Motherboard won't boot

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Empyrean

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 27, 2005
Messages
327
I am attempting my first computer build and I have a NF4-DAGF motherboard that I cannot get to boot up. It came with an AMD 64 3000 Venice CPU and 1GB Patriot RAM pretested, so I am pretty sure that there isn't a problem with the motherboard. When I plug the PSU into the wall the Standby Power LED lights up and is red. When I flip the power switch on the PSU nothing happens. No fan turns, no sounds, no response.

I am using an Antec TruePower 2.0 430W as my PSU. I thought I just needed 400W+, but recently read online that that has been changed to 480W+. I noticed that my supply only has 17A on the 12V rail, but it has a second rail also. In one place for DFI it said a minimum of 26A is required on the 12V rail, but many of the power supplies listed in that same place had less than that on a single rail.

Also, I only found two power connections for my NF4-DAGF motherboard, the 24-pin ATX and a single 4-pin 12V connection. This is all I saw in the manual too, but I expected a floppy and/or molex also. Does the number of connections vary a lot on motherboards?

Finally, I haven't touched the front-panel pins for the power and reset and all that. Is that my problem? Do I need to jumper them to be able to boot before installing in the case?

Basically, I don't want to buy a new PSU if the one I have will work and I am overlooking something simple, but if I do have to buy one I want to buy the right one!
 
Empyrean said:
Finally, I haven't touched the front-panel pins for the power and reset and all that. Is that my problem? Do I need to jumper them to be able to boot before installing in the case!
Click to expand...

Yes & No.
You dont need to jumper them but they do need to be momentaraly shorted before the mobo will fire up.
Either attach the case switches or touch a screwdriver across the headers to start the comp.
Once your in the BIOS you can set it to restart after power failure and hence you dont need the front power switch.

Luck.......... :D
 
Thanks, I'm making progress now. I hooked the power switch up to the pins and pressed power. Now there is a brief surge and it turns off. All the fans start spinning, and then it returns to dead.
 
First check that the heatsink fan is pluged into the correct fan header.
Most modern mobo's wont start first time without a fan attached.

If it is then take it out of the case and put it on the mobo's box.
You don't need any drives attached, extra cards, etc, etc just vid and one stick of memory.
Will it start on there.
If it does then something in the case is shorting it out and its shutting down to save itself.
Check for extra standoff, etc, etc.

Luck.......... :D
 
Thanks for the tips. I have been testing the mb just on its box, and the only peripherals I have attached are keyboard, mouse, and monitor (so only card is the video card). I've checked the fans and they are all plugged in correctly, I reseated them just to be sure. They do start spinning briefly, so I believe they can get power, it just shuts off immediately.

I do have 2 RAM sticks in, I could try with just one but other than that I am pretty stuck.
 
Okay, n00b 101 here. I was just being stupid and had the PSU turned off when I tried to short the pins. I was doing it so quickly the standby LED didn't have a chance to go out. But when I had the PSU turned on correctly and shorted the pins, voila, system boot up.

Everything seems in order so far. Basic system tests, CMOS/BIOS accessable, and then pause after some copyright info (I guess because I have no drives hooked up yet.)
 
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