[ubinjoshed]

Hello Everyone,

I am new to the PC building process, and have found the process to be fun and exciting and an experience that everyone should try once. Especially shopping for those specific parts to build a much better machine than the ones that are put together for you. I shopped at MicroCenter and had one of their experts give me a guided tour on all the options available and scale down as needed to fit my budget. Hopefully, he led me to good products. Here are the items I purchased and keep in mind I will be adding to this. I'm listing these so you know what I have to aid in troubleshooting.

1. Asrock Z77 Extreme 4 Motherboard
2. 8G Corsair DDR3 Graphics Card (may hace seen DDR5 on there?)
3. Intel I5 3.4 Ghz Processor
4. Samsung 128GB SSD
5. Nvidia GTX 650 Graphics Card
6. Thermallake TR2 600W Power Supply
7. Asus Bluray/DVD Disc Driver

ETC, ETC, ETC.

I assembled the main components outside the tower first to familiarize myself with the connectors on the motherboard and the parts as I have no experience working on computers at all. When I powered it up, fans came on and the specs came on the monitor indicating everything was working. I installed everything in the tower, made absolutely sure motherboard was installed correctly (the lift points being only at the ground points on the board). When I powered it up, the light slightly came on the on button, fans had slight movement and then nothing. When trying to repeat, nothing happens. If I wait a while it will do the same thing I just described and not try to work again for a few minutes. I'm frustrated and would appreciate any help I can get. Just to get past the basic troubleshooting tips, I made sure the switch on power supply was on the on position, plugged in, tried different known working outlets and made sure switch on PS was at 115V. If there is anyone who can help, I would appreciate it. I'm thinking Power Supply, but not sure how to troubleshoot this. I am a car mechanic and very good with wiring, but not sure how to safely test these components and do not want to cause any damage. I really took my time putting this together, rechecked and rechecked my steps and everything looks right, but then again, this is my first time. I would appreciate any feedback from you guys. Thanks a bunch

[ElfBane]

Disconnect the DVD burner.
Disconnect both vid cards and switch to integrated graphics.
Power up and see what happens.

[LiveBrianD]

Umm, I think you meant Corsair RAM. Anyway, try removing the CMOS battery for a few minutes (the coin battery next to the graphics card).

[Rommel]

Your build outside the tower was good.
You posted and that shows all is good.

Usually when you fail to start as you describe means there's a short.
This short sucks your power to ground and you fail to start.

Remove from the tower and try to post.
I believe you will.
Make sure you have all motherboard standoffs located correctly.
Make sure no shorts exist at the back I/O shield when you reinstall the mobo.

If no short exists and you fail again,
as already suggested, remove your graphics card and try.
I had a brand new 5 start corsair PSU fail in two weeks.
It would not boot my system unless I used onboard.

[coastie65]

Hi and welcome to the forums. When you bread boxed it ( put it together outside of the computer ) it was fine and went through POST. When you installed it within the case, you had problems. First question is: Did you use standoffs between the Motherboard and case ( these are usually brass, but can be steel )? The other question is: Is the 24 pin ATX connector plugged in securely and cliped down ( it will snap into place if the Connector is snug and correct )? The other thing to check is the CPU connector and make sure it is snugly plugged in.

This post has been edited by coastie65: 15 February 2013 - 03:53 PM