First Build With Limited Power

[jlindy73]

My son and I are building a computer for the first time. We have everything placed on Motherboard, I plug in power cord and hit the switch on the power supply and the LED on MB lights. I have no fans going, CPU or Case Fan. No hard drive power up. As far as I can see everything is plugged in good, including the ATX Power connectors. I have checked the System Panel conectors:ATX Power switch, although doc indicates the power switch turns the system between On and Sleep or On and SOFT OFF deending on the BIOS or OS settings. (Is there a proper orientation to this connection?) I appreciate any and all help!
System Specs: ASUS K8U-X MB, AMD Sempron 3300+, 754 Pin

[jayb1234]

What power supply are you using?

[KilluminatiStyle]

Welcome to PCMech!

Check, double check, and re-check all cables, wires, and do-dads.

refer to this link if your troubles persist.

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=132409


It's also a good idea for you to list ALL of the components of this computer and everything that you've tried so far so that the folks here can assist you without having to ask for additional information.

[glc]

You have to press the power button on the front of the case to make it turn on.

[jlindy73]

Case: Pure Color O2, w/ PS Raidmax ATX 12V
Motherboard Asus K8U-X
CPU: AMD Sempron 3300+ Socket 754
Memory Kingston Technology PC3200 184 Dimm
Video Card ASUS V9400X
THe rest of guts were carry over from old PC, Hard Drive, Sound Card, etc.

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by jlindy73 We have everything placed on Motherboard, I plug in power cord and hit the switch on the power supply and the LED on MB lights.

The switch on the back of the power supply doesn't start the computer up, it only lets power get to the power supply and motherboard from the wall outlet. You have to hit the power button on the front of the case to start the computer up. Make sure you have the wire from the front of the case connected up properly to the front panel header.

Cricket

[gary_hendricks]

Hi jlindy73

If you can send us some pics of your setup, especially the power connectors, we can help you more.

[jlindy73]

420 Watts on PS.

I had pushed the front, and I can hear a sound eminate from the PS.
I can admit to having had a heck of a time snapping the CPU FAN & Heatsink into place, but I think it is fastened.

[glc]

Again........

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=132409

[jlindy73]

Next stop I will follow http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=132409,
but I do not know what step 10 is calling out for on the shorting of the power switch connector on the motherboard. Is that the pins that are now currently connected to the CASE switch? FYI: I have just completed another build of my sons friends case and I have the same problems, I can see a light go off on the case power switch, when we turn of the switch on the Power Supply. SO I am now sure it is operator error since these 2 computers have completely different components and this second one is brand new components through out.

Dummy Question #1:
Is the CPU being firmly installed really that critical to getting power to all the other hardware? e.g. fans, hard drive, etc
Dummy Question #2:
I let my son place the CPU in, and it looked like he did it correctly, does it require a bit more persuasion than a 12 year old can provide?

jlindy

[gary_hendricks]

The placement of the CPU in the slot should be a no brainer. I don't think its anything your 12 year old kid can't handle.

Couple of things to try:
1) The connectors between the motherboard and the ON/OFF switch - did you get the orientation correct? There's usually some kind of orientation there.

2) There should be a power connector from the motherboard to the CPU fan. Again, make sure that is in the correct orientation.

3) Does your system even get to the POST stage? Do you see anything on screen?

In this kind of situation, its usually the power supply or motherboard. I hope its not the latter

[glc]

Is that the pins that are now currently connected to the CASE switch?

Yes, if it's connected to the correct pair of pins.

[jlindy73]

I had talked to a customer of mine and he had mentioned orientation connectors to the MB. FOr the Case switch it seems to allow for 2 ways, and we tried both. I believe the CPU fan allows for just one? I have yet to connect to a monitor, I was trying to test if I would hear some things moving, fans, hard drive. I then was going to connect the monitor.

Does the monitor need to be attached for the first time initialization?

What about the ram, "Kingston ValueRAM 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM ECC Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200)". I set this into place, and the clips are closed?

I appreciate all help! Everybody I talked to told me how easy this was going to be, and now $1000 into this I am getting grief from my wife. So I am getting a bit frustrated now. (Gary, How did you do the quote thing?)

[jayb1234]

To do the Quote thing copy and paste the stuff you want to quote into the reply box, highlight it and hit the quote button (4th one from the right, between the thing that looks like a mountain and the # sign). If you hover your cursor over the symbols, a popup will tell you what the function is.

[glc]

The case switch orientation is not important. Only the LED connectors are polarized.

Are you trying this OUT OF THE CASE as the thread directs? You need a video card, cpu, ram, power supply, and monitor.

[jlindy73]

Are you trying this OUT OF THE CASE as the thread directs? You need a video card, cpu, ram, power supply, and monitor

Hopefully sometime this afternoon I will try this. I guess I am just having a hard time with understanding this stuff working out of the case vs. in the case. The big thing here will be having the ability of just working on a small piece of the install, and not all the pieces. It should also be easier for my 6'4", 300# hands, to work on this too!

