system wont power on!

gerald.doussot · 10 Feb 2006 at 20:42

Hi,

I have an Antec P160 case and an Antec neopower 480. The system won't power on anymore. No changes were performed to the system.
The components are one year and one month old. There is a led on the motherboard(Asus A8n-sli) indicating that the Antec is supplying
power. I wonder if it's either the power button of the Antec P160 which is defective or the Antec neopower 480 itself? How can I determine
that? The only problem I ever had with this system for the past few months is that if the system was disconnected from the socket for a
few seconds, it would take several minutes to an hour to be able to restart it again (Trying to press the power button regularly until it
worked). Can you please advise on what to do?

gerald.doussot · 10 Feb 2006 at 21:25

chaparral said:
I had this problem with one my power supplys..I took the top off and clean the dust out...It work fine after that..

But if you do this.
BUT MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING INSIDE THE POWER SUPPLY.There can still be high volts even when unpluged and left off..

I just tried to hoover it through the 2 fan covers although the inside looks really clean with no success. There is not a slight noise to indicate some activity.

As a side note, I had some fun hoovering the CPU and chipset fan. They go really fast!

gerald.doussot · 10 Feb 2006 at 22:36

Trigger said:
Disconnect the case power switch and short the two pins it was connected to with a screwdriver to see if the switch is defective

I have disconnected the power/soft-off cable from the motherboard. I've put a screwdriver between the 2 pins it was connected to and ...nothing. I guess now it means that either the PSU or the motherboard is defective. Is anyone aware of any similar problems with the Asus a8n-sli or the neopower 480?

gerald.doussot · 12 Feb 2006 at 09:28

I dont have this anymore. I've moved house in December and got rid of all "superfluous" stuff. I have removed the MB from the case (left it on the removable case MB tray. Everything disconnected minus the CPU) and power it on but still no success. Is this enough to rule out shorting?

I've filled the support form on Asus web site as advised by OcUK (the Asus phone number listed on this web site was not operational). I did not know Asus had a 3 year warranty

I've plugged my PSU to the motherboard (EATX power and ATX 12V plugs only) of a old Dell machine, which did start. Now, the Dell ATX power has less pins (ATX power?) but I think I can rule out a problem with the PSU so far.

The test I made with the screwdriver is enough to rule out a power button problem?

If yes, what's left is the motherboard...

gerald.doussot · 12 Feb 2006 at 09:41

lordedmond said:
ouch
most Dell psu's have a different pin out on the 20 pin plug

you may have done your mobo harm

to run a mobo out of the case is simple put it on a non conductive surface a dry newspaper is ok or dry cardboard wood ect

just make sure it is dry

but hey we are only talking 12vdc here so what the heck

The Dell motherboard is still working fine. I am currently running a FreeBSD router/fw/http/mail/squeezebox server on it

Anyway thx, I will try that.

gerald.doussot · 18 Feb 2006 at 22:53

Asus support drove me nuts so I bought a DFI LanParty NF4 SLI-DR EXPERT. Hope they are nice, I've never had a DFI. Could not resist buying my 1st watercooling kit with the DFI, a Swiftech H20-220 Apex "Ultra" Kit

Both are shipping today.

Anyway, it occurred to me that my CPU could be defective. I've tried to start the Asus MB without the CPU, still without success. Can a MB start without anything on it?

gerald.doussot · 18 Feb 2006 at 23:27

rich99million said:
You should still get fans spinning up I think - that may vary between boards though so don't quote me on it

Well even the PSU fan wont spin, whereas it spinned once plugged on a old Dell MB. I guess I will be able to rule out a problem with my Asus MB once I receive the DFI :rolleyes:

gerald.doussot · 19 Feb 2006 at 09:16

rich99million said:
my guess would be that something on the motherboard is fried which is stopping the PSU getting the signal to power up

bit odd that it would blow for no reason at all, unless maybe the motherboard itself was overheating for a long time and caused some capacitors to blow (you'd probably be able to see evidence of that)

all you can really do is wait for your DFI and give it a try. probably best to just assemble the basics out of the case at first (mobo, cpu+fan, memory) and go from there

Yeah, I checked all the capacitors and they are all intact. Everything looks so fine that it does not really confort me on my diagnostic of the problem.

gerald.doussot · 19 Feb 2006 at 10:55

the_tyke said:
There is a thread about this already, and all three of us have the same mobo (asus A8N-SLI). I thought it might be my PSU but now I'm convinced it's the mobo. Mine will work fine for a few hours, then it's as if somebody has suddenly kicked the mains plug out. When I try and restart, the LED's and fans flicker for a fraction of a second then go off. It's just done it again and now the pc is totally dead , except for a small cooling fan in the PSU and the green mobo light.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17538145

Antec asked me to try the following steps:
www.duxcw.com/faq/ps/ps4.htm

Maybe it can help you!

I did not because the page says it can damage your PSU. I am reasonably happy with the fact my PSU could start a Dell motherboard, although the connector has less pins.

gerald.doussot · 22 Feb 2006 at 20:17

I have received the DFI MB. I've installed the CPU and memory. Plugged the PSU and pressed the handy power switch on the DFI motherboard...and nothing

Except for the standby power LED, which in on as it was on the Asus MB.

Well I guess I've ruled out a problem with the case power button for sure!

Should the DFI MB start with the CPU and memory components only?

The problem has to be the PSU right? It can't be the CPU or memory modules?

This is so annoying. I miss WoW

gerald.doussot · 1 Mar 2006 at 19:11

Well I got the seasonic 600W to replace the antec neopower and it works. So dont trust the led on the MB telling that your PSU is working.

I had to short-pin the seasonic with a paper clip to test he new watercooling system I bought without the MB. It worked, as per the instructions on seasonic website. Trying the same thing on the antec PSU did not work, so I guess it is a good test to check whether your PSU is OK or not.