Put it together and nothing happening - Advice?

[spartan92]

Hi everyone, I am in the middle of building my first PC and after carefully assembling the components and making what I believe are the right connections to the motherboard, I don't have any power.

All the components are brand new, so I assume I just screwed up something in the connections. Does anyone have any thoughts as to a rookie mistake that I might have made that would be the problem. My component list is in my signature below. Thanks for any advice!

Antec P160WF case
Antec NeoPower 480 Watt power
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ CPU (Venice)
MSI K8N Neo4/SLI motherboard
OCZ D400 2x1GB PC3200 Ram
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 300 GB Serial ATA

 

[_WW_]

No power?

Are the leads from the power button connected? Properly? Have you tried reversing them?
120/240/ volt selector on back of PSU in correct position?

I need to reformat my kids!
....WW (5.1)

 

[Rugger]

Have you gone thru the mob manual and made sure all of the correct power connections are done properly? All to the connectors seated proberly?

*Steam rising*
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|<font color=red>(")_(")</font color=red>|
~~~~~
BUNNY STEW FOR DINNER!!

 

[spartan92]

WW, thanks for the response. The Antec NeoPower that I'm using doesn't have any voltage settings. It only has a socket for the power cord and an on/off switch. Is there a way to check if I have a bad power supply? I removed everything from the case to start over again and tried plugging the power supply in without anything connected. Should the fan of the power supply spin when I turn it on or will that only happen if I have a component connected to it?

Antec P160WF case
Antec NeoPower 480 Watt power
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ CPU (Venice)
MSI K8N Neo4/SLI motherboard
OCZ D400 2x1GB PC3200 Ram
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 300 GB Serial ATA

 

[spartan92]

Rugger, thanks for the response. Yes, I feel I've been pretty meticulous about making sure I've followed the motherboard instructions. The only weird discrepancy is that the connections for the front panel with the power and reset buttons are slightly different from what the Antec case manual describes compared to the actual connections I have:

the Power Switch connector on the board is two prongs, with one that has a + sign on it and the other is just colored and I assume negative. The instructions from the case say to connect the Power Switch connector to it, but there doesn't appear to be + or _ on the connector. One wire is blue and one is white. I think I've tried switching them but maybe I didn't.

The Reset Switch instructions say to connect the colored wire to "Pin 1" and the black wire to the ground. In actuality, one wire is colored and the other is white - I assume the white is the ground. On the actual motherboard, the connections I'm instructed to use by the manual are just colored blue. Neither one is listed as a ground. There is also a #9 connector that the motherboard shows not to use that has a + sign. Should I use this connector at all?

This stuff isn't really intuitive to me, so I just followed the instructions according to the manual and unfortunately, that doesn't seem to work.

Antec P160WF case
Antec NeoPower 480 Watt power
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ CPU (Venice)
MSI K8N Neo4/SLI motherboard
OCZ D400 2x1GB PC3200 Ram
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 300 GB Serial ATA

 

[Rugger]

You should be able to short the two pins and start the pc - just use a screwdriver to connect the two pins and the system should start.

*Steam rising*
|<font color=red>(\__/)</font color=red>|
|<font color=red>(='.'=)</font color=red>|
|<font color=red>(")_(")</font color=red>|
~~~~~
BUNNY STEW FOR DINNER!!

 

[Rugger]

Have you read hte FAQ in the mobo forum? That has some easy steps to help t/s a system that won't start. It is either the PSU or the mobo. Walk thru those steps and let us know what happens.

*Steam rising*
|<font color=red>(\__/)</font color=red>|
|<font color=red>(='.'=)</font color=red>|
|<font color=red>(")_(")</font color=red>|
~~~~~
BUNNY STEW FOR DINNER!!

 

[_WW_]

Should the fan of the power supply spin when I turn it on or will that only happen if I have a component connected to it?

I am not familiar with that specific PSU but I gotta believe that the fan should spin up when you turn it on. Do a search on these forums and you will discover that you can switch the PSU on by shorting across a couple of pins on the 20/24 pin plug that goes to the mobo.

Edit...did the search for you
<A HREF="http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=623550#623550" target="_new">http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=623550#623550</A>


I need to reformat my kids!
....WW (5.1)<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by _WW_ on 10/31/05 05:35 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[spartan92]

Rugger, thanks for the top with using the screwdriver to start the system. That worked, so now I know it's either a defective power button on the case front or somehow my connections to the motherboard were incorrect. I double checked them via the manual, so I'm leaning towards the bad power button as the culprit. Hopefully, I'll get this solved this evening after work. Thanks again for the help.

Antec P160WF case
Antec NeoPower 480 Watt power
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ CPU (Venice)
MSI K8N Neo4/SLI motherboard
OCZ D400 2x1GB PC3200 Ram
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 300 GB Serial ATA

 

[Rugger]

Not a problem and glad I could be of assistance! Check for wire integrity to make sure nothing has been inadvertently cut. Try the switch wire in both directions and if it doesn't work, then I'd report this to the store where you bought the case and have them send you another switch assembly. The buttons are very inexpensive, but it's the principle of the matter. Where did you get the case?

*Steam rising*
|<font color=red>(\__/)</font color=red>|
|<font color=red>(='.'=)</font color=red>|
|<font color=red>(")_(")</font color=red>|
~~~~~
BUNNY STEW FOR DINNER!!

 

[spartan92]

Got the case at NewEgg, so if I can't get it working by tinkering again with the connections this evening, I'm sending the case back. Thanks again for the help.

Antec P160WF case
Antec NeoPower 480 Watt power
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ CPU (Venice)
MSI K8N Neo4/SLI motherboard
OCZ D400 2x1GB PC3200 Ram
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 300 GB Serial ATA

 

[Rugger]

Talk to Newegg in advance and see if they'll cross ship the case if it gets to tha point. Newegg is great.

*Steam rising*
|<font color=red>(\__/)</font color=red>|
|<font color=red>(='.'=)</font color=red>|
|<font color=red>(")_(")</font color=red>|
~~~~~
BUNNY STEW FOR DINNER!!