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I just got a new case and now i got problems

Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 12:16 am
by Rev_Night
ok, my new case came in today. It is a brand new Antec P180 and my old case is a 3 yo Compusa Gamerz case (crappy i know). The computer had been working just fine, games and all, when i turned it off to switch it into the new case. i turned it off, turned off the psu, and removed all of the cables. 2+ hours later, this new case was a BITCH to work with due to the bad instructions, i finally get everything installed. no new or different components were added, just moving all the stuff from my old case to my new case.

So when i pushed the power button to turn on my computer, it does for like 1 sec then shuts off. Its like it is a failed start. I figured it was a power issue of not enough voltage to go around (since the new case has two 120mm fans and one 80mm fan in it, compared to just one 80mm fan in my last case). I take those out, still a failed start. I take out the 6800gt, and still a failed start. Finally i say the hell with it and i taked out every single thing out of the mobo so that in end, it is just the cpu/hsf, mobo, and psu. And i STILL get the failed start. I take out the cpu so its just mobo and psu, and that makes it stay on about 3 seconds longer. When i reinstalled the cpu, it is like nothing has changed.

why woudl simply moving the parts from computer A to computer B make it not work? I was very careful with them and they were never dropped, damaged, etc..

Things that were not done that will be done after work:

1. Try to put into old case (damnit, this will take long time), and see if still not work.
2. Use computer i am typing on now (at home) and swap out parts and see which are defective.


Specs:

AMD64 3500+, 130nm, hsf
ABIT av8
gf 6800GT
2x512mg Mushkin DDR400
Thermaltake Truepower 480wt psu
audigy z2

Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 12:25 am
by LicketySplit
Check your standoffs under the board..it may be grounding out. Try putting a bit of electrical tape on each one before screwing the board down.

Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 12:36 am
by totoro
First thing I thought of as well -------^
Another good tip is to count the number of standoffs,
get that many screws set aside,
and if you have any left over you missed a hole.

Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 12:40 am
by amphibem
Plus you wont be able to boot very far without a CPU and/or GPU, nor will case fans make any difference to the current draw. Just try with a bare minumum, CPU+hsf, gfx card and RAM plugged into the motherboard and check all the power connectors.

I'd suspect Licketys got it right tho, sounds like a short.

Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 12:51 am
by Thebolt
Also make sure that if your heaksink/fan(didnt specify which) has a temp probe integrated that you have properly plugged it in, my socket A volcano 11 HSF needs to have its plugged in or else the motherboard wont detect a heat reading and will automatically shut down thinking it might be burning up. And the power supply is fine, the extra fans wont make a bit of difference.

Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 8:49 pm
by Rev_Night
ok, so i took the mobo out of the case and put it on a box on my bed. Only three things plug into it and they are the only connection to my case. There is the power switch of the case (which after double checking from the mobo manuel IS in the right place), the 4 pin power cable and the 20 pin power cable. Both cables are completly and securely in position, and none of the pins are bent. The cpu/hsf is also in just fine, and it is plugged into the board for fan power. And still, it is a failed start.


what can i do now?

Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 8:54 pm
by flip-mode
Hmm... reminds me of a incident I had with a bad power supply - fried the motherboard. That's prolly not what it is, but try another PSU just in case (if you're lucky enough to have a spare.)

Also, try removing everything from the board and then install one part at a time. First cpu and vid, then mem, blah blah blah.

Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 9:06 pm
by Rev_Night
flip-mode wrote:

Also, try removing everything from the board and then install one part at a time. First cpu and vid, then mem, blah blah blah.



that is what i did. I totally removed everything, and even took the mobo out of the case. Then i just added the psu. still would fail. i think added one stick ram and the cpu/hsf, and it still would fail

Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 7:15 am
by flip-mode
Oh, oops. Well, did you try an alternate PSU?

Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 8:38 am
by Welch
I have a way for you to fix this problem :D... I have dealt with this problem TWICE (just today made a post about it) I know how to fix it but have STILL yet to find out why the hell the thing does this....

In both instances it was when the system was unplugged from the wall for much too long... Any prolonged period of time would cause it to only give that 1 second of power to get the thing to spin the fans for a fraction of a second.

The way to fix this is to plug everything in normally, and hook it up to your power source... Then LEAVE IT plugged in for awhile before attempting to start it. In this last instance (tonight with my brothers HP) I had to let it stay on the power for 1 hour and then tried... started right up. Your results may vary. But give it a try, plug it in (DONT try to start it once you have plugged it in to "charge up"). If you want to try it after 1 hour, thats your choice... seems the longer you wait though is the better chance that its going to be ready to start for you.

Here is the post I made reffering to this problem if you wish for more details:
viewtopic.php?t=32415&highlight=

Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 9:48 am
by flip-mode
That's wacky. Sounds like he has a PSU problem also. Try the PSU man.

Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 10:41 am
by Welch
I dont doubt that it is the PSU! Its the dead first thing I would imagine it to be. The other thing is a possiblity is that its the motherboard acting werid... who knows.

But give what I mentioned a tried, its been the only thing to fix this problem for me in the past. It was re-accure if the system is unplugged for a prolonged period of time though.

