new build wont boot.... please help!

[maverickr621]

Hi there, im new to the building lark and my missus is going spare cos it wont work and im\getting the 'i told you so'

ok, its a k8n neo with amd 64 3000. with a radeon 9800pro. it has a 20gb hdd with win 2000 on it. its connected to ide1 and a cd/dvd rom and dvdrw connected to ide2. the psu is 400w with 12a on the 12v lead. er what else do you need to know? oh 1bd corsair value ram (2 x 513).

im having probs with the front cables for starters as the colours don match the ones on the board so im not 100% they are fitted correctly.

i turn it on, it powers (fans spin etc) then stops and the hdd light just flashes.

hope you can help.

thanx

tony

[Skittles]

Do you have the motherboard manual?  

Front cables? Are you talking about the HDD LED, Reset, power button etc?

Have you gone into the CMOS/BIOS and configured the IDE boot sequence?

Do you hear a beep sequence at startup? Is there a bank of LEDs on the motherboard? These should help tell you what's wrong.

Joe

[Gixer]

Do the fans stop spinning?

So it turns on and all the fans spin then the HDD light comes on and then it just freezes right?

What is one the HDD right now?  If its blank then you need to alter your BIOS to boot off of CD then put your Windows XP CD in and partition/format the drive.  If you got the wires wrong at the front its likely it wouldnt power up.  You cant go to wrong with them as they usually have what they do written on each pin and you just match it up to what the mobo book says.

[maverickr62]

thanx for the comments so far.

this is what happened..... i press the power on, the fans spin and the drives light up, then they stop and the power led flashes. i dont even get into the start page to set the bios up.

there is no beep on start up.

as for the front cable set up the prob i have is that the cables are labled but no + or - they are coloured but the colours on the cables do not match the colours on the mobo.

should some do. i.e there is a green mark on one pin and a green and white on another which matches a green and plain white cable on the front panel.

[Ivan]

- speaker should work when connected the wrong way around...
- LEDs are mounted the right way around as they light up...
- Power and reset switches are impulse contacts, so that won't matter either...

Things you should check:
- Master/Slave settings of the drives. HD should be master, and in your configuration on a non-shared IDE channel (use IDE1, NOT the RAID controller as Windows won't startup whitout messing with the setup disks)
On IDE2: DVD Rewriter as master, CD/DVD ROM as slave (drive letters can be changed afterwards anyway)
- CPU fan connector, if it has 3 pins you should use a 3-wire connector or it won't boot.
-  Does the thing have a 'speech diagnostics' option? set it to english and plug headphones in or set it to run on the chassis speaker.

[maverickr62]

thanx for the replies so far - keep em coming.... will be trying and checking tommorow

thanx again

[congo]

The following will help isolate the problem.

Start with a basic POST test with only CPU, RAM, power switch (see below) and POWER connected to the mainboard.

Power and Front Panel connectors:
Also, only have the power, reset, and speaker wires connected to the panel connectors, you need to get these right .... the manual will show what pin is positive and what is negative. The coloured wire is positive, the white is negeative usually. Make sure the speaker wires are connected at the case speaker and not pulled loose!

Attempt POST: (Turn it on)
The CPU fan should be spinning and the speaker should start beeping a POST code. If this fails, it's a Power, RAM, Mainboard or CPU problem.

After a successful POST:
Add Monitor and Keyboard, see if it still POSTs.... At this point, you should see a screen and have access to BIOS. A healthy POST should beep once with most BIOS's.

Next add Mouse, Floppy, Hard and CDROM drives and check for POST.

Next add Addon Cards/Devices as required.... check for POST. (Or install Windows first, then add peripherals)

If you isolate the problem to one of these stages and still need help, please gives details of how far you got etc.

[maverickr621]

thanx congo, here's the current situation. every drive unpluged and only power switch and reset button connected. turn on from the back and the fans start aznd it bleeps about every second and the LED d-bracket is hanging on 'initialising keyboard' i turn off and plug keyboard in and they only display the faintest of light, turn off again and plug in monitor and it wont turn on. i think the psu is a no go, its a 400w but inly 17a on the 12v rail. i have been told today thay i should have at least 20amps. i have orderd a new 450w 25amp psu from overclockers. so what do you think??

also, no matter what way round i have the power switch cable i cant turn it off/on from the power switch........

cor this is a headache.

thanx so far Congo be good to hear futher comments.

thanx

[Ivan]

power switch only works when the mobo is in 'running' mode. it won't work on 'pre-start' m(i.e. when the processor hasn't started) mode.

[congo]

I'd be very surprised if it was the PSU, though another member here proved me wromg about a similar occurence recently.

It sounds like a RAM beep from here. Check the mainboard manual for the correct RAM installation procedure and jumper settings, if any.

Try one Ram stick at a time in each slot until you rule out bad RAM, or bad slots on the mainboard. Some mainboards have a priority RAM slot or slot sequence.

My mainboard has a bad RAM slot, sometimes I have had to fit the RAM several times before it would "take". My problem is mechanical, yours could be that or dirt etc.

I call this problem a RAM BEEP and it's not a sound I like to hear.....  :P

[maverickr621]

c,

i have swoped ram around and no joy. i notice a chap has the same probs (on the msi site) so will see if he has any joy.

last time i build a pc!!

any other boards good with a athlon 64 3000. might just send this one back.

Tony

[Skittles]

Well, my last guess is maybe you fried something with static?

[4_Series_Scania]

I hope when that cpu fan's not spinning, the motherboard & cpu are not getting power, if so, I don't rate the survival chances of that processor!!!

I have a 3.2ghz p4 Prescott cpu sitting on my desk as testament to the last time I forgot to connect a cpu fan power lead! - Its a very small expensive piece of scrap after approx 15 seconds of power with no fan.....

[Skittles]

...I'm being economical with the truth (!) to get this achieved!!!!

Hmm, I like that!

[congo]

[quote]I have a 3.2ghz p4 Prescott cpu sitting on my desk as testament to the last time I forgot to connect a cpu fan power lead! - Its a very small expensive piece of scrap after approx 15 seconds of power with no fan.....