pc won't power up

[stfrances]

I just built my second pc and its based on the 3200+ winchester. Here is what I got. A8NSLI, two pci-e cards configured as SLI, psu is Ultra X-Connect 500W atx, two 512 corsair, Seagate 200 gb IDE and a Lite On dvd/cdrom drive. I checked and double checked everything before plugging. That green light on the board that indicates power running and ready to power up is not on at all after I plug in, I even toggled the switch on the psu, nothing. The pins on the psu are 20, and the pins on the board are 24. I read the recommendations that are posted on this issue and followed them before plugging in, but there is no power up or anything on the board. All I hear is a faint whining whenever I toggle the psu switch. I don't want to do anything else till I get some help, might fry the board. Suggestions any1?

 

[Painman]

 

[ribbon13]

¿WTF?

 

[ts3433]

ROFL... looks like you hit Tab-Enter or something too early.

Make sure you have the right pins lined up for the ATX connector, though that is an average PSU, so I wouldn't totally rule it out, especially with dual video cards (what kind?). For the heck of it, try booting with one stick of RAM, one video card, and no drives. Bare essentials. Then start adding stuff.

 

[stfrances]

Yes it seems I did, sorry bout' that guys. I should have done it that way first, video cards are Evga GeForce 6600GT. I'll take it apart and try again, I hope it works, THNX.

 

[jonnyGURU]

Wait... You hear a whining noise? You say the pins on the PSU are 20-pin and the pins on the motherboard are 24. What does that mean? Does that mean you're using the 20 to 24 pin cable or are you just pointing out the obvious that the power supply's ATX interface has 20 pins?

If you're using the 20 to 24-pin cable, disconnect it and use the 20-pin cable that came with the power supply. The board should still work. If it does, you may have a bad 24-pin cable. Apparently, some of the X-Connect 20 to 24 pin cables were wired for GES motherboards (like dual Xeon or early dual Athlon) but packaged as ATX12V2.0.

You can confirm the cable is correct/incorrect by using a multimeter set to "continuity." The ATX12V2.0 cable should be straight through on pins 1 through 20. If not, email freecable@ultraproducts.com and get a replacement cable.

A friend of mine had this same problem and eventually we cracked open the cable end and found the wires were pinned up wrong for an ATX board. Since then, Ultra has addressed the problem and he received his replacement cable.

 

[stfrances]

Thnx for the reply and suggestions jonny, I went back to the thread "do I need a 24 pin psu" on the hardware side and double checked again on the instructions on how to plug in the 20 pin properly with a 24 pin mobo and I did plug it in the wrong way. FastEddie's instructions is helpful I should have read the post last night much better, problem is solved. Wooohooo now I can play with my winnie!

 

[stfrances]

Booohoooo I can't play with my winnie. Resolved the psu prob, pc pwers up all the fans work, cpu fans, chassis fans, vid card fans, but the system wont POST. There is even no beeps or voice warning. So I removed the cpu and sure enough the voice prompt says "no cpu installed", which leads me to beleive mobo is ok. I just don't have another mobo to test the winnie on to see if it is dead. I thought it was the hsf so I loosened it up by removing it off the clips (stock hsf), I thoght maybe it is pressing on the cpu too hard, but no luck, removed it completely and still nothing. Help me pleeeease......

 

[stfrances]

Help any1, or am I on the wrong thread.

 

[Merovingian]

Okay, ram is in the no. 1 and 3 slots away from the processor, you are useing one video card to start with, you are using no hard drives, you have no floppy installed, no sound card. Right?

 

[blinky2004]

Try only 1 stick of RAM (or try 1 then the other).

Minimise the number of components - easier to solve the issue.

 

[stfrances]

Mero...ram is on 1 and 3, tried 1 only tried 3 only also tried without ram, no voice prompt, tried one vid card, no floppy, no sound card, the only thing did not try is dicconnecting HD. Like I said the only time a get a voice prompt is when I remove the cpu itself.

 

[stfrances]

If the cpu is the problem, the mobo onboard voice prompt should say so right? And if there is a voice saying cpu is not installed would that at least tell me that there is nothing wrong with the mobo?

 

[GuitarDaddy]

1. Its most likely you fried the mobo if you powered on with the connector plugged the wrong way (seen it several times before)

2. The Xconnect is a notoriously crappy PS get it out of there! If I only had $1 for every dead Xconnect post I've seen in the last few months

 

[jonnyGURU]

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
2. The Xconnect is a notoriously crappy PS get it out of there! If I only had $1 for every dead Xconnect post I've seen in the last few months

I just searched the last 60 days and couldn't find ANY dead X-Connects. Just one guy with two that smelled funny (which they do after the first week.) I did find a bunch of negative comments from a bunch of people that don't have any personal experience with the product.

