New mobo power up issue

HG_Raigon

Distinguished
Jan 2, 2008
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18,510
I seem to have a problem that quite a few people have mentioned (but no working solution has been found that I can find).

After plugging everything in and then flicking the power switch on my power supply (not on the PC box) all the fans start up but it seems like nobody is at home. No beeps and only one green light on the box that doesn't flash or flicker. Monitor doesn't register anything and no POST or bios information shows up.

My specs are:
Asrock AM2NF3-VSTA Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ Windsor 2.4GHz
ELSA GLADIAC 776 GT AGP 256MB (7600 GT)
1GB PGI DDR2-667 RAM (667MHz)
1GB DDR2 PC2-6400 Elixir (800MHz)
Western Digital 160GB HHD
ENERMAX EG365P-VE FMA 1.3 ATX12V 350W Power Supply

I bought the board because my AGP is still strong enough for what I need but I wanted to start using a 64 bit processor. I've tried switching RAM sticks and slots and using only one chip and but no change. The power seems to start up as soon as the PS is switched on. Holding down the power button on the box does't shut it down and the reset button doesn't seem to have any effect either.

Any help would be appreciated!
 

Mondoman

Splendid
Sounds like something's not connected quite right (turning the PS on should NOT turn on the fans, etc). Try a bench test: take the MB out of the case and install only the CPU, CPU cooler, one RAM DIMM, and the video card and power supply (make sure the MB is sitting on something that won't short it out, like a big piece of cardboard). Turn on the PS power switch; one or more LEDs might turn on, but no fans should be running. Use a piece of conductive metal (like a screwdriver blade) to momentarily connect the two power switch pins on the MB's header -- this should turn on the power to the computer and get the fans spinning, etc, and show the start-up messages on the video monitor.
If it's not a connection problem, I'd suspect your power supply, especially as older power supplies like yours (besides slowly declining in their power over time) often don't have enough +12V power for modern CPUs and graphics cards.
 

coldneutron

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Oct 13, 2006
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18,680
that happened to me once. i had a power supply fail, bought a new one, put it in, and the fans would come on when the ac power was switched on to the PSU. returned the psu for a different brand and everything worked ok. i would try a different power supply.
 
Disconnect the power switch from the mobo. Like Mondoman said, turning on the PSU switch should not turn it on; if the PC's power switch is shorted though, it will.
Particularly if your eyes are no better than mine, double check that you have not put the Power LED connector on the Power SWITCH header.