut-out. The smell of burning electronics is not something you want to smell...

 

[Bullion]

Hey Everyone, thanks again for all the suppor/advice, thought I'd let you know the situation is resolved and Tom's Forums have bailed me out once again.

When I finally crashed last night, i had disconnected everything non-essential from of the motherboard... So when i finally decided to take it in to the local store, I quickly shoved the 2nd DDR stick and all the cables (IDE, Sata, AGP vid card, PCI Wifi, and all power connectors) back together, closed it up and put in my car and headed out.

Well, the guy finishes telling me that it will cost me $45 dollars just for him to touch it. I said ok.... He plugged it in, and it booted up... completely normal...

It was a bittersweet moment... ecstatic that the computer was working ... and pissed off that this guy did nothing and gets the glory...

I worked him down to $20 including some Thermal Cooling compound, and I am going to risk it all again to properly set up the CPU and Heatsink, as i think that was the original problem.

Again, thanks for the help and best regards ,

Jonathan

 

[olmecoid]

Ok if you belive is your heatsink, try this (must admit is not my idea, someone else´s in tgformz). If your computer can boot acces the BIOS. Go to the hardware monitoring section and leave it for five minutes and check your cpu temps. If your heatsink is not working fine, or not properly atached, or for some weird accident you forgot to remove the plastic protection ( I saw it more than once) your mobo will turn off automatically.
The temparture stuff happend to me once as follows, I installed a hyper 6+ cpu cooler wich is huge. I changed case, but the cooler did not fit in the new one. So I thought that i could use the stock sink. Wrong!! since you have to remove the original retention mechanism of the mobo to intall the hyper 6+, I was unable to reinstall it an use the original heatsink. Then I thought it worked, but my temps were over 70´s C° (amd64x2 4600), I checked the way i talk about and my computer went off in a minute.
So (after this long story) check if your hetasink is firmly atached to your cpu!!!
Glad yo have your computer back

Hasta la vista

8)

 

[Mondoman]

This often happens, don't worry. One thing that can happen to explain it is an extra screw or something metal trapped in the case somewhere causing a short, and the car trip knocks it out of its (bad) position.

 

[chungdokwan]

I may only be a noob and all, But I reckon your 100% right there.

Evertime I've seen those symptoms someones been lazy and not used all the standoffs thier supposed to or just plain screwed it to the case.

So a screw rattling around in there would do the same I reckon.

 

[Athalus_nubie]

Thumbs up on getting your PC working again mate ;p

I had a PC once that would not even post in its case. so i re-assembled it on a workbench.....it ran fine....put it back in its case, and its not working again!
I never did figure out what the hell was wrong with it in the case either.

 

[olmecoid]

About shorts, once I had a problem with a corrupted case usb front case conector and the computer did not want to do anything, I unplugged it and voila! it boots and worked.

8)

Saludos

 

[warezme]

you have a short or your PS is going out. Unplug everything but mobo and see if it starts up. If it does start adding devices one at a time until you find that one that is causing the short.

If it won't come up and stay even with mobo then there may be a short on the board but highly unlikely if you installed it correctly and its probably your PS