First time building A Computer - Won't Boot

[The Fonz]

I bought almost all new hardware from newegg. Here's a summary of what I got:

-PSU: ANTEC NEOHE 550W

-Case: ANTEC P-160

-HD: 320Gb SATA2

-Burner: Lite-On 18X DVDRW

-Video Card: MSI Nvidia NX7600GT

-CPU: AMD|A64 X2 4200+ AM2 2x512K

-Mobo: MSI K9N SLI PLATINUM N570SLI AM2

-Memory: 4GB Kingston 667Mhz DDR2 PC-5300

Everything was new except for the ram (I bought it off some guy). Now I just put my computer together and it powers up when I have everything connected except for the hard drive. If I plug in the hard drive and try to turn it on, the lights flash for a second and the fans start up, but they turn off almost immediately. I'm wondering if this is a problem with the ram because I think I heard somewhere that the MSI K9N mobo had issues with Kingston ram. I have no idea why this is happening. If anyone could shed some light on this subject I would greatly appreciate it. If you need more info in order to help me out, let me know. Thanks.

-Fonzie

 

[amdskip]

I would just try 1 stick of memory to start with. It's really not worth running more than 2gb of memory at this point in time.

Also, make sure you have all of your power cables hooked up to your motherboard and video card.

 

[The Fonz]

I removed one stick of ram and tried to turn it on. Same thing happened again.

I just finished reading somewhere else that these mobos have a problem with the voltage for the memory and someone recommended to put spare ram and enter the bios in order to change the voltage. Should I give that a try (I'd have to borrow a friend's ram or something)?

 

[mechBgon]

Confirm that you have every power cable hooked up to the motherboard. For your board, that means three power cables. 24-pin main, 4-pin square ATX12V secondary, plus the 4-in-a-row one just above the upper video-card slot.

Also, I believe your first video card goes in the upper slot (check the manual). Additionally, read the Antec PSU's manual closely regarding where to plug the cables in, and make sure that you connect the PCI-Express video power cable to the video card correctly, if it uses the 6-pin 2x3 type (it's a directional cable on NeoPowers!).

Beyond that... check whether your video card has one of these receptacles, and if so, make sure you get a power cable hooked up to that too. More pics of power & data cables on this page.

If problems persist, try testing the motherboard outside the case on a piece of cardboard, with only the absolutely necessary items for it to POST: the CPU and heatsink/fan, the video card, one memory module in the slot that your motherboard manual says to put a solo module into, NO drives, NO keyboard, NO mouse, NO case wiring. If it doesn't work like that, you might check my no-POST/no-run document for more brainstorming ideas.

Good luck and welcome to the Forums!

 

[marulee]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
Confirm that you have every power cable hooked up to the motherboard. For your board, that means three power cables. 24-pin main, 4-pin square ATX12V secondary, plus the 4-in-a-row one just above the upper video-card slot.

Also, I believe your first video card goes in the upper slot (check the manual). Additionally, read the Antec PSU's manual closely regarding where to plug the cables in, and make sure that you connect the PCI-Express video power cable to the video card correctly, if it uses the 6-pin 2x3 type (it's a directional cable on NeoPowers!).

Beyond that... check whether your video card has one of these receptacles, and if so, make sure you get a power cable hooked up to that too. More pics of power & data cables on this page.

If problems persist, try testing the motherboard outside the case on a piece of cardboard, with only the absolutely necessary items for it to POST: the CPU and heatsink/fan, the video card, one memory module in the slot that your motherboard manual says to put a solo module into, NO drives, NO keyboard, NO mouse, NO case wiring. If it doesn't work like that, you might check my no-POST/no-run document for more brainstorming ideas.

Good luck and welcome to the Forums!

Fair enough!

Also look at the motherboard manual in regard to jumper settings then put it into default.

Try without memories, PCI or other perpherials then boot the PC. See how long power stays.

 

[The Fonz]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
Confirm that you have every power cable hooked up to the motherboard. For your board, that means three power cables. 24-pin main, 4-pin square ATX12V secondary, plus the 4-in-a-row one just above the upper video-card slot.

Also, I believe your first video card goes in the upper slot (check the manual). Additionally, read the Antec PSU's manual closely regarding where to plug the cables in, and make sure that you connect the PCI-Express video power cable to the video card correctly, if it uses the 6-pin 2x3 type (it's a directional cable on NeoPowers!).

Beyond that... check whether your video card has one of these receptacles, and if so, make sure you get a power cable hooked up to that too. More pics of power & data cables on this page.

I checked all that you mentioned and everything is connected fine but the computer still turns off abruptly. Is it possible that incompatible ram is causing this? My next two options will be to test the computer with different ram and a different hard drive. I'll get back to you guys with my results. Thanks for the help.

 

[amdskip]

Don't worry about the hard drive(s)/optical drives at this time. For all intents and purposes, unhook the data cables/power cables to them all. Concentrate on getting the motherboard to boot and to enter into the bios.

Try your other stick of memory or else a different stick and see what happens.

 

[The Fonz]

I guess my gut feeling was right. It was the ram that wasn't working. I swapped the sticks and my computer booted up and went into the bios.

Just my luck, the one thing I don't buy from newegg is what doesn't work. Don't always trust craigslisters. haha.

 

[The Fonz]

I'm trying to find out if my memory stick isn't compatible with my motherboard or if it just isn't working. It doesn't say what brand it is, but the sticker says that it was assembled in Germany. Right below that it reads: "2GB 2Rx4 PC2-5300R-555-11-J1"

When I punch some of those values and search on the internet all I come up with is sites that appear to be German. The only thing that I can make out of them is the word "Kingston." So I'm guessing the brand is Kingston. Does anyone know if this ram is compatible with my mobo. I'd like to try it out with another computer but unfortunately no one I know has a DDR2 motherboard.

 

[The Fonz]

I did a little more digging and found out that my ram is Infineon. The particular type of memory that I have is used for high end devices and Dell Servers. My computer doesn't support it. Guess I'll have to shop around for more ram.

 

[The Fonz]

I bought new ram thinking that my problems would be solved. I got Corsair XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 675 (PC2 5400)

This is my system once again:

-PSU: ANTEC NEOHE 550W

-Case: ANTEC P-160

-HD: Seagate 320Gb SATA2

-Burner: Lite-On 18X DVDRW

-Video Card: MSI Nvidia NX7600GT

-CPU: AMD|A64 X2 4200+ AM2 2x512K

-Mobo: MSI K9N SLI PLATINUM N570SLI AM2

.....I can turn on the computer without the hard drive connected and it will go into the bios. Once I connect the hard drive and try to turn it on, the lights just flicker and then the computer turns off almost instantly. I'm not sure what my problem is now. I'm questioning once again if it's a ram compatibility issue.

I'm loosing my hair over this. Can anyone shed some light on my problem? Thanks.