[SLL] OT--Hardware: New Build Won't go to POST

[Abha Harting]

I am testing this on the table before I put it in the case; this is how I
learned to run a test to make sure it works without any interference from
the metal in a case. It prevents any shorting to the ground from the case
back wall. Often that can be the reason a new system won't go to post, or it
may start but you get no screen whatsoever. The board is sitting on a table
on a piece of pink foam (the kind that used to come in the packages of older
motherboards). The foam is on top of a couple of magazines so that the tine
from the video card has room to stay clear the table. I once wrote a
tutorial on how to do this.

As to the momentary spin of the fans, usually they KEEP SPINNING and I get a
screen. It is not happening this time. I can hold the gap for 10 seconds and
if I take away the screw driver, it is done. Often there is a little
cracking sound when you gap it, but NOT here.

All other boards/CPUs I have tested on a table top that are working start up
immediately and go to POST. I like to test them this way before I even
bother to put them in a case. I am not a newbie on this. It just simply is
that regardless of what you may know about hardware, there is always someone
out there who has more experience or may know more about this intel system
than I do. I gapped it with a screwdriver on the power switch connector pins
on the board. I can see which ones they are from the small print there.

A while back, I even had a couple of wide MSI motherboards that wouldn't
start in the case, but when tested on the table they worked. They just
didn't work in the case I had for them. I know that sounds goofy, and I
wouldn't have believed it myself if it hadn't happened to me. I had to go
out and buy a case that didn't short the board, and I got the thing running.
Since it worked on the table, I couldn't have RMAed it anyway.

Anyway this new build is not starting on the table, and putting it in a case
will probably not change that at all. I figure it is the CPU or the
motherboard that is not working, but I don't have any other system to test
out either of them.

OTOH maybe it is the power supply. I do have another one I can use. I had
included a picture of the rig in this post but the list bounced it as being
too big.

Abha

On 10/14/07, Andrew Sweger <andrew at sweger.net> wrote:
>
> On Sat, 13 Oct 2007, Abha Harting wrote:
>
> > When I gap the power switch, The fans on the CPU and the vga card go for
> > just a puff of time and then *nada*. They don't STAY running. The PSU is
> a
> > new Thermaltake 500watts--is that good enough?  In the recent past, you
> > didn't need drives hooked up to the board to pull enough power to get it
> to
> > post. Are we going retro on that? Do you have to put drives on this baby
> to
> > get it to pull the juice enough to boot as you did in the "long ago"
> past??
> > Things are changing all the time, so what you knew with certainty
> yesterday
> > may not be true at all today.
>
> It's normal for the fans to give a short spin just after powering up the
> PSU. To initiate the power-up sequence, most mobo's need a momentary
> contact on a pair of pins that are usually wired to a push button on the
> front of the chassis. This is part of what allows modern systems to power
> themselves on and off via software.
>
> If this is the P5B-Plus, then check the user's manual, page 2-36 for the
> system panel connection locations. It's the pins labeled PWRSW. Then check
> chapter 3 for details about the power up sequence.
>
> --
> Andrew B. Sweger -- The great thing about multitasking is that several
>                                 things can go wrong at once.
>
>
>
>