Curse

Crom The Pale · Jun 11, 2011, 03:55 AM // 03:55

I went and bought a bare bones kit from Tiger Direct and picked up a nice graphics card to go with it. Now I have all the parts assembled but when I turn on the power the fans cycle up, the cpu starts to power up, then everything just stops, then it starts again and repeats.

I just can't figure out what I did wrong. As far as I can tell I have all the right connections made. The mother board has power, the cpu has power, all the fans are plugged into the motherboard. The SSD and HD are both plugged into the motherboard and both have power. The DVD is plugged in and has power. The graphics card is plugged in and has power.

I knew it was a bit of a risk to build my own computer without exp at, still to have everythng all together and not have it work is very, very frustrating!

Any thoughts would be very welcome!

Snograt · Jun 11, 2011, 05:44 AM // 05:44

Heatsink/fan properly TIMmed and secured?

Memory in place?

Vid card properly seated?

Finally, my favorite: are all those damn annoying, fiddly, PITA cables connected to the correct pins for the front panel connections? I HATE THOSE DAMN THINGS!

Crom The Pale · Jun 11, 2011, 09:09 AM // 09:09

As far as I can tell all the plugs are in the correct place. Not sure what a pita cable is though

The power button on the case is working at least.

Memory is in place. Fan for the cpu is running, for a second, then stops when all the others do. Same with fans on the graphics card.

There is something mentioned about clearing the motherboards bios ram? Should I attempt this?

Here is what I went with;
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...348&CatId=4149

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...&Sku=M452-0560

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...&Sku=O261-6370

Showtime · Jun 11, 2011, 10:54 AM // 10:54

Pita = pain in the arse.

This is the main problem with building a whole new system. Trouble shooting!

Like he said... RAM not seated right, vid card etc... Throw in it could be bad x, or y, or z. Make sure your cpu fan is plugged into the cpu fan header on mobo jic.

How far does it go when it starts booting up? Can you get into bios? Do you see mobo screen?

Do you have your old hard drive with an OS on it? You can always unplug your new hd's and try that one just see if it will boot up for now.

Edit: Oh and newegg use to be better on returns. TD use to have the worst rep, but they are better now.

Crom The Pale · Jun 11, 2011, 12:04 PM // 12:04

No old HD to plug in, last comp melted and went bye bye. Currently all I have is my NetBook.

Far as I can tell the Ram/Vid card is inserted perfectly, both locked in place.

No signal is sent to my monitor, which leads me to think maybe the graphics card is the issue, but why would the system just stop, then power back up over and over again?

Almost feels like the reset switch is stuck. Think I might have to break down and take it someplace for a pro to look at....more money wasted...;(

Quaker · Jun 11, 2011, 03:07 PM // 15:07

Do you get any beeps?

One common source of this problem is that you have some power connector inserted incorrectly. Particularly - insure that the 4- or 8-pin ATX power connector is properly inserted. Also, check that the proper power connectors are connected to the video card.

Here's the general process I would use.

- check the manual for the motherboard and follow the procedure to reset the BIOS/setup. This is important to make sure the BIOS configuration is in a workable state.
- if that doesn't help then:
- disconnect everything from the motherboard EXCEPT the main 24-pin power connector, the square ATX power connector, the power button and the speaker. Remove the RAM and the video card, disconnect all drives, etc. Make sure the CPU fan is connected to the proper connector - some systems will not start if they don't detect a fan connected to CPU_FAN.

- press the power button. It should give you a series of beeps (indicating that there's no RAM or video), but the fans should run and it shouldn't shutdown or reboot.
- if it doesn't beep and/or keeps rebooting, you've narrowed it down to the motherboard, CPU, or power supply.

- if it beeps, turn it off and install the RAM.
- start it up. You should again get beeps (indicating no video).

- if it beeps, turn it off and install the video card and connect the monitor. Don't overlook the video card's power connector(s).
- start it up again. You should see a start up screen on the monitor. Make sure that the screen shows that the system has properly detected the actual CPU and RAM.

- if all has gone well so far, continue connecting things such as the hard drive, optical drive, fans, etc. until you either find a bad component or connection, or it just mysteriously works.

Intrinsic · Jun 11, 2011, 04:47 PM // 16:47

Sounds as though you may have fried your processor from the way you say the system powers on and it stops so suddenly because it's brain(cpu) can't process anything(the BIOS still need the CPU to work).
Did earth yourself using a wrist strap and/or use a anti-static mat?
It takes v little to fry your cpu and when handling it only ever touch the edges never any pins or the top unless it's shielded.
At least when working inside/building it up discharge yourself by touching anything metal that is plugged in.

Failing that it could be the PSU although i'm leaning towards the cpu from what you describe. You should have at least 2 lines from your PSU plugged into the board, the big 24pin one and a smaller 8/12/16 pin one.

The minimum required components for a machine to startup are: Gfx card, ram and keyboard. Anything else is meh and wouldn't stop your machine from starting. Use just 1 stick of ram at a time, it's v unlikely for RAM to have a problem but you never know. For example my house was nearly hit by lightning a while back, mobo and cpu absorbed the shock but ram/psu lived so they are pretty tough bunnies. Quaker's point on CPU_FAN is worth checking.

