Help please! I tried booting my newly built PC and it seems to me that the POST did not run. The components that were connected to the Asus P5LD2 Deluxe mobo were: • Intel P4 -650 3.4GHz LGA227 CPU • 2 x 1GB OCZ DDR2 PC2-5400 667MHz Dual Channel Memory • Enermax Liberty 500W PSU • MSI NX7800GTX Video Card • WD Caviar SE16 2500KS 250GB 16M SATA2 Boot Drive (Data and power connections) • Sony 1.44MB Floppy (Data and power connections) • Compaq Monitor V75 • Keyboard • Optical mouse The sequence of steps that I took are as follows: 1. Monitor turned on. 2. PSU switch turned on. (The green mobo light came on.) 3. Case power switch turned on. (The power LED came on, and then went off after about 5 seconds, and stayed off.) All fans operated and in the correct rotation. As soon as I turned on the power switch, I started pressing DEL, hoping to go into the BIOS. Well, the monitor stayed blank. No image, no text, nothing. There were no beeps. It was hard to tell if the computer ran the POST, because there was no sign of activity on the HDD LED, and nothing showing on the monitor. I turned off the PC by switching the PSU to off. I don't know what the next step is in troubleshooting, and would really appreciate some guidance here. Not all those who wander are lost. j.r.r. tolkein

I would begin to troubleshoot by looking at the Asus manual to see what kind of diagnostics the board has. Some boards have LEDs or voice or beeps to indicate what's wrong. For example on some boards if you remove everything from the board like the video card, other cards, and memory but only leave the CPU, the board would beep to show there is no memory or video card, etc. You want to remove as much as possible and still be able to get a diagnostic code. I don't know how experienced you are in building PCs, but you could have made an error somewhere, or damaged something. Sometimes you can just get a dead motherboard board as well!!! Boards that don't do anything--no beeps or anything, can be bad. Are you sure you attached the 12V AUX connector/any other additional connector that may be needed??? I hope you took all static precautions as well--very important. You CANNOT handle any of these parts and not ground yourself. Let us know what happens! Good luck! Tek.

First thing I would look at is the CPU heat-sink and fan. It appears that the BIOS is turning the computer off because it is detecting a problem, possible the CPU overheating because of a badly fitted hearsink, or a fan incorrectly connected. Is the heat-sink fitted correctly? It is possible with difficulty to fit it the wrong way round which will render it useless. Did you use heat-sink paste or did the heat sink come with a pad on it? Is the fan connected the one of the monitored connectors. Pick the wrong one and the BIOS will think the CPU fan is not turning. Stuart

Yeah, good point--it does sound like the BIOS is turning the computer off. I think I saw such a thing with a disconnected 12V AUX. Sure it would happen with a CPU fan not being monitorable by the mobo.

Here's what you do: Start simplifying the problem. Pull OUT ALL hardware, and hook up ONLY THIS: The motherboard, with CPU, cooler, and RAM The keyboard, and monitor, and of course a video card if not built in The power supply. THAT IS ALL DO NOT hook up floppy(s), CDROM's, or hdd's at this time. If the thing NOW does not post, nor if you can enter the bios/setup, then Pull the motherboard out of the case, lay out on a safe table (non metallic), and hook up AGAIN as above: The motherboard, cpu, ram monitor and keyboard power supply. THAT IS ALL Then, add the floppy, see if that works next, add the cdrom, see if that works, and so on

Yep, Isolate them all. I suspect the CPU. I did recently make a small scratch on the back side of a motherboard, when I lined up the sockets with the holes in the case, I had to push down and over about a quarter of an inch to start the middle screw as upper corner was already started. I wound up useing phone wire to repair six tiny foil runners right beside the screw hole. (very meticuless soldering). You could not see the scratch until applying rubbing alchahol with a tooth brush to the back side of the MOBO. It had the same lights on but nothing happening symtoms. Crunch

crunch: I will take my mobo and everything out of the case and inspect, and retry. In your situation, you indicate that the mobo was scratched, yet you suspect that my CPU may be at fault. I would have thought that, from what you wrote, my mobo may be the source of trouble. Why do you suspect the CPU, and not the mobo? As far as I can tell, I exercised great care in installing the CPU. I handled it carefully, placed it in the socket carefully, and closed the cover carefully. It aligned perfectly in the socket. The CPU was out of its packing case and locked into the LGA775 socket in about 30 seconds. Not all those who wander are lost. j.r.r. tolkein