Now what have I done? No Power

[whovous]

Latest problem.When I push the power button on my new Evercase with a 300W Enhance powersupply, nothing happens. This is the case that has received lots of raves on Hot Deals as a great cheap box. The case and the rest of this new build were fine as recently as last night.

This new P4 build has been a world of trouble. Earlier, I posted my concern that my refurb Radeon 64 DDR VIVO was an unsafe voltage for my new Gigabyte GA-8IRXP. It turns out that the card adjusts itself to the proper voltage and, once I got everything seated properly, it worked.

Sort of. I got Windows installed and convinced it to recognize all my hardware. My one remaining problem was that whenever I rebooted, the onscreen image became almost unviewable due to a sort of "digital rain" all over the picture. I had to shut down and restart rather than reboot if I wanted to be able to look at the screen. As of last night, with the exception of this rather large problem, everything was installed and working.

This morning, I decided to replace the video card with a VisionTek GeForce MX440. While I was at it, I decided to neaten up all my cable runs and connect some front and rear panel USB connectors that I had not connected before because I don't expect to need them for a while.

It all went so smoothly and neatly that, once I got everything in place, I decided to connect my extra cooling fans and put the side baxk on the case for the first time since I started building this puppy. I commented to my wife that it had all gone too easily. I stood the box up, pressed the power button on the front and ... nothing happened. No sound other than the little click the power button makes every time I push it.

I have confirmed that my power strip has power. I've made sure the power cable is pressed firmly into the power strip and the back of the computer. I've tried the power cable in more than one outlet of the power strip. I've made sure the line from the power supply is pressed firmly into the mobo. I've disconnected the fans I previously reconnected and pulled the USB plugs as well. The voltage on the back of the power supply is still set to 115. I do not see any circuit breaker to reset or any fuse to replace on the power supply. The power button "feels" OK, but I've not taken the entire box apart to get at it yet, nor have I removed the power supply from the case. I have put the old video card back in, since that was the last configuration that worked at all.

What should I try next? My 13 year old daughter suggests: "Dude. You're getting a Dell" but I am not yet willing to admit that defeat.

Has anyone else had this problem? If I created a short with my latest batch of play, wouldn't I have heard or smelled something when I hit the power. This one really has me stumped. How can everything work, then die like this without a clue?

There may be one tiny clue, but I am not sure what sense it makes. Yesterday, I noticed an extremely faint and high pitched whistling sound from somewhere in my case when it was plugged in but not turned on. I thought for quite a while it was my monitor, but the noise kept on when I turned the monitor off. Only turning off the power via the power strip got rid of the very faint noise. Today, that noise is gone completely.

Help, please. At the moment I am completely stumped. I do not have a "spare" power supply to add to the equation.

 

[DaiShan]

2 things I would try, if your psu has a switch on the back make sure that it is turned to on (1) and the other thing is make sure that the wire coming from the power button on the case is attached to the appropriate pins on the motherboard. (they should be labled) hope the problem is this simple!

 

[whovous]

I cannot count the number of times I have flipped the switch on the back, hoping it would make a difference. A zillion wires from the case go to the same small space on the mobo, and all remain connected where they were yesterday. They worked yesterday, but do not today. I will find the connection guide, disconnect them all, and reconnect them. This seems unlikely, but I've ruled out so much else that this just might work.

This case and power supply are quite new. I don't think the PS has more than six hours on it. Does a failed power supply usually give no clues? I expected either a smell or an unfriendly sound at least.

 

[whovous]

Last night, the problem solved itself. There is now a new mystery, but I suspect I can live with it.

I had previously disconnected but not removed everything I could think of in hopes of solving the problem, all without success. Last night, before unplugging and reconnecting the switch wires on the mobo I flipped the switch on the back of the case for the zillionth time, then pressed the power button. It started back up as if nothing was wrong.

I suspect there are two logical explanations at this point: Operator error, or magic. My ego demands I shop for a pointy black hat.

Here is the new mystery:
I powered down without unplugging or switching anything, then reached into the box (I know, I know, plugged in) to replace the bad video card with the good video card. When I touched the card, or somewhere near it, the machine powered on. This happened twice before I was smart enough to unplug the box before completing the job. Ultimately, I reconnected everything, and everything was working fine when I shut it down for the night.

Thanks again. I suspect I will be back in a day or two when I start working on putting in a router and connecting both machines to the same cable connection.

 

[DaiShan]

were you sitting next to the machine? once I had been having a lot of problems with a machine and was going into and out of the case about every 3 minutes, so I just started leaving the thing plugged in, I was sitting next to the case and had to reach over a few times to get to some components, and the machine just turned on, I was very scared that I had esd'd something, but on further analysis I realized my foot was touching the power button and whenever I reached over it nudged the button just far enough to power on, maybe a similar case with you? at any rate, if nothing is broken now I would go by the old addage and don't fix it

 

[whovous]

I was nowhere near the soft power button. It was quite a reach away.

I am working on a new adage: If it ain't broke, it will be soon.

 

[earthman]

Very possible you have a cold joint on the mainboard, when you bumped it a little, it made contact. The switch on the back of the PSU may be buggy too. Then there is the PSU itself, it may be defective. They can fail anytime, and also work intermittently. Considering most of them are made for like 4 bucks, its not surprising.