My home built PC is DOA. Help!
December 12, 2009 12:19 PM   Subscribe

My new homebuilt PC is DOA (Dead on Assembly). Athlon dual core with an ASUS motherboard, GeForce 9500 and 2 GB of RAM. It is a barebones kit from Tiger Direct, so I shouldn't have any imcompatible parts.

All parts are brand new except the DVD drive, which I had laying around. I have power to the motherboard as the LED on the motherboard does light. However, when I push the power button nothing happens, no fans, nothing at all. The power LED on the front panel is not lighting. I have double checked all the connections, and quadruple checked the 2 pin power switch connector.

Any ideas on what I should check? This is not my first PC build. I was careful, didn't have any static electricity issues, etc.

Is is possible to install an Athlon CPU improperly? I can't seem to get the damn CPU fan off so I have not double checked the CPU, but it sat right down in the socket and the locking bar closed easily, so I really doubt that is the problem.
posted by COD to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)
 
checked the leads on the PWR supply?
posted by Rubbstone at 12:24 PM on December 12, 2009


Disconnect everything but the CPU, RAM and power switch, pull the power to the drive and any other peripherals, see if the fans spin up.
If that doesn't work pull out the RAM and see if you get the warning beeps.
posted by tresbizzare at 12:29 PM on December 12, 2009


Best answer: seems like a power issue/ You sure your motherboard isnt being grounded to the case? Maybe the power supply is dead on arrival .
posted by majortom1981 at 12:39 PM on December 12, 2009


Response by poster: seems like a power issue/ You sure your motherboard isnt being grounded to the case? Maybe the power supply is dead on arrival

And this would be the point where Purdue calls and asks me to return that EET degree they gave me 20 years ago. Doh!

Thanks!
posted by COD at 1:07 PM on December 12, 2009


Response by poster: For future searchers that end up here - it helps to use the spacers that hold the motherboard off the case at all the mount points, and not at just some of them.
posted by COD at 1:08 PM on December 12, 2009


I'd guess either the power supply or the front-panel switch. Those front-panel switches are sometimes awfully cheesy.

I'd try disconnecting the PSU from everything else and trying to power it up by itself (briefly short the /PS_ON pin, usually green, to one of the grounds, usually black)— if its fan comes on, then the problem is with your case's switch or wiring. Some references here and more.
posted by hattifattener at 1:17 PM on December 12, 2009


(Whoops, I should have previewed!)
posted by hattifattener at 1:18 PM on December 12, 2009


FWIW the last time I ordered a kit from Tiger Direct the power supply turned out to be flakey (it worked well enough to boot the thing up and work for various amounts of time from 5 minutes to 25 hours before strange goofy things would happen. I replaced the CPU and then the motherboard with no discernible change in behavior before finally getting a new power supply--it's worked fine for several months now & just FYI my current uptime is 43 days 16 hours.)

However the real thing I'm coming here to say, is if your kit features an ASUS MB & Phenom CPU (and maybe Athlons--as your kit has--as well, I can't say for sure), but sure to look at this page about reducing the voltage of your CPU.

Apparently the ASUS MBs by default put out more voltage than really needed, leading to CPU overheating. It's a fairly simple matter to dial down the voltage--which in my case reduced the CPU temperature by something like 8 degrees C.

Also FWIW you would think a kit would come with everything you need to make a completely workable system but in my case the thing definitely needs at least one more cooling fan in the case or it regularly overheats.
posted by flug at 1:22 PM on December 12, 2009


Since the problem in this case was too FEW motherboard-case spacers, I just thought I'd chime in and say that you can also get into trouble using too MANY mobo-case spacers. My last build failed to power on because I had put a couple of those copper spacers in inappropriate locations for the motherboard I was installing. It was shorting out something on the motherboard. Removing the extra spacers solved the problem.
posted by tybstar at 9:24 PM on December 18, 2009


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