I've got three of them and have had no issues what-so-ever. I think it might be better to help the guy out with the problem at hand and not tell him to run out and buy another power supply because "it's the in thing to do."

 

[stfrances]

GuitarDaddy...Would the mobo respond and say "no cpu installed" if the mobo is indeed fried? There is no indication that the mobo is fried. I myself have two of the Xconnect psu and swapped them both to my p4c800edlx and they both work no problems, I suspect it could be the SLI vid card, too bad I gave away my pci based vid card to my niece, all I got is the agp on my other pc.....anyway I'll keep on trying till I get it resolved

 

[Rustler]

When I built my DFI rig I got a 24 Pin PSU and I am getting a PC power Cooling for my SLI ASUS setup. I never have tried to scrimp on a PSU. I would think that you may have damaged your mobo when you plugged in the PSU to the mainboard the wrong way. RMA your board and start over.

 

[Nocturnal]

Did you plug the 12v plug from the PSU into the mobo? I did this the first time and it wouldn't boot. It would get power but it wouldn't boot. After that it worked.

What you should do is take your mobo out of your case, lay it on your desk or something. From there just connnect your video card, memory and cpu. Try starting it up like this and see if you can even get video. If you can't try another memory stick. So fourth and so on.

 

[jonnyGURU]

stfrances: Honestly, your problme could be the motherboard OR the CPU.

Obviously, like Nocturnal points out, make sure ALL of the necessary power connectors are plugged in.

Secondly, I have seen motherboards that "say" they work with 20-pins even though the ATX connector is 24-pin, and then they end up not working.

Try it outside of the case with only one video card, no drives hooked up, etc. and see what happens. If you still get nothing, pull the video card out and the RAM. You should just have a motherboard and CPU outside of the case. If you don't get the memory error, and I realize you're getting a CPU error with no CPU, you may have a dead board or dead CPU.

NORMALLY when you plug a power supply into a motherboard incorrectly you don't hurt the motherboard because the motherboard should get a good 5VSB signal before it will power on the POWER_ON lead. Unfortunately, that it may be that the Asus board is different. In fact, the ONLY board I've seen so far that has died because of an incorrect ATX connector is my friend's Asus P5GD2. Another Asus board.

 

[stfrances]

Thanks guys, I'll do all as suggested and see what happens, won't be able to till I get back from work though.

 

[stfrances]

I just bought a psu with 24 pins on it, Mad Dog, its the only available brand locally. I installed it and just the cpu on, checked all my connections and powered it up, all the fans work but no beeps or voice prompt to tell me no ram is installed. I am suspecting that the cpu is dead.

 

[jonnyGURU]

Like I said, I would suspect the CPU or the motherboard. I still wouldn't rule out the motherboard. Just replace whatever is easier/cheaper first or take it to a shop that can bench test both.

 

[stfrances]

CompUSA near here charges $120 just to test mobo/cpu, rather get the 3000+ for a bit more, I know of a couple of small business type who deals with costum built pc's, hope they can test my mobo/cpu for a nominal fee so that I may at least know which to RMA, thanks for all the help guys.........

 

[Merovingian]

Foget about it, just rma the mobo to rule it out for free. Asus puts a hold on your credit card of $140 while you cross ship it. It's no big deal really, I think you toasted the board and hopefully nothing else, send back the board and if it doesn't work then I would try the graphics card. Just me, good luck. BTW PM me if you need more help cause I may forget to come back to this thread. =)

 

[jonnyGURU]

Originally posted by: TheMerovingian
Foget about it, just rma the mobo to rule it out for free. Asus puts a hold on your credit card of $140 while you cross ship it. It's no big deal really, I think you toasted the board and hopefully nothing else, send back the board and if it doesn't work then I would try the graphics card. Just me, good luck. BTW PM me if you need more help cause I may forget to come back to this thread. =)

Why the hell would he try the graphics card if it's not the motherboard? That makes zero sense.

If you have NO video card at all, you get an error message for no video card, so if the video card is good or bad your still going to get some sort of error code for "no video card" if it's not even in the slot.

And if you have no RAM, you should get an error code for no RAM, regardless of whether or not a video card is installed.

Your post error codes go in this order:

Motherboard
CPU
RAM
Video Card

So it's easy to troubleshoot if you have a bad video card or bad RAM because you're always going to get a post code that tells you so.