First time builder needing help :(

[Soapy Bones]

I'm tryin to build my first PC here to make it a home theater pc. I picked up a combo from a anandtech user that was a motherboard, XP2100 cpu, DDR Ram, HD, and vid card. I was hoping to use an old case that i had lying around and so i ended up having to purchase a 430 watt PSU to go with this system. Finally got around to plugging it all in and the PSU won't even turn on. I bought it used from an individual on here, its an Antec truepower 430. I've heard they're very good.

In any event, I plugged it in and turned it on and the fan does not come on. Is there something else i'm supposed to be doing here. This is an old IBM computer case, the boards/cards/drives all fit in it OK but the power button and HDD access light cable will not plug into any place on the motherboard. Is this button just for a secondary use or is it essential to operation.

Help!! please

thanks

 

[mechBgon]

Yeah, you'll need to find another way to make momentary contact across the motherboard's Power Button pins. What motherboard exactly?

 

[Soapy Bones]

This is the motherboard model that I have... its a clone i beleive... cheap...

K7S5A

 

[mechBgon]

You might try the screwdriver trick on the proper pins on the motherboard's front-panel header. If it uses the same pins as the newer K7S5A Pro, they're the second and third pins from the right end of the bottom row. The motherboard watches those pins for a momentary electrical connection, and when it gets one, it tells the PSU to start.

 

[htmlmasterdave]

The machine will power on if you can find the pins to short... you really only need something like a screwdriver or a coin and only cross those two pins, after that the machine will boot.

 

[Soapy Bones]

Sounds like a good possibility here... next question is though... how am I going to make this work on a permanent basis..
this computer is going to be running all the time I think, so being able to turn it on and off isn't really crucial but I just need to make it work!!

 

[mechBgon]

Well, one obvious solution is to buy an industry-standard ATX case, either tower or desktop as you prefer. Inwin and Enlight do some budget desktop-style cases (make sure you don't get microATX though, you need full ATX like an Inwin H500). Alternately, get a two-pin pluglet and wire that to the IBM case's power button.

 

[Soapy Bones]

Can anyone suggest where to find a power button or an adapter or anything that will work..?

 

[Electric Amish]

You can get a case from www.newegg.com for ~$20

 

[Attrox]

On some computers you can get your pc to turn on just by switching the power supply switch from off to on position, sometime they even turn on automatically when you plugin the power cable. I don't know how you set it up so that it behaves this way though.

 

[Soapy Bones]

oh don't worry, im not 100% sure i know what im doing so i'm definitely not even going to try it...

I guess I'll just have to pick up a cheap case and go from there... kind of sucks... thought i was done buying stuff.

Thanks anyways though guys...

any cheap case suggestions since i've already got a PSU

 

[Attrox]

Originally posted by: Attrox
On some computers you can get your pc to turn on just by switching the power supply switch from off to on position, sometime they even turn on automatically when you plugin the power cable. I don't know how you set it up so that it behaves this way though.

I edited my post, I wrote that thinking that you need help troubleshooting the power supply, sorry
There might be some settings in the BIOS to allow the computer to turn on by itself when connected to a power source, but i'm not sure about your mobo check the manual.

 

[Attrox]

Anyway, this case seems pretty decent. It's $36.50 with free shipping.

You can get cheaper cases in Newegg for around $26(including shipping) but they tend to look really ugly.

 

[Soapy Bones]

Originally posted by: Attrox

Originally posted by: Attrox
On some computers you can get your pc to turn on just by switching the power supply switch from off to on position, sometime they even turn on automatically when you plugin the power cable. I don't know how you set it up so that it behaves this way though.

I edited my post, I wrote that thinking that you need help troubleshooting the power supply, sorry
There might be some settings in the BIOS to allow the computer to turn on by itself when connected to a power source, but i'm not sure about your mobo check the manual.

Yeah.. Ideally this is what I was hoping for since its not something that's going to be turned on and off frequently. Unfortunately I don't have a manual for this at all. Any ideas with the given model number of how to do this? In a perfect world, it would work!

 

[Attrox]

You can find the manual here, good luck!

 

[Soapy Bones]

Thanks for finding that manual for me, I appreciate that.

It says the following for the power switch:
"Supporting the power on/off function requires connecting pins 6 and 8 to a momentary-contact switch that is normally open. The switch should maintain contact for at least 50ms to signal the power supply to switch on or off. The time requirement is due to a debounce circuitry. After receiving a power on/off signal, at least two seconds elapses before the power supply recognizes another on/off signal.

Does this mean that if I put a jumper that connects the 2 pins together... that it will always be on with the switch on the back of the PSU on? That's what I'm goin for here if possible, or do I need to come up with a form of switch.

 

[Soapy Bones]

anybody????

 

[Attrox]

Have you gone through the BIOS setting in the manual?
I read through one version of the manual but i'm not sure if you have this particular version or not. I found one setting in the Power Management Setup Page called Keyboard Power On Function, it says:

"If you enable this item, you can turn the system on and off by pressing hot keys on the keyboard. You must enable the Keyboard Power On jumper and use an ATX power supply in order to use this feature. "

Maybe you can try this feature if you have them

Does this mean that if I put a jumper that connects the 2 pins together... that it will always be on with the switch on the back of the PSU on? That's what I'm goin for here if possible, or do I need to come up with a form of switch.

In theory this should work but i'm not 100% sure