PC Won't Power On

[AlexBohner]

Hi All,

I have run into a problem which I just can't figure out, hopefully
someone out there has an easy answer for me.

Several months ago I built an ABit/Sempron system, everything was
working fine until last night when I pulled a 1394 PCI card from the
last slot on the board, now it won't power on. Correction, when I
attempt to power on the fans start spinning for a fraction of a second,
then everything just shuts off. Immediately pressing the power button
again does nothing, but resetting the power on the power supply allows
me to press the front power again, but with the same results.

I have reseated everything in the box, cleared the CMOS, even tried
reinserting the 1394 card, all to no avail. Does anyone have any idea
what may be happening here? Any thoughts or suggestions to point me in
the right direction will be greatly appreciated.

Machine Specs:
ABIT NF8-v2 Motherboard
AMD Sempron 64 3400+ Palermo 2.0GHz
2x 1GB OCZ PC3200 Platinum Edition RAM (2 GB total)
Radeon 9800 SE 128MB Video Card
100GB Seagate 7200rpm PATA Hard Disk
Thermaltake TR2-430W Power Supply

Thanks,
Alex

 

[philo]

Hi All,

I have run into a problem which I just can't figure out, hopefully
someone out there has an easy answer for me.

Several months ago I built an ABit/Sempron system, everything was
working fine until last night when I pulled a 1394 PCI card from the
last slot on the board, now it won't power on. Correction, when I
attempt to power on the fans start spinning for a fraction of a second,
then everything just shuts off. Immediately pressing the power button
again does nothing, but resetting the power on the power supply allows
me to press the front power again, but with the same results.

Try resetting the bios

there is usually a jumper

 

[AlexBohner]

Try resetting the bios

there is usually a jumper

Unfortunately the same problem exists after resetting the bios. Now
I'm really lost.

 

[Joel]

Hi All,

I have run into a problem which I just can't figure out, hopefully
someone out there has an easy answer for me.

Several months ago I built an ABit/Sempron system, everything was
working fine until last night when I pulled a 1394 PCI card from the
last slot on the board, now it won't power on. Correction, when I
attempt to power on the fans start spinning for a fraction of a second,
then everything just shuts off. Immediately pressing the power button
again does nothing, but resetting the power on the power supply allows
me to press the front power again, but with the same results.

I have reseated everything in the box, cleared the CMOS, even tried
reinserting the 1394 card, all to no avail. Does anyone have any idea
what may be happening here? Any thoughts or suggestions to point me in
the right direction will be greatly appreciated.

Machine Specs:
ABIT NF8-v2 Motherboard
AMD Sempron 64 3400+ Palermo 2.0GHz
2x 1GB OCZ PC3200 Platinum Edition RAM (2 GB total)
Radeon 9800 SE 128MB Video Card
100GB Seagate 7200rpm PATA Hard Disk
Thermaltake TR2-430W Power Supply

Thanks,
Alex

Me, whenever I have *power* problem then the ifrst thing I check is the
"Power Supply". Inside the Power Supply I believe it has a Voltage
Transformer so I heard you said it powered up for short seconds, and to me
the power supply has some issue.

 

[Rod Speed]

I have run into a problem which I just can't figure out,
hopefully someone out there has an easy answer for me.

Several months ago I built an ABit/Sempron system, everything
was working fine until last night when I pulled a 1394 PCI card
from the last slot on the board, now it won't power on. Correction,
when I attempt to power on the fans start spinning for a fraction
of a second, then everything just shuts off.

Such a short run of the fans usually means that the power
supply is seeing a load it doesnt like when it starts.

Immediately pressing the power button again does nothing,

Because the power supply has decided that its seeing an unacceptible load.

but resetting the power on the power supply allows me
to press the front power again, but with the same results.

I have reseated everything in the box, cleared the CMOS,
even tried reinserting the 1394 card, all to no avail. Does
anyone have any idea what may be happening here?

The three main possibilitys are that you have removed something
in the process of getting the 1394 card out and didnt replace it
where it was originally, you've got a short to case now that was
produced by the process of removing the 1394 card, and that the
power supply or motherboard has just chosen to fail now and that
the 1394 card removal is a coincidence.

