AskMeAboutRNA
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- 3
Hi all....
First, a little prelude to the main problem.
A couple of weeks ago, I came back from vacation, plugged in my computer (I normally unplug everything before leaving) and turn it on to discover it would not boot: all fans would turn on, my two optical drive LEDs would flicker on briefly, but the system would not get to POST. I tried the usual troubleshooting: disconnecting everything one-by-one until it was just the mobo with power connections and the CPU (even took the RAM out), still no luck -- not even system beeps. I don't have a voltmeter, nor am I power-savvy, so I concluded my motherboard was dead and happily went shopping for a bunch of new stuff. Since my hardware was so old, most of it had to be replaced with the mobo, to bring it up to modern-day specs. Now the config is:
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ 2.60GHz dual-core (new)
CPU heatsink/fan: Noctua NH-C12P CPU cooler (new)
motherboard: Asus M2N-SLI (new)
RAM: 2 x 1024MB OCZ Platinum Revision-2 PC6400 DDR2 800MHz dual channel (new)
video card: EVGA Geforce 6200 256MB DDR2 PCI video card (only bought it because mobo doesn't have on-board video, dang) (new)
PSU: 350W Antec one that came with the case, I'm pretty sure this is it: Antec.com - SP 350 Specsheet
hard drive: 160Gb SATA 3.0Gb/s Samsung SpinPoint
other peripherals: Promise 2-port SATA 3.0Gb/s RAID controller card
case: Antec SLK3700-BQE
case fan: some 120mm Antec fan that came with the case
Now, the real problem...
Last night I finally assembled everything, powered the system on, looked in the BIOS -- it even booted far enough into the OS for me to conclude that at least the hardware was working (Win XP however is not very tolerant of major hardware changes like this). Yay! But some weird things happened:
Then, I decided to move a HD LED connector since I had the wrong one hooked up -- my case has 3 HD LEDs and they're not labeled clearly, so I tried hooking up one of the other ones (this is purely cosmetic stuff). Also fiddled with the power LED since it wasn't on before. Didn't touch anything else. Now, when I flip the PSU switch in the back, the following strange sequence of events happens:
This is all before I even push the power button on the front! Oh yeah, and when I do push the power button: nothing happens, except that the CPU fan jerks really briefly, but does not start.
It was working a second ago, now it doesn't. I tried disconnecting the floppy drive and optical drive, but the LED still flickers when the PSU is on.
Some other relevant info:
What could be going wrong? How would you proceed troubleshooting this?
I am suspecting my PSU fried my old mobo and it's now out to get this one, too. These symptoms are really weird, it's as if the power is cycling very rapidly as opposed to being constant... I think.
Another question is whether my PSU is sufficient for the new configuration, but from reading some of the other threads, I think it should be.
Oh yeah, side note in case anyone is wondering why I have a RAID card with 1 drive plugged into it, well, it was because my old mobo didn't have SATA and the RAID card was cheaper than just a plain SATA controller due to some sort of sale... and now my HD is JBOD and I need to copy the partition off it for backup before I start messing with installing stuff for new hardware.
Cheers,
Andrew
First, a little prelude to the main problem.
A couple of weeks ago, I came back from vacation, plugged in my computer (I normally unplug everything before leaving) and turn it on to discover it would not boot: all fans would turn on, my two optical drive LEDs would flicker on briefly, but the system would not get to POST. I tried the usual troubleshooting: disconnecting everything one-by-one until it was just the mobo with power connections and the CPU (even took the RAM out), still no luck -- not even system beeps. I don't have a voltmeter, nor am I power-savvy, so I concluded my motherboard was dead and happily went shopping for a bunch of new stuff. Since my hardware was so old, most of it had to be replaced with the mobo, to bring it up to modern-day specs. Now the config is:
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ 2.60GHz dual-core (new)
CPU heatsink/fan: Noctua NH-C12P CPU cooler (new)
motherboard: Asus M2N-SLI (new)
RAM: 2 x 1024MB OCZ Platinum Revision-2 PC6400 DDR2 800MHz dual channel (new)
video card: EVGA Geforce 6200 256MB DDR2 PCI video card (only bought it because mobo doesn't have on-board video, dang) (new)
PSU: 350W Antec one that came with the case, I'm pretty sure this is it: Antec.com - SP 350 Specsheet
hard drive: 160Gb SATA 3.0Gb/s Samsung SpinPoint
other peripherals: Promise 2-port SATA 3.0Gb/s RAID controller card
case: Antec SLK3700-BQE
case fan: some 120mm Antec fan that came with the case
Now, the real problem...
Last night I finally assembled everything, powered the system on, looked in the BIOS -- it even booted far enough into the OS for me to conclude that at least the hardware was working (Win XP however is not very tolerant of major hardware changes like this). Yay! But some weird things happened:
- After powering down using the button in the front, case fan and PSU fan did not shut off, although CPU fan did. I had to flip the PSU switch in the back to turn them off.
- Power LED never lit up.
Then, I decided to move a HD LED connector since I had the wrong one hooked up -- my case has 3 HD LEDs and they're not labeled clearly, so I tried hooking up one of the other ones (this is purely cosmetic stuff). Also fiddled with the power LED since it wasn't on before. Didn't touch anything else. Now, when I flip the PSU switch in the back, the following strange sequence of events happens:
- Case and PSU fan come on right away (this ain't right since you need to push the power button for this; but recall they didn't shut off when powering down even when the system was "working").
- The HD LED starts to flicker really, really fast.
- After a few seconds, my floppy drive starts clicking very rapidly and loudly.
This is all before I even push the power button on the front! Oh yeah, and when I do push the power button: nothing happens, except that the CPU fan jerks really briefly, but does not start.
It was working a second ago, now it doesn't. I tried disconnecting the floppy drive and optical drive, but the LED still flickers when the PSU is on.
Some other relevant info:
- The power supply fan is controlled by one of those 3-pin connectors going to the motherboard. The case fan connects directly to the power supply by splicing into one of the 4-pin connectors, so it can't be regulated by the mobo at all (don't ask me, Antec made it that way).
- There is a LED on the mobo that turns on when you get power, so the PSU seems to be providing power.
- The power hookup from PSU to mobo is a 4-pin 12V ATX connector for the CPU power and the 20-pin connector for everything else. The motherboard takes a 24-pin connector. After doing some research, I concluded that you could put the 20-pin connector into the 24-pin slot, as long as you align it correctly, since the extra 4 pins are for PCIe, and I don't have any PCIe cards, so I figured I would just do this until I could buy a "proper" PSU.
What could be going wrong? How would you proceed troubleshooting this?
I am suspecting my PSU fried my old mobo and it's now out to get this one, too. These symptoms are really weird, it's as if the power is cycling very rapidly as opposed to being constant... I think.
Another question is whether my PSU is sufficient for the new configuration, but from reading some of the other threads, I think it should be.
Oh yeah, side note in case anyone is wondering why I have a RAID card with 1 drive plugged into it, well, it was because my old mobo didn't have SATA and the RAID card was cheaper than just a plain SATA controller due to some sort of sale... and now my HD is JBOD and I need to copy the partition off it for backup before I start messing with installing stuff for new hardware.
Cheers,
Andrew