First build, first power up...got a problem!

[potstillshiner]

So I put together my components following the tutorial provided at this site, then came the moment of truth...I flipped the switch and everything was going great, started configuring the BIOS, then when I went to save changes and exit CMOS, I pushed enter and the power went off. Since then I have tried several times to power it up again (cycle the switch on the power supply then press the power button). The fan would start spinning and immediately the power would go off again. I waited an hour, tried to power on again, this time it would the power (fan) would run for about 7 seconds then the power went off again. Next I removed the mobo from the case (as described in the troubleshooting thread) the power would stay on for about 15 seconds then go off again. I reseated the heatsink and cooling fan with Arctic Silver and tried again, same results. I continued to try to power on, each time removing a component (CD rom, then video card, then HDD, mouse, keyboard, RAM) only to get the same result.

I am at a loss here, any suggestions/help would be appreciated.

Thank you in advance!

[kram 2.0]

Welcome to PC Mech forums

First of all, can you list your full sys specs? Are you latching the heat sink fan solidly onto the processor socket? There should be practically no wiggle room. Also, what did you configure in the BIOS in the initial bootup?

kram

[blue60007]

Also, be sure to specify the power supply rating (wattage) and brand. Sure sounds like the death of a cheap power supply.

[jayb1234]

Try the procedure in the first post in this thread.

[potstillshiner]

here are the specs:

New Parts

Chaintech CT 7NJL6 motherboard
Athlon XP 3000+ Socket A Barton core 333FSB processor
Ultra Copper Base Fan
Ultra 512MB PC3200 DDR 400MHz memory
evga e-GeForce MX 4000 video card
JustPC (USA) Inc. 430W max. powersupply

Used Parts
Western Digital HDD 20G 5400rpm
DVD and CD-ROMs I am uncertain about/ dont know if they are germane to this converstation

The fan is latched on very firm and visually the clips appear to be in the right place, there is no light visible between the fan base and the processor top.

In BIOS i set the date and time, and set the floppy drive to "none", that is it.

other info: on the first power up I heard one beep, on subsequent attempts no beeps whatsoever.

thanks!

[blue60007]

*shudders* Doesn't sound like a good power supply. My guess is it died on you. If you don't mind, how much did you pay for that power supply?

[jayb1234]

How much thermal compound did you use? You only want a very thin layer. Too much and it insulates instead of helping with heat transfer.

[potstillshiner]

the power supply came with the case, it is likely to be cheap...as far as the heat compound goes, i tried to get just enough to cover it with a thin layer like the instuctions said...it is difficult to quantify. the first run of the computer was on the order of minutes, subsequent tries were on the order of seconds.

I have just identified another symptom, the power LED on the front panel is blinking about 4 times per second. Not sure if that is useful information or not...?

[jayb1234]

Just pc is a known bad brand of power supply. It is very likely that that is the problem. The first two threads in the general hardware forum have a lot of information about choosing a power supply. The second one has a list of goood/bad brands.

[potstillshiner]

First, let me say thank you to all who advised me on this...much appreciated! I removed the battery, switched the JP1 jumper to pins 2-3 for 5 seconds to restore CMOS to default, replaced the battery and returned the jumper to pins 1-2, fired her up and was back in business!!!

Adjusted BIOS settings as necessary, and now am having difficulty booting from CD. I have the boot order set appropriately (checked 3x). When attempting to boot I get the "We are sorry for the inconvenience, Windows could not boot properly...." message, with options to Boot windows normally, boot in safe mode, last known good configuration, etc. Irrespective of which option I select I cannot boot, it cycles back through to this screen every time. I am using my previous HDD which has all manner of files and the XP OS on it already, so I attempted to boot from the HDD, same outcome...I would like to blank the drive and reload windows XP.

Any suggestions on how to proceed?

Thanks again.

[Cricket]

With the WinXP CD in the drive, watch for the message to "Hit any key to boot from the CD-ROM drive..." and hit any key.

Cricket

[potstillshiner]

Thanks Cricket, that cured the problem right up, pure genius! Got it all loaded and running like a raped ape. Thanks to all for the suggestions, glad this forum is here.

Cheers