Does your mobo have any lights on it? if so that'll give you some indication, and the beeps are called beepcodes, your mobo manual will have a list of the combinations and what they mean, or check their website.

Tip for everyone: When planning to do anything inside the machine always fully discharge the power by holding down the power button for at least 6 seconds once unplugged from the wall. Normally even when it's unplugged from the wall the machine will still have enough residual charge in the system to powerup the fans and flash a few lights which could fry your cpu/ram if not.

Crom The Pale · Jun 11, 2011, 11:29 PM // 23:29

The instructions for everything were very minimal and mostly contained software setup information. That is the one part I didn't really need...!

I have to admit, I lost faith in my ability to diagnose the problem and took the computer to FutureShop. After spending so much money I just can't take a chance at this point. They will find the problem, then I need to get TigerDirrect to replace whatever part is wrong, assuming its not something as simple as a missing conection. Though I must say I am fairly confident that every plug was inserted and in the correct location. The PCU fan was working, the fans on the GPU were functioning. I had the 24pin and 8 pin correctly plugged in. The 2 PCI-E power conectors were plugged into the GPU. None of the plugs were in backwards, they only fit one way or have a clip that is only on one side.

Kawil · Jun 12, 2011, 01:41 AM // 01:41

Been reading all the suggestions and I may have one more for ya as it happened to me. Make sure that your motherboard is not screwed directly onto the case. It'll short it out and may cause what you're seeing. Took me a while to figure it out when I was putting one of my first comps together. The special little mounting screws had always been pre-installed before until...this one. Kept wondering what that little bag of screws was for...I hate it when there's something little like that still left

So remember...use mounting screws,

It's now the first thing I do.

Snograt · Jun 12, 2011, 05:43 AM // 05:43

I overlooked the barebones part of your OP, so most of my suggestions were moot.

I'm guessing your barebones was a case with mobo, cpu-HSF, memory and PSU already installed?

Certainly sounds like RMA time as the only component you've installed is a graphics card. You said it has power - one or two 6 or 8 pin connectors (or the ever-annoying one of each)? Is this "nice" graphics card too hungry for the supplied PSU, maybe?

I've had the spinning up, stop, repeat thing myself and on that occasion it was the PSU.

Very hard to diagnose a DOA remotely

Quaker · Jun 12, 2011, 03:38 PM // 15:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snograt

I'm guessing your barebones was a case with mobo, cpu-HSF, memory and PSU already installed?

From the look of it, it was a package deal, but not pre-assembled.

Kawil reminds me - it's too late now since you took it to Future Shop, but one semi-common problem that comes up with DIY builds, is to make sure that there are no 'extra' standoffs in the case that are contacting the bottom of the motherboard.
When you mount the motherboard there should be 1 stand-off for each screw hole in the motherboard. Remove any extras that may contact the bottom of the motherboard.

Crom The Pale · Jun 13, 2011, 01:19 AM // 01:19

Yea, I do kinda wish I had waited a bit before taking it in, especially since they are taking so long to run a diagnostic. However I can attest that there were no extra standoffs, two were on the wall when it arrived but I removed then reattached them once I read the instructions.

Before I took it in I did try to start it up with the HD/SSD/DVD disconected form the motherboard, but still with power to them, and the problem was unchanged. As for having enough power 750W with 78% efficency felt like enough based upon specs, the GPU calls for min 500W.

As per previous post from Quaker there were no beeps at all even though I plugged in the "speaker". Assuming it was on the correct set of pins.

My feeling at this point is that the problem is with either the MotherBoard/CPU/GPU or powersupply. However I can't get a replacement without knowing exactly which one so taking it in was likely the only option.

As has been stated it is very hard to narrow things down without hands on experimentation and extra components to test things out.

Thanks to everyone for trying to help me and I will post the results, and how easy/hard it was to get satisfaction from TiggerDirrect, once things have been resolved.

Kawil · Jun 13, 2011, 03:04 AM // 03:04

I feel ya Crom...I really do. Also, don't let this discourage you from DIY comps. Sometimes stuff just happens...in shipping, manufacturing, putting together. Take this as a very well earned experience. After I had the issue with my comp (motherboard shorting out) I now am more persistent and anal about the order I do things. Add a component and test to make sure I get what I'm supposed to and so on. Anyway, I hope it comes out good for ya because once you get that bad girl to light up and sing to ya...she's beautiful. Especially when you know you brought her to life

Crom The Pale · Jun 17, 2011, 02:18 AM // 02:18

Ok...nobody laugh!

Turns out the problem was a tiny, little, insignificant tab on the back of the computer case. When I put the MotherBoard in this little tabe, that is meant to hold the rear ports in place, got jammed into a USB port. That little thing was all that was causing my computer to restart, can you believe that???

Well, now the system is up and running, and running fantastically! GuildWars never looked so fantastic! A solid 60 frames per second in Kamadan with all the players armor in HD, and this on a cheep wifi! (planning on upgrading to a better internet conection in the future)

Well, thank you everyone for your help and I can't wait to see what GW2 will look like on my system!!!