New PC intermittely boots(power switch prob)

[Midnight82]

Hello. Currently I am building a new system for a friend. Here are the specs:

Colorcase Knight Black Series Mid-Tower ATX Case w/ 300 Watt Power Supply
Abit BE6 Motherboard
Crucial 64MB 168-pin DIMM PC100 3.3v Non-parity CAS2 SDRAM
Intel Pentium 3 500 Mhz w/ 512k L2 cache and 100 Mhz FSB Slot 1 Processor
IBM Deskstar 22GXP DJNA-371350 13.5GB Ultra DMA/66 7200 RPM Hard drive(using IDE3 for UDMA/66 set as Master)
52x Creative Labs EIDE CD-ROM(Using IDE1 set as Master)
Creative Labs 3D Blaster RIVA TNT2 Ultra AGP w/ 32MB Video Card
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer PCI Sound Card
3Com/U.S. Robotics 56k Winmodem Internal ISA Modem
Mitsumi 1.44 MB 3.5" Floppy Drive
Windows 98 Second Edition(not yet installed)

Ok, after assembling I booted up the PC and it was fine, it POST'ed and I changed the appropriate BIOS settings. However, after I later turned it off and then back on again, the PC power would not come on. The only thing that happened was that the Power LED flashed on and off repeately, and i saw both the CPU and Power Supply fan kind of jiggle and twitch like they were trying to turn. After then disconnecting power, and trying many things such as switching the case/motherboard led connectors, unplugging and re-plugging the ATX power connector, and I even cleared the CMOS once to defaults and re-set up the BIOS, I had limited success powering up the system. Sometime it would boot, sometimes it wouldn't. I haven't been able to pinpoint the exact cause of this problem, and today I e-mailed both Color case and Abit about the problem to see if they could help. I was hoping someone here could help me.

Could a BIOS setting I switched be the cause of this problem? Or do you think perhaps it is hardware-related? I would certainly hope that the power supply in the case isn't going bad considering it was just purchased a week or so ago. Has anyone seen this problem before and found an easy remedy?

I greatly appreciate any and all help that anyone can provide. Thank you.

[Dash]

Ive run into this problem twice, I dont think youll like either of my situations, lol
=(

First time, I had bought a new DFI P5BV3+, I plugged it in, it worked fine, then i noticed some smoke and a weird smell, instantly turned it off, and tried again, the 2 fans moved, but stopped, just like you said, i took the m/b out and found a chip that looked like it had been hit by a Hammer.

Second time, I had plugged the power supply connectors in opositve, It was AT type, It turned on, made a low buzzing sound, blew sparks, lots of smoke, shocked me, etc etc, Anyways fried both the P/S and M/B.

Id try a different motherboard with the same powersupply, if it works, Your Motherboard might be fried, try a Different Powersupply and see if that works

Good Luck

[Nathan G]

Have you tried re-seating CPU in MB? I have seen similar effects when CPU wasnt fully inserted in edge connecter (sometimes it requires an alarming amount of force). Did you smell smoke? It prob. is MB/PS as Mr. Dash said. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/redface.gif
Dash: sounds like 2 really bad days (monday maybe?).
Once you let that magic smoke out of a chip there is no way to put it back in, sooo you might as well inhale http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif emmmm
"nothin like the smell of burned semi-conductors in the morning"

live to edit, edit to live

[This message has been edited by Nathan G (edited 12-13-1999).]

[Midnight82]

Ok, I now fixed the problem halfway. I put little paper washers around the motherboard holding screws that attach it to the case and now I can power up the system. However...

The PC is plugged into a power strip. If I power up the computer successfully, power it down, but still while leaving the power strip on, wait a little while, then try powering up the computer again it does the flashing LED thing.

However, if after powering up the system and powering it down, I turn the switch off on the power strip, wait a little while, then turn the power strip back on and then power up the PC it is fine and powers up normally.

So does this sound more like a power supply rather than a motherboard problem? I contacted Colorcase and they said they would replace the power supply if I found it to be bad.

I haven't seen any other symptoms such as overheating, smoking, flames, etc. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

So if I see no other problems, do you think it is still worth replacing the power supply if after I finish setting the PC up the only problem is to wait between shutting down and powering up?

[bogie23]

I had the same problem with be6 i tried all bios on abit site still same problem tried betabios on threshs fringsquad fix the problem 3 or so months now. bios even helped my overclocking to 450@558

[Dave_H]

Midnight,
Think you should use plastic or rubber washers to isolate the board instead of paper.
In the second paragraph, I can't figure out what LED your talking about.
Try plugging the computer into a wall outlet and see if you can go thru power up, power down, and power up, without having to unplug it. (Without having to break the power circut like you were doing by turning the power switch off on the power strip).
As for your last question, to me it would be worth doing whatever it takes to make the system work right. I't may seem like a little thing, but something is definatly not working right and could (will)lead to more problems.
Dave



[This message has been edited by Dave_H (edited 12-18-1999).]

[Nixona]

Check your memory. I had a similar problem with a computer. When it did work, I got every kind of odd-*** error in the book. Check its seated properly, and the DIMM bank isnt shorted out against the case. Throw that stick of RAM into another computer too, I'm betting it will probably give you problems. For osme reason, the stick I had would report in bios and windows would report size correctly, when it did boot. There was about a 50/50 chance of it even posting. I pulled the stick and threw anotheri n and it's worked fine ever since. The woman was tickled, until she got my bill http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[dannn]

I had a similar problem to this when installing my Abit BX6-R2. The power light would come on but nothing would happen and the cpu fan would kinda stutter but not really turn. It turned out that I had a short on the motherboard somewhere. I think the rubber washer idea is a good one. In the end I took out the motherboard and power supply and just tried it on the table. It booted fine, so I checked the case over and it turned out that the little things that hold the motherboard away from the case and let you put screws into, where not all being used and one was touching the motherboard where it shouldn't have been. I removed it and wahay, it worked.