Apr 26, 2019
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Hi everyone!

I have a problem that I can't quite pinpoint down, but effectively this is the issue.
Pushing the power button on my case, or trying to jump the power switch on the MB doesn't give the PC life at all. I only have two parts at the moment
but as far as I am aware these two parts should give the PC the ability to 'start up'.

I have begun building a new PC with these parts first:
Motherboard: ASUS ROG STRIX X470-F GAMING
Powersupply: EVGA 650 GD 650W 80+ Gold Power

I placed the motherboard on an antistatic surface, plugged in the main ATX cable and 4/4pin CPU cable. The motherboard LED's lit up and a orange light (indicating the motherboard was connected to electricity and is on standby *according to manual)
Then I placed the case front panel plugs in, and definitely placed then in the correct direction (looking online I saw it doesnt matter which way you put the powerswtch)
Finally, in order to judge if he computer would power up I plugged in the cases' front fans to see if they would spin.
Feeling confident that everything was plugged in firmly and correctly, I then tried the power button on my case but - nothing. The fans did not spin, the motherboard LED's remained the same.

I tried reseating the cables, shorting the powerswitch, etc. but nothing worked.
I thought it might be the power supply, so I shorted that and It worked as well. I looked online and people have said that even if it shorts and the fan spins it doesnt mean it supplies enough power but I believe it is not a faulty power supply due to testing it with another motherboard.

The weird thing is, I have my old motherboard that I have tested both my case and power supply on and it started up no problem. I connected the power cables, the fans, and the case power switch and it worked as intended. From that testing, I can only ascertain that the motherboard is at fault, as the case cables and the power supply seem to be working fine. Either that is the case, or the powersupply is simply not mingling well with this particular motherboard? I'm out of options.

I am at this point trying to avoid returning the motherboard if possible, as I only just got this one straight after returning ANOTHER faulty gigabyte board. A 2nd return would just make it seem like I'm the one causing the issue.

Any help at all would be heavily appreciated. In the meantime, I will try and buy 1 stick of DDR4 ram and a Ryzen CPU and see if having those in place might help the motherboard to have life. I highly doubt it though if its not working at all without those components. I also have my old Powersupply in my old rig that I will try and see if that works as well.

Thanks x
 
Apr 26, 2019
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I'm trying to figure out an issue with my current new setup, but I wanted to see if anyone had this knowledge.

Will a cases fans and LEDS start up if only the ATX power cable and 4+4 pin CPU cable are plugged in?

I'm trying to see if my case fans are all functional and to test if the motherboard and psu are playing nicely but it appears that simply having just those two parts connected doesnt seem to make the power button do anything.

Any knowledge is appreciated
 
Apr 26, 2019
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Does it depend on the Motherboard? I have a spare motherboard lying around that I tested it on and the Power Cables alone were enough to get the fans spinning. I shall test on my new board with the cpu and ram and hopefully it works. :D
 
MBs usually can't start without CPU and it's cooler/fan at least and without RAM you wouldn't see a picture no matter what. It's also not wise to try it without CPU and it's cooler as voltages can't be adjusted without it and may burn the MB.
There's no reason to even try it without CPU, RAM and GPU as you can't either prove or disprove MB working or not.
 
Apr 26, 2019
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Next week I'm going to buy the cpu and ram and check it out but I don't doubt your wisdom.
I guess you learn something new every day :D
Will report back in thanks
 
Apr 26, 2019
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Trying to test if my case fans work, but I only have the case, motherboard and power supply plugged in.
Is it possible to boot the fans up with just the ATX power cable and Case Power cable?

I'm asking because at the moment just having the power supply plugged into the motherboard and the case power plugged into the POWER_SWITCH doesnt seem to give any signs of life when I push the case power button.

Shorting the POWER_SWITCH pins also doesnt seem to give the fans any power.

I assume ram and cpu needs to be inserted before the power switch does anything?
or is my motherboard case front panel pins busted?

Any help is appreciated :)
 
Apr 26, 2019
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Why do you need to test the fans? They are the absolute most simple moving items in the PC. They work.

Wait until you have all the components.

That is true, but from researching I saw that other people when they tried to boot with only the power supply connected were able to get their fans spinning. At this point I am more worried that the motherboard might have something wrong with it as pushing the power button on my case did nothing.
 
Apr 26, 2019
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Alrighty, so I got the CPU and RAM and walla everything works.
For anyone who decides to try test their fans/rgb without the ram and cpu and find that the fans dont work, don't fret.

If your case's power button doesnt seem to be responding at all, the cpu installed made it work for me.

Lesson learned, wait for all the parts before you try test things :)
 
Apr 26, 2019
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To anyone else who ran into a similar worry that I did.
Yes - having the cpu and ram installed made everything start like a breeze.
Lesson learned. Don't bother trying to test the components without the ram and cpu.
 
Apr 26, 2019
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So after getting my Ram and CPU in - woop it worked :)
For anyone who was in a similar situation as me, just make sure to buy all your components before you test things out.

As for why this new motherboard required the cpu to power on while my old one did not is another question, but I assume its simply the new boards needing the cpu to control power? idk
 
Some older MBs used to be able to partially power components without CPU or RAM but now when CPU fans have to be turning while CPU is running, they are all tied up with firmware for more precise speed adjustment and that requires CPU and RAM. As others pointed out, it would be utterly useless to try running MB without all critical elements. Even if you get fans running it would tell you nothing except that fans are turning. no even if they are in good order.