Power Connector Confusion

[The Moog]

Hi there guys,

I have just done a PC build using a Lanparty UT nForce4 Ultra-D board. I put it together last night, plugged in the bare essentials to get it going, and... nothing! When I plugged the PSU in and turned it on the board lit up fine, but when I pressed the power switch on the front of the PC, the board diagnostic lights flicked on momentarily but nothing happened. I checked that everything was plugged in correctly, and that nothing was caught up or shorting, but everything looked fine. After much messing around with CPU and memory seating, I finally decided to play with the board power connectors. I removed the two additional PSU leads that this board takes (the standard HDD molex type, and the floppy style connector), and lo and behold, the PC started fine! Yay! I then plugged the Molex back in, and it still started up, but as soon as I plugged the floppy connector back in, nothing.

 

Now, everything I have read up about this board suggests that for the best stability (especially if you want to overclock it) that you should use all four power connectors, so what is going on here then? I have also read that if you are having any issues, that there must be something wrong with your PSU. I am not completely ruling this out, but it is a brand new OCZ Modsream 520W and so I would hope should be well up to the job. The only other thing I can think of is that I am running just the one graphics card (haven't got money to burn!), so should the other power connector only be used if running a dual card setup due to the extra power requirements?

 

Oh, and just a final query. When overclocking, does the board care which of the four SATA ports you use? I seem to remember that with my old nf3 board, some of the ports would be locked to the correct speed, but some would clock up with the HT, and cause hard drive corruption issues at higher board speeds.

 

Thanks for your help guys,

 

 

The Moog

[tasr]

It also might help to know what your full rig spec’s are. A signature is optional but knowing what’s in your rig will help us help you.

 

What I would do is:

 

Plug in all four (4) power connectors. These are;

24-pin main power connector

4-pin 12v secondary connector or EPS

4-pin 5v/12v molex connection or HDD-type

4-pin 5v/12v floppy connection or FDD-type

 

Clear the CMOS and Load defaults.

 

Check the case and motherboard manual to insure you have the case power switch plug in correctly.

[Sharp]

Hello,

 

You can use any SATA port.

The floppy power connector is required at all times.

 

Could be the power supply or board.

Is the power connector on the board ok?

Nothing behind it causing a short?