New build spins/lights up for ~1 second, dies, repeats.

[mobyd]

I bought an used case, mobo and graphics card on the cheap as a starting point for a new system build. After a couple weeks, I bought all of the parts needed to get it working and...it won't boot. I've stripped it all the way down to bench test and I'm still stuck.

Parts:
Motherboard: MSI P67A-G43 (B3) (Old part)
CPU: i5-3570k with stock cooler (New)
PSU: Seasonic 80Plus Power Supply M12II 620 BRONZE (New)

The rest are not on the bench test:
Ram: Kingston Hyper-X Blu 1600 2x8GB(New)
GPU: EVGA GTX260 (Old)
Case: No clue (Old)
Hard Drive: Samsung 840 SSD 120GB (New)

The current setup is the PSU, CPU, HSF, Mobo on a cardboard box. The PSU is hooked up to the 24pin main power and the 8 pin CPU power and I'm currently turning it on with a flat head screw driver. Nothing else is plugged in or hooked up.

When I short the power switch with the screw driver, the first LED on the Mobo itself comes on, the PSU fan spins up and the HSF twitches slightly (note that it doesn't spin up like the other fans), all four mobo LEDs above the CPU light up and the system immediately shuts down. After a few more seconds, it repeats this process and will continue repeating this process until I flip the switch on the PSU.

No sound is made, though there is a decent chance the Case speaker I'm using doesn't work. I ripped it out of a 15 year old computer and wired it together myself.

I've tried almost every configuration of parts I possibly can and it's always the same result. I've tried every possible combination and layout of ram (and currently am just using none). I've tried with a GPU (this spins up and shuts down like the PSU). I've tried it in the case and out of the case, the only difference is all of the Fans that I plug in spin up and shut down with the PSU. Hard drive, LED's, DVD drive etc. I've done just about every combination of things from fully assembled to where I'm at now and it's always the same result.

I've paper clip tested the PSU and that seems to work. The CPU gave me the normal "dear god I can't believe I have to push this hard" issues that I've experienced in other PC builds and the stock cooler didn't want to go on properly, but it wasn't anything out of the too ordinary.

My guess would be that the problem lies with either the CPU/HSF or the Mobo itself. The problem is I do not know what I need to do to figure out which is the issue.

I did pull of the HSF to make sure that it was hooked up right, and it looked like it was, but I just put it right back on (probably not my best idea). I checked the CPU, it looked like it was seated correctly, but the lever to lock it down made a pretty terrible "silicon being crushed" noise both times I locked it down (no visible damage).

I'm pretty much out of ideas. I've gone through every step on the Stickied list for no boots and nothing has changed. I don't have a spare mother board lying around so I'd like to be pretty darn sure that's the issue before I go pick up a new one. As for checking the CPU, should I get new thermal paste and reseat it and then remount the HSF? Or can I just pull it off again, check it and then stick it back together?

Please help, I'm literally out of ideas!

 

[hillmanant]

Sounds like your heatsink fan is junk. On POST the motherboard does a self test and either, isn't recognizing your CPU fan, or recognizes there's something wrong with it.
Is this a stock fan?
Do you have another you could try?

You should get a new case speaker you know works, beep codes could really help here.

 

[hillmanant]

As for checking the CPU, should I get new thermal paste and reseat it and then remount the HSF? Or can I just pull it off again, check it and then stick it back together?

Please help, I'm literally out of ideas!

Clean and Prep with this. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100010&Tpk=articlean
Then new paste! Always new Paste.

 

[mobyd]

As for checking the CPU, should I get new thermal paste and reseat it and then remount the HSF? Or can I just pull it off again, check it and then stick it back together?

Please help, I'm literally out of ideas!

Clean and Prep with this. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100010&Tpk=articlean
Then new paste! Always new Paste.

