£2,000 build - Power on no boot :(

[AdladUK]

Hey guys,

Just spent the last 5 hours putting together my new machine, only to have the dreaded power on no boot when I first started it up.

Initially I figured it was the graphics card, as it's a GTX 480 with custom cooler and perhaps something had gone wrong during installation, however I tested my 470 from my 2nd machine and I get the same result.

If I leave it on for about 10 seconds I hear 20 fast paced beeps from the internal speaker. It then goes silent.

The machine itself has full power. The CPU fans are running, as are the graphics card ones. The motherboard/sound card also have all the LEDs lit up. I can also hear the hard drive being read for the first couple of seconds.

So I think it might be 1 of 2 things...

- Something with the ATX_12V on the motherboard. I'm not 100% sure I'm using the right cable (I'm using the only one that fits though).

- There's a problem with the CPU itself, perhaps some of the pins are damaged or bent?

I'd really like some advice as it's gonna be a nightmare to rebuild this thing. Everything has been cable tied and fitted properly. I'm also using that massive Noctua cooler, so removing that will be awful.

Thank you in advance

PS: I can post whatever specs necessary, but I'm only on my netbook at the moment so it's a bit difficult to copy and paste a ton of data

 

[hyperst]

try resseting cmos

 

[AdladUK]

try resseting cmos

Literally just doing that now. Was trying to find the jumper before but this board doesn't have one, so I'm removing the battery and leaving it out for 2 minutes.

Also removing the RAM and just trying with 1 stick instead of 3

 

[iv-tecman]

Not too sure which motherboard you’ve got yourself, but sometimes the ATX connector on the board has an 8pin socket, but only four are visible as the other four has a dust cover over it…

I know it’s a long shot as I’m not sure on your spec, the ATX power cable from your PSU normally splits into two four pin plugs that you can join to make an 8 pin plug, and you pop the dust cover off the ATX connector on the mainboard and plug all eight ATX plugs in.

When a motherboard isn’t getting enough power, it won’t boot. I know, I did this once. Scared the life out of me…

 

[AdladUK]

My god it's working!

 

[hyperst]

what board is it, have you checked the manual for the amount of beeps you are hearing

 

[iv-tecman]

My god it's working!

With only 1 stick of ram?

 

[AdladUK]

When a motherboard isn’t getting enough power, it won’t boot. I know, I did this once. Scared the life out of me…

Thank you for the post. I'm using a Corsair 850W, which has a dedicated 8 pin cable for the board, it's a weird one though which is why I wasn't sure.

Anyway all good, boots fine now

 

[AdladUK]

With only 1 stick of ram?

Yes, but I think it was the BIOS reset that did it. I'm going to try with 3 now

 

[R088ieS86]

Edit: Phew, would have sucked if you have to replace anything.

 

[iv-tecman]

Yes, but I think it was the BIOS reset that did it. I'm going to try with 3 now

That's cool... I'm guessing you've gone tri channel, maybe a dodgy BIOS setting. You need to put the ram into the correct slots to get duel /tri channel up and running. Motherboard manual will tell you which ones, or its colour coded.

Anyhow, good luck getting the rest of the memory working in your new rig, once its running enjoy your PC gaming.!!

 

[AdladUK]

Okay put all the memory back in and it fails to boot. I get the 20 beep thing again

 

[hyperst]

what board is it?

 

[AdladUK]

Anyhow, good luck getting the rest of the memory working in your new rig, once its running enjoy your PC gaming.!!

Thank you

Consulted the motherboard manual and indeed I had the memory in the wrong slots for 3 channel. Although to be fair I did match them up with the right colours.

Anyway it's working perfect now. Feel like a bit of an idiot, but whatever, it's been a hard build and I was up from 5AM doing it.

Thanks guys for the help, I'll post some pics build pics later

 

[AdladUK]

what board is it?

It's a GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R

 

[hyperst]

glad you sorted it

 

[Dunks]

w00t

Nothing worse than a new build failing to POST the very first time you switch it on

 

[iv-tecman]

w00t

Nothing worse than a new build failing to POST the very first time you switch it on

I know.. Its so heart sinking. You do tend to panic a tad. I'm pleased the OP get his rig up and running, but there is an important tip here.

When you get a new rig to build, its important to READ the motherboard manual. Every day system builders don't bother, as they do it day in day out. But for casual builders like the OP and me, we build a new rig - what every 2 - 3 years maybe...

Reading the motherboard manual is a good idea BEFORE you start the build... You never know what has changed since your last build..

Anyhow, he didn't seem to blow anything and he is now busy hopefully installing Windows 7. By the afternoon he'll be playing black ops..!! lol

 

[AdladUK]

Well I'm not in the clear yet

Installed Win 7 (64bit edition) and it seemed fine. Then installed the latest graphics drivers, restarted and it just keeps crashing after a few seconds into Windows. Screen goes black and I have to force a restart

 

[AdladUK]

Think it could be my graphics and something wrong with the cooler.

Tried it in safe mode and it doesn't crash, so I uninstalled the graphics drivers, rebooted and it doesn't crash.

However I installed GPU-Z and my GPU temp is 70c, which is way way too high for an idle system using a Zalman custom cooler (my 470 is usually around 30c)

Damn