Dead Mobo?

[Stiganator]

So I just bought a brand new MSI P965 Platinum, I hook everything up and ...nothing. Nothing spins up. I take everything out except for RAM, CPU, and Video Card. I start it up again no luck. So I think maybe a short, so I take the mobo out of the case. No deal. I jump start the power supply with a paper clips and the fans spin up fine. I hook up the same PSU to a different mobo with just RAM, Video, CPU (different CPU even) and it works. I put that same RAM, Video, CPU in my new MSI and no deal. Does that pretty concretely tell me it is a dead mobo?

 

[Lord Evermore]

Yep. Although you could also try it without the video card, or a different, lower power one. Don't need video to see if the mainboard will even turn on. Don't even actually need memory installed to see if it will turn on. It could be that one of the memory slots is damaged, or the video card slot. At least you'd know why it wasn't working if you found that.

 

[Stiganator]

the video card is only a 35W one so I don't think it is a problem.

 

[Lord Evermore]

Well it might still be a problem with the slot. Doesn't help you get it working, but it's always nice to know what caused it.

 

[Jiggz]

If nothing spins up, then it tells me that the mobo does not switch on the PSU, either because the case power sw is bad or not connected properly to the mobo. Try shorting the two pins on the mobo power sw connector and see if the PSU will power up. With the mobo out of the case, you can also use paper clip to jumper the green and any black wire of the mob power connector 24 pin (or 20 pins) molex. If it still does not power up, RMA mobo. If it only powers up with a paperclip jumper, RMA it anyways.

 

[Lord Evermore]

He already did the paperclip jumper on the power supply, it worked fine. Even if it didn't, he wouldn't RMA the mainboard...

There is a chance it's just the case switch though, so bridging the two power switch pins for a second on the mainboard is a good test. If they don't work on the mainboard though, then that's an issue.

 

[Stiganator]

Turned out to be a power supply issue. My Antec Neo 480 just didn't put out enough power to run the MSI P965 Platinum. So I bought a TruePower 2.0 and it works. Strange.