Power on, fan spins...nothing (else) happens

mmusser

Solid State Member
Messages
10
Location
United States
Hi there!

I just finished building my first system, and it's not going too well. After having everything plugged in, I turn on the power, and the only thing that happens is that the power light goes on and the fan spins up. I don't expect much further noise (the drive is SSD), but there's no video output, no beeps, no power to the (PS2) keyboard. Nothing. I'm not sure what the issue is. I've tried 6 different sticks of RAM (DDR3/1066), to of which are brand new, and no dice.

Some kind of power must be getting to the board, as the fan spins up. Unfortunately, there's no power LED on the board (micro-ITX, guess they're saving space). The 20- and 4-pin power connectors are both connected, although the 4-pin is via extension cable since what came with the power supply was so short.

Any input from the community would be awesome. I suppose full specs would be useful? Here's what I've got in there:


Thanks in advance for any help!
 
Hi there!

I just finished building my first system, and it's not going too well. After having everything plugged in, I turn on the power, and the only thing that happens is that the power light goes on and the fan spins up. I don't expect much further noise (the drive is SSD), but there's no video output, no beeps, no power to the (PS2) keyboard. Nothing. I'm not sure what the issue is. I've tried 6 different sticks of RAM (DDR3/1066), to of which are brand new, and no dice.

Some kind of power must be getting to the board, as the fan spins up. Unfortunately, there's no power LED on the board (micro-ITX, guess they're saving space). The 20- and 4-pin power connectors are both connected, although the 4-pin is via extension cable since what came with the power supply was so short.

Any input from the community would be awesome. I suppose full specs would be useful? Here's what I've got in there:


Thanks in advance for any help!

Power on, fan spins, brush hair back, cool look, funky stuff...

Bolded the problem what could be generating this system malfunction
 
So the idea is that the board may be getting enough power for some things to operate (lights and fan) but not the big stuff (everything else)? My brother suggested that too a few minutes. I'll try unmounting the power supply and connecting it directly to the board.

Presumably if that fixes it, the problem is a bad extension cable? Or should I just never try using extension cables for this reason? I'm not sure if this is a common problem or not, as I've never seen a power supply where the cables didn't reach everywhere they needed to unassisted.

Anywho, I won't be able to try this until I get home this afternoon, but I'll keep the thread updated on what happens :).
 
Ye, I would replace it.. if it works without needing it then I suggest leaving it.. because I'm not sure if it's being a problem as normal with the extension..
 
The extension cables are usually fine. My tower is a full size ATX case and it uses an extension cord for the 12v aux power connector next to the CPU socket and there's no issues.

But as IAntDemo said in his first response, definitely be sure that all power connectors are connected, otherwise you get this exact problem.
 
Right, so I tried cutting the extension cable out, and there's no change. The fan still spins up, and I can get the CD tray to eject; just nothing output-wise.

I only have one other power supply handy, and it's a 24-pin rather than a 20-pin motherboard connection. Still, I tried plugging the 4-pin from that power supply into the board. The only change was that the fan spun a lot faster and louder that it does with the 300W supply I have in there.

I thought maybe the system was under-powered, so I unplugged power to the CD drive and the SSD, but that didn't change anything. I don't suspect a RAM problem. Could something be wrong with the actual processor?

EDIT: Forgive me if this is a n00bish question, but could the RAM be the problem? The RAM I have in there is described as DDR3 SDRAM, but the board specs specify DDR3 DIMM memory.
 
DDR3 DIMM is just the physical specification. DDR3 SDRAM is the type of RAM, and a little redundant. In this case, they are the same thing, and don't mean anything that would point to a failure.

Since this issue has occurred pretty much out of the box, you have a couple of choices here:

1) You fried something either mishandling parts when assembling the system, or
2) Something arrived DOA, in this case, the motherboard is suspect.

I say the motherboard is suspect because even if you connect a keyboard to a board that won't boot, it'll usually still have lights on it (Caps lock or Num lock, and will flash at least once during startup as it starts the POST check)

RMA the board and try again, excercising ESD (Electrostatic Discharge) safety protocols.

Alternatively, you can try building the system outside of the case to make sure that you're not shorting out on the case somewhere.
 
Yeah, I'm thinking the board's fried. Actually, it's the only component of this system that's *not* right out of the box. My brother gave me the barebone (sans processor) a few months back. The drive, RAM, CPU and even power supply are all new. As far as I can tell with a voltmeter, power is being distributed to the board at both the 20-pin and 4-pin connectors, and all components that I can test appear to be receiving power; including the CPU, which runs hot without its heatsink when the power's turned on.

Will be ordering another mini-ITX board and replacing this one. Thanks so much for your guys' input!
 
Yeah, I'm thinking the board's fried. Actually, it's the only component of this system that's *not* right out of the box. My brother gave me the barebone (sans processor) a few months back. The drive, RAM, CPU and even power supply are all new. As far as I can tell with a voltmeter, power is being distributed to the board at both the 20-pin and 4-pin connectors, and all components that I can test appear to be receiving power; including the CPU, which runs hot without its heatsink when the power's turned on.

Will be ordering another mini-ITX board and replacing this one. Thanks so much for your guys' input!

you're not using a heatsink?

then that would be the problem...
 
Haha...no, I'm definitely using a heatsink. There was one point, however, where I'd taken the CPU out to see if re-seating it would help, and I ran one test before re-installing the heatsink.
 
Back
Top Bottom