The following system wont start when I plug the power into my video card.

ABit Nf6
Xp 2600+
9700 Pro AIW
512 ram
80 gb hd
Dvd burner
2 fans

the psu is a brand new 350 watt coolermaster that came with the case. It's amps are:

3.3 @ 16 A
+5 @ 25 A
12 @ 16 A
-12 @ 1.0 A
+5vsb @ 2.0 A

I really hope it's not a hardware problem... because i hate having to send stuff back in

so when your video card is out it will start?

even if its plugged into the agp slot it will start up... its just that when i plug in the power connector on the back of the card that it wont. Is it shorting? or is it the psu? ehhhhh

My system probably draws more power than yours with 2optical drives 2 fans 9800pro with ATi silencer 2.8ghz p4 and a sound card and it runs good on my 330watt psu. So it might be hardware :/

My friend is coming over with an extra 300 watt psu, and FX 5600... we're gonna see whats up. I really dont feel like RMAing anything, i just want it to WORK! lol... boo hoo....
edit:

I installed myf riends old 300 watt psu and the comp starts up....but there's no beeps from the motherboard and there isnt any signal going through to the monitor.

This is his friend... and we tried putting my old fx 5600 in and there was still no signal out to the monitor.

So its not the GFX card since the 5600 didnt work, and Im assuming the other PSU didnt change anything. Got a spare motherboard? It could be the AGP slot....

no i dont have a spare motherboard... grr.... so a bad motherboard is the only thing that could cause no beeps?

not sure but it can be ur cpu also.

well hmph... what do yall propose I do? This sucks...

Burn it.

Thanks but no thanks... this pc is for a friend and right now he's down 600 bucks and no computer. I need to get this working for him.

To me, it does sound more like a psu problem. How many watts does the psu have. Also, try different configurations like: original psu, friend vga; friend psu, original vga. If it still doesn't work, take the mobo out of the case and see if it will start (grounding also does this). Make sure that you have installed the cpu properly as well, but other then that, that's all I can think of for the moment...

What could I have done to install the CPU wrong? I already tried different psu configurations..... and it cant be shorting out... because it'll startup without the videocard.. right? or maybe the videocard is somehow shorting out the whole system... but HOW?

Do you have a multimeter? check the rails of the power connector going to the video card.

no i dont... but what rail goes to the video card? I dont know how PSU's work really.... but wouldnt the comp be able to startup right if I plugged in one psu to the mobo and another psu to just the vid card? Or is th eproblem that there just isnt enouh amps being put into the vid card regardless.

Would this power issue also address the no beepage

try a pci video card

Tommorow I'll have an old trident pci card to try out. If the comp still doesnt work... what then? is the mobo dead? (even though the cpu fan and everything started up) Arrrrr... i mean the board is brand new, does this ever happen to you guys?

Yes you can add a ps to the video card only, the video card dont really mind if the power comes from another psu or the main one, if your main psu does not deliver enough juice with that set up you'll know just power up your second ps and power up the rig after but i'd suggest to wire the second ps to the first one so they power up at the same time.
You know the green wire to the green of the main ps and the same with a black
Lots of trouble but if you dont have a stronger ps, you'll never know

Well I tried a pci card today and.... nothing..... Is the mobo DEAD? how do I tell?


This is exactly what happens:

I can power up.

Mobo light turns on
CPU fan turns on
GPU fan turns on

No signal from GPU to monitor
PCI card doesnt seem to work (Same problem = no signal)

does the hard drive fire up. Does it sound like it's working like actually doing something. It could be possible it's a bad monitor or the video cards stock setting won't run on the monitor.You might want to try another known working monitor. It seems liek you've tried everything else so i thought it'd put this in

hey make sure the jumpers on your HD are correct, and make sure you have your card slide in all the way, ive done that and it wouldnt start up. You also might want to make sure that you have everything plugged into the mobo from PSU.

First question, is your system overclocked. if so has a working AGP/PCI lock, I've just had a similar problem and my board just wouldn't accept my 9700 pro at the clock speed I had running (235mhz), blank screens all the way, despite the fact that the 9600xt that was coming out didn't mind at all,
Get into bios if you can and set everything back to stock and try again and hope to hell you haven't done any damage to your new card

just a thought.