I bought a new heatsink in addition to thermal paste and clean/prep materials and reseated everything. Unfortunately, while the giant new fan does spin up more than the old one, it is only moderately so and the behavior hasn't changed.

I purchased a known to be working speaker but no beeps. I can hear a brief, faint "static" noise coming from it during the 1 second that the computer tries to turn on, but that's it.

For the sake of shipping time, I've ordered a new Mobo on the assumption that mine is toast.

In the event that it is toast, is there any way to diagnose/repair a motherboard? It's not a particularly valuable component, but I'm a sucker for lost causes and time sucks.

 

[hillmanant]

I did pull of the HSF to make sure that it was hooked up right, and it looked like it was, but I just put it right back on (probably not my best idea). I checked the CPU, it looked like it was seated correctly, but the lever to lock it down made a pretty terrible "silicon being crushed" noise both times I locked it down (no visible damage).

This scares me, it shoudn't crunch when you lock it down, did you take the CPU off and and look at the pins to make sure none of them are bent? The CPU should just fall into place not be pushed down. Did you make sure the gold triangle on the processor is in the right corner of the socket?
Is the HSF plugged into the right plug on the motherboard the one that says CPU?
Do you have the 8 pin CPU power plugged in to the upper left of the chip?
Have you tried resetting CMOS?(Unplug the Battery on the motherboard for 30 seconds with all the power disconnected)

 

[mobyd]

I did pull of the HSF to make sure that it was hooked up right, and it looked like it was, but I just put it right back on (probably not my best idea). I checked the CPU, it looked like it was seated correctly, but the lever to lock it down made a pretty terrible "silicon being crushed" noise both times I locked it down (no visible damage).

This scares me, it shoudn't crunch when you lock it down, did you take the CPU off and and look at the pins to make sure none of them are bent? The CPU should just fall into place not be pushed down. Did you make sure the gold triangle on the processor is in the right corner of the socket?
Is the HSF plugged into the right plug on the motherboard the one that says CPU?
Do you have the 4 pin CPU power plugged in to the upper left of the chip?
Have you tried resetting CMOS?(Unplug the Battery on the motherboard for 30 seconds with all the power disconnected)

I know right? It didn't make a crunch so much as a crushing noise. It looked just like stress to the PCB to me but even after removing an re installing, no visible damage. It was all lined up, dropped in fine. No bent pins on either the socket or the chip, much to my relief.

All of the fan plugs on the board are 3 pin (as opposed to the necessary 4) and I've even gone as far as to plug the CPU fan into other socks (-1 pin) and still no luck.

I've also cleared the CMOS all 3 ways: Jumper, button, battery. This one is tough....

 

[hillmanant]

The forth pin is for variable speed on the CPU heatsink the 4th(think its blue) side doesn't need to hooked up to work, your heatsink will just run full speed without it, plug it in so the blue wire side is hanging off the side of the header pins. Has to be plugged into the CPU fan header.

Did you seat the chip with the mother board on the cardboard box? The reason I ask is this should be done on a firm table or surface to keep the PCB from bending this can promote all kinds of damage to the board, I'm worried that the crushing sound you heard was the breaking of printed circuits, or solder joints behind the socket?

As for your lost cause things to try it could be a corrupt bios could try replacing the BIOS chip. This is pretty advanced because I think yours is soldered on so you would have to desolder it and resolder the new one. You can find it here.

 

[hillmanant]

Any update here, did you figure it out?

 

[mobyd]

I bought a brand new motherboard (Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H) and, what do you know, everything works perfectly. The old one is almost certainly defective.

I really have no clue what's wrong with it. There is no visible damage to the board (no blown capacitors) and it obviously does have some life left in it, but it just doesn't work. That'll have to be a future project though, as I don't really feel like buying a new power supply that will likely end up costing me more than the board itself did just to find out it's irreparably broken. Although I have read that sometimes, PSU and Mobo's just don't get along, so that might have been the issue.

Thank you for your help, this was definitely a learning experience.