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New PC Case Won't Power On
niceguy3978
Member UncommonPosts: 2,051
Hey all, I have a not so quick question (or maybe it is a quick one). I just bought a new Power Supply and Case, because the airflowin my old case was causing my graphics card to nearly melt. So, I get the new psu and case today and switch everything over, and the damn thing won't power on. So after some cousing and yelling, I start checking for ways to figure out if it is the case or psu. Come across "the paper clip test" for the psu, psu powers up so that's not the problem.
The only thing I can think of is that the power switch on the new case is faulty, I put everything back into the old case and it all powered up without problem. So I am stuck. I would rather not ship the damn thing back to newegg and wait for a replacement, is their a "home fix" that I can try? Or could it be something else? As I said all of the same parts start up fine in the old case, it is only when I install them into the new case that there is a problem. It is very annoying to have spent the hours doing this (both putting it in the new case, and then transferring everything back to the old case to check and see if it booted up) for it to be the on/off button. I should add that I put the new PSU into the old case so the PSU is definitely powering everything up.
This is the case:
The old case is just the old Acer case that originally came with the computer when I bough it. I have changed out all of the parts over time except for the dvd drive, and thought it was time to get a new case and power supply as well.
Comments
What happens when you try to turn it on? No noise, no lights, nothing? Or does it seem like it's trying to turn on and failing?
It sounds like you might have neglected to plug something in, or done it improperly. There's probably a connection of a bunch of little wires from one area of the motherboard to the front of the case. You might have missed one of them, or plugged it in improperly.
Did you inadvertently pull the cable from the switch to your motherboard out. Very easily done on the motherboard end.
I get literally nothing. No noise, no beeps, nada. I followed the directions for the mb, and plugged everything in the same way on the old case that is powering up. I am assuming it has to do with the front plate connections (the power on, reset, hd led, etc.) Only I am plugging them in where the mb diagram tells me to, and I compared them to the old case that is working properly and tried ignoring the directions and matching them up the same as the old case, but the two are the same so it didn't make any difference.
check the jumper connections
looks like that
looks like you tried that, might be in the wong spots.
try unplugging all of them and touching a screwdriver to 2 adjacent pins at a time, whichever 2 power her up thats the Power Switch connection
I made sure that everything was connected. I never even got to close the panel on the new case..lol. I didn't want to get it all closed only to take it back apart. I just got everything connected and plugged it in. Then when it didn't power on I checked all the cables.
You need to compare the colors to the motherboard manual, NOT the colors of the board and the case wires. Only the manual will show you what goes where and you need to look closely to the power connectors for + and -
DO NOT connect ANY of the male tips with a screwdriver to figure out what goes where, doing this will cause a short and you're only asking for trouble.
Wow that looks exactly like mine, right down the the little directions at the bottom. I tried doing it with a screwdriver as well, but nothing i did would get it to power up. Until I plugged everything back into the old case..lol. I may screw around with it some more tomorrow, maybe the labels are off? I do know that the old case has a single plug for all of the little jumpers and this case has them split up and you have to plug them in as individual pairs, so maybe the labels are off and I didn't need to worry about it before because there was literally only one way to plug it in. I did unplug everything and plug it back in 4 times before I gave up.
Yeah, I did that after it didn't work the first time. The manual matched with the little diagram on the MB itself. I even took the front case off so that I could follow the wires themselves to make sure I was getting them in the right spot.
If it works when you put it back in the old case, it's definately a faulty power switch, or more likely, the cable isn't connected to the correct pins on the motherboard.
I'm thinking its the power switch. After it didn't work the first time, I took the front panel off to follow the cords and make sure they hadn't been mislabeled, and I put them in where the MB manual said was the correct jumpers. Is it possible to fix the power button? I would rather not reship the damn thing back just for that.
Just a thought, you arent plugging the Power Switch jumper into the Power Reset pins right?
Not trying to insult your intelligence, just a thought.
I actually tried it both ways to make sure that something wasn't mislabled, neither way worked.
what is the motherboard model?
It is a Gigabyte MA785GM-US2H
I have a bit of an off the wall question. Would it work for me to simply take the front part of the new case off, and plug in the front panel cables (the pwr, resent, hd led, etc) and mess around with it that way rather than tranferring everything to the new case and messing around with it?
You can easily test the switch, if you know how to check resistance, connect your meter to the wire, give the switch a push and you should see the resistance go down close to zero.
