JokerFMJ

I just put together my first computer, heh...

After getting everything in (I'm pretty sure it's all correct, but who knows) I went to power it up.

I plugged in the PSU power cord and turned on the PSU. the LED light in the front of my case turned on and the soft power light on the MoBo turned on.

About 5 seconds later the LED flickered and went out, the Soft Power light on the MoBo also went out.

After turning off the PSU, I disconnected and reconnected the Power LED positive and negative leads and turned back on the PSU.

The Soft Power light came back on, so I hit the power button. The computer began to boot up, the three case fans and the CPU fan started up, the monitor started up, I thought everything was good to go.

All of a sudden it all turned off and no more Soft Power Light...

When I turn the PSU off I hear a loud whine (which I hope is normal)...

Anyone have any ideas for me as to what to check?

Please? I'm clueless...

Tumbleweed36

Hi,

Sounds like you have either a short someplace or you didn't put the Artic Silver or thermal pad on correctly and it is instantly heating up the CPU. If you put it together correctly, then I would assume it is a short someplace.

Here is how you troubleshoot a possible short problem:

Take the board out of the case, place it on a non-conductive surface or a piece of cardboard beside the case:

Connect only these:

Hook up the 24 pin (or 20 + 4) ATX connector to the motherboard

Hook up the square 12 volt connector to the motherboard

PUt in only one stick of Ram

Put in the video card

Check CPU/Heatsink clamps are tight/CPU fan connected/motherboard (if necessary, then reseat these items)

Connect the off/on wires to the front panel header (two wire)

Connect the speaker wires to the front panel header

Connect the monitor

Connect the keyboard and mouse

DO NOT CONNECT

Anything else including:

Hard drives
CD or any optical drives

No floppy drive

Any Pci cards

Any other wires

Fire it up and see if it beeps and stays on.....If it stays on, add something, and if it does not, then take away the keyboard and mouse.....you get the picture....either take away or add one thing at a time. If it stays on after using it this way, then put it back in the case and check carefully for extra motherboard posts or if it is touching anything else in the case including the side of the case, the I/O back plate or the PCI covers in back of the case.

Post back when you get this far and then we can talk about possible solutions to your problem.

JokerFMJ

Here's what I did:

I removed my RAM sticks and put just one of them in A1 slot. It booted fine and was running for about 5 minutes...

I was looking in the BIOS and monitoring my CPU temp and MoBo temp. In that 5 minutes the CPU went from 25C to 28C and the MoBo went from 27C to 34C...

After that, the computer just shut off and the soft power light started to flicker. I cut the power on the PSU and the soft power light stayed on for a few seconds then just kind of flickered out.

Please tell me I didn't short out my MotherBoard? Heh...

ebackhus

Can you tell us a bit about the PSU?

Brand, watts, amperes.

JokerFMJ

I have an Antec SmartPower 2.0 SP-500 Watt PSU that someone either here or at TomsHardware.com suggested.

The system has been running for about 25 minutes now, just sitting in the BIOS. I'm monitoring the CPU Temp, MoBo temp and the voltage for my power supply.

The CPU Temp is 29C.
The MoBo Temp is 38C.
The Voltages are:
3.3V Rail - 3.29V.
5V Rail is 4.94-4.97V.
12V Rail is 12.22V.

Do these voltages look within specs to ya'll? They seem fine to me... I haven't dared touch the case yet, lol... I think if I do and the power goes off it must be a loose connection somewhere inside the PSU, because all of the external connections are fine.

Here is the rest of my system specs:
Opteron 165 Denmark Dual Core.
ASUS A8N-SLI Premium.
Corsair XMS 1GB (But I only have one stick in right now, and it's running... Just afraid to touch it).
Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 7200RPM HD (Two of them).
NEC 3550A DVD Burners (Two of them).
ASUS GeForce N7800GT 265MB.
ZALMAN 92mm CPU Cooling Fan.
SoundBlaster X-FI Xtreme Music 8.
Keyboard.
Mouse.
BenQ FP19G+ Monitor.
Gigabyte 3D Aurora Case.

please

@ JokerFMJ
It is possible I am the one who recommended the Antec to you. It is my favorite to recommend. I think Toms also recommends it as do many others around the web. It has been known as a stable workhorse for several years, a reputation well-deserved. However there have been issues with certain Antecs and certain mobos/cpus that exhibit some of the disfunctions that you describe. Some have suggested an overly-sensitive power-cutoff sensor. However, none of the issues have been seen with the 'SmartPower' series, but I am wondering if this PSU may be incompatible with your system. You may also just have a defective one..it does happen. I am sorry if I gave you advice that has backfired for you. I would recommend now that you try a different PSU in your system if you can borrow one to use temporarily. If that means sending back the Antec, I might suggest an ENERMAX Noisetaker EG495P-VE or an ENERMAX Whisper II EG565P-VE FMA to eliminate the possibility of an Antec incompatability issue, if I still have any credibility with you. I feel Enermax may be a step above Antec, but also a step up in price as well..but not a big step. Newegg is good about these things but you most likely will be responsible for postage.

You can read here about Antec and Opertons.