First Boot Problems

[DrivetheGreen66]

Ok so I have everything in except the hard drive and optical drive and i am doing the first boot. Everything is up and cpu fan is working but the monitor is not connected and I can't get anything. Then after a few minutes the CPU fan cut off. I am at a loss.

[zburns]

Your post was about 10:45pm yesterday. Any luck so far? I read your post that you do not have your monitor connected; it should be connected.

Regards fan stoping, check all cables from power supply to make sure that connections are tight. You have two cables (20 pin and 4 pin -- your book tells you) into your mobo from your PSU; check that both are firmly seated in their mating mobo connector. From cabinet front panel, you have various small connections to make (little small connector plugs); see that these are tightly plugged in. Your fan connection also plugged in tight, etc.

When I say snug, tight, firm I mean you push on the connector with a little force, not overwhelming with a lot of weight behind it, but firm -- it is a "feel thing" for want of a better term right now. Similar plugs or connectors go into their respective sockets the same distance -- your eye can see this. They -- plugs, connectors-- also fit "square" within their mating plug,connector--visible also in squareness and similarity.

Is your mobo mounted on spacers and are they the spacers supplied with the cabinet? Are the screws thru the mobo into the spacers the screws supplied; also, important -- you should not have used any washers under the screw heads?

CPU was inserted with "no problem" the first time? Fan heat sink assembled to the CPU "easy" the first time? What thermal compound did you use? --- These are important questions.

You have the CMOS procedure to go thru, then I think you can enter the BIOS if your monitor is hooked up. Look for you CPU temp ratings; if they climb high quick, that is a major problem; there is no reason for the CPU to be excited at this time.

Your mobo book should tell you what safety "cutoff" or cutouts you have for overcurrent protection of the mobo. Try to find that and tell us.

[zburns]

Is there any indication you are losing power to your mobo?

[DrivetheGreen66]

I meant that the monitor was connected but just not receiving from the motherboard. Isn't it a 24 pin connector and a 4 pin connector from the PSU to the motherboard? Is your mobo mounted on spacers and are they the spacers supplied with the cabinet? no i didn't use spacers, just the mounting post and motherboard screws. CPU was inserted with "no problem" the first time? yes easy. Fan heat sink assembled to the CPU "easy" the first time? yes easy. What thermal compound did you use? used thermal compound already on the CPU fan that came with CPU. I am pretty sure I reset the CMOS but could this possibly be the problem?

[zburns]

It is a 24 pin or a 20 pin depending on the mobo (Robs book, not me saying this). Your video card and ram are installed. Some things (leds on your mobo) in your rig light up when or soon (quickly) after you turn on power. Do these lights go out exactly when the fan stops or do they go out earlier or "flicker" at all before the fan stops or do they stay on. If the fan stops and the led or leds go out at the same time, that may indicate the mobo is no longer receiving power.

Is your RAM fully seated? I was surprised as to how hard I had to push on my RAM to seat each stick -- but that is because it is a very long PCB plug, so you should expect that. Your mobo RAM mounting sockets have "pivoting clips" at each end of the RAM. When the RAM stick is fully inserted, the clips spring back into place "locking" the RAM in position. The clips enter a "cut out" area on the apx 1 1/4" RAM side; they "snap" into place; if this is not the case on any RAM stick, it is not seated.

If there is something amiss with your PSU, then your CPU prob not working, then your video card and then the monitor not, etc.. A problem with your mobo or CPU may "act" the same.

Do you happen to have a "multimeter" so you can check some of the PSU plugs for the presence of voltage. If your PSU has a "chip" derived voltage stabilizer circuit which I assume it does, that could account for the PSU not fully functioning correctly and "shutting down" after a few minutes.

If you do not have a multimeter (I assume many comp builders do not). I am just trying to think of a way to independantly rule out the PSU, or the mobo or the CPU. I will add a Post to this reply after I do a little more research.

EDIT,few min later On your mobo, you should have a system LED on the mobo that lights up when you turn the power on with the switch on the back of the cabinet, but I think the LED should be powered by the power supply; therefore if the power supply is putting out "mobo" power, the LED indicates that also, so if this LED stays on all the time even after your fan has shut down, perhaps this is an indication that the PSU is functioning. (Note: your PSU has more than "one voltage output" so my statement is not a "blanket statement that the PSU is fully working", but a reasonable guess). I will confirm my comments in this para during today to take the word "guess" out of the equation.

Static Discharge: Did you wear a wrist strap during the entire assembly and touch the case metal (power always off when doing this) everytime you handled a circuit board or went into the case, etc.. This time of year, static is very bad; seems like everything I touch that is metal draws a small shock. Many comp builders do not understand that "static" discharge is a silent and immediate killer to circuit boards.

[DrivetheGreen66]

I am officially a dumba$$. The VGA cable ended up being the whole problem. I tried everything ( 3 different monitors) all while using the same cable and could not for the life of me figure out the problem. Finally I decided to switch the VGA cable out with one I had laying around my room and eureka the computer went straight up and everything was good. Tonight I will put the hard drive and the dvd burner in and have everything up and running I hope. Thanks for all those ideas zburns and I would have tried every one of them if I hadn't thought about the VGA cable being the problem. I can't believe I was freaking out like crazy and it was just the stupid cable

[zburns]

Glad you are working but I think you still have a problem. I do not see a connection between the monitor video cable and the CPU fan cutting out. Can you describe the cable differences? I am curious why the fan cut out!

[DrivetheGreen66]

The CPU was just not getting hot enough for the fan to continue to work as I was cutting it off too fast because it wasn't coming up into BIOS.

[DrivetheGreen66]

up and running now but my onboard LAN on my Gigabyte board isn't working for some reason.

[The Wise Monkey]

Is it enabled in the BIOS? Have you downloaded the latest drivers for it?