New PC build, fails to powerup

[ghedley]

I've hooked everything up, connected the power and pushed the case on/off button, then nothing.

This is only my second new build - and it is way more complicated than previous, so silly mistakes are not out of the question.

I was going to unplug everything and go to a minimum. Is this the right next move? What is a good minimum? Any other suggestions?

Component details as follows:

AMD Athlon 64 (ADA4400CDBOX) X2 4400+
Gigabyte GA-K8N Pro-SLI SKT939 NF4 SLI SATA USB2.0
Antec P180 EU Aluminium Super Miditower
Antec NEO HE500GB 500W
XFX 7800GT 256MB DDR3 Dual DVI VIVO PCI-E
LG GSA-4167BRL 16X Dual Layer Dual Format DVD
Crucial 2GB kit (1GBx2) DDR PC3200 CL=3 UNBUFFERED NON-ECC DDR400 2.6V 128Meg x 64
2 Maxtor 6L200M0 Diamond Max 10 200GB 7200RPM SATA/150 8MB Cache
Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS
Mitsumi 7-in-1 Floppy Drive / Media Drive SM/MS/MD/CF/MM/SD Silver
Logitech Cordless Desktop Laser Mx 5000

[jamena]

obvious first test if it's not powering up is to make sure the psu is getting power, and then that the psu is well connected to the motherboard, then that the power switch is connected up right, etc etc...

[Starburn]

yeah, agree with above; a mistake I have made before is connecting the pwon cable from the case the wrong way around/not properly etc.

Does the motherboard have a power-on button on the PCB itself?
Otherwise, make sure the wire from your case is properly attached.

[iranu]

It is most likely that the front panel has been incorrectly wired to the pins on the motherboard. This is quiet common, I had the exact same issue with an Asus board last week. The light on the mobo was on but no fans or anything eelse would power up.

Consult the manual and make sure that the power switch on the front of the case is plugged into the correct pins on the motherboard.

[jamena]

also double check the pin layout on the motherboard and the case-plug wiring. I've had to splice (cut up) the plugs on case-light and power/reset button leads so that I could wire them up correctly on the motherboard.

[ultimate]

Check if the cmos (bios) reset jumper is on the right pins if it is in the open position then the computer will not boot.

[ch9lss]

May sound stupid but have you checked the fuse?

[Pazza]

To see if it's your case switch that's the problem, simply bridge the two pins (screwdriver will do) that are related to the power switch - but be careful not to slip.

[ghedley]

Many thanks for everyone's suggestions.

Yes, it was the PSU. A friend checked it with a multimeter and it was not reacting correctly to the request for power. Everything else was correct, case buttons, connections to the motherboard, ... So we extracted it from the PC and would you believe it, we managed to fire it up using the multimeter.

So we sat it on the worktop and connected it to the computer and again it worked perfectly. The PSU is now back in the PC and working without fail.

We considered whether it was a bad connection on the 24 pin MB connection, but it now appears fine.

Thanks

[nvening]

i would run prime95 for 24 hours before i would consider it fine.