The monitor is fine, i tried two diff ones... same with the vid card.... I tried a 9700 pro, fx 5600 and an old trident PCI video card.



there's just two cables to plug into the mobo... right? and one to the vid card. If it was doing something, would the mobo beep? or no? cuz it doesnt make any beeps.



umm.... well it doesnt start, so how could i get into the bios? There's no signal from the comp onto the monitor.

If you can't even get the post screen then its either the mobo/ram/cpu that is bad. Try isolating the problem with the mentioned components.

does it matter what dimm the RAM is in? i have an old cpu to try.... if none of this works its the mobo? or could it be the power supply too?

Bionix, bring it up to me...

I'll take a look at it and see if we can't get it working.

Well, its a no name PSU right?

12 @ 16 A
Didnt even know they came that low, my E-monster 800mhz celly has higher rails.

how many amps should it have? i mean.... the second psu im using that starts the system up has worse ampage than the coolermaster.

I've had this problem before... does anyone remember one of my first posts about how a case fan fried my computer? With the video card OR the TV tuner card installed that had been plugged in at the time, I would get the same symptoms. I replaced the video card and got it to work, but two days later the replacement card blew. Months later, well after two new computer builds (one of which I still have,) I happened to be looking at the back of the old MB and found that the case fan had caused a flat wire (I think the ground bus) from the AGP/PCI area strait to the power connector had physically blown off of the board.

I hope this is not your situation, but a full visual inspection of all components and flat wires on both sides of the board involving the AGP port should rule out such a problem unless that is the problem. Keep in mind to look for warped or misshaped/miscolored components, including raised or bleached areas on IC chips.

Good luck.

Oh and umm.. I just checked the amps on an X Connect... and the 12v is at 12 amps on that.... so why did people freak out about my amps

I've never had a psu with under 24 amps (it was a 350 watt). My current psu has 34 amps on the 12v rail.

Ok, lets get back to basics since nothing is working for you.

Take your motherboard out of the case. get a sheet of foam or something to put it in. Something plastic or wood, I.E. noncunductive. Take all the components out of the case as well. Plug the psu into the computer, (the 20 pin connector and the 4 pin connector). Make sure the cpu is seated properly, along with the cpu fan.(did you put thermal paste on the hs? OR, does it come with a thermal pad on it already? Check.) Put ONE stick of RAM in the first slot. Your mobo should be labeled with the first slot, look around for it. Plug one normal hard drive into the primary master, and set the jumper to master. Plug in your video card(doesnt matter which one) and plug in the power to it if needed(if it has a connector for it). Either plug the connect from your case panel power switch into the mobo, and turn it on with the switch, or short the two pins with a screwdriver. See if it boots. If it boots, then your mobo was probably shorting out. Post back, and tell us what happens.

And i wouldnt worry about the psu not having enough amps or anything, my computer is running off of a 230W antec psu, my 12v rail is running at 11v, its been stable for oh...1.5 years? Non overclocked.

Okay I didnt take my mobo all the way out... but i unscrewed it, propped it up on a piece of cardboard and made sure no metal was touching it. I switched CPU's to an xp 2000, Unplugged the dvd rwk put only ONE ram module in the FIRS slot. STILL, it powers up, but no output to the monitor, or beeps from the mobo. I havent checked the jumpers, but im almost positive they are right. I'll go check now.

I read throught the entire post and i don't think that i saw this mentioned.

Try clearing the CMOS with the CLEARCMOS jumper next to the battery on the mobo.

Or if there isn't a jumper,

Remove the battery and put it back in about 2 minutes later.


By the way, make sure the power cable is out of the PSU for either of these fixes.

If that doesn't work, look at all the small cylindrical capacitors on the mobo, if you see any with odd lumps on them, or brown "paste looking" stuff coming out of them, or bulges in the silver top-part. Then your board is probably bad.

Bionix, this time, unplgu absolutely everything from the mobo except the cpu, and the atx 20 pin power and 4 pn power. Remove the ram, video cards, all hard drives, pci cards, etc. Unplug all fans except the cpu fan. Turn it on then. It should beep (not sure what the beeps will be) to indicate no RAM installed. If it doesnt do that, then it's a bad mobo. Also, try clearing the cmos as suggested above.

Sounds like I've got myself a bad mobo. There's no evidence of burn marks on it or anything. Arrr I'll get on the RMA

Bionix, just have me take a look at it for the sake of everything all cute and fuzzy :-p

actually, try putting the ram in different sockets... I had to do that wiht my msi board in my sig and I got mine to post after I did that. You could have a faulty board though; my soyo did the same thing when it died/I killed it.