Custom Computer: Won't power up

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klipseracer

Ok, I'll try to give as much details as possible. Im a software engineer, so go ahead, all you hardware guys point and laugh ;)

These are my specs:

4CoreDX90-VSTA - ASRock mobo
3.0ghz p4 with HT
1gb ddr (i know)
250gb ide hd
160gb ide hd
500gb usb external
geforce 7800gtx 256
pioneer 111d dvd/dl burner (xbox 360 anyone?)


Here are the symptoms.

Well, I have xp/vista dual boot and I switched over to xp to install crysis. I have an iso of it so I installed daemon tools, installed winrar, extracted it and rebooted. I got up, forgot to select earlier version of windows, so i was back into vista. rebooted again, i must have forgot again, so the third time i got into xp. It got to starting up windows and sat there for quite some time. So I hard reset the computer. It did to POST Boot bios crap, and pretty much quit working halfway through after it initialized my hard drives... somewhere in that area. So I noticed this was abnormal, did another hard restart. The light comes on the face of my computer case, but nothing hardware wise is running. I pop off my case side, and noticed when I power it on, the psu clicks, and my cpu fan twitches. And thats it. The light on the front of my case stays on, and if I hold it, it will shut off. If it weren't for the light, i'd never know the mobo was responding at all. The hard drives don't power up, nothing.

From what I know about hardware, i'm going to guess(wildly) that the psu is fine. Doesn't smell funny or anything. I haven't made any significan't hardware changes or any for that matter. Except When I booted into xp, I had to install my netgear wireless card. Which worked fine before I rebooted. And I installed my audio drivers, since this was the second time i booted into the xp install as it was fresh.

Any Ideas, i'd appreciate fully since now I can't even see what crysis looks like, nor can I keep up on my WOW...
 
It sounds like something is shorting to the case. If your motherboard has on-board video, pull out all the PCI cards including the video card and see if the computer boots. You might want to check the motherboard standoffs once again. ATX motherboards usually have 6 standoffs. Make sure you don't have more than 6 installed, only in places on the motherboard, where there are mounting holes
 
This happened to me on my old computer, all I had to do to fix it was take out my graphics card, soundcard, and anything else in the PCI slots, and all RAM sticks except one, then boot up, shutdown, and put them back in one at a time.

Also, do you see a little yellow light lit up on your motherboard when the PSU is plugged in?
 
I don't see any lights on my mobo, nor do I see where there would be any leds.

I unplugged my pci cards, and my pci-e gfx card, my hd's, and even my ram stick, and the only thing plugged in is the cpu fan, some of the connections from the face of the case for the switch and lights, and the main mobo power supply. it does the exact same thing. makes a little click noise, and the fan moves like 1 cm and then the light comes on in the front. thats it.
 
klipseracer,
remove the motherboard and make sure that there are no standoffs shorting the case to the motherboard. All standoffs must match mounting holes in the motherboard. Also make sure that the standoffs are all the same size
 
Tmagic650 said:
klipseracer,
remove the motherboard and make sure that there are no standoffs shorting the case to the motherboard. All standoffs must match mounting holes in the motherboard. Also make sure that the standoffs are all the same size
Click to expand...


Ok, well, it all looked fine for all i can tell. I'm not sure how its supposed to work, but the case has the 'standoffs' which are connected to the case with female threadings on the inside. the mobo sits directly on these and the standoff screws secure it down. they seemed to be in order. I even took my motherboard completely out of my case, disconnected everything except for the button switch in the very front, the cpu fan, and the mobo power connector and it does the exact same thing. with no ram, or any ide/sata connections. the mobo was only touching my hands on the very edges. i have a 450w power supply. i'm not sure if i was over doing it, but i don't think so. the next thing i'll have to do is go out and buy a multimeter to test the molex connectors for power. anything else i can do?

EDIT:

Ok, problem solved. I went and got my HP Pavilion 6835 (yeah, it is still alive) it had a pci nvidia geforce mx with a 800mhz processor and like 768 ram or somethin and i got it for free and it doesn't even have the cosmetic parts to it.... a real trooper. and i pluged the micro atx psu into my computer and it boots up normally....

So chalk up another failure to a PSU, BUT the psu still provided power to the lights and enough to let the mobo know when to turn the lights on and off.... weird. any recommendations for a QUALITY psu for an atx case? Cost is not an issue.

Thanks for all your help!!
 
ya I was just going to post a bad power supply beat me to it
I've seen them silently fry a coil and a cap inside and doddo no power accept for a couple'a lights.
pretty generic thing
best I can say look a reviews and there return policy/warranty
for todays stuff nothing under 400 watt
I am running a enermax liberty 620
read my specs
lots of drives still runs fairly cool:rolleyes:
 
So sillygirl85,
are you going to buy a new power supply to solve your similar problem?

Be sure to read the thread in a link in my signature on how to write a good post
 
thats a cheap single rail psu would not buy for the money you have invested in your rig
look to dual rail and a wattage around 550 to 600
check board there may be need for aux power to the memory
 
and that is said by the price and means if the computer is running in a year u are lucky. E-bay is only good for robbing u.
 
well, the psu went out so obviously it is dead. I t hink my gfx card killed it from playing blacksite and bioshock.... and when it knew i was going to install crysis, it just passed out and its playing dead... lol.
 
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