Curse

Priceykins · Nov 09, 2007, 05:25 PM // 17:25

Hey all

I recently rebuilt my pc, by getting a new case, motherboard, processor, and adding 2gb of ram.
My components are as follows

Core 2 duo E6700
ASUS P5LD2 SE
Radeon X1800Pro 512mb
3 gig corsair XMS2 ram
a Win Power 750W power supply

The problem is that when I go to start the system, I push the power button, and all the LEDS on the front light up for a second then go out, and wont go on again unless I take the power plug out of the power supply, and let is sit for 10s or so.

So far I have tried just running the system bare bones, mothrboard, VGA, processor, one ram chip. Same problem there.

Ive tried resetting CMOS, no help there. Ive even tried using another power supply, and still had the same problem.

Im worried this may be a processor problem, but if anyone could help it would be much appreciated, as Ive tried everything I can think of to to fix the system.

Thanks in advance

Priceykins

Tachyon · Nov 09, 2007, 06:12 PM // 18:12

Have you connected both the main 12V 24pin and 4pin sockets on the motherboard?

Priceykins · Nov 09, 2007, 06:20 PM // 18:20

Yeah, everything that needs to be connected is connected in the right place etc.

My motherboards green on light shows when I plug the power supply into the mains, so I know the motherboard is getting power, I just cant work out why it wont start.

izzywish · Nov 09, 2007, 06:41 PM // 18:41

Are you certain that no metal parts are touching the mainboad and the chasis, i:e do you have rubber washers between the screws, and all the parts flush and not brushing against the chasis in any way.
It sounds like you could be getting a short, but ofc with PC's there could be loads of reasons for that.

Is the board beeping when you try and boot?

Another problem could be a bad RAM, try booting from just one stick of RAM, and swap and change them to see if you can get it to boot.

Another thing you can try is to add each component one at a time, so put in the board, CPU, GFX card and connect all wires, try and boot and see if it gets to the stage where it notices you have no HDD. If it does, then add the HDD, rinse and repeat, adding the DVD drive and sounds cars etc rebooting each time and see how far you get.

HTH

Quaker · Nov 09, 2007, 06:56 PM // 18:56

Your power supply is being overloaded - probably from a short circuit somewhere. When it detects an overload, it shuts down until power is removed and reconnected, which is why it restarts after you pull the power plug.

There could be many reasons for the short. Some I can think of off the top of my head:

1. When you installed the motherboard, were there any metal stand-offs under it that didn't line up with a screw hole in the motherboard?

2. Bad motherboard, RAM, video card, drive, and/or power supply.

3. Only rev2.0 and up, of the mobo, are compatible with Core2 Duos, but I don't think that would short it out. It would probably just not boot properly. Check the revision number anyway.

I know you said you tried it barebones, but you can do even more (less).

Try this:
- Since that motherboard has on-board video, you can plug a monitor into the on-board connector, but you don't need video for this.
- Disconnect everything from the motherboard, including the RAM and the video card. All you need to have on the motherboard is the cpu (and fan assembly).
- Connect the power supply to the motherboard, ensuring all the necessary cables are plugged in. Disconnect all power leads to any drives, etc.
- Plug in the front panel power switch connector. (Which I assume works)
- Plug in the case speaker connector, unless the mobo has an on-board speaker (i don't think it does).
- Reset the BIOS using the jumper on the motherboard.
- Plug the power cord into the PS and press the power button.

If the motherboard/cpu is ok, you should get a series of beeps indicating that no RAM is detected. If you don't get any beeps and the power supply cuts out again, you have something wrong with the mobo or cpu. They could be bad, or they could be shorted as in #1 above. (If you plugged in a monitor, you should also see the startup screen if the mobo works.)

If you get the beeps and the power supply doesn't cut out, turn it off (unplugging the power cord to the PS is best). Install the RAM. Turn it on again. If that works (no beeps), it's probably the video card - it could be bad, or not compatible with the mobo (not likely).

Priceykins · Nov 09, 2007, 08:35 PM // 20:35

we have new symptoms now docs :P

I tried changing the cpu out for my old one, a pentium d something or other, and the pc fully booted.

However, I cleaned a little of what looked like thermal paste from my E6700 and put it in again, and tried it out, and the pc fully botted, but then I got a single beep im sure, and my keyboard wouldnt work, to let me select mobo setup etc.

So, I took the mobo out, and reseated the cpu heatsink correctly, with thermal paste(as this hadnt been done during the test for cpu working) but after I have reseated the mobo, and connected everything when I plug in the power supply, the GPU led comes on, as does the case side fan/led for roughly a second, then go off again, and the pc refuses to boot at all, the front panel led wont even come on when I push the button.

Any ideas anyone, all i can think of is a short somewhere, but no ideas forthcomming

Priceykins · Nov 09, 2007, 09:46 PM // 21:46

hey all

I reseated the mobo, and this time it worked. The system will boot properly. So must have been a short somewhere.

However, my cpu fan wont spin. Ive tested it with another fan that I had, and that refuses to spin aswell, so I am assuming that it is my mobo at fault.

I cant run the pc with the fan out of commision, as just sitting at the bios settings, it was at around 70c so i shudder to think what It would be at while playing a game.

*edit* mean to say I get 2 continuos beeps followed by two short beeps

So any ideas, or am I returing the mobo tomorrow?

lord_shar · Nov 09, 2007, 09:49 PM // 21:49

The earlier short could have caused damage to the system board. I'd suggest returning/exchanging it if possible.

Alex Morningstar · Nov 09, 2007, 09:51 PM // 21:51

I had the exact same problem when I built my own PC last year. Even when I got it to finally get everything going, it was plagued with problems until it finally died, killing the rest of the components with it.

My guess, is it's the motherboard. Go ahead and return it, at this point you aren't losing out on what was already not working and the new one might work better.