I have a wacky theory, and maybe someone knowledgable can verify or disprove it so that I can move along to trying to come up with another wacky theory to have disproven :P

Im thinking that maybe the PSU is a cheap one that stores up power as a "buffer" so that the PSU doesnt have to work as hard getting power from the outlet to the PSU then to the system. When its unplugged and sitting around not plugged in for a few days the PSU has time to discharge all of that extra power. Then when you plug it in and give it a try, the thing refuses to start due to not having gotten some time to store up some extra energy in order to power everything. NOW that the werid wacky theory is off of my mind, I feel much better :) (ready to have it disproven) *Braces himself*

Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 11:05 am
by just brew it!
Welch wrote:
I have a wacky theory, and maybe someone knowledgable can verify or disprove it so that I can move along to trying to come up with another wacky theory to have disproven :P

Im thinking that maybe the PSU is a cheap one that stores up power as a "buffer" so that the PSU doesnt have to work as hard getting power from the outlet to the PSU then to the system. When its unplugged and sitting around not plugged in for a few days the PSU has time to discharge all of that extra power. Then when you plug it in and give it a try, the thing refuses to start due to not having gotten some time to store up some extra energy in order to power everything. NOW that the werid wacky theory is off of my mind, I feel much better :) (ready to have it disproven) *Braces himself*

Yes, that is a wacky theory.

PSUs do have energy storage devices (capacitors) in them, but they only store a second's worth (or thereabouts) of power. Just enough to ride out brief glitches in the line power, and smooth out rapid fluctuations in power demand from the system (e.g. when one of your hard drives seeks).

These capacitors are fully recharged within a few milliseconds, when you switch the PSU back on.

Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 11:19 am
by flip-mode
The PSU incident I referred to was a strange one. The machine would start as long as it had be turned off for 30 minutes or more, and would run fine once it was started, but would not restart or power-off-power-on. So I was fiddeling with the machine - new build, so I couldn't imagine what was going on - and hit the power button one last time and 36" of sparks flew out of the power supply and scared the color out of me ("white" dudes have color too :)) Anywho, I think that as the components of the PSU warmed up, something that was supposed to make contact seperated, and would come back into contact as things cooled down - or something related to heating up and cooling down.

Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 7:52 pm
by Welch
I knew it was a wacky idea but... Look what someone else wrote on my thread...

viewtopic.php?t=32415&highlight=

Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2005 5:37 pm
by Rev_Night
ok.

1. leaving the psu on working as a buffer did nothing

2. I just swtiched out psus. the family computer psu still made my computer do the failed start, while my psu into the family computer started it just fine. Conclusion: my psu is fine and not part of the problem. B/c the family computer is an intel, i was unable to swap out cpus and motherboard (i am amd). Those two components are the only two left in this problem bc everything else has been unplugged and uninstalled and thus removed from the systen. My bro has amd and is coming over tomorrow to help swith and diagnose

anyone else have any more ideas?

Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2005 10:24 pm
by Welch
Well I can say this for you now... Even if your CPU was fried (given that if it fried it did nothing to your mobo) and even if your ram was fried (and also didnt affect the motherboard). Your case fans and everything would still power up even with the absents of CPU, Ram, Video Card... ect! Your best bet is that your motherboard is shorting out, making contact with the case or something. Either way if the PSU wasnt the cause and you had the same result... look to the motherboard as the source of your problems. I hope your grounded yourself when you transfered the parts from one rig to the next.

Keep us posted on your finding.

Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2005 11:08 pm
by Rev_Night
ok. sweet. problem is solved. I am not sure which did it, or if it was the combination, but it is now up and running and playing games. The first thing i did was completly wipe clean the orignial thermal grease from my cpu and hsf with a cloth that i sprayed electronic-sensitive cleaner with. I got the cpu and the hsf spotless and shiny. I then looked in my mobo book about where the CMOS jumper was. i cleared it and set it back. After doing both of these things, the psu/mobo/cpu-hsf started up just fine. I then turned it off and added all of the other parts and so it was like my normal computer, and it still turned on just fine.

i would like to say thanks to all of the people that helped me on this!

Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2005 11:10 pm
by Hoodieboy711
try testing with a different power switch.. if its bouncing and sending a double switch to the mobo, it could be turning on then off.. always a thought

Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2005 11:15 pm
by Rev_Night
Hoodieboy711 wrote:
try testing with a different power switch.. if its bouncing and sending a double switch to the mobo, it could be turning on then off.. always a thought


thanks, i can see from the timestamp that our posts are minutes apart, so that probably means that my post was not posted when you hit the reply button:). As for your idea, that;s a good one i have not heard of that. but to take that out of the equation anyway, i was using a screwdriver.

Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2005 11:16 pm
by My Johnson
The first thing i did was completly wipe clean the orignial thermal grease from my cpu and hsf with a cloth that i sprayed electronic-sensitive cleaner with. I got the cpu and the hsf spotless and shiny. I then looked in my mobo book about where the CMOS jumper was. i cleared it and set it back. After doing both of these things, the psu/mobo/cpu-hsf started up just fine.


My issue recently with a 9800 pro. :) I had a very light smear across the AGP fingers.

Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2005 2:37 am
by Welch
And odd problem, with an odd solution! But a solution none the less :) Good to hear that its working fine, enjoy ;)