Computer Shutting Off

[ivyg44]

Hello all!

I'm new to upgrading computers. I primarily play World of Warcraft and I felt like my computer was falling behind. I got a couple of hand-me-down items to upgrade but my real problems were in my Motherboard and Processor, so I researched and got a bundle for Christmas.

Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128394
Processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103675
A friend sent me his hand-me-down video card, an Nvidia GeForce 280 GTX: http://www.amazon.com/BFG-Tech-NVIDIA-GeForce-GDDR3/dp/B001B5Z67U
And I have a hand-me-down PSU as well, I don't have the information off the top of my head but it was enough to power my graphics card.

I followed some guides online and read and reread the instructions to make sure I didn't break anything. I managed to throw it all together quite nicely with the help of a more experienced friend. When I turned on the computer, the Power Supply turned on and all of the fans turned on for half a second, and the computer shut itself off. I'm almost 100% sure the Motherboard isn't touching the case or short circuiting. Everything seems to be plugged in properly, and I went as far as taking it all apart and putting it back together several times to make sure I didn't miss anything.

I'm not sure where to go from here. What do I do?

Edit: I forgot to mention that my old Motherboard's 12v connector was a 2x2 pin, and the new one is a 2x4 pin, so I got a converter for it, if this is relevant at all.

 

[ivyg44]

Yes I do! It works fine with my old stuff. Assuming I figure out what kind of PSU it is and what it's capable of, how do I find out if it's working with my new stuff?
<-- newb

 

[jsc]

First of all, your little 4 -> 8 pin adapter is not doing anything for you. The PSU can only provide so much current down that 4 pin cable. Spreading that current over the pins on the motherboard does not increase the amount of current the PSU can supply.

What kind of PSU? If, as we suspect, your PSU is inadequate, you are lucky that the system shut down. Cheap PSU's have been known (there are YouTube videos for instance) to catastrophically (defined as "burst in flames" or "explode") fail.

The GTX280 is a pretty hungry card. It needs about 5 amps on bootup and 15 - 18 amps when running a full 3D load. Your CPU is going to draw about 10 amps. Including hard drives and everything else, I estimate your startup load is around 20 amps at 12 volts and another 50 - 60 watts on the 3.3 volt and 5 volt rails for a total startup power of around 300 watts. Gaming will add another 120 - 150 watts to that.

The absolute minimum PSU you need is a good 550 - 600 watt PSU. This is going to cost you $80 - $90.

You can do some basic troubleshooting to be sure. Work systematically through our standard checklist and troubleshooting thread:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-read-posting-boot-problems
I mean work through, not just read over it. We spent a lot of time on this. It should find most of the problems.

If not, continue.

I have tested the following beep patterns on Gigabyte, eVGA, and ECS motherboards. Other BIOS' may be different, but they all use a single short beep for a successful POST.

Breadboard - that will help isolate any kind of case problem you might have.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/262730-31-breadboarding

Breadboard with just motherboard, CPU & HSF, case speaker, and PSU.

Make sure you plug the CPU power cable in. The system will not boot without it.

I always breadboard a new build. It takes only a few minutes, and you know you are putting good parts in the case once you are finished.

You can turn on the PC by momentarily shorting the two pins that the case power switch goes to. You should hear a series of long, single beeps indicating memory problems. Silence indicates a problem with (in most likely order) the PSU, motherboard, or CPU. Remember, at this time, you do not have a graphics card installed so the load on your PSU will be reduced.

If no beeps:
Running fans and drives and motherboard LED's do not necessarily indicate a good PSU. In the absence of a single short beep, they also do not indicate that the system is booting.

At this point, you can sort of check the PSU. Try to borrow a known good PSU of around 550 - 600 watts. That will power just about any system with a single GPU. If you cannot do that, use a DMM to measure the voltages. Measure between the colored wires and either chassis ground or the black wires. Yellow wires should be 12 volts. Red wires: +5 volts, orange wires: +3.3 volts, blue wire : -12 volts, violet wire: 5 volts always on. Tolerances are +/- 5% except for the -12 volts which is +/- 10%.

The gray wire is really important. It should go from 0 to +5 volts when you turn the PSU on with the case switch. CPU needs this signal to boot.

You can turn on the PSU by completely disconnecting the PSU and using a paperclip or jumper wire to short the green wire to one of the neighboring black wires.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FWXgQSokF4&feature=youtube_gdata

A way that might be easier is to use the main power plug. Working from the back of the plug where the wires come out, use a bare paperclip to short between the green wire and one of the neighboring black wires. That will do the same thing with an installed PSU. It is also an easy way to bypass a questionable case power switch.

This checks the PSU under no load conditions, so it is not completely reliable. But if it can not pass this, it is dead. Then repeat the checks with the PSU plugged into the computer to put a load on the PSU.

If the system beeps:
If it looks like the PSU is good, install a memory stick. Boot. Beep pattern should change to one long and several short beeps indicating a missing graphics card.

Silence, long single beeps, or series of short beeps indicate a problem with the memory. If you get a series of short beeps verify that the memory is in the appropriate motherboard slots.

Here is where I suspect you will have problems.
Insert the video card and connect any necessary PCIe power connectors. Boot. At this point, the system should POST successfully (a single short beep). Notice that you do not need keyboard, mouse, monitor, or drives to successfully POST.
At this point, if the system doesn't work, it's either the video card or an inadequate PSU. Or rarely - the motherboard's PCIe interface.

Now start connecting the rest of the devices starting with the monitor, then keyboard and mouse, then the rest of the devices, testing after each step. It's possible that you can pass the POST with a defective video card. The POST routines can only check the video interface. It cannot check the internal parts of the video card.