Totally peed off! New build goes dead... Help/advice wanted

AdladUK

AdladUK

AdladUK

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6 Jan 2007
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I put together my new PC yesterday, and it was working perfectly. The basic specs are:

AMD 4000+ X2 CPU
Asus M2N-E SLI motherboard
1GB OCZ DDR2 memory
8500GT NVIDIA graphics card
Arctic Power 500W PSU

Nothing crazy, just a decent build.

So like I say, everything was working great. XP was installed and running really nice. Vidoes were playing. Absolutely no problems whatsoever.

One small thing that was annoying me was the noise of the stock AMD cooler. Since the graphics card has passive cooling, it seemed a shame for the CPU cooler to ruin things in regards to noise.

So I ordered an Arctic Cooling Freezer64 Pro (along with a couple of other peripherals), and got them today.

Installed the cooler, switched on the machine, and nothing. The power came on, and the power LED was showing on the motherboard, but the system just wouldn't start.

I checked all the basic stuff... Cables, switches, I even reset the memory and graphics cards in their slots, but still... Power on, no boot.

For the next 4 hours I literally went through every single thing I could think of. Resetting bios, swapping memory slots, swapping power cables... Etc, etc.

Absolutely NOTHING worked. And so I gave up.

Here I am typing this on my old machine. And my new build is sitting beside it dead. I'm feeling pretty damn dissapointed at this stage.

My main problem is that I really don't know what it is. I have a feeling it could be the CPU. But then I also think it could be the PSU, or even the motherboard. I really can't tell.

I can't swap any items for testing with my old PC as it's all different standards.

And I really don't want to go through the whole process of RMAs.

Please help me Overclockers :(
 
Silly question, but you have checked the cables connecting the front panel of the case?

Edit: Nm, if it was working before its unlikely to be that :p Does anything happen at all? Any spinning of the fans etc?
 
DunK1 said:
Silly question, but you have checked the cables connecting the front panel of the case?

Edit: Nm, if it was working before its unlikely to be that :p
Click to expand...

Yep, I even tried disconnecting all the jumper cables and using a spare power switch jumper cable I have from my old case... Still nothing.
 
Try taking out the graphics card, any PCI card etc one by one, and try powering on each time. I'd also remove the RAM and try starting it up.
 
DunK1 said:
Try taking out the graphics card, any PCI card etc one by one, and try powering on each time. I'd also remove the RAM and try starting it up.
Click to expand...

I tried that. I tried resetting the graphics card in its slot, and also tried powering on the machine without the graphics card inserted.

Also tried powering on the machine without the memory or cpu inserted. Nothing.

I don't think it's the graphics card though. Simply because there is power going to the motherboard and yet nothing starts up. No fans or anything.
 
AdladUK said:
I tried that. I tried resetting the graphics card in its slot, and also tried powering on the machine without the graphics card inserted.

Also tried powering on the machine without the memory or cpu inserted. Nothing.

I don't think it's the graphics card though. Simply because there is power going to the motherboard and yet nothing starts up. No fans or anything.
Click to expand...

Hm, pretty odd :\ Not too sure what it is, too late to be thinking right. Might be worth trying to borrow a CPU to try, and a PSU maybe. Plus im up in 3 hours for a train! :( Sorry I couldn't be of much help.
 
DunK1 said:
Hm, pretty odd :\ Not too sure what it is, too late to be thinking right. Might be worth trying to borrow a CPU to try, and a PSU maybe. Plus im up in 3 hours for a train! :( Sorry I couldn't be of much help.
Click to expand...

No problem, thank you anyway.

I guess if I have to buy another CPU to test it with, I will.

I just wanted to see if there was perhaps a solution before spending more money. I'm already broke from buying this as it is
 
AdladUK said:
No problem, thank you anyway.

I guess if I have to buy another CPU to test it with, I will.

I just wanted to see if there was perhaps a solution before spending more money. I'm already broke from buying this as it is
Click to expand...

No one you can borrow from?
 
