Wil not POST

[pol II]

So I finished rebuilding my comp tonight after deciding to replace my single 120mm radiator with a double. I hooked everything up and it booted just fine into windows. I played around for a while, and noticed my network address could not be found. So I unplugged the cable modem and turned off the computer. When I went to turn it back on a minute later, nothing. Setup is a s follows:

Lian-Li PC6070
FX-53
ASUS A8V rev 2
1GB Ballistix PC4000
Geforce 6800 GT
Enermax 600W Noistaker ver 2.0
WD Raptor 74GB
Lite-on DVD-ROM
Single CCFL

Water-cooled with blocks on the video card and CPU. Two 120mm Papst fans cooling radiator (one @ 7v, 1 attached to rheostat (~7-12v)). One 80mm Adda as exaust.

At the moment, there is nothing connected to my mobo except the 20-pin ATX cable and the 4-pin auxillary connector. When the power supply is turned on, the little green indicator light on the mobo is illuminated. However, pressing the power switch on the front of the case does nothing. No additional lights (including front power light), and no beep codes. Furthermore, the PSU fans do not spin.

With the memory only and with the memory + video card, the same situation arises; no lights, no beep codes.

I think the PSU is okay because it can power up and power my 12v water pump just fine using the ATX pin jumper trick.

I have heard of the possibility of shorting the mobo on the mobo risers, but am unsure what to look for exactly. What I can say is that all connections are good to go.

I have cleared the RTC RAM by removing the battery, switching the jumper, and then replacing the battery. Any and all advice is very much appreciated.

 

[montag451]

The risers are on the underneath of the mobo - they hold the mobo away from the case.
Please say that you have put them in.

Might be worth unscrewing the mobo and checking that the risers are in the right place.

By the symptoms, I would think there is either power issue, cpu, or mobo issue.
obviously [!?!]

When you were tinkering with the rads, did you use esd precautions?
Was there something you had to be a little rough with?
Think carefully
Did you disconnect any of those annoying little wires that were in the way? Were they all reconnected?

Is the cpu 4pin power plugged in securely?

 

[pol II]

Originally posted by: montag451
The risers are on the underneath of the mobo - they hold the mobo away from the case.
Please say that you have put them in.


Might be worth unscrewing the mobo and checking that the risers are in the right place.


He he, yes, they are in and in the appropriate places.

By the symptoms, I would think there is either power issue, cpu, or mobo issue.
obviously [!?!]

When you were tinkering with the rads, did you use esd precautions?
Was there something you had to be a little rough with?
Think carefully
Did you disconnect any of those annoying little wires that were in the way? Were they all reconnected?

I have used ESD precautions at all times. As to being a little rough with anything: no. Yes, all wires in the case were disconnected and reconnected. As a matter of fact, the computer booted several times into windows and I was ran Prime95 for 8 hours without problems. This last boot was soomething of an anomaly (duh!) in that nothing is working (with the exception that the PSU will power fans, etc when the ATX connector is bypassed).

Is the cpu 4pin power plugged in securely?

I have rechecked this and it is indeed secured. I have also reseated RAM and video card.

Some amount of power at least is getting to the mobo because I can see the mobo light when the supply is turned on. What concerns me is that there are no beeps. If the RAM and or GPU are bad, there should be a beep code indicating that. But no beeps. I guess this implies the mobo itself?

 

[montag451]

Ok, now it calls for serious business.

Take everything out/disconnect EVERYTHING apart from
cpu/ram/psu/vga
If no luck,
take out vga,
then,
take out ram,

coax a beep from the kid

 

[pol II]

Roger. I am going to physically disconnect the mobo from the case too to see if the kid, for whatever reason, was shorting out on the risers.

 

[mechBgon]

If the bezel's not onto my Lian-Li quite all the way, then the bezel's pushbutton doesn't quite actuate the electrical switch behind it. So:

1) confirm bezel is fully seated

2) if it still doesn't work, remove the bezel and actuate the switch directly

3) if it doesn't work after that, confirm that the case's power-button wire is still on the pins

4) and finally, if necessary, make a momentary connection between the motherboard's ATX Power Button pins with a metal object, if nothing else will work.



I'm banking most of my chips on #3 there, since you were working inside the case and could easily pull the wire off the mobo's pins in the process.

 

[pol II]

Okay. The mobo dod power up by itself and with RAM when it was sitting on an anti-static pad outside the case. I cannot try the video card until I remount the mobo inside the case due to the fact that it is attached to the water loop. My next step therefore, is to remount the mobo inside the case and see if it works. I will then try the video card attached to the mobo inside the case.

mechBgon: I have read and observed your suggestions #'s 1 through 3. All was in order. Knowing now that the mobo will boot outside the case, I'll hook things up inside the case, paying attention to the things you outlined.

 

[mechBgon]

I guess I did forget one other Lian-Li possiblity, and that's forgetting to re-connect their quick-disconnect case-wiring fitting. But that would probably be pretty apparent.

 

[pol II]

Hmm. Things appear to be progressing fine.I remounted the mobo inside the case. To test for shorts, I installed one screw at a time, and tested in between each screw to see if it would boot. It did. Booting with the video card worked, as did booting with a case fan and the water pump. Next, I will attach the HDD and DVD drive, then the sound card, and then the rest of the stuff, one by one.

Providing everything goes without a hitch, does anyone have any explanation as to why this sucker would not POST? I've no clue. I rebuilt a jeep a few years back, and sometimes things would not work unless you physically disassembled the part and reassembled it. The simple act of re-assembly seemed to do the trick. I guess computers are the same way. I have torn this comp down and rebuilt it a few times without any trouble, I wonder what made this time different? Maybe I should just be happy it is working

If anyone has any info on how to determine whether your mobo risers are shorting out the mobo - without physically removing the mobo from the case - I would very much appreciate it.

Thanks to all that have helped; each suggestion had been inplemented and had served as a great troubleshooting template. Hopefully someone else can use this thread if a similar situation arises for them.

 

[montag451]

I wouldn't worry too much about your risers at the moment.

Anyway, if they are placed correctly, they won't be shorting anything out.

Well done for getting things going again.

What is happening now?

 

[pol II]

Well, everything is a lot better now that the comp is up and running. It ran prime95 for several hours of small fft's, but failed in one minute in blended mode (in case you are wondering, vcore = 1.5v and vdimm = 2.8v). I have begun memtesting; both modules installed show errors all over the place. One stick seems to be doing okay now, but I need to let it finish the complete test. I will then test the other module.

So all in all, I am in somewhat familiar territory, but thing are far from rosy.

Edit: One stick appears just fine, but the other is erroring all over the place. Looks like I'll be contacting Crucial.