First PC build...teething troubles

S

spl1nter

n00b
Joined
Nov 20, 2006
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4
Well, I decided to build my own PC for the first time.

Specs:
- ASUS A8N-E
- AMD X2 4600+
- Crucial 1Gb DDR PC3200 (CT12864Z40B)
- XFX 7600GT XXX
- Zalman ZM460-APS ATX Noiseless PSU 460W
- Zalman CNPS9500-LED Aero Flower Cooler
- Western Digital Caviar 400GB S150 16mb 7200rpm
- Antec P180

So, I hooked everything up (I believe...although, since this is my first time (despite checking lots), I've probably missed a lead or two) and powered up.

Mobo LED comes on (no flickering) and there's one short beep. Nothing powers up.

This is the opposite of earlier when I'd forgotten to connect the CPUs ATX. The mobos LED came on but there was no beep and everything powered up.

I tried just having the:

- mobo
- cpu
- heatsink
- RAM
- GFX card
- PSU
- case

connected but I still got just the single, quick beep and nothing powering up.

Any help would be much appreciated.
 
Well your first step is going to be to cut it down to bare min.

CPU
Mobo
Vid card
1 stick of ram and
no hard drives
optical drives

and try to get it to post.
If that works start adding things until it stops working. (If you get it all back together and it works assume that you must of had something hooked up wrong.)

If that dosent work take the system out of the case and put it on a non conductive surface like a piece of wood. Then see if it will post.

If you look in you mobo's manual there should be somewhere that tells you what the beep code says.

After all that if it still wont post it gets difficult so try those things first.
 
I had tried it with the bare minimum although I haven't tried it on a table or such.

My motherboard manual doesn't have any kind of troubleshooting section and nothing about beeps :confused: Although I thought that 1 beep was universally accepted as being a good sign?
 
I did a little test. When I removed the 4-pin 12V ATX connector all the fans and such work but there's no beep. But when I do connect it, none of the fans and such work but I do get a beep.

Is this a PSU problem?
 
so nothing turns on when the 4 pin cpu plug in plugged in.

Do you have another PSU you could test.
 
Dumb question, but you're not plugging in the 4pin from the 20+4 pin connector, are you?
 
Did you connect all the case connectors? The Power Switch? The Reset Switch? The Ground connector?
 
Well, I took the PC apart and assembled a basic setup out of the case and I then reset the CMOS. I turned it on and everything seemed to work fine so I hooked up the monitor and lo! I was in the BIOS!!!

So I assembled everything inside the case and well, now I'm here!

I'm almost certain I didn't do anything differently. Thanks for your help :)
 
Ive had that happen before computer that worked perfectly and then when I moved down to my dorm this fall something happened to it and it would not post it would do nothing and well I took it apart once and it still didnt work and well I did it and again and it worked.

Sometimes I think computers have minds of their own.
 
I remember not having a computer boot after moving it 6 feet. Stupid slot CPUs...

Good luck with your build, everyone has its own quirks to work out.
 
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