Need help building a budgeted gaming system (amateur)

ShyguyXPC · December 24th, 2008, 03:54 AM

probably overlooked something some where...

make sure the PSU's switch on the back is flipped to the right voltage, not sure if that'll help, but I've read many reviews on newegg, with people buying PSU's getting them with the input voltage switched wrong, it not working then sending it back & writing a bad review on it...

its one thing of many to check.

make sure all cables are plugged in right... (especially the front power button on the case, if thats not connected right, it won't power on, but one can take a flat head screw driver & short out the two power on pins on the mobo to trigger it to start or reboot if needed, to test to make sure it fires up.)

make sure there's no motherboard standoff's in the case not where their supposed to be... its possible even one standoff on the motherboard tray, could short out the back of the board & cause it not to reboot, make sure there are only ones located at each of the motherboards mounting holes, no where else.

test the system with 1 stick of RAM, then the other, its also possible one stick could be bad, or both could be, also resulting in no boot up.

the hissing sound your referring to, could in fact be the PSU, but it could also be the PSU/Mobo "filling up" with juice, normally when you disconnect a previously powered mobo from the psu, or disconnect the PSU from the wall plug, the PSU/Mobo will make a short hiss sound as the excess power cycles out of it. sometimes firing up a PSU or plugging it in, will do the same thing.

there's a lot of different sources for the problem, its just a matter of pin pointing it, just need to be patient & think it all out & more or less trial & error methods of figuring it out.

kenny536 · December 24th, 2008, 04:00 AM

Thanks for the fast reply

I do not understand your second sentence - make sure my PSU is flipped to the right voltage? I can change the voltage? I cannot find a switch like that on my PSU (I have my PSU installed upside down because the fan is facing downwards toward the case when it is rightside up)

kenny536 · December 24th, 2008, 04:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShyguyXPC

probably overlooked something some where...

make sure the PSU's switch on the back is flipped to the right voltage, not sure if that'll help, but I've read many reviews on newegg, with people buying PSU's getting them with the input voltage switched wrong, it not working then sending it back & writing a bad review on it...

its one thing of many to check.

make sure all cables are plugged in right... (especially the front power button on the case, if thats not connected right, it won't power on, but one can take a flat head screw driver & short out the two power on pins on the mobo to trigger it to start or reboot if needed, to test to make sure it fires up.)

make sure there's no motherboard standoff's in the case not where their supposed to be... its possible even one standoff on the motherboard tray, could short out the back of the board & cause it not to reboot, make sure there are only ones located at each of the motherboards mounting holes, no where else.

test the system with 1 stick of RAM, then the other, its also possible one stick could be bad, or both could be, also resulting in no boot up.

the hissing sound your referring to, could in fact be the PSU, but it could also be the PSU/Mobo "filling up" with juice, normally when you disconnect a previously powered mobo from the psu, or disconnect the PSU from the wall plug, the PSU/Mobo will make a short hiss sound as the excess power cycles out of it. sometimes firing up a PSU or plugging it in, will do the same thing.

there's a lot of different sources for the problem, its just a matter of pin pointing it, just need to be patient & think it all out & more or less trial & error methods of figuring it out.

There are no extra standoffs. I tested the system individually with each stick of RAM.

The hissing sound only occurs when I have the system plugged in, it is flipped on, and I am holding the power button on the case.

I think I'm going to go insane!! I really hope I am missing something but I just don't know what it could be..

Fizur2002 · December 24th, 2008, 10:59 AM

best advice at this point in time is to take everything back out and do it all over again, you missed something somewhere and you probably wont find it until you take it all apart again.

ShyguyXPC · December 24th, 2008, 11:16 AM

the Voltage switch I'm talking about should be a little red switch on the back, that switches from standard US Household Voltage to European standards (I forget the actual numbers, but US is 100 something, & Europe is 200 something, I want to say its 115V vs 230V, but don't quote me on that)...

its possible your PSU doesn't have this on it, not all do, I have a couple that don't & some that do. but it was just a step to check in case, just rule out.

kenny536 · December 24th, 2008, 02:13 PM

I think I may have found the problem - as I was taking everything out of my case - when I unplugged the MAIN power supply wire that goes from my PSU to my mobo (the 20+4) wire... the 4 wire was fine .. and so was 19 out of the 20 holes on the wire of my PSU - but one hole was empty ... do you think this is the reason for the lack of power??

The missing pin is #10 (+12V) ... that sounds important.

EDIT : Nvm, I wasn't looking at the pin alignment close enough and I had it backwards, the missing pin is #17 - which is GND - so that should not matter right?

kenny536 · December 24th, 2008, 04:00 PM

Help!

I made some progress.

Here is what I did.

I followed this guide exactly - PROBLEMS with a NEW BUILD? Try This!! - PCMech Forums

and it didn't work - then I decided to follow the guide exactly AND plug the power switch from my case onto the MOBO - this lit up the mobo, i heard the fans spinning and everything was great! it stayed on for about 5 seconds, shut off, and then did it all over again a few seconds later.. it was a cycle. I'm not sure what this means but I think I have made some progress - what should I do from here?

KarmaKiller · December 24th, 2008, 04:20 PM

On for 5 seconds then off normally means there is a overheating problem. Did you apply thermal paste?

kenny536 · December 24th, 2008, 04:27 PM

I bought the processor so I thought the thermal paste was already there? I'm pretty sure I saw some. I think I have some artic silver 5 from a few years ago - but are you sure that is the problem?

KarmaKiller · December 24th, 2008, 05:06 PM

Obviously, I'm not sure. I have never seen nor touched your PC, that is the only way I'd be sure.
But usually, when the PC starts up like that, then shuts down within 4-5 seconds, that means it overheating.
Are you sure the Heatsink is properly mounted and making full contact across the CPU?
And if your using the stock cooler, then it would have come with thermal paste. So that may not be it.
But like I said, normally that's a sign of overheating.
Have you tried jumping the on/off pins with a screwdriver (any metal thing really)?
Is that when it started up? When you do it again for the second time, does it take even less time to shut down?
If so, then I'd say it's a overheating problem of some kind..