Girlfriends new PC build won't start.

CommunistWithAGun

<div class="IPBDescription">Press button, fans spin up, but not CPU fan. Shuts off.</div>Title and description covers the symptom. I am not exactly computer stupid, so I thought "easy, I'll have it going in a heartbeat"

Hah.

This really defies all logic. Let me start from the beginning. She wanted a system similar to mine, so we went with a Q6600, 9800 GX2, 4GB of DDR2 800, A cannibalized set of optical drives, new but cheap SATA drive. The motherboard is a GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R ATX Intel Motherboard, power supply is a CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX 550W ATX12V V2.2 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply - Retail

Here's the problem. She presses the power button, internal motherboard LED's light, drives spin up, internal fan spins up, GPU fan spins up...CPU fan does nothing, it then shuts off.

I thought, okay, heat sink not installed properly. Turns out she installed it without removing the little thingy covering the thermal pad. I had her use some isopropyl alcohol and gently remove the remnants of the thermal pad from the CPU and sink. I then had her apply a thin line of new grease directly to the CPU IHS, in the proper place. She put the sink back on, and of course, still no love.

All connections are in the right spot, she even RMA'd the board once and the PSU once, we've tried a barebones install with 1 memory, no drives, etc. Always the same.

At this point I'm thinking dead heatsink or CPU, but I highly doubt that.

Rob

This may sound stupid, but I've been left scratching my head before because of this: there's usually a little 4-pin square molex power connector that needs to be plugged into the motherboard somewhere in addition to the main power. If you've had that plugged in the whole time, then I'm out of ideas. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />

[WHO]Them

You'll have to consult the error code that your motherboard should be giving you somehow. It's different for different motherboards, sometimes it's beeps, sometimes it's lights, mine happens to have a nifty little LCD thing that I plug into the motherboard and it gives me text.

In any case, the motherboard manual and more data is required. If all else fails, try resetting the bios settings. It's usually a jumper somewhere.

CommunistWithAGun

Yeah, that's just it. It isn't posting, the 4 plug Rob is referring to on her board is actually 8, and yes, her PSU has the 8 and its plugged in properly. The LED lights are behaving like my boards(I don't own the same board, but its a gigabyte with an LED panel on it). Yet it isn't posting, no beeps or anything. I've also had her remove the CMOS battery and wait a little while and replace it.

Manual is located here <a href="http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/Manual_Model.aspx?ProductID=2921" target="_blank">http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherb...?ProductID=2921</a>

I thought maybe there was a chance that the parts weren't compatable...but they are. :\


Also used a volt meter on the PSU...It's fine :\

Scythe

Sounds like you've covered all the bases, the only thing left that I can think of is a dead CPU. Got too hot sans proper contact with HSF and toasted.

Try the same chip in your rig if you've got the same socket.

--Scythe--

Rob

You should get a POST code of some kind. Some boards have "No Beep" as an error code itself, which is dumb I think, but there it is. The board should report problems with CPU, Ram, or Video and should boot up to a screen complaining about no keyboard if all three of those work.

If it doesn't POST at all, it's not even getting into the BIOS, which was why I thought of the power thing.

What Scythe said is about all you can do. You need a second rig to swap each part out on one at a time. Debugging hardware's a pain. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />

Spooge

Best advice around comes from <a href="http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=132409" target="_blank">PCMech BYOpc guide</a>:

1) Remove EVERYTHING from the case
2) Set the motherboard on a non conductive surface. The motherboard box is perfect for this. DO NOT PLACE THE MOTHERBOARD ON THE STATIC BAG! It can actually conduct electricity! We are going to try and assemble a running system outside of the case.
3) Install the CPU and heat sink.
4) Install 1 stick of RAM.
5) Install the video card and attach the power supply connection(s) to the card if your card needs it.
6) Connect the monitor to the video card.
7) Connect the power supply to the motherboard with both the 24pin main ATX Power connection and the separate 4 or 8 pin power connection.
8) Connect power to the power supply.
9) Do NOT connect ANYTHING else. Make sure you have the power connector on the CPU fan connected.
10) Use a small screwdriver to momentarily short the power switch connector on the motherboard. Consult your motherboard manual to find which two pins connect to your case's power switch. Then touch both pins with a screwdriver to complete the circuit and boot the system.

If all is well, it should power up and you should get a display. Then assemble the parts into the case and try again. If the system now fails to boot, you have a short in the case and need to recheck your motherboard standoffs.

If the system does not boot after this process, then you most likely have a faulty component. You'll need to swap parts, start with the power supply, until you determine what is defective.

