Need help - problem with first build

TheWolf

Heya guys,

Having a wee problem with my first build. Specs are

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 board
OCZ Gold PC5400 DDR2 2048MB Dual Pack
In-Win X710G(S) Full Tower ATX Silver Case w/430W PSU
Western Digital Raptor 150GB SATA
Club3D Radeon X1600PRO

Basically what happens is the machine wont start when the ATX 12v cable is plugged in. With the cable out, the machine spins up, fans come on (both cpu and system) and it seems healthy enough (as healthy as it can be without the cpu running)

Put the atx 12v cable in though, and the machine starts up for a few seconds, then shuts down, stays off for a sec, then trys to start up again. Lather, rinse , repeat. Been driving me nuts :mad:

I've swapped out the power supply (tried two different PSU's to make sure), swapped the RAM and swapped the graphics card just to rule out peripherals)

I've reseated the CPU onto the board twice, and made sure the pins were all ok, with no gunk.

I've tried with the board outside the machine, to rule out it shorting on the case.

So basically, I've narrowed it down to the board or the CPU, and I have no way of knowing which is at fault. I don't have a similar board or processor to swap out (this was my first upgrade in a while, and I dont have core duo's lying around ) so I cant swap the parts out.

Am I missing anything easy that I could try? All parts came from Komplett, who while they got it out to me fast enough are meant to be kinda flakey on RMA'ing stuff. Also dont know if they'll accept both parts back.

Gut feeling is telling me the board is at fault, but I want to be sure. Any suggestions? I'm at wits end with this

Cheers in advance

J

8T8

The only thing I can think of was the first PSU plugged in one of the EPS kind with the extra 4 pin connectors for the ATX 20 pin power connector. As it is possible to accidentally plug one of those into the 4 pin 12v connector and damage the motherboard or say the PSU manuals.

TheWolf

Nah, the original PSU was only a 20 pin anyway, so it didn't come with the extra 4 pins. Cheers anyway though man. I'm hoping it is something small like that that I've just overlooked

J

gamer

take off pc case side panels, i had same problem,cpu was overheating,i just had to buy new cpu fan,pc used to knocked itself off after 3 minutes.IS grahics card fan, cpu fan spinning up, disconnect the hardrive ,does it make any difference.

TheWolf

Cheers gamer, but its not overheating. Tried it with the board out of the case altogether.

CPU fan works fine when ATX cable is out, so that not a prob (although it doesnt have time to come on before the machine resetes with the cable in - it doesnt kick in for about 8-10 seconds with the cable out though, and with the cable in the machine turns off after 5 seconds, so doubt that's it either)

Hard drive has not impact, tried it both with and without. To quote Ned Flanders "As the tree said to the lumberjack, I'm stumped"

Cheers for the input

J

mathias

Are you sure the fan is mounted properly to the CPU and is there good thermal conductivity between them , that is , is there enough heatsink compound on there.

Try disconnecting the fan from the cpu , get some arctic silver or some other heatsink compound , wipe all the old stuff off and put a new coat on there , that will rule out overheating for sure ,
note that the CPU must have a well connected fan whether its in the case or not or there will be overheating issues.

Other than that I would say its RMA time , did you order the board and the cpu as an upgrade pack or kit ? If not RMA them both anyway.
RMA to komplett is usually fine providing theres nothing unusual going on , I think you'll find that most people that have trouble with RMA's generally want something unusual , like a ship to a different address or a credit back to a different card etc.

TheWolf

Heya mathiaus,

Reseated the fan onto the CPU, it had no effect. It's deffo sitting on properly. Do have a load of thermal goo in work, will try it on monday and see what happens.

As for the order, I just ordered all the parts individually, so its not an upgrade.

Thanks for the feedback. Gonna get the ball rolling on the RMA in the meantime

Anti

ITs the ram. for motherboards like this you need to use cheap ram too boot and you have to change the timings, Simple as that.


there are multiple threads on this here, have a look back a few pages mate

TomCo

Yep, definitely the ram.

The Gskill NR series is known to work right from the start by the way, confimed by Gskill themselves.

Here's a link.
http://www.memory-configurator.com/products/description/2Gb_G_Skill_DDR2_PC2_6400_NR_Series_5_5_5_15_Dual_Channel_kit/index.html

SeanW

Yes. Memory issues have a horrid way of making it look like something else is to blame. Try different memory combinations on the board including removing one stick. Then see if things improve.

TheWolf

You know, thats not a bad idea. Took the RAM out all together, and it did beep, but didn't think to try different RAM altogether because of the symptoms. Left the machine in work, so will give it a shot on Monday. Cheers lads, you may have just made my weekend

Will let you know on Monday how it goes

J

gamer

if you leave the ram ,out you can damage mobo,put 1 stick ram in slot o,borrow memory off sum1, are you sure you are using correct memory type simm.

TomCo

This is a well known issue with this board gamer.

Xtremesystems Intel forum has multiple threads on the issue.

TheWolf

It's official - you guys are legends

Stuck in some older RAM and it booted no problem. Now just have to tweak it to get the other RAM working.

Cheers lads - really appreciate it