Home-built will not boot

P

Peaceful.Pagan

New Member
Well I finished building my PC! But there's a problem: when it's plugged in, the keyboard lights flash and then glow at half-brighness, and when I power the system on, it acts normally (everything spins up fine), but there is no display or interaction with any peripherals. I *think* the problem is that the old PSU I fitted isn't powerful enough for the system to function normally, but before I go out and buy a new one, any ideas what it could be? I also thought due to the keyboard thing it could be the CPU, IDK though. I've tried resetting the CMOS using the jumpers and by removing the CMOS battery for a half hour, I've also tried removing the memory and switching its slot, but to no avail. :confused:
 
Yep, it's a QTEC ATX-350, I pulled it from my old PC.
My specs are:
AMD Athlon IIx2 - 2.8GHz (I think)
4GB DDR3
1 SATA HDD
1 PATA HDD
1 PATA DVD-RW
ASRock N68C-S Motherboard
 
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If everything seems to be running fine but with no display. My bet would be a Motherboard issue. The exact same thing happened to me a couple of weeks back.

But your best bet would be to test your PSU in a different system.
 
Onboard.

I feared it would be a motherboard fault, though everything else seems to function okay. The PSU worked fine in my old system, but I assumed it wasn't as demanding. This PSU is only 350W (though says "ACTUAL OUTPUT: 180W" on the side which I don't quite understand), I thought it would be a power issue.
 
Did you use the brass standoffs between motherboard and case? Try setting up the motherboard outside of the case on a piece of cardboard and see if it will boot up. Your board may be grounding out on the case.
 
That just means its detecting that it doesn't have memory installed. So you have removed the motherboard from the case and tried settting it up? Double checked all the connections? 4pin cpu power connection attached?
 
Try resetting the cmos. Unplug power, remove cmos battery, press power button for 10 seconds then wait 5 minutes. Then reinsert battery, reconnect power and try booting up.
 
I tried that, both with the jumpers on the motherboard and the battery, but it still responds in the same way with no output to any peripheral but the PS/2 keyboard, which does not respond to keyboard locks (thus, it's probably not actually hitting a BIOS screen regardless of the display). I'm guessing not enough power is being applied to the CPU? I read somewhere else on a forum modern CPUs need 500w+ to work, so I figured since mine is only 350, it's not recieving enough power (though the IDE HDD and DVD drive spin up alright).
 
The only thing I can suggest is to borrow one from a friend that has at least say 450-500 watts to see what happens. If that still don't work then its a hardware issue of some kind.
 
Sounds to me like it could be your RAM. How have you tested this?? try remove one and testing and then other if that fails? Faulty RAM will incur no display, but so will a faulty PSU... if the motherboard bleeps generally i would assume the motherboard is ok, not always true but generally is..
 
I only have one stick of RAM, but I guess it could be that too, thanks. :)
I can't think of anybody else who has a PSU I could borrow, but seeing as 500W-600W PSUs are like £15* off eBay, I'll buy one and see how it goes. :P

*Don't know how long they'll last!
 
no. Don't spend 15 pounds on a PSU. Get something from OCZ, Corsair, or Antec for the low priced units. They are far better PSUs, even though they will start in the upper 20 pound range (guessing. They are like $50 USD)
 
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