Computer starts for about 3-5 seconds then shuts down

[wilson1]

BTW: My computer is brand new and i have just put it together from all brand new parts.

My spec is

Intel Pentium D 820 Socket775 , Smithfield Core, 2x2.8 GHz , 2MB Cache

Asrock 775I945GZ, i945GZ, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533, SATA II, uATX, On Board VGA (motherboard)

1Gb (2X512Mb) Corsair Value Select, DDR2 PC5300 (667), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-15

350w Silverpower SP-350P1B thermal controlled cooling fans

256MB Gigabyte 7600GS PCI-E(x16), Mem 800MHz, GPU 450MHz, 12Pipes, D-Sub/DVI-I/HDTV SLi Silent-Pipe (dedicated graphics card)

And i have a large and a small fan that come with the case, the smaller one isnt plugged because its attached to the side pannel which i have removed in order to build my system.

And my computer starts for about 3-5 seconds then shuts down, when it starts the lights on the case work, the fans and heatsinks work, but there is no beeps when it starts and the motherboard doesnt display any lights. Is it possible that my motherboard is fried which causes the system to shut down and dispaly no lights from the mobo. Someone else told me that a smudged processor/heatsink could cause the system not to beep. And most people tell me my 350watt power supply isnt enough but couls that cause the system not to beep and could it cause the motherboard to display no lights?
And this may sound incredibly stupid (ive never built a computer before), is it suposed beep on startup if there are no speakers plugged in?

ALSO: could this component have anything to do with it; it is like a small black sylinder conected by 1 red and 1 black wire to a 4 socket connector, what does it do? there are a several 4 pin connectors on my motherboard but i dont wanna connect it to the wrong one.

 

[Rik]

Its most likely that your psu isn't up to running that lot!!!!

Go here - http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp - and see how many watts your system actually needs!!!!

The component you are on about sounds like it could be a pizzo electric speaker!! Did it come with the mobo or the case???

 

[wilson1]

i think it came with the mobo. is it the thing thats suposed to beep when u boot up or something? Also there is currently nothing plugged into my tower at the moment, no monitor, speakers, keyboard or mouse so i dont actualy know if anything would come up on screen when it boots up, i think i have a spare monitor laying around somewhere il try plugging it in later. And why should components such as my graphics card be consuming power even though they are not being used. And at first I accidentaly screwed my motherboard directly to the case and tried to boot it up, and it shorted out just as it always does, my motherboard is now on the standoffs and not screwed directly onto the case, but could I ahve caused any permanant damage to my motherboard by starting it up while its screwed to teh case? because my problem could be due to a fried motherboard?

 

[Rik]

You should ALWAYS read any info that comes with the mobo!!!! There will be a manual with it that should explain about the pizzo speaker and it will also tell you to not screw it direclty to your case!!!!
You may well have damaged the mobo as well as anything that was plugged into it!!!!
The moral of the story is RTFM!!!!!

 

[wilson1]

but is there a chance that my motherboard is ok?

 

[Rik]

It may have survived!! If you had bought a better quality psu then it would almost certainly have survived, but with a cheap generic, who knows!!!!

 

[wilson1]

Thanks. And I think it may have survived, when it was screwed to the case I had to fiddle around with a few wires to get it to boot up but now its on the standoffs it turns on whenever i press the power switch on the case which is a big improvement, so hoepfully that means that being screwed to the case was preventing it from starting but didnt fry it. I think that 500 watts would power my system nicely, what do you think? It may sound stupid but a PSU cant be TOO POWERFUL can it?

 

[wilson1]

Ive just put in a new 550 watt power supply but exactly the same thing happens!

 

[twite]

Make sure the case is not grounding out on anything, also try to reseat the ram, and put them in different sockets.

 

[wilson1]

how do i know if the case is grounding? and i only have 2 ram sockets and both are used.

 

[twite]

You should take everything out of your case, and lay it on a flat surface with antistatic material under it, then try to power up. Also, take out 1 stick of ram, and try, then switch it with the other, and try different sockets ect.

 

[wilson1]

what could i use as an anti static surface?

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Cardboard will do nicely.

If it still won`t power up, then I`m afraid it looks like your mobo may be dead.

Regards Howard

 

[jvetyska]

Possibly a bad CPU

I've just experienced the same problem. System would start up and after 2 seconds - bam, it's off.
This actually started after the computer froze on me.
So I took eveything out, one by one, testing after each removed item. NOthing.
In the end, I got to the processor. I took it out and no problems anymore, the system is running, not shutting down.
So at this point I'll be testing a new cpu. My mobo is almost new, but I had the processor for at least over a year.

 

[nickc]

hope that works if not come back and ask more questions.

 

[foozy]

If its not the PSU i'd say overheating processor - since its a Pentium D that seems like a very likely possibility.

 

[Gips]

Same problem here...

I hav AMD 3800+ X2, Asus M2N VM DH, 350 Watts PSU, APC 500 KWA, 160GB Seagate SATA. Machine is a month old one... I experienced the same 5 sec power off issue with the machine... Every time it goes off with a small crack sound in the HDD (might be due to the abrupt power off). I tried every possible troubleshoots that came up to my knowledge... cold boot, changing powersupply cord, switching RAM sockets, changing power pins for HDD, checked m/b power connections and still experienced the problem and gave up.
I switched on the machine, the next day and to my surprise, the machine got booted up... checked disk for dirty query, scanned and found no issues.... it worked 2-3 days without any problem and again got into the same crap.... again, the problem had gone away by next day...
still wondering wat caused the power off and how it got resolved automatically... processor over heating...? Thinking of unmounting the heat sink and processor, apply some thermosetting paste and check for a solid fix of the h/s ovr the processor... any suggestions...?

 

[beef_jerky4104]

Gips you should have started you own thread before posting in here. ALso you should have looked for the issue previously.

And the answer is! Chances are you have a cheap generic power supply. If the PSU can't handle the PC it will shut down.

 

[Tedster]

you only get beeps with a hardware failure (but not always)

Read the no post guide in the guides forum