Can I Test Motherboard Without The System Control Connectors By

I have a motherboard/cpu setup I want to test, but I don't want to go through all the trouble of installing it in a case. Could I connect everything required, MB, memory, PSU, plus the mouse, keyboard, monitor. Then just attack a jumper connector to the power/ground pin, thereby using the PSU on/ off switch to turn it on?

 

Actually, testing outside the case is a common practice for many self-builders and techs alike.

Get yourself a large wood bread/cutting board and put everything on that. These are best because they are not painted or have a finish that might be conductive. If no wooden board, use a large piece of plain brown cardboard. Some may say to use the motherboard box but that is a BAD idea as many inks in labels contain metallic components (even lead in some cases). So plain unfinished cardboard or wood. Never carpet or other soft surfaces that does not allow air to circulate underneath.

Note that some also say to use the anti-static bag many motherboards come in. This is a VERY BAD idea because many of these bags are designed with outer layers that are highly conductive! You don't want to place your motherboard with 1000s of electrical contact points on something that is highly conductive. These bags are designed to "shunt" any static discharge around the contents of the bag - just like a car body will shunt a lightning strike around - NOT through! - the occupants.

Don't "attack" jumpers. They might fight back and win!

And don't "attach" a jumper either. All you want to do is momentarily short the two pins on the motherboard. You need to study the motherboard's front panel I/O header to see which two pins the case's front panel power button go too. Then, after assembling all the components, VERY CAREFULLY with a steady hand, short the two pins for barely a second. I use a small screw driver. That will signal the PSU to start up.

Another word of caution. You MUST observe strict ESD prevention discipline when working outside the case like this. When all the parts are assembled in a case, the metal case is used to establish a common ground between all the components - primarily the PSU, the motherboard and installed expansion cards. It is a simple matter of touching the bare metal of the case to immediately discharge and prevent the building up of any static charge in your body. Do this often!

Make sure you only handle the board, RAM, CPU etc. by the edges and as little as possible. Touch the bare metal of the PSU case, and connect the main power connector to the motherboard first as that will establish a common ground between them. Then touch the metal case of the power supply again and often as just squirming in your clothes can create a large enough static charge to destroy the CPU, RAM or other ESD sensitive devices.

Only after everything is installed and connected, and you have double-checked everything is installed and connected correctly, and you have triple-checked you have determined the correct two pins to short, plug the PSU in, flip the master power switch on the back of the PSU, touch the bare metal of the PSU again, then momentarily short the two pins.

 

Well I have a old wooden table and the finish is worn off, so I tested it on that following your instructions (which I greatly appreciate).

Unfortunately, either the motherboard is bad, or the CPU.
I'm using an ASUS P8H67-M pro motherboard with an intel i5-3470 cpu and 2X4gb DDR3 1333 Gskill ram. I connected the monitor to an on board video connection.

While the CPU heatsink fan did start up the monitor stayed blank. I also tried a gtx 460 graphics card in the PCIe slot with the same results. This motherboard comes with an on board mem ok button (which has a red led next to it) and the light stays on (red) when there is a problem with ram. When you push the button the red light starts blinking and the MB will do reboots and try to do automatic memory combatability (if the dimms aren't compatible). The red light with also stay on if the memory is not seated correctly, or just have bad memory.

 

Make sure you have all the motherboard power connections connected. Most motherboards take two, some take 3.

 

Does the video card require a direct PSU connection?

 

The video card I was trying to use does have a PSU connection and I did connect it, but what I found out was that the motherboard bios had to be flashed in order to be able to use the CPU I was trying in it. After a successful bios update ( and I was sweating doing that ) everything works fine. Thanks for the support guys. I'm starting a new post now with another problem (with a dell 7010 motherboard gasp).