New PC Build, Wicked Spec... but no power to motherboard ????

[jamesharcourt]

Hi,

I'm new the board so I'll try to summarise my problem as best as poss.

I've just put together the following DAW RIG:

ASUS A8V Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 3200 Socket 939 Processor
Codegen 6097CA Case
Enermax Coolergiant EG435AX-VHB PSU
Corsair ValueSelect DDR400 Dual Channel RAM (2x512MB)
NVidia GeForce AGP Card
Terratec EWS88MT Pro Soundcard
Ethernet Card
x1 SATA 200GB Seagate Disk
x1 ATA Maxtor 160GB Disk

I installed everything and had no doubts - OTHER THAN THE HEATSINK. The heatsink came with the AMD processor but was not attached. So I:

(1) screwed the mobo into the chassis
(2) put the chip onto the socket with the lever up - then pushed the lever down. nice & snug - no probs.
(3) put the heatsink over the socket and clipped into place on both sides with a little force, but felt nice and snug.
(4) the lever on the heatsink was loose and 180 degrees round from where the diagram said it should be. however, when I try to turn it it feels like somehing is going to snap and so i was too scared to move it - so i left that.
(5) connected all the cards, drives and power cables including the chassis switch & reset connections to the MOBO
(6) installed everything else and switched it on ...


Absolutely NOTHING happened!!! No LED, not even a whirring. No power whatsoever to the board.

Then I tried using a different PSU, just connected to the MOBO & chassis switch(not to the drives). This made a noise but I smelt something odd after about 5 seconds so I quickly unplugged it. I don't know where the burning smell came from but it seemed to be from the PSU. I put the old PSU back and again, nothing happened.

DOes anybody have any idea what I can do to resolve this? Or have I broken something already?

Everything was done by the book and the obvious things have been checked out already ...

Any help will be massively appreciated!!!!

Thx.

 

[Kogan]

I'm not familiar with AMD 64 processors/sockets, but if your heatsink is on the wrong way with an amd XP setup, it may not be touching the core of the processor - it will be sitting up half way on the socket. But even then, it should work for at least a few seconds before burning up.

Other than that, try the basic stuff - remove the motherboard from the case, remove all accessories and cables that are connected to the motherboard (even the power switch, reset switch, hdd led, etc) except for the video, one stick of ram and the processor. Turn it on by touching the power switch pins together with a jumper or other piece of metal. If that works, then turn it off and start adding other things until you figure out what's wrong.

If it doesn't work, then something's wrong with your motherboard, processor, ram or power supply. Since you tried another power supply, it's probably not that. It's also probably not the ram since most computers will start up with no ram installed.

 

[jamesharcourt]

Originally posted by: Kogan
I'm not familiar with AMD 64 processors/sockets, but if your heatsink is on the wrong way with an amd XP setup, it may not be touching the core of the processor - it will be sitting up half way on the socket. But even then, it should work for at least a few seconds before burning up.

Other than that, try the basic stuff - remove the motherboard from the case, remove all accessories and cables that are connected to the motherboard (even the power switch, reset switch, hdd led, etc) except for the video, one stick of ram and the processor. Turn it on by touching the power switch pins together with a jumper or other piece of metal. If that works, then turn it off and start adding other things until you figure out what's wrong.

If it doesn't work, then something's wrong with your motherboard, processor, ram or power supply. Since you tried another power supply, it's probably not that. It's also probably not the ram since most computers will start up with no ram installed.

Ok thanks - I'm going to try your approach tonight.

As for the heatsink, it is a square and positioned centrally within the square heatsink plastic unit case - the processor is also square centered within a square socket - the heatsink is pressed right down on the processor dead central so whatever way round it is, the same area of heatsink will be touching the same area of processor ...

 

[darrontrask]

when you say that you screwed the board to the chassis yyou did put the standoffs in first and screwed the board to them, correct? I have heard of many people over looking this and this has turned out to be the problem. Good Luck

 

[jackschmittusa]

Then I tried using a different PSU, just connected to the MOBO & chassis switch

What chassis switch are you talking about? The power on/off switch connects to the mb.

 

[LTC8K6]

I'm still wondering about that old video card.