(Another) Dead PC Help Thread!

[Darth Donut]

Hey all...I know there are like a million of these, but I was curious if anyone has encountered this in the past.

I just built a friend a new PC. We got everything hooked up, and tried to turn it on. The case light flickered on for a fraction of a second, and some of the fans flickered where they got juice for a fraction of a second, so they did a few slow but full rotations. After this happens we get nothing. Flicking the power switch does nothing. The only time I can get it to do the same thing is if I unplug the power supply for about 20 seconds and plug it back in.

I have tried undoing, then reconnecting everything, and I get the same result. Checked there were no screws touching the board that would cause it to short...that was clean. Unhooked the second and third hard drive as well as the optical, same result. I used the power supply in a PC for about a month and never had any problems with it...so I don't think the PSU is the issue.

I am assuming I have a dead motherboard, but if anyone has seen this behavior before and has some guidance, I would be very appreciative. Thanks!

 

[Swampster]

Is the CPU fan plugged in? Is it plugged into the correct header?

One of the first thing in POST is a check to see that the CPU fan is spinning and is spinning to speed. If not verified, then it kills the power instantly to keep from frying the MPU and possibly the motherboar.

 

[mpilchfamily]

What are the hardware specs of the system? List all the components.

The next thing you should try is pull everything out of the case. Get everything set up on top of the motherboard box and only plug in the primary components. The CPU, 1 DIMM of RAM, video card and PSU. See if it starts up. If not you may have a hardware issue. If it deos start up then there is a grounding problme in the case. Also try powering it up without the case switch. You can do this by using a screw driver to short the 2 power pins on the motherboard. This will rule out a possible bad switch on the case.