Newly Built PC does not start

[yelped]

Hi, this is the second PC I've built. After I assembled the computer. I pressed the power button and nothing happened. Nothing at all. I was very surprised. I double checked all the wires. I checked it a few times. All good as far as I can tell. I searched for this issue. I saw someone recommend trying to short the two pins controlling the start button with a screw driver in case the power button of the case doesn't work. I tried that. No luck. I tried changing the power cord. No luck. I tried it when the switch was set to I instead of O incase it got mixed up in the factory. No luck.

I would live to hear everyone's input. If anyone can help me out I would very much appreciate it. I built this for a friend who asked me to recommend a good computer, and I told him that I will put together a better computer for the same price. Now I don't know what to tell him... Thanks!

 

[denis280]

Welcome to the forums yelped.what are all your system spec.

 

[chusteczka]

1. Double-check all motherboard connections and wires to the motherboard.
2. Pull the front panel wires and reconnect them.
3. Ensure the 4 or 8 pin cpu power connection is fully inserted.
4. Ensure the 24 pin power connection from PSU to the motherboard is fully inserted.
5. Ensure the video card power connector from the PSU is connected.
6. Ensure memory sticks are fully inserted.
7. Ensure video card is fully inserted.

Is there an LED light on the motherboard? Does it light up? Do any of the fans spin or move, even a little?

What are the system specs as Denis asked? Motherboard, cpu, memory, video, PSU, case. Links to the items on Newegg.com would help so we can view them.

 

[yelped]

1. Double-check all motherboard connections and wires to the motherboard.
2. Pull the front panel wires and reconnect them.
3. Ensure the 4 or 8 pin cpu power connection is fully inserted.
4. Ensure the 24 pin power connection from PSU to the motherboard is fully inserted.
5. Ensure the video card power connector from the PSU is connected.
6. Ensure memory sticks are fully inserted.
7. Ensure video card is fully inserted.

Is there an LED light on the motherboard? Does it light up? Do any of the fans spin or move, even a little?

What are the system specs as Denis asked? Motherboard, cpu, memory, video, PSU, case. Links to the items on Newegg.com would help so we can view them.

Here are the specs. Intel Core I5 4440 http://m.newegg.com/Product?itemNumber=N82E16819116942
Crucial MX100 http://m.newegg.com/Product?itemNumber=N82E16820148819
Asrock H97 motherboard http://m.newegg.com/Product?itemNumber=N82E16813157512
Corsair CX430 PSU http://m.newegg.com/Product?itemNumber=N82E16817139026
Team Elite 8GB Ram http://m.newegg.com/Product?itemNumber=N82E16820313426
Cooler Master Elite 430 case http://m.newegg.com/Product?itemNumber=N82E16811119227
Western Digital 1TB HDD http://m.newegg.com/Product?itemNumber=N82E16822136941
Samsung DVD Burner http://m.newegg.com/Product?itemNumber=N82E16827151269

I don't have a discrete video card. No LEDs on the motherboard. No fans spin..

Thanks!

 

[chusteczka]

Did you double check all the power connections and front panel wires?

And it still doesn't work?
Then pull it all out and start over again. Seriously.
That is what I do. Because something was likely missed.


EDIT: None of your links worked for me but I was able to get the item number.
Motherboard: ASRock H97M Pro4 LGA 1150 Intel H97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s
Processor: Intel Core i5-4440 Haswell Quad-Core 3.1GHz (3.3GHz Turbo) LGA 1150 84W HD Graphics 4600
Memory: Team Elite Plus 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 430 - Mid Tower Computer Case with Windowed Side Panel and All-Black Interior
PSU: CORSAIR CX series CX430 430W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply
SSD Crucial MX100 CT128MX100SSD1 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal
HDD Western Digital WD AV-GP WD10EURX 1TB IntelliPower 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal
Optical: SAMSUNG DVD Burner SATA Model SH-224DB/RSBS

 

[denis280]

Sound silly but did you turn the psu switch on!and if you did what chusteczka mention then you should test the psu for power.

 

[yelped]

Sound silly but did you turn the psu switch on!and if you did what chusteczka mention then you should test the psu for power.

Ok. Pulled out all power cables and connectors. Did the ram and CPU again. No luck..

So I guess it's either the motherboard or the PSU. Correct? How do I test the PSU?

 

[chusteczka]

To test the PSU, you can directly connect a fan to one of the connections. May need a Molex to 3 or 4 pin adapter though.

You put risers (screw lifts) under the motherboard, correct? Make sure at the proper places. Otherwise you can inadvertently ground the motherboard.

Every piece is quality checked by the manufacturer for operation. If nothing is working, then there is (probably) something wrong with how it was put together.

Seriously, pull it all apart and put it back in, piece by piece. This action will cause you to think about each piece as you are pulling it out and then putting it back in. Each action will not be new to you since you have done it before, and you will be more aware of the process, which further means you will be more aware of what may have been missed. I have had to do this a few times.

Plus, we have basically covered the typical troubleshooting steps. It is up to you to do the work.


EDIT:
Newegg.com - Power Supply Tester

 

[yelped]

To test the PSU, you can directly connect a fan to one of the connections. May need a Molex to 3 or 4 pin adapter though.

