Zelus

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Jun 3, 2006
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My latest project has been an attempt to salvage an old 1.8 Ghz Celeron E-machine with an old MicroATX Foxconn motherboard. It looks like it's using DDR memory and doesn't have any SATA connectors, so it's an old board.

Anyway, when I got a hold of it, it was in bad shape. The power button had been punched, along with the power supply. Something had happened, and the socket that you hook the AC cord into had been punched so that it was now inside the PSU. The previous owners reported that they used to try to turn it on, nothing would happen for about twenty minutes, at which point it would make some sort of screeching noise (they weren't able to tell me much :/). I'm imagining it was the motherboards internal speaker.

Anyway, I discarded the old PSU and bought another along with a new case. After getting the system migrated, I hooked it up, flicked the switch on the new PSU and things got weird.

As soon as power was enabled on the PSU, the motherboard began making a constant, repetitive clicking noise. The power LED blinks just as fast as it can, along with the HD light. The 80mm fan connected to one of the molex connectors comes on and stays running. Nothing else appears to move, and this continues until I disable the power at the PSU switch.

Could I just have hooked something up wrong?
 
The clicking is caused by the Harddrive and not the Motherboard. If you get beeps from the speaker you have a problem. The only way to be sure of the cable configuration is to find the manual and check it. It is a very old board probably not worth the effort...
 

Zelus

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I removed the Hard drive, and the ticking was still present. I removed the ram as well, and it did the same thing. Could the brand new PSU I have be bad?
 

Felopian_Turtle

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Dec 21, 2006
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Happened to me on my first build. Everything booted up and after a few seconds, this annoying clicking would start. Drove me F'n nuts trying to pinpoint the noise, It was the PSU, its 120mm fan was smacking something inside the psu casing. RMA'd problem solved