New build rarely powers on

[Giggles93]

I've powered on my PC 4 times out of like 30 tries. It occasionally works if I open the case,, wiggle all the wires and make sure they are firmly in place. And I've checked about 200 times that everything is in the right place, as well as having gone through the sticky here.

Yesterday, once I got the damn thing booted up, it worked great. I played some Skyrim, worked like a charm. Everything was so fast and perfect. Totally love SSDs.

Today, I got it booted after I wiggled all the connections inside. I noticed some graphical errors but thought nothing of it because my monitor is kinda old. Then it was locking up; I had to reset. Then it BSOD'd. After it restarted; BSOD, BSOD, BSOD. So I just turned it off. :/ I couldn't even see what the BSOD code was. Nor did I have enough time to check it with BluescreenView or something.

Intel Core i5-4440
MSI H81M-P33
Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB)
Kingston 120GB SSDNow V300
450W XFX Pro Core Edition 80PLUS

Any ideas? 🙁

 

[vrumor]

Did you use the standoffs when you mounted your motherboard inside your case?

 

[Giggles93]

Yep. But it doesn't work out of the case, either.

 

[vrumor]

Do you have a GPU as well? It isnt listed.

 

[Giggles93]

I don't have one atm.

 

[vrumor]

There is a checklist here somewhere on TH for new builds not POSTing. Did you try that? http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-perform-steps-posting-post-boot-video-problems

 

[Giggles93]

Yep, I've been through that a couple of times. 🙁

 

[vrumor]

Might want to try another PSU, XFX makes good PSUs, but a problematic PSU can manifest itself in a bunch of different ways. Not sure if memtest86 is part of that new builds link, never used it just makes troubleshooting easier sometimes.

 

[mamasan2000]

Start with minimal components inside. 1 RAM stick, CPU, GPU (onboard or discrete), keyboard. Then add one component at a time. SSD, 2nd RAM stick, other HDDs, PCI(E)-cards, mouse etc.

If it doesn't work with minimal components, check that CPU is seated, press down on RAM. Check power connections to GPU and make sure the card is seated.
Run a memtest. Check that BIOS settings are alright. If unsure of settings, try resetting to defaults.

One thing I don't see mentioned is your graphics card. Is your PSU powerful enough and of good quality?
Since the system worked yesterday, I doubt it's the motherboard.

 

[Giggles93]

Okay, I know someone who might be able to lend me a PSU.
Would it also help if I could get the BSOD code?

Edit:
I've tried with minimal components, and it's still just as intermittent. I feel like I've tried removing, reinstalling, wiggling, pressing down on everything 200 times. It's just totally random.

And I don't have a graphics card atm. Just using the intel graphics. I'm pretty sure the PSU is good. My estimated wattage on pcpartpicker is 158w, even with the GPU I don't even have yet.