She refuses to start...

[Jay04]

Hey all, long time listener, first time caller..

Finished building my first pc about 6 hours ago. On my initial boot up nothing happened except the fans span round for a split second and then.... nadda. It's (supposedly) a pretty heavy duty gaming machine, at the moment my components are:

BFG nForce 680 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2
BFG 1000w PSU
BFG 8800 Sli jobbies
Intel core2 quadro
Around about 87 fans
Xfi Sound card
and Dual DDR2 800 mem sticks

For the last few hours I've gone up and down the whole set up, stripped it bare and started to re-build piece by piece while trying the power, I'm getting as far as step 1.. PSU, CPU, stick of ram, mobo, bare wooden table... and then, same as above. I'm getting the blue STBY light coming on once the PS gets power and once the fans have done their bit an orange/amber light comes on with the letters/numbers - CR12J2 next to it and a big fat J above it.

As this is evidently a bare bone system and problems occur already, I was hoping some kind peeps may be able to shed some light as to what may be at fault. Surely something's amiss with the mobo, psu or cpu?

Help... pls

[Wolverdick]

not familiar with that mobo but when i built my machine i had to reset the bios on the mobo before my first boot up. might check the manual and see if there is a reset jumper that needs to be moved.

Not the whole answer, but maybe a start...

[Jay04]

Hi, thanks for the quick response.

Unfortunately that's not the answer

There's no power what so ever after the initial split second spin from the fan so I'm not sure cmos/bios would even know there's work to be done. I considered perhaps the layer of thermal gel wasn't adequate and so gave it a more generous coating... that didn't do it either.

Probably best I stay away from the whole lot altogether for 10 minutes, other wise the teasr of sorrow will just fry the whole lot anyhow..

[Cricket]

Is that CPU supported by that motherboard? Do you need a BIOS update to get support for that CPU?

I'm not sure how good BFG power supplies are so I don't know if that could be an issue or not.

Are you sure the CPU heatsink is installed correctly? If you installed the heatsink with the motherboard already mounted in the case the pins might not be fully inserted and locked properly.

Do you have two video cards? Are both installed or are you just running one to troubleshoot with?

Cricket

[Jay04]

Mobo supports the CPU, I've mounted the heat sink both in and out of the case, at the moment I have no graphics cards installed as the problems arrising long before I get to that stage of the build.

Is it even possible to update the bios when I have no power? If so how would I go about that?

Thanks for the post.

[glc]

With the mobo on the table, remove everything but the PSU connectors, CPU, and heatsink and try to start it with a screwdriver. If the CPU fan doesn't keep running, you have a bad PSU, CPU, or motherboard.

[Jay04]

Yes. I have run through several times, changing the bios battery and the bios jumper, said compnents laid out, shorted, still the same problem.

Anyway, got through to the supplier technical support and they seem to think it's either mobo or psu gone pop fizz. Both have been returned today for testing. Fingers crossed it's not the cpu lol.

Thanks guys for your posts, although it's a problem that can't be solved through trial and error, your suggestions were greatly appreciated.

[Chris Webber]

I know this had been a while since your last post but did it come down to the MOBO or PSU? I've got the same problem but tried a new psu and still had problem. I'm about to RMA mobo but wanted to see if that was ultimately your problem. CPU still ok?