Building first computer, ran into major hurdle

T

TFX

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Apr 13, 2005
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I decided that rather than buy a store-configured econobox, I would build my first computer. I had never done it before, but decided why not. The following components are relevant to the situation:

Dynex (Best Buy) brand ATX case w/500w PSU
ASUS A8V Deluxe mobo

Well, I bought most of the components in January when I had money, then had to wait a few months to get the last two components: the video card and the RAM.

I finally got the RAM today and was attempting to fire it up. Everything was plugged in (or so I thought) and I turned on the PSU. The cooling fan powered by the mobo powered up slightly (the LED went up, it spun around very lightly) and one of the case fans in the front of the machine (powered by the PSU directly) was also partially powered (LED lit up, fan not spinning).

But, the mobo wasn't powering up outside of that case fan that was getting a little power. I turned it off and noticed that the 20-pin power connection wasn't plugged in all the way. I unplugged the power, made sure the 20-pin was in just snug, then powered up the PSU again. This time the PSU just made a loud high-pitched noise. Not even the PSU fan was whirring up, nothing was getting any power.

I had the problem diagnosed at TeamXbox and it looked like it was a busted PSU. I went down and picked up another PSU, 400 watt, and brought it home. Now I'm back to square one. The mobo shows no sign of power up, the back fan hooked up to the mobo lights up, but has very little power pushing the blades and the front case fan lights up, but does not spin.

I'm getting incredibly discouraged. I put a lot of money into this that I didn't have and I'd rather not have to buy any new components. I don't have any other available components to swap out and try with it.

Please help!
 
Umm.......Is everything seated right? Vid card all the way down, ram in tight (in the right slots too, check that). Only plug in the motherboard and video card tp start. leave the cdroms, harddrive, case fans unpluged. Make sure you have the 20pin power cable pluged in, the 4 pin power cable on the motherboard, and the video card pluged in if it needs it. Only thing i can think of right now (god its late).
 
MrMitch said:
Umm.......Is everything seated right? Vid card all the way down, ram in tight (in the right slots too, check that). Only plug in the motherboard and video card tp start. leave the cdroms, harddrive, case fans unpluged. Make sure you have the 20pin power cable pluged in, the 4 pin power cable on the motherboard, and the video card pluged in if it needs it. Only thing i can think of right now (god its late).
Click to expand...

I'll give that a try in a little bit. The only non-mobo thing that's powering up right now is the front case fan, but I'll give that a shot. The video card and RAM are situated fine, but I can't even get enough power to the mobo for those to even be a concern.

I ran through my jumper diagrams for the face buttons and none are doing anything at all with the PSU on.
 
Don't get discouraged, just imagine having a 600$ oem store bought system going bad and sending it off while paying for shipping and waiting a month or more to find out they fixed nothing. So many pay offs when building your own system.
Keep trying :)
Were here for ya. ;)
 
What kind of horrible PSUs are you buying? ... and what are the actual parts in the machine besides the board? With that I'll be able to advise you the best value for your money in buying one.

But either way; you need to remember that wattage is irrelevant in a power supply; this is a common myth. Power supply wattages are added up from the power supplied on 3.3v, 5.0v and 12.0v, plus the negative voltages. The 3.3v and 5.0v rails don't NEED that much power, but cheapo supply manaufacturers will always load up more ampergae (Entirelty unneeded) on them to raise the wattage. When what components really need, is power on the 12v rail. This is where they fail to supply what you need and cause system crashes, instability, or severe overamping which can kill the supply and your computer very easily.

So, you should be adding up the usage of your machine on the 12v rail to find out what power supply is best for you.
 
The thing is, it looks like the PSU's fine, because it's getting power to something. It's the motherboard I don't know about.
 
make sure the 4 pin power plug is plugged in (CPU Power) in addition to your 20 pin connector.

BB
 
First, ou should check the brand of the PSU that you have and cross-reference it with the Naughty/Nice list of PSUs in the PSU forum to see if you have a reputable one; the last thing you want to do is find out that your PSU is crap and that it causes problems for you sometime down the line.

Now, regarding you current PSU - have you checked to see that all the pins going into the plastic housing is in firmly? I ask because there is a tendency on some of the 20 pin connectors to not hold the leads firmly, and the leads actually slip out. As many have said, make sure that you've plugged in the 4 pin power connector. Also, when troubleshooting, make sure that the only thing that is in your mobo is the CPU and fan. Don't bother with the RAM or anything else. If you hear a beep code, that's because you don't have anything else hooked up, and is fine. Having the minimum amount of stuff in the mobo ensures that other components aren't causing the problem.

Oh, as a note, have you made sure that you've seated your CPU and heatsink properly? Have you been able to try putting a different CPU in you board to see if your CPU is the problem? Essentially, you want to systematically replace everything in your motherboard and see if you get the same problem. Also, you'll want to test your components in a computer that you know is working - this might mean talking to a friend, or going to some mom and pop's computer store and seeing if they'll test your components for a couple bucks.
 
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