Cr0nJ0b
Golden Member
I just went over this on Friday with a new Mobo in my son's system. I was convinced that there was a ghost in the machine. These things drive me crazy because I hate when electronics do not work in a predictable, consistent manner.
Here is what I would suggest.
(Ground yourself)
1) Take the mobo out of the system. I usually put in on the box or the foam pad that comes in the box. Don't use the plastic (metallic) bag.
2) Plug in, just the power lines (don't forget the 4 pin)
3) if your system (Mobo) has built-in graphics I would suggest leaving the graphics card out.
4) don't plug in the memory yet...
5) Plug in the power switch connector and the reset switch connector.
6) if you have a little piezo speaker to hook up to the speaker connector that would be helpful. I have a couple of them and they really help to give you feedback on boot.
7) Short the CMOS Clear pins -- Check the manual, but usually you can short the BIOS pins with no power in the system. I made this mistake and fried my BIOS. Some ask for power to be on when shorting, but most say to have the power disconnected completely.
8) plug in the monitor and power supply
9) turn on
At this point you should have nothing else hooked up to the system other than the power and monitor and switch connectors (and maybe speaker).
you should get several short beeps or LED flashes to indicate you don't have memory in the system. Fans should start on PSU.
Now add the memory (I usually do 1 stick on slot 0, but you can do 2, just make sure that that you follow the Mobo instructions to put them in the right slots.
Boot up again.
Now you should boot to BIOS. GO TO BIOS BOOT BELOW
If you don't boot to BIOS at this point you have something wrong with PSU, Mobo or Memory. Try different Memory placement and number of sticks to see if you can get a POST and BIOS screen. If you aren't getting anything from the PSU (no fan) then unplug it completely and test the PSU on its own (short the power-on lines) and see if you can get the fan running.
If the PSU runs and you've tried all of the memory slots and you still can't boot, then I would say it's the motherboard. Return it.
BIOS BOOT --
If you got here, then shutdown the system again and attach ONLY the keyboard and mouse.
Boot again.
You should be able to get in to the BIOS and see move around, see the health of the system etc. Check the heat just to make sure you seated the CPU properly. Make sure the date and time are correct. Take note of the BIOS version.
If you got this far, you should be safe to put the whole thing back into the case. Line up the pins, put all the stand-offs in and make sure it's pretty tight (not overly tight).
Plug in everything you had plugged in when you got to the last boot. So you should have memory, Power, PSU switches, Mouse, Keyboard.
Boot up again. You should get right back to the bios...if not, you either didn't plug things in the right places in the same way, or you have a shorting issue with the motherboard and case.
If you get it to boot, to bios, then turn it off and go take a break. Come back to it in 15 minutes.
Add in, just the graphics card and try to boot. If it doesn't boot, take it out and try to boot again without it. If you can't get it to boot with the graphics card in place, you probably have a compatibility issue with the Motherboard, and/or bios and the GPU. Update your bios and try again.
Once you have the GPU in place and booting to bios, I would add back everything else (checking by booting to bios along the way). In the end, you should have everything back together and working fine.
Set your boot drive in the bios and boot to OS.
Once you have booted to the OS try sleeping it, rebooting a few times, shutdown, startup...etc. Make sure it's stable in the boot process.
Pat yourself on your back and go have a beer. You deserve it.
Here is what I would suggest.
(Ground yourself)
1) Take the mobo out of the system. I usually put in on the box or the foam pad that comes in the box. Don't use the plastic (metallic) bag.
2) Plug in, just the power lines (don't forget the 4 pin)
3) if your system (Mobo) has built-in graphics I would suggest leaving the graphics card out.
4) don't plug in the memory yet...
5) Plug in the power switch connector and the reset switch connector.
6) if you have a little piezo speaker to hook up to the speaker connector that would be helpful. I have a couple of them and they really help to give you feedback on boot.
7) Short the CMOS Clear pins -- Check the manual, but usually you can short the BIOS pins with no power in the system. I made this mistake and fried my BIOS. Some ask for power to be on when shorting, but most say to have the power disconnected completely.
8) plug in the monitor and power supply
9) turn on
At this point you should have nothing else hooked up to the system other than the power and monitor and switch connectors (and maybe speaker).
you should get several short beeps or LED flashes to indicate you don't have memory in the system. Fans should start on PSU.
Now add the memory (I usually do 1 stick on slot 0, but you can do 2, just make sure that that you follow the Mobo instructions to put them in the right slots.
Boot up again.
Now you should boot to BIOS. GO TO BIOS BOOT BELOW
If you don't boot to BIOS at this point you have something wrong with PSU, Mobo or Memory. Try different Memory placement and number of sticks to see if you can get a POST and BIOS screen. If you aren't getting anything from the PSU (no fan) then unplug it completely and test the PSU on its own (short the power-on lines) and see if you can get the fan running.
If the PSU runs and you've tried all of the memory slots and you still can't boot, then I would say it's the motherboard. Return it.
BIOS BOOT --
If you got here, then shutdown the system again and attach ONLY the keyboard and mouse.
Boot again.
You should be able to get in to the BIOS and see move around, see the health of the system etc. Check the heat just to make sure you seated the CPU properly. Make sure the date and time are correct. Take note of the BIOS version.
If you got this far, you should be safe to put the whole thing back into the case. Line up the pins, put all the stand-offs in and make sure it's pretty tight (not overly tight).
Plug in everything you had plugged in when you got to the last boot. So you should have memory, Power, PSU switches, Mouse, Keyboard.
Boot up again. You should get right back to the bios...if not, you either didn't plug things in the right places in the same way, or you have a shorting issue with the motherboard and case.
If you get it to boot, to bios, then turn it off and go take a break. Come back to it in 15 minutes.
Add in, just the graphics card and try to boot. If it doesn't boot, take it out and try to boot again without it. If you can't get it to boot with the graphics card in place, you probably have a compatibility issue with the Motherboard, and/or bios and the GPU. Update your bios and try again.
Once you have the GPU in place and booting to bios, I would add back everything else (checking by booting to bios along the way). In the end, you should have everything back together and working fine.
Set your boot drive in the bios and boot to OS.
Once you have booted to the OS try sleeping it, rebooting a few times, shutdown, startup...etc. Make sure it's stable in the boot process.
Pat yourself on your back and go have a beer. You deserve it.