New system DOA?

[cynicusprime]

I just put together my first new system in 8 years, and as usual with my electronics, it's not working.

Aspire X-Dreamer II case
Intel DG965RY board
Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 CPU
PQI Turbo 1GB PC5400
WD 250GB SATA3
Maxtor 160GB PATA
Sony DVD-RW EIDE

As far as I can tell, everything is wired properly and connected, but when I plug in the power supply, the fans all start blowing, the MB light comes on, but the exterior (not power/HDD) case LEDs start blinking. Nothing boots up at all. Everything appears to have power, but nothing is turning on. The Aspire manual doesn't say anything about the blinking. It blinks for about 10-15 seconds, then everything turns off, then after 2-3 seconds, everything powers back up and the case starts blinking again. Neither the power nor restart buttons work on the front of the case, but the temperature monitor reads just fine.
It's probably a simple +/- wiring problem with the power switch or something, but I'm not sure. Any ideas?
Do the white/color wires on the two-prong power/reset/hdd led connectors always face the same way? None of them say + or -, so I'm not positive which direction they should face on the board.

Thanks.

 

[Mondoman]

...
It's probably a simple +/- wiring problem with the power switch or something, but I'm not sure. Any ideas?....

Sounds like a good guess. I'd just unplug all the case "front panel" connectors from their MB header(s) and use something like a screwdriver blade to temporarily (1 second) bridge the two header pins for the power switch. If that doesn't work OK, you know your problem is elsewhere.

 

[d1ck0]

The coloured wires are the positive the white negative , also if you have a AUX (+12v) on the board plug in that lead from the PSU too.

 

[advcomp2019]

Could it be the power supply does not have the right watts?

What PSU and video card do you have?

 

[trixst4r]

his build does not seem to be a power guzzler but I would agree with both the above posts.

unplug cd and leave only 1 hd plugged in. make sure you have that 4pin 12V cable plugged into your mobo(this would be the first thing i would check for)

 

[advcomp2019]

Plus I see that the MB has a 24 pin power plug. Does the PSU has 24 or 20 pins?

 

[cynicusprime]

Wow, I wasn't expecting so many responses so quickly. I'll try the screwdriver connection test later when I have some time, but I wanted to clear up some other issues that were raised.

The power supply that came with the case is 350w. I've tried unplugging all drives but the boot (250), but no difference.

I currently don't have a video card, just using the Intel GMA x3000 on the board, so there's no power consumption there.

I have the 12v plugged in. Checked that earlier.

The PSU has a 20pin power connector, but the board documentation says that it's backward compatible with either 24 or 20 pins, as long as it's plugged in starting at the 0 end, which is the only way it fits; I tried.

Thanks for all your quick responses. Any other ideas?

 

[cynicusprime]

Look at the side of the PSU. what are the amp readings for the 12v rails?

Voltage 115/230V
+3.3, +5, +12
24A, 35A, 12A

Current 8A/4A
-12, -5, +5 SB
.8A, .5A, 2.0A

Frequency 60/50Hz
BLK, GRN, GRY
COM, P-ON, PG

Does that mean anything to you?

 

[godman]

thats not too brilliant, um only 12 A only the 12v rail, that cant be too good.

12V*12A= 144W through the 12v rail (you have only one 12v rail right)?

thats quite bad, you have under half the number of watts you did at the first place..through the 12v rail anyway :?

go out and try and buy a new power supply perhaps try to get a psu with TWO 12v rails rated at around 18A each..lik empilchfamily said.

someone can confirm this first though before you go out and rush off to buy a new one..athlough this seems to be the case why (the psu 🙁 ).

 

[advcomp2019]

I think a different PSU should make the system work. It sounds like it only has one 12v rail.

 

[angry_ducky]

12A on the +12V is not enough for a modern system. Get a new PSU, like this Antec TruePower TPII-380.

I know that you're using onboard grahpics, but do you plan on getting a seperate GPU? If so, you might want to get something with higher wattage, like the 550W TruePower.

 

[cynicusprime]

Ok, so PSU is the consensus. If I get it from my local Fry's, what exactly should I look for? I do plan to get an GPU probably first half of next year, but nothing SLI or Crossfire.
It looks like the two Antecs you recommended have 16 and 19A on the 12V. Is that the primary number I should be looking at? That and the wattage (ie, anything about 380-400)?
I'm quite lost when it comes to electrical engineering, so all these power numbers do a whole lot of nothing for me.

Thanks for all your help, everyone. Hopefully I can get this thing running.

 

[advcomp2019]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103931

I would pick this one. It is a very good PSU.

Edit:
It has 2 +12v at 19A each.

 

[cynicusprime]

Update. I got a Raidmax Volcano 630W that seems to have solved my power problem. The case LEDs no longer blink and everything stays powered up. However, it powers up when I turn the PSU on, before I even touch the power switch, nothing boots, and the front panel switches don't respond even after it's on. Everything powers on, I can hear the hard drives spin, and the DVD-RW lights up and opens, but I never get a signal to my display.

Case connections? Motherboard? CPU? Any ideas?