New System Not Working

[arby358]

I just finished building my first computer, but I've hit a wall. I plugged it in for the first start up, and the standby LED on the PSU lights up, and the power button on the motherboard lights up, but nothing turns on, using power button on case or motherboard.

As I understand it, the standby means nothing more than the computer is receiving 5 volts of power. Also, the light on the motherboard is red, and I've been unable to find anything indicating what that means, although since it's red I'm assuming bad news.

The system was a setup off of Newegg, with only one addition being a graphics card.

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Thermaltake Armor A60 Gaming Mid-Tower Chassis

ASUS P8Z68-V LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Thermaltake Toughpower XT TPX-675M 675W ATX 12V v2.3 / EPS 12V v2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000

Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

EVGA SuperClocked 01G-P3-1461-KR GeForce GTX 560 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

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Any help would be much appreciated, as I have no idea how to proceed. Thank you in advance.

 

[elayman]

Did you use the motherboard standoffs between the motherboard and case? Did you connect both the 24pin and 4pin motherboard power connectors from the PSU?

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Read section 2.2.6 of your manual (at least that's what it is on the ASUS P8Z68-V Pro). There are 4 lights on the MoBo, which one is lit will tell you what the problem is

 

[nikorr]

Yep, as JackNaylorPE says ^^^, the Red light means that something didn't pass the start up check and it signals u whats the problem!

 

[arby358]

I did use the standoffs, and connected the power connectors, but I'm going to check them again. I also checked that section in the manual, but none of those lights are on, it's just the power switch light on the motherboard, and it doesn't tell me what color that should be or what it means, the switch is just lit red.

I'm wondering if it's the PSU not providing enough power? I tried turning it on again today and the CPU fan twitched for a split second before going back to nothing happening.

 

[nikorr]

Do u have power switch in the back of the PSU ON?

 

[arby358]

Yes the switch on the PSU is on, I plug it in, flip the switch, wait for the light on the PSU, and then try turning it on. The motherboard power light comes on at the same time as the PSU's.

 

[elayman]

You've tried starting it with a screwdriver instead of the power switch on the case?

 

[arby358]

I have not used the screwdriver starting technique as I have a power button built into the motherboard as well as the one on the case. I believe both of those to be functioning because when I press them after connecting my PSU to power, the CPU and case fans twitch for a moment, and I hear a split second hum of power.


I should emphasize the split second, it's not turning on and then off a few seconds later, the hum and fan spin lasts for about as long as it takes to push a key on a keyboard.


Also, when I installed my motherboard I had 9 standoff points but only 8 screws. Would having one standoff unsecured be a cause for this issue? I have other screws that were provided with my case, but I didn't use them for fear of the metal being unique in some way.

 

[elayman]

Hmm I would just start at the basics. Remove everything from the motherboard except 1 stick of RAM, and CPU. Try and boot directly from MB and see if it POST beeps. If it does, starting adding things one at a time until it doesn't post (1 more stick of RAM, then 4 sticks if you have 4, then GPU, then HDD, etc.)

 

[arby358]

Hmm I would just start at the basics. Remove everything from the motherboard except 1 stick of RAM, and CPU. Try and boot directly from MB and see if it POST beeps. If it does, starting adding things one at a time until it doesn't post (1 more stick of RAM, then 4 sticks if you have 4, then GPU, then HDD, etc.)

I'll give that a try and see if anything happens.

 

[elayman]

Good luck. I have a feeling you will find your problem.

 

[arby358]

Good luck. I have a feeling you will find your problem.

It boots! Stupidly I didn't connect my test speaker or monitor to get more information, but it boots now at least. As it starts up the leds on the motherboard light, but the only one that stays on is the Boot Device LED, which I believe is signalling a lack of attached harddrive, but I don't know that for sure.

 

[arby358]

UPDATE:

Going barebones and slowly adding parts is working well, now have the graphics card in and it still boots, only suspects left are my case fans/front panel items, and the HDD. I'll keep you all apprised, thank you for your helpful suggestions!

 

[arby358]

Best answer selected by arby358.