Need advice for new build that was working, not isn't.

[Aolish]

Hi all, was hoping if someone can help me. I seriously am thinking I might of damaged something and I could use some advice. I just recently did a new build. Everything went fine and dandy for about 2 weeks till I realized that I didn't connect my USB 3.0 header to the motherboard. I took the USB 3.0 header plug from the antec 1200 case, plugged it into the motherboard not realizing I bumped the main 24 pin motherboard connector out.

Only half of the 24 pin PSU connector was inside of it while the other half was sticking out. Obviously at the time I did not know, it was only after when i plugged everything in that the computer only turned half on. HDDs, Opticals etc went on except for the motherboard, the only thing that were on was red lights. I then realized that the main PSU connector was half disconnected. I fully plugged it back into the board, closed the case then powered the machine on again. It was then I got the Windows 8 BSOD saying the pc needed to be repaired.

I inserted the Win8 disc and went into the recovery options of which none had worked. System restore said files are not accessible, System repair says the SSD is locked and can not initiate repair and even attempting to reinstall Win8 doesn't work because the SSD doesn't show up during the Win8 installation process. I am extremely upset and fustrated that this happened all because i wanted to plug in a USB 3.0 plug into the board :-/. Any help is appreciated. The new build is on the bottom:

 

[tracerbullet]

Can you get into the BIOS during boot and see if it shows all of your drives? There should be a list of hardware detected - HDD's, SSD's, optical, etc.

Just to check - you are certain that all of these devices are plugged in, right? Power and IDE / SATA cables both as applicable.

You might even go so far as to be sure they are getting power, do you own a multimeter or anything?

I'm just thinking the first step is to make sure everything gets power, next be sure the motherboard can see them, last deal w/ Win 8 seeing them. Depending on how that goes will say what to do next.

******

Also - red light? What red light? On the motherboard? If so, is the light labeled or does the manual tell you what it's saying?

******

One more thing - modular power supply? If so, are all cables (board, CPU, video card, all drives) connected at the PSU as well?

 

[Aolish]

Okay, just an update.... it looks like tracer was correct, not only did I knock off the main power connector the modular PSU like tracer said was knocked off also lol. I plugged both back in and now the system is finally able to login to Windows just fine.

Unfortunately I am faced with yet another problem now and am hoping someone can help. For some reason now whenever I do a full shutdown of the PC, the system doesn't fully shutdown. From what I can hear and see, everything shuts off except for the two rear fans, top fan on the Antec 1200 and CPU heatsink/fan. The motherboard remains on and never fully shuts off. I am always having to force shutdown by holding down the PWR button every single time. At first I thought it might of been the fan overtime feature in the bios, however upon disabling that option the system still remains partially on when shutting down.

Before when I plugged the USB 3.0 into the motherboard it DID still do it, but it was extremely rare. However it was only AFTER I plugged the header into the board that now it does it every single time. Any ideas?


-made sure all devices in device manager had the checkmark unticked for: Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power"
-turned off the PSU back switch then unplugged the power cable then turned on the switch and put back the power cable to see if the motherboard had to discharge something.
-Have checked the bios settings for possible causes to this, the only option that came up was "fan overtime" where the fans stay on for 1 minute before turning off the machine", that option was disabled and unfortunately the problem still presist.
-loaded defaults in the bios (even though I never overclocked anything at all)
-made sure all PSU "POWER" connections are seated tightly and securely into the devices, I even checked all modular connections on the psu itself.

EDIT: I had forgotten to add, strangely enough when I do a 'reset' in Windows, the PC COMPLETELY powers down EVERYTHING then about 2-3 seconds later powers back up. I'm not sure if that'll help

 

[tracerbullet]

I'd do a "clear CMOS" procedure, set the BIOS to default settings, or both. Maybe even update it if there's an update out there just to be sure it's cleared. If nothing else you can rule out any settings in it as the problem.

Staying on seems to be tied into the board itself, I can't see the PSU nor Windows doing it.

 

[Aolish]

I already selected optimized defaults in the bios, isn't that same as clearing the cmos? The bios on this board is extremely old which is v1206, the latest version is v1708. I'll try that out and see if it works. Will post results later.