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My new system won't boot! Please help a newbie!

M

MidiGuy

Senior member
I just got finished putting together my new system. AthlonXP 1600+, Soyo SY-K7V Dragon Plus!, Antec SX1040 with Antec pp412x psu. I got it all hooked up and when I turn on the psu, the onboard lan lights come on, the optical mouse plugged into the ps2 port lights up, and a little green led near the bottom of the board lights up. But when I hit the power button, I get nothing, except sometimes a slight dim in the lights in the room. I've tried switching the position of the power switch wires because in the manual they don't tell you by color, just by type of wire (like +5, ground, etc.), and I don't know very much about which wire is which.

Does anyone know what might be causing this?

Thanks!

-Midi
 
Well it wont hurt if you plug the pwr switch connector in the wrong way, if one way doesn't work, turn it around. 50/50 chance. 🙂
 
I already tried that and it doesn't work either way. But I'm glad to know it won't hurt to have it wrong. 🙂

Just so I dont have to double my efforts, though, I would appreciate it if someone would tell me which was the switch goes on my board.
 
The power switch is NOT polorized it is just a momentary touch switch. Firstly do NOT hold the power button in as that will cause the machine to go into sleep mode.
I dont understand some of your post. Make sure that you do not have any extra standoffs under the motherboard, that is any that do not have a screw in through the top of the board. Do you have the CPU heatsink fan plugged into the labled socket on the motherboard? I do not know this particular board but some boards will not boot without the fan being plugged in. If what you are saying is that the light on the MB comes on when you turn on the PS switch on the back of the PS and the fans spin up you have something plugged in wrong from the switch and light and other plugs from the case. Also check that the CMOS jumper is not set in the clear CMOS setting if it is wrong unplug the computer before changing it. I do not see any memory in your list what are using for memory??
Unplug all the connectors that come from the case(not the PS) and then turn on the supply on the back and see what happens.
Bleep
 
Thanks for the reply. 🙂 First of all, there is NO activity except the lights I mentioned. No fans or anything. Not on the power supply or the mobo. The cpu fan is plugged into the correct place. I don't have any extra standoffs. My memory is 256 MB Crucial DDR. The CMOS is not in clear mode. I already unplugged the power cord and tried clearing it. Then I put the jumper back. I don't fully know what you mean by saying that the power switch is not polarized. That doesn't mean that it doesn't matter which way I connect it, does it?
 
Yes non polorized means it makes no difference which way you plug it in.
I really think that you have something plugged in wrong on the row of pins where you connect for the power button or you are shorted to ground somewhere. If it were mine I would unmount the motherboard and slide a piece of paper under it and then try and boot. Also unplug everything going to the MB except the speaker and power switch, no HD no videocard no floppy and no memory, boot the machine, you should get constant beeping because of no ram. If you get the beeping shut it down and install the memory, boot and you should get one beep. If that works plug in the video card and attach the monitor, keyboard and mouse and boot. Just keep installing one thing at a time.
Dont give up! you keep trying things and I will keep you busy 🙂

Bleep
 
I guess I'll start trying some of these things, but I'm not sure this case has a speaker. I couldn't find it if it does. Also, when should the psu fan come on?
 
Ok, now that I'm done ripping apart my newly built system...... In the end, I had paper under the entire mobo, nothing plugged into it but the power switch, the ATX power, the north bridge fan, and the cpu fan. the only other things plugged were the two case fans. Still not one indication that I pushed the button. I don't know what else to do. How can I tell if I have to bad psu or mobo? I don't understand why it acts like I didn't push the button, unless the documentation is wrong reguarding where to plug in that power swich, or unless that wire is messed up at the other end, which I can't get to.
 
Make sure the PSU isn't set at 220. Try a different pwr cord. Reseat all your components.

PSU fan should start right away.
 
It isn't at 220, the other power cord makes no difference, and all of my components are UNseated except for what I mentioned above. I guess I don't understand how the power supply is supposed to work. I have never heard it do anything ever at all except for the sound it makes a few seconds after I turn off it's switch on the back when it cuts power. Under what circumstances would the psu fan not come on? Can I make it work with no mother board?
 
