Time for an upgrade, or do i start fresh? HELP!

Should i upgrade or re-build from scratch?

  • Upgrade with new parts

    Votes: 2 33.3%

  • Scrap it and build fresh

    Votes: 4 66.7%
  • Total voters
    6
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LoGiKaL

New Member
Alright I have received my parts and proceeded to put everything together. I have it all assembled but it won't turn on. No fans or LEDs except single green led on my video card. Checked all power connections and can't seem to find an issue. Front fan twitched slightly when trying to turn it on the first time. Any suggestions?
 
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LoGiKaL

New Member
spirit said:
It's not unusual for it to not work the first time after you've built it!

My guess would be that you've forgotten to put the brass standoffs between the motherboard and the case given that the fans twitch a little, but please read my guide and try the steps: http://www.computerforum.com/209946-tech-guide-diagnosing-pc-will-not-post-start.html
Click to expand...

Ok great I'll start going through the guide thanks spirit! Are the standoffs necessarily brass? There was 4 silver standoffs that were ready in my case and I don't see any brass ones included with my board. This is what I have my motherboard fastened to.
 
spirit

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
Usually the standoffs come with the case. Are those 4 silver ones in the right places? (ie, where there are holes in the board for standoffs)
 
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LoGiKaL

New Member
I do not see any LEDs on the board lighting up, or any At all. Thee is an LED lit up on my gfx card though. I've double checked the ram and case and power cords appear to be pin the right places. tried to remove gfx card and still wouldn't boot. Checking the standoffs, the board has holes for 16 and I only had four holding it, as was in the case when I started. Should I add standoffs to all the corresponding holes?
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
The motherboard only requires 7 standoffs unless the case has raised spots where the standoffs goes, in that case you don't use the standoffs.
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Try resetting the cmos? Also try building it outside of the case and see if it starts up. Double check all your connections. Make sure ram is fully seated into the slot.
 
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LoGiKaL

New Member
Ok I've double checked the connections, removed and replaced the CMOS battery and tried to boot it outside of the case all without any positive results:( any other suggestions? One of the sata connections the plastic piece has came off leaving just the pins exposed could this be a possible problem?
 
spirit

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
Could be. It sounds like you got unlucky and got a bad motherboard to me. If you have a motherboard speaker you can test it by removing all of your RAM and trying to power it up - it should beep for having no RAM installed. Are there any LEDs on the boards that light up at all?
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Yeah, sounds like a bad motherboard. Are you saying the sata connector on the motherboard or the sata cable? If its the connector on the motherboard are any of the metal pins touching each other?
 
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LoGiKaL

New Member
So I took everything out and reinstalled again and boom! Installing windows currently, I do have another question, can I also add my old ram into my remaining 2 slots?
 
spirit

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
Yeah but you're best off not running mismatched RAM.

Probably not really worth it for another 2GB.
 
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LoGiKaL

New Member
It would be 2x2gb so 4 gb total, what do you think? What are the downsides of filling my open slots with these 2gb ram sticks, i just figured more ram is better.

Running the software that was included with my SSD its come to my attention that AHCI is disabled on my motherboard. I tried to change my bios but then discovered that this must be done before installing OS? Is there any way around this, or do I need to uninstall windows to enable AHCI? Is it even worth it for me to do this?

One other issue ive come across, is I'm unable to access a folder on my old HD that contains files i'd like to keep before formatting the drive for storage. it gives me the message "You currently dont have permission to access this folder, press continue to permanently get access to this folder" When i click continue it appears to try to load the folder, but then won't open, a little frustrating. Anyone know what the problem could be here?

Again spirit, you're a life saver man, always appreciate the input!
 
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johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
You can easily enable AHCI after installing. Follow this procedure, I've done it many times.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/61869-ahci-enable-windows-7-vista.html

You have to take ownership of the files/folders. Run this file and it will give you the right click menu of taking ownership.

http://cdn3.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/TakeOwnership.zip

Unzip it and run it, follow the prompts, no reboot necessary.

Then all you do is right click on the file or folder you need access to and click take ownership and it will start processing.
 
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