My New Machine Ain't Workin' So Good! (Or At All)

WetDaddy

Morning everybody,

I just got hold of a PC Kit from Komplett yesterday (http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=301143&s=sc) brought it home and put it all together.

Once I had all the necessary parts in to boot it (i.e. everything except the DVD drive and the FDD), I decided to give it a whirl! Success! It booted, I could get into the BIOS and everything!

So, next I hooked up the FDD and the DVD drive (this part I was particularly comfortable with, having removed and installed drives lots of times before). I tried to power it on, and now NOTHING HAPPENS!

This makes me sad.

I tried different kettle plugs, different wall sockets and everything. Nothing. All I can assume is that I've blown a fuse in the PSU or something, but I really didn't change much between when it was working and when it wasn't.

Somebody please help!

-Seán

P.S. Another thing that concerned me were the wires for connecting the power switch, power LED, HDD led, speaker etc. to the case: It's difficult if not impossible to tell which way around they go when connecting to the mobo (i.e. which is pin 1, etc). Or does that actually matter? They're not like, say, IDE cables which will only physically fit into the socket one way...

Gilgamesh

hmmm, does the machine work, when you remove the DVD and FDD?
any funky smells coming from the PC?
what are your PCs specs?
and how strong is the power supply?
would need this info to troubleshoot this issue

The Muppet

Are you sure you have the IDE cables the right way around on your Drives and Board? Also make sure the drives are jumpered properly.

seamus

deathfunk wrote:

P.S. Another thing that concerned me were the wires for connecting the power switch, power LED, HDD led, speaker etc. to the case: It's difficult if not impossible to tell which way around they go when connecting to the mobo (i.e. which is pin 1, etc). Or does that actually matter? They're not like, say, IDE cables which will only physically fit into the socket one way...

It matters alright for a couple of those cables. There are postive and negative terminals. I assume you read the manual before hooking up the motherboard?

Gilgamesh

The Muppet wrote:

Are you sure you have the IDE cables the right way around on your Drives and Board? Also make sure the drives are jumpered properly.

IF the IDE cables were in the wrong way, the machine would still boot up, but from what I understand, it isn't doing anything.

plus must of the IDE cables can't be plugged in the wrong way anymore.

try removing all power cables except for the ones on the mainboard and try to power it up, that would narrow the thing down to the reset sw plug been in the wrong way around on the Mobo, the mainboard been buggered or the PSU been to weak or broken

savemejebus

Gilgamesh wrote:

IF the IDE cables were in the wrong way, the machine would still boot up, but from what I understand, it isn't doing anything.

not necessarily, i was swapping a hdd on an old pentium 2 the other day and I stupidly put an ide cable into the mobo the wrong way round, it wouldn't post at all, no power went to the cd drives or anything. spent 20 minutes cursing the machine before i got a torch and was able to look close enough to see that it was in the wrong way round

BloodBath

It could be the ide cable ot it could be this;

Q-Tec Midi tower ATX 6024MD, Black Pro Line, w/350W AMD/P4

I don't know how komplett can bundle this with an otherwise good kit. Both the case and psu are dodgey but especially the psu. A 350w q-tec just doesn't cut it for a rig like that. Sure a 350w antec or similar would be fine but q-tec are notorius for not meeting their stated output and the rails are normally crap.


BloodBath

Gilgamesh

not a big fan of Q-Tec myself, only read bad things about them in tests, but I guess that is why they get bundled, cheap and work to a certain extent.
BTW, what graphicscard do you have? if you have something like a Radeon 9700 Pro or higher, then it is pretty definetly the PSU causing havoc.

Inspector Gadget

Q-Tec PSUs are sh1t. I have one that I have to get rid of (a 450W dual-fan model), and every so often the machine refuses to start - I have to unplug the power supply for 10-15 seconds, plug it back in and (most of the time) it starts up.

Maybe you should try this?
Gadget

Gilgamesh

personally I always buy either Enermax or Vantec, are the best pieces of PSUs I know

ionapaul

Q-Tec are pure evil. Bought a 400w GOLD (yeah right gold my a**e) dual fan Q-Tec earlier this year during my first build and had to get rid of it ASAP as it just couldn't power my AMD 64 system. Random and incessant shutdowns. Argh.

Hope you solve your problem - posters on this board are extremely helpful and knowledgable!

BloodBath

Tagan, thermaltake and fortron are good as well.


BloodBath

savemejebus

on a budget note i've read some good reviews of Hiper products. They are recommended by coolermaster and supposedly are the equivalent of enermax. Decided to risk one a few weeks ago and have no probs so far

WetDaddy

Thanks for all the replies, fellas.

I did change the IDE port of the HDD (it was on as secondary master and I changed it back to primary master and it didn't boot, must try putting this back).

I did read the the mobo manual before connecting the reset switches, etc., but it doesn't tell you anything about which terminals are which. Moreover, the case doesn't COME with a manual, so I can't tell which terminals are which on it!

I'll try the suggestion about unhooking everything except the mobo power, see if that works.