Xyth

The only time I've had a motherboard refuse to post is when it didn't want to accept a certain configuration of RAM. Just a thought.

juice

Some things happened to me before:
1) one day, vid card wasn't being recognized at all. visual inspection. looks fine. oh well, remove it, unplug vid card power, restart, power down, replace vid card and connections, works just fine.
2) installed everything. no post. remove everything. reinstall everything. post. i swear nothing was installed wrong.
3) another time the heatsink/fan was installed correctly but for some reason was not tight enough to hug the processor case and it wouldn't post because of instant overheat. proc wasn't damaged though.


my shoddy hypothesis: sometimes the alignment of installed components is off by a hair. This can be exaggerated by within-tolerance manufacturing defects. Or maybe some tiny dust bunny or hair got in somewhere. The solution is to just remove all the components and put them back in. Maybe with a little extra nudge in one direction or the other. Also weird charge configs can build in caps when mobo has design flaws?

it's like Einstein said something like: "he who does the same thing expecting different results is insane."

Be insane.


of course this advice is for you after you tried everything else and it didn't work

SkulkBait

I had a similar problem when building a relative's system a while back. Unhelpfully, taking it all apart and then putting it all back together (including the processor) miraculously allowed it to boot.

TychoCelchuuu

Mobo is possibly dead, which is odd with a good brand like Gigabyte but still a possibility. Can you RMA it?

Thansal

<!--quoteo(post=1700867:date=Feb 19 2009, 01:12 PM:name=TychoCelchuuu)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TychoCelchuuu @ Feb 19 2009, 01:12 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1700867"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Mobo is possibly dead, which is odd with a good brand like Gigabyte but still a possibility. Can you RMA it?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
he did it twice.

TychoCelchuuu

<!--quoteo(post=1700870:date=Feb 19 2009, 11:27 AM:name=Thansal)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Thansal @ Feb 19 2009, 11:27 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1700870"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->he did it twice.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
My reading comprehension! It huuuuurts!

Faskalia

CPU fan not spinning means what?

Right, that an intelligent MOBO wont allow the machine too boot, cause your CPU will overheat. Hence you sometimes have to short the CPU-Fan contacts, when using watercooling.

Edit: Read: Just get the CPU fan to spin and your mobo will boot. Buy another fan, short the contacts or if you are unlucky get a whole new mobo <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" />

CommunistWithAGun

I've built manymanymany systems and I've never had to intentionally short something. How would I go about shorting the fan to on?

Faskalia

<!--quoteo(post=1700907:date=Feb 20 2009, 12:52 AM:name=CommunistWithAGun)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(CommunistWithAGun @ Feb 20 2009, 12:52 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1700907"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I've built manymanymany systems and I've never had to intentionally short something. How would I go about shorting the fan to on?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

The CPU FAN has usually 3 contatcs on the mobo. 1 neg 1 pos and 1 probe. Shorting pos and neg should do.

Scythe

<!--quoteo(post=1700936:date=Feb 20 2009, 05:07 PM:name=Faskalia)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Faskalia @ Feb 20 2009, 05:07 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1700936"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->The CPU FAN has usually 3 contatcs on the mobo. 1 neg 1 pos and 1 probe. Shorting pos and neg should do.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

What.

Please no.

Put a 1k resistor across it please, as a minimum.

--Scythe--

Rob

<!--quoteo(post=1700936:date=Feb 20 2009, 02:07 AM:name=Faskalia)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Faskalia @ Feb 20 2009, 02:07 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1700936"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->The CPU FAN has usually 3 contatcs on the mobo. 1 neg 1 pos and 1 probe. Shorting pos and neg should do.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Read: Touch the red and black wires together. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />

lolfighter

Yeah, please don't go shorting anything that isn't meant to be shorted. Shorting the two pins for the power switch is fine. Shorting pins that are supposed to be connected to something that offers resistance isn't.

Rob

I think you should probably just forget about shorting the fan, because even if it works, you haven't fixed the problem, you've just given your PC a half-sawed through crutch.

locallyunscene

<!--quoteo(post=1700860:date=Feb 19 2009, 11:23 AM:name=juice)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(juice @ Feb 19 2009, 11:23 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1700860"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->3) another time the heatsink/fan was installed correctly but for some reason was not tight enough to hug the processor case and it wouldn't post because of instant overheat. proc wasn't damaged though.
my shoddy hypothesis: sometimes the alignment of installed components is off by a hair. This can be exaggerated by within-tolerance manufacturing defects. Or maybe some tiny dust bunny or hair got in somewhere. The solution is to just remove all the components and put them back in. Maybe with a little extra nudge in one direction or the other. Also weird charge configs can build in caps when mobo has design flaws?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Experienced this also, although it was because the heatsink phsyically didn't fit correctly. I had to rig up a solution with zip-ties.

CommunistWithAGun

Replaced the stock intel fan thinking it was defective. Still same symptoms. I'm thinking the initial heat sink blunder burnt the cpu out, any opinions on that?

juice

try wiping the cmos, that's easy to do

Tykjen

the heatsink blunder is what i would lean towards to of main cause. and try the cpu on another mobo would be among the first things id bother to give a try.