Very INTERESTING problem.. read on.. (*sigh* $1 REWARD!)

[LOLyourFace]

I'm building a new sytem for my bro.. with everything up, when I turn it on, I'd get the following symtom:

Beeps once immediately, about 2 second pause then, a constant beep for about 5 seconds until it shuts down automatically

The motherboard is Soyo Dragon and I referred to the mobo manual and it said: "the mobo checks itself for CPU fan before booting up, if no fan is detected, it will automatically shut down (with beeps)"

Now let me bullet things so it's easier for you to understand:
*A Brand new CPU Fan (SVC GC68) is installed with the cable plugged to the RIGHT socket
*When powered on, the CPU fan spins perfectly (and everything lights up etc), yet it shuts down anyways with the above symtom mentioned
*The fan is not defective because I have TWO of those CPU fans and they both work perfectly on my old system
*Clearing the CMOS has been done to death
*Based on 8 hours of speculation, I believe it's the mobo not recognizing the fan, thus shutting down. No other parts are defective (memory, vidcard, cpu, etc)

But TAKE NOTE!
When I connected the CPU fan cable to the mobo again for the 873th time, this particular time booted up perfectly! (floppy making noise, no beeps, passing POST..) So I turned it off myself to hook up everything then do it again.. thinking it fixed itself.. but yea, as you guessed it, that never occurred again.

So that concludes to me that the problem lies between the CPU fan and the mobo (most likely mobo) and when I read the mobo manual again, it mentioned, remove the M/B from the case and test the system. The M/B might be shorted to the case.
What does that mean and could that be the problem?

[i guess im sitting ducks until you guys answer.. please...]

 

[Legendary]

It asks you to remove the motherboard because your motherboard may be shorting against the case.
Edit: Also, if you took it out and put it back in and it worked once, that could be the sign of a short because maybe when you put it in that one time the short didn't touch upon boot. Who knows, sounds like a tough problem. Take out the motherboard and see if it works.

 

[IanthePez]

basically, take the motherboard outside the case and try to start the computer there. If it still does the same thing, it wasn't the mobo. If it works, just put the mobo in properly and it will work.

 

[wnied]

Had the same problem the same board and it ended up being a cpu fan socket that was bad. Found that out AFTER I RMA'ed the bastard back to soyo.

Hope this helps and if its the right answer, donate my dollar reward to some obscure charity no one knows off the top of their head so I look smart....or at least eclectic.


~wnied~

 

[Markfw]

What motherboard model ? (is there more than one dragon?) What PSU ? As someone suggested, the cable on the fan. Maybe its not quite tight ?? Answer the first two questions though.

 

[josphII]

disconnect all drives, including floppy. Ive had floppies not allow the system to show ANY signs of life - because of screwy power connectors.

 

[Legendary]

If your mobo came with it, use plastic connectors (they're kinda shaped like pyramids)

 

[jlee75]

use some nylon spacers.