Brand New out of the box. No Go!

[diaz9220]

So I bought a completely new build off of Newegg.com. I received it today. I carefully put everything together, making sure everything is correctly placed and secure. Double and triple check. So i go plug in my monitor and peripherals. Power it on and no splash screen, no beeps nothing. Everything is on though, the fans run the lights are on and the HDD seems to get power because i can hear it and its pretty warm.
Could it be that my mobo is defective or something? Ive done a build before and everything ran smooth. It turned on from the get go. Am I suppose to install bios or something? Im very confused as to what the problem may be. The power supply seems adequate.

Here are my specs

x COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power Plus RS-550-PCAR-E3 550W ATX12V V2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Power Supply
1 x COOLER MASTER Elite 330 RC-330-KKN1-GP Black SECC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
1 x G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ
1 x ASUS M4A88T-M LE AM3 AMD 880G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
1 x LITE-ON CD/DVD Burner - Bulk Black SATA Model iHAS124-04 - OEM
1 x AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Thuban 2.8GHz Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor HDT55TFBGRBOX
1 x BYTECC 18" Serial ATA-150/300 Cable w/Locking Latch Model SATA-118C
1 x Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

 

[compulsivebuilder]

No, you don't have to install the BIOS. It's in on the motherboard.

It doesn't look good. Something is clearly faulty, but it's hard to say what. Could be PSU (but probably not), could be CPU, could be motherboard. Probably not memory (you'd get more reaction if it were RAM.

Did you use an anti-static wrist strap? They may look geeky, but static will kill a motherboard or CPU easily (and worse, sometimes it will produce intermittent faults).

Concentrate on the CPU and motherboard. Easiest (and most expensive) would be to simply replace both. Otherwise you'll have to get one or the other (guess!) and replace it, hoping that the other part will suddenly work. If you replace, for example, the motherboard, and it still doesn't work, then it's probably the CPU.

Good luck! (and use a wriststrap!)

 

[jsc]

CPU is least likely. Your PSU, especially considering the brand is most likely.

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.
The following is an expansion of my troubleshooting tips in the breadboarding link in the "Cannot boot" thread.

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 short beeps verify that the memory is in the appropriate motherboard slots.

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.

 

[diaz9220]

Okay thanks for your input. I actually just got an RMA for the motherboard, i feel thats the problem. Its funny because the first build i had ever done, I had an out of the box problem with the Video card, so i couldnt see anything lol. but this has onboard video.
Anyway Ima send that in and get it replaced.

Another question, since I spoke with a tech rep at ASUS. Is the memory compatible with the motherboard? I looked on the manual of the motherboard and the brand was listed, however the exact model number isnt.
I mean it doesnt make sense to me, since this build is pre made by newegg itself, so it takes the guess work of compatibility out of the equation.

 

[jsc]

I would have done a little testing first.

Let us know what happens.

 

[compulsivebuilder]

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.

I read this and had a moment of grave concern. When you said "main power plug", I thought of the "mains power plug".

I don't know what colour coding is used in your country for mains wiring, but in mine we have switched (quite a while ago) to brown / blue / green-with-yellow-stripe. Prior to that, we had red / black / green. Shorting the green wire to the black in the old mains plug SHOULD be OK (connecting neutral to earth), but if the house wiring were out of spec, you could be shorting live to earth. You'd get a result, albeit probably not the one you'd want (hopefully just a popped breaker).

I'd recommend clarifying this by saying, perhaps: "the main 20/24 pin motherboard power plug".

 

[diaz9220]

Alright, so I exchanged my MOBO got it today.
I went to install it today and when i went to power up I noticed that there was a little shortage sound, like crackling, and a little plum of smoke right under the 24pin power socket on the MOBO, it seemed to come out of the Capacitor.
I tried turning it on and no go. It would turn on and right off. The second time the same thing. When i pushed the power button for the third time, it turned on and stayed on but again no Video coming from it, and this time i smelled a little burning. I dont know what could have gone wrong. Its a premade bundle put together by Newegg. Everything is compatible with each other. I honestly dont know, this is just a waste of money because I want to refund all the parts (except the CPU) but i get charged a restocking fee. Really bummed, this was a decent set up for the price too.

 

[diaz9220]

Just to double check here.
I have to have the 12vATX AND the 24Pin connections connected right?
Or is it one or the other but not both? Because I have both of them connected.