Urgent help for noobie

Rossatron305 · 23 Oct 2009 at 20:09

Hi guys, i build my first pc from scratch this week and all went well (i think)
i have been waiting all week for windows 7 to arrive, now it is here and i have installed it fine, after being on for 5 or so mins after installation it turned itself off, much to my annoyance. It will switch back on momentarily i.e. the fans start spiining for a second then it turns off again, this is my 1st build so i have no idea what the problem could be.

this is what i have

amd phenom ii x4 940
corsair vx550
kingston hyperX 1066 4gb
ati radeon hd4870
wd black caviar 640gb
lg gh22ls50
asus m3a78-vm mobo

would appreciate any help, thanks in advance

AtlanticP · 23 Oct 2009 at 20:12

Over heating maybe, temp protection too low ??

Check and recheck everything - Twice!!

Rossatron305 · 23 Oct 2009 at 20:16

Got 2 120mm fans and 1 80mm plus 120mm exhaust fan, cpu has only got stock cooler, brought a xigmatek hdt 1283 but was to big, having to use stock tili find a suitable smaller one, i have taken out 1 stick of ram and gpu and its runs for about 3 mins then off again.

AtlanticP · 23 Oct 2009 at 20:18

check voltages for the ram, had similar when building a system a while ago and had to up the volts a bit. Think I went to something around 2.1v but check to see what your ram needs and make sure its set to that.

Rossatron305 · 23 Oct 2009 at 20:35

it wont even power up to bios screen now, fans just flcker on that back off straight away, starting to loose my patience, have spend a lot of money on this, i kno these things happen but i dont understand why it was running just fine and then now it wont even turn on

on kingston website it says the ram requires +1.8v but i cant see what its running at at the moment cos the damn thing wont turn on lol

Fred · 23 Oct 2009 at 20:43

Well if you can't even see the bios, it doesn't sound like ram is the problem. As someone posted earlier, re-check all your connections.

alex24 · 23 Oct 2009 at 20:46

Hate to have to ask, but did you use motherboard standoffs in the case?

Fred · 23 Oct 2009 at 20:50

alexhull24 said:
Hate to have to ask, but did you use motherboard standoffs in the case?

Don't think he would have got 5mins with that... Although I can't say that I've tried it

alex24 · 23 Oct 2009 at 20:54

Fred said:
Don't think he would have got 5mins with that... Although I can't say that I've tried it

You never know, stranger things have happened for sure, and he did say 5 mins.

Rossatron305 · 23 Oct 2009 at 21:10

All standoffs on and have just taken the whole thing apart, right down to taken the cpu off of the mobo, in process of put all connections back in and then for the next boot up, have checked and double checked everything, and after that i checked again, thanks for your help guys

Rossatron305 · 23 Oct 2009 at 21:25

right everything back in and still not working, i am beginning to think its the power button on the case, the 1st few times i ever turned it on it worked fine and now i press it and the blue led flicks on and off and then nothing

alex24 · 23 Oct 2009 at 21:31

Rossatron305 said:
right everything back in and still not working, i am beginning to think its the power button on the case, the 1st few times i ever turned it on it worked fine and now i press it and the blue led flicks on and off and then nothing

Short out the pins where the power connects with a screwdriver or something conductive. Be careful though. That should tell you it's not the switch - it rarely is.

Fred · 23 Oct 2009 at 21:34

or connect the pins to another switch on the case, might be safer.

Rossatron305 · 23 Oct 2009 at 21:38

Fred said:
or connect the pins to another switch on the case, might be safer.

sorry i am a noob to all this, what other switch could i connect it to, do you mean swap the reset and power switch over, its only a cheapy ****** own brand case, i dint think what case i have would play a factor in how good the hardware is so i went for a cheap and cheerful one, had good views so i dint think i could go wrong really

alex24 · 23 Oct 2009 at 21:40

Rossatron305 said:
sorry i am a noob to all this, what other switch could i connect it to, do you mean swap the reset and power switch over, its only a cheapy ****** own brand case, i dint think what case i have would play a factor in how good the hardware is so i went for a cheap and cheerful one, had good views so i dint think i could go wrong really

Yes he means just swap them and see if it works then. I doubt it's your problem. I made the mistake of buying a cheap case for a high end build, didn't last 3 months before I had to get another. I suggest saving up for something a bit better. What case is it?

Anyway, you need to get it booting first.

Fred · 23 Oct 2009 at 21:47

btw how many sticks of ram do you have? is it 4x1gb or 2x2 etc ?

I only ask as your board specs state:-

"4 x DIMM, Max. 8 GB, DDR2 1066*/800/667/533 ECC,Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory
Dual Channel memory architecture
*Due to AMD CPU limitation, DDR2 1066 is supported by AM2+ CPU for one DIMM per channel only."

Rossatron305 · 23 Oct 2009 at 22:03

i have 2x2gb kingston hyperX pc2-8500, i was told it is compatible with my mobo, do you think this is the problem, there is 2 yellow slots and 2 black slots, the manual says use yellow 1st side by side, is this right?

Fred · 23 Oct 2009 at 22:19

I don't think its your problem, but it may only support 1 stick in each channel @ 1066, however if you do use more than 1 stick it drops the speed to 800 instead.

tbh, if it were me I'd disconnect/remove the gfx/ram/hdd and just use the onboard gfx to try and get into the bios.... if that fails then its look for another psu to try... if that fails it could be mobo rma time.

Landy · 23 Oct 2009 at 23:11

Mine did this, it was a blown motherboard, sorry if you didn't wanna know that

ETNiES · 24 Oct 2009 at 01:46

alexhull24 said:
Hate to have to ask, but did you use motherboard standoffs in the case?

Thought the exact same thing! I done this years ago but got away with it!

I'd start checking everything one by one, try power supply and graphics in another pc see if it runs fine same with hard drives.