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birdiefest
11-23-2007, 01:47 AM
Hi. Thanks in advance for your help.
I'm building my first system according to Rob:
Antec Sonata III with 500W PSU
ASUS P5N E SLI
Intel QuadCore Q6600
Crucial Ballistix 4x1GB RAM
eVGA 8600GT 256MB Video
Zalman CPU fan 9500AT

Here's what happens:
Press power button in front.
LED light on mobo turns green and all fans turn on (video card fan, CPU fan and case fan).
At first the CPU fan is spinning quietly, but after 5 seconds it sounds like it is going at max rpms.
Nothing on the monitor shows up.
Can't turn off the computer using front power button - have to turn off the switch on PSU.
Can't reset computer with button on front.

Here's what I tried:
Clearing CMOS as suggested by Rob (jumpers and removing battery).
Re-connecting the connections for power switch, reset switch, HDD LED, etc.
All types of RAM configurations.

What am I doing wrong? HELP. Happy Thanksgiving by the way!
birdiefest
11-23-2007, 09:58 PM
What a newbie mistake! It turns out the screws I initially used to set the motherboard into the case were the wrong ones - I guess it was shorting out the system. I'm at the BIOS!!! YEAH! I'm on my way to building my first system!!
The Wise Monkey
11-23-2007, 10:06 PM
Heh, glad you managed to sort it out. :)
involatile
12-04-2007, 03:43 PM
What a newbie mistake! It turns out the screws I initially used to set the motherboard into the case were the wrong ones - I guess it was shorting out the system. I'm at the BIOS!!! YEAH! I'm on my way to building my first system!!

Do you need any special screws for the motherboard? I used the same screws that came with the case and it fails to boot. Do I have the same problem?
Jamie Nixx
12-04-2007, 04:56 PM
Do you need any special screws for the motherboard? I used the same screws that came with the case and it fails to boot. Do I have the same problem?

It could be a lot of things, the screws that came with your case are almost certain to be fine.

Start another thread with your Rig specs.
birdiefest
12-05-2007, 02:02 AM
The screws I initially used were intended to be used to mount the hard drive - I didn't know that at first. After resetting the CMOS, re-installing various components and much frustration, I changed the screws and now it works fine. The screws for hard drive mounting with the Antec Sonata III have a metallic washer that flares around the head and I think this was touching something on the motherboard causing it to not properly boot.

Now my problem is that I can't get my rig to overclock past 2.9 ghz or my memory faster than 1000 mhz 4-4-4-12...but that's for another forum.