Well, I don't know how much else I can do with this. I took off the front cover. I think I found the speaker. I guess the power button is ok on that end. I'm getting very tired....
 
well you can start the PS without a motherboard attached but it has it's risks. Try this, a little risky but if you are carefull it will be OK the pins on the motherboard that are supposed to have the on switch connected to are right next to each other just be carefull and use a small thin blade screwdriver and short the two together just for a moment and the PS should start. I never seen a case without a speaker by the way. You might look HERE at the pinout of the ps plug and see if you want to risk starting the supply that way, I have done it but would not recommend it.

I have to sleep now as it is almost 4 AM here.
back at noon tommorrow.
Bleep
 
Do not start the Power supply without a load (the Mobo) attatched! You can fry power supplies that way they must have a load! Remove your board from the case, set it on a box next to the case and put in the CPU/HS/FAN, memory, & video card then connect the case power button (no it does NOT matter which way it goes), there really should be a small case speaker (I assume that this is a new Antec case) It will have a four pin connector with only two wires (Red and black) connected to the outer most postions, connect it to the speaker pins, if you wish, connect the reset switch, it also goes either way. Each of these wires will be marked with a sticker on the connector, it may be a bit cryptic but if you think about it you will figure it out. Now connect the mouse and keyboard then finally the main motherboard power connector. The last thing is top plug into the wall and hit the power swithch. Since the mobo is not buried in the case it is now easy to check and reseat boards as necessary (powered down of course!). If you cannot get it to POST or beeb in this condition you have a problem with either the mobo or the CPU, without alternate compontents to test with it is nearly impossible to tell which.

I strongly recommend to all who build that the first POST be OUT of the case, it is so much easier to work with and you are GUARENTEED NOT to have a case short.
GL
 
I'm not planning on doing anything to my psu. I've been at this for probably about eight hours. My first system. At least three hours troubleshooting/sitting around frustrated and tired. And my second light buld just burnt out (the first one burnt out weeks ago, but I never replaced it), so now I'm sitting in the dark. I wish I'd just gone to bed a long time ago. My room's a mess and now I can't see to clear the bed. Oh well, the sun will be up soon.
 
I forgot to ask my question. Can I even take my Athlon off this board without having to replace the heatsink (or at least the thermal compound)?
 
Like I said it is somewhat risky to start the supply without it attached to the MB but what I do is plug in a couple of fans to the connectors to insure a load so that the PS will regulate. In regards to your last question, I do not think it is a good idea to remove the HSF and replace it without refreshing the heat transfer compound. The thing that really bothers me is the statement that you made in your origonal post as to the lights in your room dimming when turning on the computer power supply. This could be just simply not enough current available from the wall socket that you have chosen to use. Other than this or a bad CPU you have done about everything that I can think of.
I think that there has been a lot of posts in regard to this Motherboard in the Motherboards forum, you maybe should go down there and do a search if the search feature is working today.
Good Luck
Bleep
Check out the forums HERE It seems as there a few having problems with this board.
 
Have a sleep first. 🙂
You will think better with clear head, and... bright sun light would certainly help as well.
Maybe you missed something very simple.
 
Dude. If the lights in your room (err, I mean the light you used to have) are dimming when you power the computer on then you have a SERIOUS dead short somewhere. Try another PSU.
 
Hello everyone! I finally got to bed between 6:30 and 7:00 am. I should have just gone to bed much sooner. In the "morning", which was about 2:00 pm, I got up, and awhile later I was talking to a friend about it on the phone. He thought it must be a jumper, and I told him that there aren't very many on this board. But I started going through the manual more closely anyway. I decided to double check the CMOS jumper, and discovered that it was only on pin 1! It was strange because I can see myself doing that accidently when I was so tired, but I don't think it was like that from the factory. So maybe it really did need to have the CMOS cleared (which I did before, but tried again), I'm not sure. But anyway, when I put it on pins 1 and 2, plugged it in and hit the switch, IT WORKED! Praise the Lord! I wonder if maybe that was a miracle! I really didn't want to RMA anything.

Next hopefully I'll go to bed before I start losing it. 😀

Thanks for all the help! At least I learned some good troubleshooting techniques!

-Midi
 
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