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I just built a new pc. everything seems to be put together correctly except for maybe my power and reset switches. i have tried two different psus and both of them just whistle and dont start the fans. what do i need to do to make my computer turn on?
It would really help if you listed the specs to this new system.
You should have a decent quality name brand PSU with 500W +/- with plenty of amperage on the +12v rail(s)...& you should have paid between $50-100.
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i have a ultra xfinity 600w nvidia sli ready psu, gigabyte s3 socket 775 motherboard, intel core 2 duo e6600, thermaltake big typhoon heatsink, western digital 10000 rpm 150 gb hard drive, 1 2gb gskill ddrII memory stick. anything else i should list?
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no i did not bench test it, is that absolutely needed? what does bench testing show? what will i gain by bench testing it and what problem would i have if bench testing could possibly solve my problem?
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The general idea behind bench testing is that you confidently establish the state of the hardware step by step as you build your system.
This is the alternative to piling it all together, finding something doesn't work, then pulling everything apart again to find out what it is.
DerekW
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You should ALWAYS benchtest a board before installing it in a case...that way, you confirm the board is good before going thru the hassle. Now you have no idea what the problem is or if the board even works or not.
I suggest you start from scratch. Remove EVERYTHING from the case, then lay the board on a non-conductive surface (such as a piece of cardboard) on a table or bench. All you need connected is the CPU w/HSF, ONE stick of RAM, video card w/monitor, keyboard, & PSU....nothing else! Turn on the monitor, switch on the PSU, then "jumpstart" the board by momentarily touching a screwdriver blade across the two pins the power switch would normally connect to. The system *should* fire up, then you can access the BIOS & configure all the settings to match your hardware.
If the system doesn't fire up, you only have a few things that could be wrong.
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any thoughts as to why my psu is whistling when i turn the power on and none of the fans turn on?
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Well, if we're just guessing then most likely there is a motherboard connection problem (PSU not getting start signal) or the new motherboard itself is faulty. I had the same symptoms, without the whistling, when a mobo was faulty.
Could also be a faulty PSU.
Far better to follow the procedure jam gave. As you have already fitted the mobo you could simply remove the items along the lines jam suggested and effectively do your bench test in situ with minimal hardware.
Not quite sure what this meant and if it is significant "everything seems to be put together correctly except for maybe my power and reset switches". Kinda makes me think they ought to be correct too.
DerekW
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ok i bench tested my sytem and it started up. i have never built a system before so i dont know how to go through this bios section. any helpful advice? also once i set up this system how should i go about puting the system back into the case since it didnt work last time?
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Interesting. Double check the motherboard standoffs to make sure they're in the right location(s) on the chassis. If you have one in the wrong place, it will short out the back of the board. If you don't know what I mean, here's a pic:
http://www.machspeed.com/tech/stand...
As for the BIOS settings, there are numerous settings that need to be checked & tweaked. I don't have time to run thru them all, but these will get you started:
Under MB Intelligent Tweaker(M.I.T.)...
- CPU Host Clock Control = enabled
- CPU Host Freq = 266MHz
- PCI Express Freq = 100MHz
- C.I.A.2 = disabled
- System Memory Multiplier = 2.00
(Memory Frequency should then be 533MHz - see note below)
- the other entries on this menu should be set to "normal"- go to the PC Health Status section & check the CPU temp & voltages.
NOTE: For best performance, the CPU & RAM should run at a 1:1 ratio. So even though you may have DDR2-667 or DDR2-800, your RAM should be setup to run at 533MHz.
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"This is the alternative to piling it all together, finding something doesn't work, then pulling everything apart again to find out what it is."
ROTFLMAO
=====================================
If at first you don't succeed, you're about average.M2
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Knee-jerk diagnosis & recommendation: It isn't the PSU. Your GA-965P-S3 is Rev 1.0. Return it for a Rev 3.3 before it's too late to do a painless exchange.
I could be wrong, of course, but it seems to be an AutoFan problem. I had it a couple of times with your board and an E6600. Here's my theory in a nutshell: the CPU fan won't spin until you reach a certain CPU temp, but if the fan isn't spinning the board will shut off/reboot. If you can get the rig to start using a 3-pin CPU fan, rebooting it endlessly until the CPU gets warm, black magic, whatever, flash it to the newest BIOS and set AutoFan to LEGACY before putting your 4-pin fan back. If this doesn't help, exchange the board. It isn't worth jumping through hoops just to get your machine to do a cold boot.
"If it ain't broke, upgrade anyway."
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Addendum:
Don't let this scare you off from building your own rigs. If my thought is right, problems like this have nothing to do with your skill at assembling / tweaking machines.
This problem had me cursing and pulling my hair out for a couple hours. Between 3 S3 Rev.1.0 boards and 3 different C2D E6600 CPUs, I was able to install XP Pro on 1 of them. After letting it sit for a while, when I tried to boot it up again the darn thing wouldn't do it. I RMA'd the boards to NewEgg for Rev.3.3 versions and had no problems when they arrived.
"If it ain't broke, upgrade anyway."
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ok where I stand now, i bench tested the system and it works fine and boots up. i tried putting the mb back in the the case, except this time i tried using rubber washers on each side of the mounting holes on the mother board. when i tried plugging it back in this time, the power supply would do nothing but whistle. how can i get my system into the case and working properly without making my power supply whistle?
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It sure sounds to me as if something is shorting to the case. A crude way to prove/disprove this is to cut out a piece of card and lay this on the case under the motherboard then try again.
Things of this nature are not too easy to work out from afar, you need to look carefully and try to determine what is going awry.
At least you now have something to go on (the fact that it goes wonky when put in the case).
There will probably be some other ideas on this so keep watching.
DerekW
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"this time i tried using rubber washers on each side of the mounting holes"
You are not supposed to have washers on the underside of the board. Personally, I don't use them on top either.
When you reinstalled the board, did you test it just as you did outside the case, or did you immediately attach the HDD, optical drives, PCI cards, mouse, etc? If so, disconnect all that crap & test the board with only the hardware you had attached when you benchtested.
Also, you never answered my question about the standoffs. If your board has 9 mounting holes, you should only have 9 standoffs attached to the chassis. There are probably several other mounting holes available, but they are there to accomodate different board sizes...only use the ones you need.
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ok id like to update and tell you that i managed to figure out everything and this is now probably the fastest computer ive used. thank you all very much for your help.
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That's good to hear!
But how about telling us what the problem was & what you did to fix it....
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Sorry, my #21 had a typo. First line should have read:
"Re #20. Be that as...."
I was too late for edit to work.
DerekW
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