If you didnt do anything except remove the 1394 card, didnt
unplug anything so you could remove it, a short is most likely.
You sure you didnt drop a screw from the 1394 card bracket
and didnt bother to try to get it out etc ? If you cant easily try
a different power supply, it would be worth running the
motherboard loose on the desktop. Thats the best test of a short
to case and you might find a loose screw in the process that has
been there all this time and got moved by the 1394 card removal etc.

If running it loose on the desktop doesnt help, try unplugging
everything you can from the motherboard excep the cpu.
See if it will power up in that state and beep complaining
about the lack of ram etc.

If that doesnt help, it would be best to try another power supply
even if you have to buy one if there is no evidence of bad caps
on the motherboard. The caps are the usually blue or black
plastic covered post like things that stick up vertically from
the motherboard surface. The tops should be flat and if any have
bulged or have leaked, thats a bad cap and likely the problem.

Its very unlikely to be a dead cpu if you havent overclocked it
and even then, that usually doesnt produce those symptoms.

 

[AlexBohner]

Hi Rod,

I followed your steps exactly, and while I can't confirm the original
problem, everything started working perfectly once I pulled the
motherboard out of the case!

Thanks for taking the time to write up such detailed troubleshooting
steps. Not only did it help resolve this problem, but the general
understanding it provided will undoubtledly assist in future
troubleshooting as well. This is a great thread to keep handy!

Many thanks!
Alex

 

[Rod Speed]

I followed your steps exactly, and while I can't confirm
the original problem, everything started working perfectly
once I pulled the motherboard out of the case!

If you didnt find a loose screw etc in the case after you
removed the motherboard, thats usually due to the use
of metal hex studs to mount the motherboard, with a
a motherboard that doesnt have proper solder lands
around the mounting holes. The top of the metal stud
can cut thru the solder mask and short at that point.

The fix is to use plastic standoffs with the holes that dont
have a proper large solder land around the mounting hole.

Thanks for taking the time to write up such detailed
troubleshooting steps. Not only did it help resolve this
problem, but the general understanding it provided will
undoubtledly assist in future troubleshooting as well.

Thanks for the washup, too rare in my opinion.

This is a great thread to keep handy!

Many thanks!
Alex

You're welcome.

 

[javaboju]

Hi Rod,

I have the exact same symptons as Alex, with the exception of not
having had the computer boot up at all.
I tried removing the motherboard from the case, but I am still unable
to power up.
All I have in the board is the CPU and the RAM.
It is the same ABIT NF8-v2 Motherboard, my second one, I RMA'ed the
first one for the same problem.
The power supply is an ANTEC SP500 model, brand new.

The first board powered up but wouldn't display anything on my
monitor, so, thinking it was the video card, I removed the card and
reseated it, then it wouldn't power up at all.

So I RMAed the board back to ABIT, but when I put the new one in it
won't power up at all, with just the CPU and RAM.

Comes on for about a second then powers down.

Could this be an issue with the power supply?

Thanks for any help...

Bob

 

[Rod Speed]

Hi Rod,

I have the exact same symptons as Alex, with the exception of not
having had the computer boot up at all.
I tried removing the motherboard from the case, but I am still unable
to power up.
All I have in the board is the CPU and the RAM.
It is the same ABIT NF8-v2 Motherboard, my second one, I RMA'ed the
first one for the same problem.
The power supply is an ANTEC SP500 model, brand new.

The first board powered up but wouldn't display anything on my
monitor, so, thinking it was the video card, I removed the card and
reseated it, then it wouldn't power up at all.

So I RMAed the board back to ABIT, but when I put the new one in it
won't power up at all, with just the CPU and RAM.

Comes on for about a second then powers down.

Thats usually a symptom of the heatsink and fan not properly installed on the cpu.

It stays on long enough to see the cpu overheating and then shuts down.

Could this be an issue with the power supply?

Yes, its certainly possible to have a flakey brand new power supply.