You did try the stock heatsink again? Maybe it's refusing to start as not recognising a working cpu fan speed? Normall a bios option to monitor that.
 
silly question but when installing the fan did you lift out the motherboard and if so did you screw back in ALL of the screws .. if not it could just be shorting the board and another silly point.. make sure the fan is connected to the correct fan connector :)
 
Yes, clearly a problem with the new cooler. It's most likely to be the thing that changed, innit.

If the fan isn't starting or isn't working that'd stop the system booting. Did you plug it in the right way :) ... have you tried swapping the fan for another one... does it boot with the stock cooler, as chappie above suggests.

Unless you b0rked something major on the motherboard while changing the cooler (slipping with a screwdriver, for example), replacing the old one oughta work.

abc
 
caithomas44 said:
silly question but when installing the fan did you lift out the motherboard and if so did you screw back in ALL of the screws .. if not it could just be shorting the board and another silly point.. make sure the fan is connected to the correct fan connector :)
Click to expand...

Yes the motherboard is properly installed, as is the cooler.

Yep the fan is definitely plugged into the right bit. I doubt that would stop the entire machine from booting up anyway
 
ALienBC said:
Yes, clearly a problem with the new cooler. It's most likely to be the thing that changed, innit.

If the fan isn't starting or isn't working that'd stop the system booting. Did you plug it in the right way :) ... have you tried swapping the fan for another one... does it boot with the stock cooler, as chappie above suggests.

Unless you b0rked something major on the motherboard while changing the cooler (slipping with a screwdriver, for example), replacing the old one oughta work.

abc
Click to expand...

That's true, the cooler is the only thing that's changed.

When I say no boot, I mean absolutely nothing starts. There is power to the motherboard (the onboard LED shows green), but no fans start, nothing from the PSU.

The only thing I can think is that either the CPU or motherboard got damaged when installing the new cooler. Although I really don't see how as I made sure to be really careful.

Or perhaps some freak failure of the PSU?
 
Kyle009 said:
unlikely to be the PSU if the LED is showing its receiving powwer.
Click to expand...

My gut tells me it's the CPU, and that I shouldn't of bothered with this stupid bloody new cooler in the first place :(

Problem is, I shell out another £50 for a replacement CPU, then find it's the motherboard, and I'm no better off
 
I`m thinking its your mobo,possibly psu.I`d take everything out of the case and do a barebones setup with mobo perching on mobo box,one stick ram and gfx card.
Leave the small case speaker attached if you can so hopefully you`ll get a loud `beep` if its ok.No loud beeps/fans not a good sign.
Then try all the spares you have.
One other thing to try is take mobo battery out for at least 10 mins,reset bios has brought back some from the dead.
Best of luck this can be a nightmare with new builds

Edit:
If none of that work don`t buy another cpu,take it to a small pc shop/mate i got a local one to test mobo/cpu for a fiver to find mobo dead its worth it mate as at this stage you don`t know what part to blame as yet.
 
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Maybe a silly question but have you tried your old cooler back on, see if that works? :P

I think it's one of these:
1. new cooler fitted incorrectly (which damaged the CPU or is just not booting)
2. damaged the motherboard
3. CPU fan not attached properly to power
 
luminous said:
I`m thinking its your mobo,possibly psu.I`d take everything out of the case and do a barebones setup with mobo perching on mobo box,one stick ram and gfx card.
Leave the small case speaker attached if you can so hopefully you`ll get a loud `beep` if its ok.No loud beeps/fans not a good sign.
Then try all the spares you have.
One other thing to try is take mobo battery out for at least 10 mins,reset bios has brought back some from the dead.
Best of luck this can be a nightmare with new builds

Edit:
If none of that work don`t buy another cpu,take it to a small pc shop/mate i got a local one to test mobo/cpu for a fiver to find mobo dead its worth it mate as at this stage you don`t know what part to blame as yet.
Click to expand...

Thanks for info, I'll try that battery trick next.

I did actually reset the bios twice, and that never worked, but maybe if I leave the battery out for 10 minutes it will help.

Yeah I went back to barebones with just the motherboard etc. None of that worked.

Local PC shops in my area are terrible. So that's not really an option. Plus all the hassle of taking it in isn't something I really fancy.

It would be very weird if it was the PSU. Simply because it was working perfectly a few hours prior
 
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