No power at all after changing video card

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mncd

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Jul 6, 2016
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I just changed a defective video card. It was pretty straightforward.

Now, I am trying to boot the system and it is completely dead. I see the network light is flashing by the ethernet port but otherwise there is absolutely no signs of life.

How should I trouble shoot this? I don't see any disconnected cables.

If there is absolutely no power at all does this indicate a power supply issue?

I'm really lost on this one.

Mobo is Asus H-110M-C/CSM
 
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pull the new card and see if you can get it powering/posting off the onboard video. if nothing still then youll need a psu to test with and retest the original card too.
 
First, make sure your power switch is still connected to the motherboard. Once you know that is all good to go, you should take out the video card you installed and see if it now turns on. If it doesnt, keep removing components (such as memory, etc) and try to turn it on again after each component removal. I would also remove the power from all your accessories like SSD, HDs, etc. You could potentially get all the way to only having your CPU installed. If you are down to only a CPU and it still does not turn on, then you either have a ground problem, a bad power switch, or bad PSU. Having a bad PSU is possible, but highly unlikely. I have only had one PSU ever go bad in 30 years of computing. Exception would be if its undersized for the load you have of course.

Remember- the power supply has protection circuitry so it wont turn on if there is a problem which could cause something to explode (aka: a short). Also make sure whatever video card you install is fully seated. I have seen some cases not allow the card to go in completely and needed to widen the slot cover area of the case.
 
Thank you for your input. I reset the CMOS and put the old card in and with some difficulty got it running again. If the power supply is inadequate for the new video card -- would that cause it to act like it's dead? That seems to be what happened, but I guess I didn't expect it to behave like that. I thought it would maybe still boot but give some type of error or run the card at a reduced speed.
 
If the PSU is inadequate and well-built enough to have built-in protection it can cut out when you try to start it due to overload protection. Also make sure you got the new card seated properly in the slot, if it's 98% into the socket that will also cause a boot failure. But I wouldn't test that, knowing the PSU is too weak.
 
[QUOTE=" If the power supply is inadequate for the new video card -- would that cause it to act like it's dead? That seems to be what happened, but I guess I didn't expect it to behave like that. I thought it would maybe still boot but give some type of error or run the card at a reduced speed.[/QUOTE]

As Pandur stated, good quality power supplies will have protection circuitry that will prevent the power supply from turning on if there is something wrong (too much draw, or a short, etc.). I would bet you didnt have the new card installed all the way into the slot. What all is in your system and what kind of power supply do you have?
 
Thanks for the input. I'm pretty sure the card was well-seated. I really was trying to be careful.

As for what I have in the system... 6700 processor. 2 sticks of 8GB RAM. 2 hard drives. 1 SSD. So not too much. The PSU is 550W. The video card was nvidia 680, i believe, which is the one thing that probably requires quite a bit of juice.
 
During boot up there should be more than enough PSU power for the gpu since there is no load unless there is something wrong with the PSU itself.
 
While that power supply is aon the lower end of the power spectrum the video card wont have much of a draw at idle/bootup or at the desktop. If you used that system at high loads for several months, its *possible* its starting to go but again its not very likely. Again, looks like you had some sort of protection circuitry within the PSU going off related to something not being seated correctly.
 
The computer wouldn't boot with the old video card until I reset the CMOS. Is that normal behavior?
 
mncd said:
The computer wouldn't boot with the old video card until I reset the CMOS. Is that normal behavior?
Click to expand...

Clearing the CMOS is no big deal. Those chips are sensitive to static and electrical discharge; pulling your video card may have discharged a capacitor. Technically, any time you are doing anything inside your case you should make sure its unplugged and you have waited a few minutes (with the power unplugged) to let any residual electrical charges dissipate. Its also a good idea to be grounded so you dont induce a static discharge into your components as you "could" fry something.

So, yeah you can temporarily fritz your CMOS up by removing a card. Clearing it and it recovering is no big deal...
 
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