power supply?

i just installed a new mothboard, i plugged everything in turn on the power and all i get is a flicker from the power supply and the spu fan. the light in front is on and getting power fine in seems. i tried another power supply and had the same issue, i know the other power supply to be good but i am thoughly stumped please help if with any ideas why it isnt powering up correctly

 

Have you checked the little red switch on the back to make sure it is set to 115v? Also could be a short on MoBo somewhere.

 

list system specs please.

you sure all motherboard ATX plugs are plugged in?

 

~ What I strongly recommend for those who are new to building their own system or to those who are experiencing power-on/boot problems with a newly build system:

* Have a bare-minimum bootable hardware setup (nothing more, nothing less)

Having a bare-minimum hardware setup will help you analyze and identify the faulty component/s (if any) that is causing the power-on or boot problem.

What is a 'bare-minimum bootable (PC)hardware setup?
1- Case (so all other hw can be easily installed and grounded properly and all necessary power, LED and case speaker cables can properly be connected.

2- Motherboard aka mainboard aka mobo aka system board

3- CPU that is supported by the mobo BIOS (not the forget an adequate heatsink/fan for it)

4- RAM (one stick even if you have more, if one checks out fine and system boots, add the others later on to experiment)

5- Video card (add-in card type or integrate onto the mobo, do not have both unless you know for a fact that the integrate Video card is not working)

6- PSU (duh, huh?), the trick with PSU is that it is a very important but often disregarded component that could easily cause various odd issues with the system from boot to shutdown...always pick a adequate, reputable Power Supply Unit that is preferably approved by the CPU vendor used (AMD approved, etc.). As I mentioned an adequate unit earlier, meaning make sure the PSU in use will be able to handle the power demands of the components planned to be installed/used on the system.

7/8- a Keyboard and a Mouse (PS/2 type if possible and definitely no wireless for the sake of troubleshooting)

9- a Monitor (again duh)


Now, with these components you have a bootable system given the fact that all components are in working condition and are supported(compatible) with each other and connected properly should let you see a boot screen upon power-on. When the power cord is connected and there is no additional switches in the back of the PSU, that would mean the mobo is already getting power afterall the switch that turns the system on connects to the mobo, right? So when you press the Power switch you short the pins (complete the circuit) on the mobo so the power start flowing thru the entire mobo causing:
1- PSU unit kicks in the PSU fan instantly starts spinning (or it should be), at the same time the CPU and its fan kicks in and LED lights in front of the case should be visible (Power LED at the very least).
2- within seconds following the above the Video BIOS (showing you the make/model/rev. of the video card) should be displayed on your monitor)
3- following seconds the mobo BIOS will be displayed as a single 'beep' should be heard from the case speaker indicating BIOS POST (Power On Self Test) has been run and completed in success. Also around the time you heard the beep the keyboard LED lights should blink once.
....following these critical steps, the rest of the BIOS settings would be processed and system'd look for an Operating System on the device/s configured in BIOS 'boot sequence'...

So your aim at this point should be to achieve thus far as you don't even get a screen upon boot. Create the above scenario and make sure you only have the above list.
NO cards (Network, modem, sound), Drives (HD, CD-ROM, Floppy) or external devices/cables (USB, serial, parallel) exist in the setup.
Try all that and let us know what happens, this would miniize guess work and incorrect diagnoses...

 

thank for the help guys, turns out the screws were shorting it out, got it working this morning, so far so good, ::fingers-crossed::

 

Turcoloco you deserve a medal for that post,it should be stickied or someone will have to write it all again

 

Hehe...thanks man. I was supposed to be working on a document along these lines but been pre-occupied to even start that little project.
I guess posting a similar guide on this site as a sticky would work?
If that turns out to be the case, I would definitely add more and polish it a bit too but I am not a mod so it is up to them.

 

Its a fine line,you could sticky the entire site and call it the how to build a pc site,then it wouldnt be a forum,its just amazing how many builders dont follow those basic steps before posting

 

You got it Rikky! There is enough info on this site to fix most if not all common technical issues a person could encounter. Half the time, by reading people's updates to their issue, I can they are not even following the simple, to-the-point instructions that skilled people post on their thread which kinda gets me wonder...
But lean and mean stickies are a must to avoid the same-old-same...

Another thing I notice is people are lazy, they are. They could easily find answers to most of their questions by using a decent search engine. One other thing people neclect is reading the instructions or manuals the components come with. Most brand name HW vendors include well documented manuals with their product that has lots of good info in them.