Joel

[glc]

Not trying to give you a hard time, but please don't tell us you followed a recommended procedure unless you followed ALL the steps. Out of the case is a CRITICAL item in that procedure. That's because it's VERY easy to improperly mount a motherboard in a case and prevent it from starting properly. You have to PROVE functioning core components before proceeding.

[jlindy73]

I finally got around to pulling the MB out of the case and setting up per http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=132409

All I get is a small noise-short duration, I think from the power supply. Nothing more. Other observations: No fan movement on the CPU fan, no noise or fan movement from the power supply.

[glc]

Then you have a core component failure or something not connected properly.

If your Sempron is a Sempron 64, you need bios 0604 or higher to be compatible.

[jlindy73]

My brother in law was over helping me with this and used his meter to check some readings on the power connectors coming off of the PS. We didn't get any voltage on any of them. I am assuming that with the PS in the on position we should be getting some readings, right?

[jlindy73]

Just got back from local PC part seller, MPC. They tested PS and said it checked out good. They then mentioned using standoffs? under the MB, which I know I didn't use, because the instructions just mentioned fastening MB to case. Now my fear is that I killed MB by shorting out, which sounds right now that it doesn't power up out of the case. Any thoughts experts????

[glc]

Very possible. Didn't you notice that the I/O ports were not fitting the openings in the I/O shield properly and the motherboard was on an angle?

No, a PSU does not start and give voltages till it's started. The motherboard provides the start signal.

[jlindy73]

Very possible. Didn't you notice that the I/O ports were not fitting the openings in the I/O shield properly and the motherboard was on an angle?

Not a bad angle. I did think it was weird that I couldn't attach all the fastening screws, some didn't seem long enough. My brother in law who fixes medical equipment for a living didn't notice anything weird about the orientation either, and I pointed out to him how I couldn't use all 9 fasteners in attaching this. I just figured this was the difference between a great case and a cheap case.

The good news is that I accidently ordered 2 motherboards of this kind and I will try that one out next.

[jlindy73]

Good luck on my first build. We were using the wrong chord from the power supply for the ATX12V. My brother in law had pointed out the chord we were using did not seem keyed correctly, and my son and I kept looking at that and then realized there was another black and yellow chord available that was keyed correctly. MB is fine. We looked at the second build and saw we had the same issues, but are too excited to to work on that one now.

I think Gary Hendricks wanted pictures of the power connectors, and if I knew how to use my digital camera, I could have uploaded some photos for further analysis.

What a thrill! Fwewwwwwwwwww

[glc]

What were you doing - using the clipon +4 connector for a 20+4 main ATX in the separate socket? That would explain it.

The jury is still out on Raidmax power supply quality - some people say they are fine, some say they are junk. I'm always suspicious of a power supply that's 400+ watts and less than $30 when bought separately.

They may not be pretty, but I prefer to build with AOpen or Enlight cases when I'm doing a cheap build - AOpen power supplies are made by FSP and Enlight power supplies are acceptable. If it's a 24 pin ATX build, then I go higher.

[jlindy73]

New Question GLC.
I have almost everything up and running. One exception, the case has some front usb ports which I connected to the MB,USB56 & USB78. These USB ports don't seem to be recognized when I plug in my digital camera or a memory stick. I don't see anything in the instructions on these other than connecting the wires to their respective pins.????

The thing that baffles me on the power supply was that the 2 power cables I plugged in originally, one correct, and one wrong, was that they were tie wrapped together, which would lead a novice that these work together.

[KilluminatiStyle]

Have you checked in the BIOS to make sure that all of the USB ports are turned on?

[jlindy73]

Have you checked in the BIOS to make sure that all of the USB ports are turned on?

The closest thing I see in the manual to doing this is a few lines under Southbridge Configuration:
-USB 1.1 OHCI Host Controller [Enabled]
and
-USB 2.0 EHCI Host Controller [Enabled]
and
-Legacy USB Support [Enabled]
Which I double checked and all indeed are enabled? Should I be looking for something more in the BIOS. The rear ones, integrated to MB, work fine.

jl

[glc]

Review the pin assignments with your front case USB leads and the header pair you are using. Two ports will use one 8, 9, or 10 pin motherboard pair.

[jlindy73]

Went through the diagram again with my son. I pulled the wires, rebooted, and then re-installed and rebooted and it now works. Yaaaaa!

New question #1. On the front panel there is also some wires for a mic and earphones. These do not work. I plugged these into the MB, per MB directions, but at the same time we are using an old Soundblaster sound card. Could this be the issue? Should I be plugging these into the soundboard? There is an AUX input plug on SB.

Question 2:
We have good news on my son's computer. We have power on this one now. My question on this is that running with only MB, CPY, RAM, and video card, the power button on case does not seem to to turn off the power, it only turns on. Why is that?

Joel