PC will not start up first time

italianstallion · 24 Jun 2013 at 23:03

I know this is a common problem and i've searched, but i'm just trying to pinpoint exactly what it is.

Only a cheap build for uni work and what not:

AMD Phenom ii 555BE & Gigabyte GA-78LMT, 8GB DDR3 Ram.
New CiT 650w (dont whinge) PSU. I know its not 650w the amps calculate 480w output but thats fine.

I will be installing a Samsung 840 Pro 128Gb SSD tomorrow with a fresh install of W7 (little present to myself)

Simple problem, i have to press the reset a few times before the POST beep sounds. I disconnected all current hard drives, disconnected the Belkin N1 Wireless PCI Card thats in there too to narrow it down.

Mobo is practically new, had no more than a months use. PSU was also brand new installed today, and this problem also occurred with an old PSU.

Am i right to assume its the motherboard that has something faulty?

stulid · 24 Jun 2013 at 23:05

Do you have the cases front panel switches connected to the board correctly then?

italianstallion · 24 Jun 2013 at 23:48

id assume so, power switch and led work as they should, so does the hdd light.

I could try disconnecting the front usb panel but there isnt anything else on the front

stulid · 24 Jun 2013 at 23:59

Does the board work normally if you short the two power pins with a screwdriver?

italianstallion · 25 Jun 2013 at 00:07

havnt tried that either, i'll do that tomorrow when i have it open again.

Is there a possibility that the ram may cause this too?

stulid · 25 Jun 2013 at 00:18

There could be a stability issue I suppose if the RAM is running at the wrong speed/timings than it can cope with, so you get a "boot loop" on start up.

But normally this then results in a BIOS overclocking error message.

italianstallion · 25 Aug 2013 at 18:14

Update to this...i had everything tested and a new power supply... but the situation has changed...

I know i installed windows with the bios set to AHCI, with no other hard drives installed. After the motherboard was tested and came back with no faults,and obviously reset, i started everything up and it booted first time, and continued to do so. i changed a few settings in the bios and noticed the drive was set to Native IDE. so i changed it back to AHCI and voila, the same problem.

Is there a solution to this that someone is aware of?

EDIT: ISSUE SOLVED. swapped some ports around and made sure specific ports had the right hardware in them (0-3 SSD drive only, 4-6 other sata hardware) et voila, PC functioning perfectly and SSD is back up to full speed.