It DID originally work without the DVD and FDD, but when I put them in, it stopped. And when I took them out again, it remain... ummm... "not working"... (Don't know why I'm smiling, I want this damn PC to run!)

The only non-Komplett-PC-Kit (i.e. "new" part) I put in was 1GB of RAM. Any chance that could be causing / have caused the problem?

I'm really starting to begin to think the PSU is abysmal and has maybe died on me. It's supposed to be 350W - If that is the problem, it BETTER not have screwed up the rest of the components. Surely that'd be a matter for the Ombudsman, no? Goods of merchantable quality and all that?

Yep, it's a Radeon 9800 Pro in there, complete with the pass-through power cable.

Giblet

ionapaul wrote:

Q-Tec are pure evil. Bought a 400w GOLD (yeah right gold my a**e) dual fan Q-Tec earlier this year during my first build and had to get rid of it ASAP as it just couldn't power my AMD 64 system. Random and incessant shutdowns. Argh.

Hope you solve your problem - posters on this board are extremely helpful and knowledgable!

Gold Q-Tecs are rated 14 amps, the one with the case is rated 22a, so that one should be fine for most basic systems.

If you don't know how to work out real power, don't be complaining about "crap" PSU's. You can't just lie when you say you get this and that amount of voltage. With less current you can't handle multiple loads. Wattage is only a guideline, not the full story.

WetDaddy

I was thinking the same, Giblet. Well, I was thinking that I'd be very surprised if Komplett supplied a PSU that was only *just* capable of powering the rig.

Especially considering the mobo openly supports over-clocking. It wouldn't be a case of Komplett trying to screw their customers over, because there'd be no benefit - too many returns and complaints!

BloodBath

Not to mention that most psu's are only rated to their stated output up to a certain temperture. If it goes above this temp which they often do it's output drops right down. Psu's are overlooked by too many people. They really are one of the most important things inside your pc and it's worth paying decent dollar for a good one.

-edit- Here's a good way of calculating how much power your using.

http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/

I'd say your using about 300w. Ideally you want a psu that doesn't go over 70% of it's stated output so i'd say a 420w would be plenty for you.


BloodBath

WetDaddy

I THINK I FIXED IT!

Oh joy, oh rapture! Right, the problem appears to be this (and I can't believe I thought of it):

I traced through all the things I changed between the PC working and it not working. I had reversed everything... I thought... Then it dawned on me. Maybe tightening the screws on the edge of the mobo somehow damaged it. I loosened them, and low and behold, I have power!

So, what I reckon it was was that the case was shorting the board (or vice-versa). Sounds a bit sci-fi I know, but I'd heard a friend of mine mention this years back in college.

Now to try it with all the drives again. Wish me luck!

-S

Thanks again for everyone's help

Giblet

deathfunk wrote:

I THINK I FIXED IT!

Oh joy, oh rapture! Right, the problem appears to be this (and I can't believe I thought of it):

I traced through all the things I changed between the PC working and it not working. I had reversed everything... I thought... Then it dawned on me. Maybe tightening the screws on the edge of the mobo somehow damaged it. I loosened them, and low and behold, I have power!

So, what I reckon it was was that the case was shorting the board (or vice-versa). Sounds a bit sci-fi I know, but I'd heard a friend of mine mention this years back in college.

Now to try it with all the drives again. Wish me luck!

-S

Thanks again for everyone's help

No, did you not hear them, you have to buy a better PSU even if it's not the problem :rolleyes:

WetDaddy

Now now Giblet, play nice. Some people feel the need for compensation, and PC's are cheaper than cars. Or penis extensions. Penis extensions to compensate their exisiting penises, with which they are unhappy.

I took the taboo to far, didn't I?

Ah no seriously, thanks to everyone for their suggestions. I have one last question: Does anyone know what the hell this is? It came with the case...

And whoever says "It's a 10c coin!" first wins the 10c coin itself.

Strange that the mobo was shorting off the case (which, I checked out online, does tend to happen apparently...). Surely there should be some kind of insulation supplied with the kit / case. Which makes me wonder what that ring is. It feels like graphite or something. Certainly not rubber, anyway...

Gilgamesh

Is it Magnetic,? could be for shielding the internal powercables.
probably going to be Bollocked from Giblet, for my Penis Extending Idea, but what the heck, it's weekend.
IT could also be a Flux Capacitor (hehe!)

The Muppet

Gilgamesh wrote:

IF the IDE cables were in the wrong way, the machine would still boot up, but from what I understand, it isn't doing anything.

plus must of the IDE cables can't be plugged in the wrong way anymore.

Many boards will not boot at all if the ide cables are in the wrong way and many Ide cables are not keyed on both connectors to insure they only fit the one way.


Well done deathfunk on fixing it but I would be concerned that you mainboard may be damaged or there may be something underneath it causing a short if loosening a screw solved your problem.

BloodBath

Congrats but I still maintain that q-tec psu's are crud.

Maybe there is a loose screw under the mobo that was causing it to short against he case when it was tight.


BloodBath