Computer blips on, then does nothing

skOOb33

n00b
Joined
Nov 20, 2006
Messages
48
I am putting a computer together with my old parts for my dad. He bought a case and power supply and I have everything else. I put the motherboard in (which had heatsink and cpu already installed) then ram. Hooked in HDD and Floppy drive. Everything looks like it is in the right place. When I turn the PSU on, the motherboard gets it's green 'ok' light. When I hit the power button on the front of the case, the blue LED power light on the front of the case and the heatsink fan starts for just a split second, then goes off.

Nothing is obstructing the fan on the CPU, and the green light stays on the mobo. I don't hear the HDD powering on...or the PSU fan for that matter. Seems like nothing is powering up. I had an old PSU that I hooked everything in to, and it did the same thing, so it isn't that. I have built plenty of computers, but haven't run into this problem before. Any help would be appreciated.
 
Take everything out of the case and reassemble on piece of cardboard or similar surface. It sounds like a shorting issue.
 
I still need to use the POWER SW from the main case to turn it on though right? I have everything on a cardboard box. I made sure the CPU and RAM were in tight. The hard drive and floppy are connected, along with the monitor.

When using the cases POWER SW connector, I still get the same issue.
 
The power switch is a momentary switch, and I doubt that's the problem. You could verify this by jumping the mobo pins instead of using the switch on the case.
 
When I started to help my dad, he had stuff plugged in and turned the PSU on, and I noticed the ground from the PSU wasn't plugged into the motherboard. Would this burn out the motherboard? I figured there would be some protection from this. Anymore thoughts?
 
From the PSU. The 20-pin connection to the motherboard was plugged in, and then the 4 pin ground from the PSU was not plugged in to the motherboard.
 
Um, that's not a "ground". It's a 12v power supply, and not having it plugged in should not cause any damage to your mobo.
 
Place everything on a cardboard surface. To turn it on for testing you can just use a srewdriver or something metal to touch the two pins on the mobo for power switch to turn it on. Try this and tell us what happens.
 
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