3 Mobos, 2 CPUs... all the same problem

NickTheBiz · 15 Dec 2015 at 16:18

Afternoon boys, help me out here I've got a confusing one.

I've got 2 CPUs and 3 Mobos I've saved from PCs that have kicked the bucket and I'm trying to put together something usable from the spares.

All 3 Mobos are H61M chipset, 1 MSI and 2 Gigabytes. The chips are an i3 and i5 (2500 I think).

I'm basically trying to power the components up (with memory therein) and hard drive connected to start building them and see if they still work. But any combination of the CPUs and mobos (and trust me I've tried all of them) result in the same thing... Initial power to the case fan and PSU, but the chip's stock cooler struggles to spin. Might spin for a few seconds, then stops and then starts again.

What am I missing here? Surely it's user error but I've built a few PCs in my time and can't recall such a problem before.

NickTheBiz · 15 Dec 2015 at 16:25

Tried different memory and different PSUs to no avail.

NickTheBiz · 15 Dec 2015 at 17:03

Yes, I'm building outside the case so have the bare minimum setup.

Incidentally I've just chucked together a 5800K AMD CPU I had lying around wiht a cheapie FM2 socket mobo, with the same PSU and memory I was trying without any issue at all. Booted straight up. All very odd.

I've read elsewhere about the mobo battery needing to be popped out and reinserted which I've done without any change. Yes, the 4 pin power to the mobo is connected as well as the long main connector.

NickTheBiz · 17 Dec 2015 at 11:27

zola25 said:
Probably a stupid question, have you reset the CMOS on the boards?

Can you do this from a jumper setting?

NickTheBiz · 22 Dec 2015 at 09:30

dreamcat4 said:
* Not enough volts from ring mains? i.e. too high load for the mains.

* All 3 mobos have dead CMOS battery? (unlikely) No

Do any of the mobos work / came from other working systems? Where did the parts come from? Same source? One motherboard and CPU came from a working system but no longer seems to work

* You are using a screwdriver on bare power header to turn it on yes? (eliminates faulty power switch). No

* Did you also plug in supplementary 4 or 8 pin CPU power connector? Answer should be yes. yes

* Are you using the same set of cables across all 3 hardware configurations? Then one of those cables is either faulty or mis-wired. E.g. With modular power supplies, you may have used the same mobo power cable(s). No

* Is the reset button also plugged in at the same time. Is that faulty? Nope, not plugged in

Cheers for the response. Might have a look at the original (was previously working) system again today.