You put risers (screw lifts) under the motherboard, correct? Make sure at the proper places. Otherwise you can inadvertently ground the motherboard.

Every piece is quality checked by the manufacturer for operation. If nothing is working, then there is (probably) something wrong with how it was put together.

Seriously, pull it all apart and put it back in, piece by piece. This action will cause you to think about each piece as you are pulling it out and then putting it back in. Each action will not be new to you since you have done it before, and you will be more aware of the process, which further means you will be more aware of what may have been missed. I have had to do this a few times.

Plus, we have basically covered the typical troubleshooting steps. It is up to you to do the work.

Thanks for all the help.

The PSU is connected to the case fan directly. That's how it came. With a converter/extension. So I plugged it in directly.

The bronze risers are in all the places that have screws connecting the motherboard to the case. And no where more. However, I did notice that according to the case's manual, there was additional space for three more screws/risers. And there is on the motherboard. However they do not align. So I left that corner empty. No risers and no screws. So it does not touch the case and short...

 

[postmortemIA]

can you open then case and post image of psu, mobo, case-to-mobo wiring?

 

[yelped]

can you open then case and post image of psu, mobo, case-to-mobo wiring?

Sure. Tried to get clear pics. A little hard. It's a small cramped case..

Thanks!

 

[chusteczka]

Double check the Clear CMOS jumper (27) is on the left two posts, not the right two. (Page 1 & 18)
ftp://66.226.78.21/manual/qig/H97M Pro4_multiQIG.pdf

The front panel connectors appear properly situated, having the colored wire as positive on the left and white as ground on the right. (Page 19)

The memory appears firmly seated. Meaning the white memory clips are all aligned in their proper position.

I do not see anything out of place.

 

[postmortemIA]

yeah looks good, but i can't tell from pics if power led and power switch are properly aligned to hd led and reset in the row below them.

EDIT. cheap trick to see if power is in board is to hook up the ethernet cable into port and see if you get any leds

 

[chusteczka]

The motherboard supports the processor.
Search: i5-4440
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H97M Pro4/?cat=CPU

 

[SOFTengCOMPelec]

In the second picture, it looks to me as if the motherboard has been screwed straight down onto the metal.
You said earlier that you used the risers, so maybe I'm seeing the picture wrong, because of parallax errors or something ?

Is the motherboard clearly lifted (approx 0.5 centimetres) from the metal case, in ALL places, or only in some places ?

My apologies if I am misunderstanding the photographs.

 

[lotust]

I had this happen to me. similar issue

 

[Charlie98]

I had a very similar problem with the CX430 PSU and the ASRock mobo. Does the 24-pin power connector actually plug allllll the way in (the catch actually catches? ) I even tried another PSU (CX430M) and it didn't work until I forcibly mashed the plug into the mobo. It still never went all the way in, but the system powered up (and is still running without problems today.)

When I was shopping for a mobo for that particular build, one of the other NE reviewers said the very same thing... I wrote it off as operator error (I mean, really? How hard is it to plug in a plug? Noob.... ) until I got mine and had the very same problem.

 

[td25er]

Dumb question, but is the outlet from your wall supplying power?

There is a "light" switch in my garage that turns the power outlets on and off and I didn't know it. I had a major dunce moment recently because I couldn't figure out why my outlets didn't work....

 

[yelped]

Thanks for all the suggestions. The motherboard does not touch the case anywhere as far as I can tell. The outlet has power. While the 24 pin connector doesn't click, it is pushed in the most possible. Plugging in an ethernet cable does not result in a led lighting up. .. There is an extra pin that says ground on it in between the two HDD led pins and the two reset pins and below the power switch positive pin.

It really looks like we ran the gamut of possible problems...

 

[chusteczka]

If you get a power supply tester, you can test the 8-pin cpu wire. Or you can pull the PSU, take it in to your nearest computer shop, and ask them to test it for you.

 

[deerslayer]

Maybe a silly question but worth a look anyway. The CX430 is a 20+4 pin power connector. Is the +4 part also seated all the way in to the motherboard?

 

[yelped]

Maybe a silly question but worth a look anyway. The CX430 is a 20+4 pin power connector. Is the +4 part also seated all the way in to the motherboard?

It's one piece by me. It's all the way in. I did notice something interesting now. If I switch the PSU to the I position, the green lights on the keyboard (numlock, caps lock etc.) flash for a second. It only happens again if I wait a few seconds, not if I do it again right away. What does that mean? Maybe this will be the clue, to what the source of the problem is.. Edit: the laser light on the mouse flashes as well.

Thanks everyone for all the help! It's really nice of all of you!

 

[deerslayer]

"I" is on, "O" is off.

 

[yelped]

"I" is on, "O" is off.

The led on the ethernet port does not light up... I assume this means that something is wrong with the motherboard? But the keyboard and mouse do flash.. Very odd...

 

[Ketchup]

Is the power supply set to the correct voltage?

At this point I think you need to take the case out of the picture. Do a setup of only the basic parts outside the case and see if you see power.

If you still don't get anything, sounds like a bad power supply.