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New Build Wont Boot, fans and LED's turn on

T

TFS93

Junior Member
The nightmare begins.

I finished putting together a computer for the first time tonight, and when I press the power button, nothing happens on the motherboard; no beep (didn't add any speaker and the mobo may not have one i suppose), the cpu/gpu fans don't turn on, no lights. The case fans, the LED's for the front of the computer, and the DVD drive turn on, as well as the fan for the PSU.

Here are the specs of my build:

Case : NZXT Source 220
Mobo : Asrock H97 Pro4
PSU : EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650 G 80 PLUS GOLD Certified 650W
CPU : i5-4590
GPU : Zotac GTX 970
RAM : Team Zeus Red 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM
SSD : Crucial MX100 256GB
OD : ASUS DVD-Writer 24X

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. One very large problem I have is that I don't have any spare parts like PSU or RAM to swap out and test, and I don't know anyone who does. So far I've followed the procedure in this thread: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-perform-steps-posting-post-boot-video-problems with no results. I've tried each stick of RAM alone in every slot, and I've tried dual channel in the other color as well as no RAM. I also tried removing the video card. Every test had the same result as above.

Tomorrow when I wake up I'll have a good cry, and then take the whole thing apart to see if I can get anything to happen with just the psu/mobo/cpu and psu/mobo/cpu/ram. Until then I would love to hear from anyone some advice on what I should avoid doing in testing so as not to damage any parts, and what kind of tests I can run without spare parts to isolate the problem. When I was testing the RAM it occurred to me I was turning the computer off/on again ~10 times, and that it may have very adverse effects on my hardware if there was a short or something, so I'd like to avoid that kind of thing if possible.

Anyway, I'll update this tomorrow, please let me know if you have any ideas - thanks!
 
Oh, one more thing. This is really the only thing I could think of that I may have screwed up. I was very diligent overall about making sure everything is plugged in and things snapped into place etc, but there was one thing I wasn't sure about. The PSU came with a 24 pin cable that I plugged into the 24 pins on the motherboard. But either the PSU or the mobo came with some extra 24 pin thingy that I never ended up using and that I didn't see referenced in any of the manuals. I attached a picture below.

oDGVcUH.jpg
 
The item pictured in your second post is a PSU tester. It allows you to test the PSU by plugging it into the 24 pin motherboard header thus allowing you to check for power without using a motherboard. That's not needed in this case since it looks like the PSU is working. The guide that you linked to is quite thorough and includes the steps I would recommend trying to fix this problem. The first item I would try is to make sure that you have the right connector plugged into the CPU power on the motherboard. I've actually goofed on this once and had the same symptoms as you're describing until I realized the error. Plugged in the right connector and the system booted up just fine.
 
nsafreak said:
The item pictured in your second post is a PSU tester. It allows you to test the PSU by plugging it into the 24 pin motherboard header thus allowing you to check for power without using a motherboard. That's not needed in this case since it looks like the PSU is working. The guide that you linked to is quite thorough and includes the steps I would recommend trying to fix this problem. The first item I would try is to make sure that you have the right connector plugged into the CPU power on the motherboard. I've actually goofed on this once and had the same symptoms as you're describing until I realized the error. Plugged in the right connector and the system booted up just fine.
Click to expand...

Ok, thanks. I'm going to test the PSU anyway when I take everything out just in case. I'm 99.9% sure everything CPU wise is plugged in the right place. The 4 pin fan of the cpu is plugged into a 4 pin connector labeled CPU Fan1, and there's a notch that it has to go through to make sure the orientation is correct. The 8 pin PSU slot labeled CPU1 is plugged into the 8 pin ATX12V1 on the mobo. The cable connecting it has an 8 pin on one end and a 4+4 pin on the other, the 8 is in the PSU and the 4+4 in the motherboard, which corresponds to the manual and google.
 
Last edited:
You need to start with a basic minimal install outside the box. Trying to troubleshoot with everything plugged in is very difficult because it's hit or miss. You need one stick of ram, onboard video and, no hard drive. You can either short the power button header or, leave the mb connected to the case cable connectors. Take the mb OUT OF THE CASE. Make sure the one stick of ram is in the right slot for that configuration, check the manual. Make sure both the 8 pin atx connector and the 24 pin connector from the psu are plugged into the mb. Try to boot. If no joy, try the other stick of ram. Make sure the cpu fan header is connected. Make sure the case connectors are properly oriented to pin one. They are supposed to be simple logic switches but, I have run into problems booting when a connector is reversed. The embossed triangle on the plug indicates plug one. I was stumped for quite a while on a no boot issue in one build because the cable label of the case connector was on backwards.
 
TFS93 said:
The 8 pin PSU slot labeled CPU1 is plugged into the 8 pin ATX12V1 on the mobo. The cable connecting it has an 8 pin on one end and a 4+4 pin on the other, the 8 is in the PSU and the 4+4 in the motherboard, which corresponds to the manual and google.
Click to expand...

Your PSU is modular? That adds a small amount of complexity to the diagnosis.

Just pointing this out for the benefit of those trying to help, in case they were not aware.
 
Sorry for the delay in updating, I wasn't able to work on the computer for a while, but it looks like everything is okay.

Here's what happened:

-First I took everything apart, and then tested the power supply just with the 24 pin thing posted above, and it worked.

-Then I did the external build just with mobo/CPU/RAM. When I shorted the power pins, the CPU fan turned on (no post beep, but I don't think there's a mic for it build in), so already much better than before.

-Then I added the video card, again shorted pins, CPU and GPU fans turned on, everything looked okay.

-I rebuilt everything in the case, and I didn't notice doing anything different than I did before. Shorted pins, everything worked, plugged in leads and then used power button, and everything worked.

So my guess is either I didn't plug something in all the way or somehow I messed up the leads and the signal to turn on wasn't even going. I'm not sure, but either way I think the moral of the story is to always do an external build first because if I had done that, I probably would have fixed that sooner and not been wondering if my motherboard was dead or something.

Anyway, my first build ever is up and running now; thanks again guys for helping out, and sorry for the false alarm 🙂
 
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