On

[Ijen]

Having just upgraded my computer, I had a bunch of old components knocking around and thought I'd put them together. It was all going well, right up until I spotted the connector on the cable for the power button on the case (power/reset/led) isn't compatible with the motherboard.

So, the question is how to turn it on without the power button on the case?

Is there a way to hot-wire it 'on'?

The motherboard is an MSI Neo2 865Pe
The case is from a ten year old Dell Dimension XPS T700r

 

[Ijen]

siclilmonkey - ooer, righto then I might have a go at that but not sure I fancy the prospect of my dad yamming a screwdriver at the motherboard when he wants to check his emails... might have to wire em up to some kind of make-shift on-button.

PhillyDee - here y'go.

So, that flat grey cable with the black connector coming in from the right is from the power button.

 

[Ijen]

So arrh.. right.

I managed to turn it on using a cable that connected to the pins at one end, and and then chopped with bare ends at the other. It didn't boot though. The PSU, CPU and mobo fans were all wiring a way but not a peep from the rest of the system. When I touched some of the other pins together various other things happened, such as the HDD made a noise, or the CD drives burped, but nothing caused the mobo to make that beeping noise it makes before booting.

Checked the connections but I'm going to go back and remove things and put them back again, to be double sure - some of the wires are under a bit of tension.

Bloody Dell, the concept of standard sizes is lost on them.

Doesnt look like that MSI board sits in their too nicely either.

You're right, it's a shonky fit at best. Sieems like the PCI cards are the only things actually holding it steady - the clips in the the case do aren't especially effective.

A door bell. I used to know someone who using a door bell on top of their case purely because they didnt want to bend down to turn it on.

Hahaha, hell yes, that's ace.

JonJ678 - that would be ace, If I manage to get into the BIOS I'll look into it.

 

[Ijen]

Hrm, well, silly as I know this sounds, I checked the connections and realised that the the AGP and PCI cards weren't connected properly because of the way motherboard sits a fraction too low in the case. I removed the motherboard, put the cards back in properly before reconnecting everything and shorting the power pins again. It all started up fine... until windows began to load and it decided to restart. And again in safe mode. And again. And again.

I have reason to believe the PSU may be dodgy; I think I can see a melty bit inside

*hunts for a new PSU*