Failing that, get a battery (1.5 volts to 9 volts, not a car battery), connect one end (+ or -, doesn't matter) to the cable coming from the switch, connect another piece of wire to the remaining wire from the switch, then connect a 3rd piece of wire to the remaining pole on the battery.
You should now have 2 ends of wire between the switch cable and the battery.
Connect a torch bulb to these ends of wire then operate the switch and watch for it lighting up
If you don't have a bulb, stick your tongue on the wires and you'll feel a tingling sensation if the switch works. (Last resort only and make sure the computer is unplugged and you're on the right wires lol). I take no responsibility if you fry yourself.
I had a similar problem with a PC i built a few years ago. It was the MB not earthing properly to the case. Might be an idea to check the screws holding the MB in place are tight and seated correctly giving a good contact.
to check its the power switch, bridge the front panel pins on the montherboard, the two for the power switch.. this is the same as pressing a switch and usefull for booting a pc out of a case.
A friend of mine had a similar situation happen to him. I told him to check to make sure he wasn't getting a short which was causing his computer not to turn on.
He was getting the light on the motherboard to light up but the computer would not post at all.
I had him take the motherboard out of the case and reseat everything to make sure no metal was touching the motherboard from the case. After putting it in for a 3rd time he was able to boot up no problem.
If you have any anti-static cloth or material set up the motherboard outside the case (be very careful!) and try turning it on. If it turns on it's a short somewhere between the motherboard and the case.
Other than that everyone else here seems to have given you good advice.
Good luck!
I don't want to diss you on this one so sorry in advance.
I've pulled apart so many pc's and have so many bits and pieces in my loft, that I've often checked motherboards are functioning with no case at all, just pluging in the powersupply and components.
I don't think they need to earth, not the ones I have experience with anyway.
Note the pins on the highlighted (green) power switch. They're color coded RED on your board.
Short those 2 pins (put a screwdriver across them) for a second and the system should start.
http://www.manualowl.com/m/Gigabyte/GA-MA785GM-US2H/Manual/207712
I will give that a try Friday, It's too late to drag it all out again, and I have a looong day tomorrow, but I'm off Friday, so I'll monkey around with it some more and report back. Thank you, and everyone else for all the tips/advice.
Yeah, I've run plenty of mobos on my homemade wooden tray. The mobo needs to ground to the PSU, but that's achieved with the PSU's cables. The motherboard standoff points may ground to the case (if there is one), but it's not necessary, and the standoff points aren't part of the PSU's DC ground plane.
As someone said, ensure that you only have the necessary standoffs in place, each one screwed down, and no extras hiding under the board. standoff locations aren't 100% universal, and some cases have 1 or 2 screwed in in the wrong spot, which shorts out the motherboard.
A Modest Proposal for MMORPGs:
That the means of progression would not be mutually exclusive from the means of enjoyment.
If
a) Your confident you have the right Power Switch pins on the motherboard
b) aren't afraid to poke around a bit
Then you can easily half-split your troubleshooting. The screwdriver/coin/whatever method will work - you just short the two Power Switch pins (easiest with a screwdriver) - and the computer should turn on. (Note* Once it's running don't be poking around on anything, and double-check to make sure you have the right pins - you won't break anything while it's off but you could while it's on).
If it doesn't turn on - it's something to do with your motherboard/power supply
If it fires right up, it's your case power button.
The power supply can be checked with a jumper wire/paperclip - the large 24-pin motherboard connector unhooked from the motherboard, short the Green wire (Pin 14, 4th from the left if you are staring down the connector with the clip up top) to any Black Wire. It will only stay on while you have the jumper in place
http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/other/22
If the power supply turns on, you know to look at the motherboard, if it doesn't, you found the problem.
If your down to this part and still haven't figured it out, I would actually pull the motherboard out and then re-install everything. I can't count the number of times a screw or something has gotten stuck underneath and caused similar problems, or it was just a loose wire somewhere that rehooking everything up fixed.
Some add-in cards and older computers needed the case ground or they would act quirky - they probably used earth ground as power ground, or tied the two together (which isn't proper, but happens). Additionally, the earth ground acts as a safety net: should anything actually short out, theoretically it will discharge through the case ground rather than, say, you.
Yes, computers ~usually~ work just fine without it, but it's better to have it when possible. It's just like the third pin on electrical cords here in the US: stuff works just fine without it, but it's a lot better if you use it.