Uh oh....Did I just fry my newly built system?

[DGath]

While I was building the system I turned it on with just the Power supply, mobo, and fans and it worked just fine when I turned it on for a few seconds to see how my LED fans looked. Well I finished putting everything in, made the last few connections, then finally plugged the power cable into the power supply and turned it on and the system turned on.... then just turned off after about half a second. Now the little light on the mobo won't even light up when the power cable is connected like it did before. Am I completely screwed? I heard nothing, and smelled nothing, nor did I see any sparks or anything. I tried different power cables, no help. I have no clue what happens when the mobo fries, could other components be damaged as well?

Help!!!! 🙁

 

[boyRacer]

What kind of system? You have to troubleshoot it first... part by part... might be the thermal protection shutting your system down... need more info.

 

[SexyK]

Sounds like you could have a short somewhere, make sure all the standoffs you put in the motherboard tray are hitting insulated portions of the board. Otherwise you'll get a short and not be able to start up the system.

 

[KhoiFather]

Make sure your HSF is cooling the cpu enough if its an AMD cpu. I had a problem like yours too. My newly built comp would turn on for a second then it would turn off. I switched the hsf with another one, and it turned on and booted up finely.

 

[DGath]

LOL..... oh my god. First, understand this is my first time building a system and throughout the build process I kept on thinking... "I know I'm going to screw this up... I know I'm going to screw this up..." so naturally when something first went wrong, I freaked and thought it was all over with. Well as I was looking on the back of the power supply, I saw that it was switched to off. How I was getting power before, and the mobo light was on, I have no idea. Maybe somehow right when I turned on the system, I bumped the system and the PSU switch turned off or something, I have no idea. But I don't really care anymore cause it works fine. At least it works fine for the first couple seconds, then the system speaker makes a siren sound and shuts the system off. It was on long enough for my to check the temps and the CPU temp was at 76! Then I shut it off, checked to see if the CPU was actually that hot and it was pretty hot, so I dunno. I guess I get tooo troubleshoot this next problem now.

 

[Bleep]

I would guess that you have the HSF on wrong, either backwards or no thermal grease or if the hsf has a thermal pad on you did not take off the tape that covers the pad. Is it plugged intothe MB at the proper place? It has to be the HSF causing the problem.

Bleep

 

[DGath]

Well the problem was definately the aluminum cover between the CPU and the heatsink that intel didn't tell me to take off in the instructions. I also just went ahead and bought some arctic silver to slap on there and it's running great now.

 

[mechBgon]

Congratulations on your first system build! 😎

 

[RayThunderEarth]

lol good luck DGath. looks like u pass your first building comp experience.

 

[charlie21]

Guess that's a good testament to Intel's thermal protection logic. Close call, but everything's okay. That's my kind of learning experience.

 

[Jeff7]

Make sure to remove the thermal tape or whatever it is before putting Arctic Silver on - use rubbing alcohol to clean it off the heatsink and processor. A warning though, the retail thermal transfer stuff that is on the heatsink develops a pretty strong grip on the CPU. I don't know the exact procedure for getting the heatsink off after it's been on there awhile, but some people have already just pulled straight up, and the CPU has been pulled right out of the socket, even while it was locked in there.