New PC - Lights on, no fans

[casey]

Hi
I have just assembled a new PC and have run into difficulty. When I switch on the power supply the LED on the motherboard lights up and the power LED at the front of the case lights up but when I press the power button nothing happens. I am unsure where to start troubleshooting so any help would be appreciated.
The following are the main components:

ASUS P4C800-e Deluxe motherboard
Pentium M 2.0 Ghz processor with ASUS CT-479 adaptor.
Seasonic S12 430W Silent ATX 2.0 Power Supply.
Antec P180 Tower Case.

I will forego mentioning all the other components for now as I really just need to get the fans spinning at this stage and attempt to get the OS on.
Is it possible that the problem might be caused by a faulty connection between the case power-on switch and the motherboard?
Thanks
casey

 

[HAVOC]

Motherboard and front LED lights are on. But, fans won't run and PC won't POST. There are two things to check here.

1.) Take a look at the CPU. These symptoms will happen if your CPU isn't properly seated in the MOBO socket. Take off the HS&F and take out the CPU. Reseat it very carefully... You must open the ZIF lever and have it fully open, then insert CPU properly in to socket, all pins should fall into place. Then Secure the ZIF lever and make sure it's tight. Reapply thermal Paste and then the HS&F.

Try to reboot.... You'll know if that was the problem....

2.) If part (1) isn't the problem then check the CMOS jumper on the MOBO. It might be set to clear by default to save the CMOS battery. Also some MOBO's will have a piece of plastic underneath the CMOS battery to stop a connection, also to save the life of the battery.

Check those things and post back..

 

[benzimm86]

make sure your motherboard is not being grounded by the case. If it is touching any where other than the designated screew holes it could be grounding and will not power on.

 

[casey]

OK,
I have just checked the CPU and heat sink/fan again and everything seems to be in order. I was worried that the heat sink might be applying too much pressure to the surface of the CPU but I do not think there is any other way to attach it (The ASUS CT-479 adaptor slots into the motherboard, the Pentium M sits into the adaptor and the heat-sink/fan unit goes on top of that.) This has not made any difference. No mention is made in the motherboard manual (ASUS p4c800-e deluxe) about the CMOS jumpers or the battery having a piece of plastic underneath - is it safe to just remove the battery to check anyway?
RE: the motherboard being grounded by the case I will check this later (away from the machine again now). When I secured the board to the case I used 9 screws but there are still 2 holes on the mobo. Should I use every single hole or does it matter?
At this stage I should mention that I have also tried connecting the wires from the case in a few different patterns but they are now back to the way specified in the manual. Is it possible the problem lies with the switch on the front of the case? I have also noticed that the CPU fan makes an attempt to start when I press the power button. Just the smallest movement but doesn't get going. None of the case fans do anything though.
casey

 

[shenlingstyle]

You don't need to have all screws secured, but just make sure there is insulation between your mobo and the metal. As for CMOS, it's ok to unplug the battery (just becareful and don't break the delicate parts that hold it there). Also while you're at it, reset the CMOS jumper for 15 seconds or so and put it back. See if that works. It's interesting that some of your fans attempt to spin but others don't.

 

[ShoobieRat]

Re-seat all your cards, CPU and RAM. Make sure you have any secondary power connectors (like the CPU direct power molex) connected (or not connected, if your chips don't need it).

If it still isn't kicking, contact the mobo manuf. and see about getting a replacement. Most mobo's these days have non-conductive mounting holes to prevent shorts. If you're really worried about it, you can go buy some cheap thin plastic washers from HomeDepot or whatever and put them between the mounting plate and the board. Chances are, either something's not seated right, your don't have a jumper set correctly, or the board's DOA.

 

[BASSMASTER]

If all of the above fails, take out all your hardware (NIC's, CD/DVD drives, etc.) Just leave your hard drive (make sure it's jumpered correctly) ram, cpu and video card if you have one.

 

[Elbatrop1]

One thing to mention is that originally, the adapter only worked on i865 chipsets (P4PXXX). I am unsure if they made a revision to the mobo itself, or if it is a BIOS update to make the P4C800-E work.

Either way, no matter the mobo, you need to do a BIOS update to get the adapter to work.

 

[obedyah]

Hey

Does the power supply starts up? If not it can be that or your motherboard

 

[casey]

Thanks everyone,

Here's the state of play at present. I disconnected everything and started again. Got the CPU fan spinning and worked from there. From what I can make out one of the three case fans is faulty. Once I connect it nothing will start up. At this stage 2 case fans, the CPU, 2 hard drives , a DVD writer, a video card and 2 sticks of RAM are plugged in. I am still having difficulty but hopefully the problems are more obvious.
1. The floppy drive light stays on once the machine is powered on (no disk in drive, tried with two separate drives).
2. I'm not sure whether I should expect to see anything on the monitor yet. It's an ATI Radeon 7000 64MB DDR TV-Out/Dual CRT (AGP). I'm testing at present with a flatscreen monitor and have tried it in both input ports but nothing showing. Should I be using a CRT monitor?
3. I have downloaded my BIOS updates but have no idea how to set about updating until I get the display up and running.

I realise that this topic now probably belongs in another forum and I will be happy to change it over if anyone cares to suggest a location.
Thanks again for the help so far.
casey