Need help putting together a new computer

[Knyteguy]

Hi, as you may or may not have ready a little less than a week ago, I bought all the parts for a complete custom built computer. Being it's my first build, and I've never seen seen most of a computer be put together, I'd say I'm in over my head. I put all the parts together best I could following the instructions from the manuals everything came with. I plug in the power supply, hear a weird noise (very subtle), but none of the fans in the computer turn on. I am absolutely positive at least one of those fans is connected right.

I have all the power cords plugged into the mother board, and everything else is linked from those cords. Has anyone experienced a problem like this before? I keep looking for fan movement, but there most definitely is none. Any possible problems that I may have overlooked that you may be able to suggest?

I'm getting frustrated, and trying not to break $1500 worth of parts because of it. Hopefully someone can give me an idea of why this may be happening. Thanks.

 

[zagood]

The fans won't spin up until you actually hit the power supply on the case.

There are some good beginner's guides out there for DIY systems...lemme try to find some...

-z

 

[Knyteguy]

Originally posted by: zagood
The fans won't spin up until you actually hit the power supply on the case.

There are some good beginner's guides out there for DIY systems...lemme try to find some...

-z

Tried that, absolutely nothing was happening with the buttons on the case:|

If it helps at all, I have one of those DFI nf4 mobos.

 

[zagood]

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1444
http://www.buildeasypc.com/hw/howto/assemblepc.htm

just a few.

-z

 

[leigh6]

Make sure the connectors from the front of the case are connected correctly to the panel. You will need to use the manual from your motherboard to make sure the connections are correct.

 

[zagood]

What Leigh said, good point.

Make sure you plugged the power supply into the motherboard.

Reseat the ram.

Check if your video card needs the power supply plugged into it.

List out your parts. Motherboard, processor, ram, video card, power supply, hard drives, etc. Take pictures and post them if you can, specifically the power connector to the motherboard and cpu mounting.

-z

 

[forumposter32]

http://www.google.com/search?client=ope...puter&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

Yeah, lots of sites.

But it's true that there is a button on the back of the power supply.

Did you plug in the 12V close to the CPU?

BTW, only plug in what you need to the motherboard. Like the "sound cable" to the CD or DVD burner is no longer used. Plug in the hard drive, floppy drive, DVD-RW and maybe case fans if that's where you want to plug them in. And don't forget to plug in the CPU fan at the right place LOL.

 

[Knyteguy]

I think it must be the front panel cables. I have no idea where they go, the mobo manual is hardly helpful with this. The entire front panel setup is listed, but that's it. None of the tags really match the ones marked on the cables. The case of course didn't come with a manual, so I'm stuck.

 

[orion23]

Connecting the front panel is to me the hardest part of the job.

Just look at it for a few hours and you'll see the logic behind it.

P-LED = Power LED (the little light when the PC goes on)
PSW = Power switch (the most important, probably the 1 you got wrong)
RSW = Reset switch
HD LED = Hard drive LED (little light when the HD is working)

What motherboard are you using and what case?

Maybe you can post a picture of the cables showing the names or labels

 

[leigh6]

Post your motherboard. I will check the manual and guide you through.

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: orion23
Connecting the front panel is to me the hardest part of the job.

Definitely the most frustrating, that's for sure.

 

[Atheus]

I bet the faint sound you hear is the northbridge fan built onto the motherboard. This means you are plugged in ok, so run a screwdriver along the pins on the motherboard where you are supposed to plug the front panel in, this will short the power button and everything will hopefully spin up.

 

[Knyteguy]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136152

DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D ATX AMD Motherboard

You're right, I probably did get the power switch wrong. I'm gonna take the rest of the night off and try it fresh tommorrow. Would ATX-power (or something like that), be the one I would want to hook up to the PWR SW cables?

It doesn't matter much tonight anyway, the monitor I'm working with now doesn't connect to the video card. I'm hoping there's a convertor. It's an older monitor so it doesn't surprise me it doesn't work.

 

[Knyteguy]

Sorry for the double post.

I tried the screwdriver trick, and realized that the mobo I have has both a power and a reset switch built in. None of this is working. The sound I hear sounds like something powering up but nothing else. I am not smelling anything that would make me assume that something is fried. From what I've heard, it should work even without the HD/dvd hooked up, but I don't have a power cable in the DVD right now because I've had to disconnect it so many times.

Hopefully I don't have any defective parts, the parts I ordered all had very good feedback.

 

[zagood]

Manual 10mb PDF.

Here's the connectors. You should really download and read the whole manual though.

Please list all of your parts so we can help you better.

I'm assuming that you've got a VGA connector with your old monitor, and the video card has DVI inputs. You can pick up an adapter for about $5.

-z

 

[w00t]

umm someone give this guy mechbgons guide.

 

[Highmodulus]

Additionally- www.dfi-street.com is a great resource for DFI board owners. They have two full time DFI employees whose job it is to post there. They also have a thread with pictures on how to build up the board. I would suggest going there.