1st time build-stuck at the beginning

[paulpaul]

Okay, after reading through some other threads today I'd hoped I'd be a little farther along, but no go. Here's the gig--

Asus A7N266-VM
Allied 300W PS
Kingston 256 DDR
AMD XP 1500
CoolerMaster CPU fan

I've got the board on a cardboard box, hooked up to the PS, and when I turn on the power the LED lights up.

Should the fan start up at the same time? Mine doesn't. Is it posting? I've no idea if Im seeing what I should or if something else (ie the fan) should be going on too.

Any help would be GREATLY apprieciated!

 

[WarCon]

Posting is when it starts talking to the bios and loading the basic I/O (bios). That is all displayed on the screen. Do you have a video card hooked up? If not your not going to see it. I would also recommend getting a speaker plugged in so you can hear error beeps if there are any. But if the fans aren't turning either you have a bad fan or it isn't actually starting up.

 

[paulpaul]

Yeah, I was afraid of something like that...I'll go buy (another) new fan today.

Thanks for your help; I'm sure I'll be back later for more help with this

 

[KenGr]

Time Out!

Trying the board outside the case is a good idea for trouble shooting, but do you have it hooked to the case power switch?

On most ASUS boards, the LED on the board only means the power is good to the power switch. You have to turn the board on via the power switch connector on the board. From the sounds of your post you aren't doing this. When you press the case power switch, the case and CPU power should come on.

I would advise just completely assembling the board in the case with only the video card and monitor installed first. If it posts, hook up the floppy drive, hard drive and one CD ROM and install the operating system.

 

[TheCorm]

Is the fan connected to FAN1 connector on the motherboard?

It is the CPU fan that is not spinning up yeah and not the power supply fan (that should come on no matter what). Generally your CPU will not burn out if it has a heatsink but no fan....for a while.

If you do have it plugged in then it should work, maybe try the FAN2 connector (although some boards might beep and complain about this as they insist on a connector on FAN1).

If all else fails then looks like new fan is a good idea (what coolermaster do you currently have by the way?).

Corm

 

[FluxCapacitor]

I've got the board on a cardboard box, hooked up to the PS, and when I turn on the power the LED lights up.

Sounds to me like you're turning on the power switch on the back of the power supply when you say "turning on the power".

This does supply power to the motherboard, which will make the LED on the motherboard light up, but doesn't actually turn your system on. It's the same as "standby" mode on a home stereo system. You see the "standby" light on, but that doesn't mean the stereo is operational, it's simply waiting for you to press the "on" button. It also does not mean your motherboard is actually turned on. The ONLY way to activate your motherboard is to hook up the power button to the proper pins on your motherboard (look in your manual). Then when you press that power button, if nothing happens then, you know you did something wrong.

 

[TheCorm]

Whoops, didn't read that you had the board outside the box...

I agree with KenGr and FluxCapacitor.

Corm

 

[WarCon]

You know I didn't even look from that perspective...........

Yeah, hook up your power button man.......