Boot up issue.

Hey guys / gals.

Ive just put together a new computer and Im having boot up issues, everything works fine EXCEPT the optical drive, which doesnt wok at all. To rectify this I plugged the auxillary 4 pin connector from the PSU (Neo Power 430 watt) into the motherboard (BFG Nforce 4 Ultra), re booted the system and the optical drive worked, yet after around ten seconds, I heard a beeping noise and the system slowly shutdown - CPU, Case and GPU fans first.

Any ideas on why this might be happening and how I can solve it?

Cheers in advance for any help!

This isn't one of those PSU's with the fan controlling molex connectors is it...?

Its a Neopower 430 watt, the fans are connected through a molex conncector, BUT the CPU cooler is connected through the 3 pin plug onto the motherboard.

Shouldn't think you are overloading the PSU with the system spec you have posted... Double check the molex you are using doesn't have anything written on it or the cable it is attached to. Then try disconnecting as much kit as you can e.g. floppy drive, a stick of memory if you are using two etc.

Strange...actually sounds like a thermal shutdown - what temperature is set in the bios for shutdown temperature? If its really low like 50°C it might shutdown almost straight away depending on how well your heatsink is mounted or the whole case is cooled.

Worth checking that - those chips are safe to run upto 65°C according to AMD, but shouldn't get that hot if theres enough air and the heatsink is on properly...

If it clearly isn't thgermal then back to the optical drive - can you test it in another machine - check its not a dodgy drive? Its good advice from ultim8um too - unconnect everything except the basics and work your way up until you find the culprit - I have seen some strange things happen with CD-Drives!

Matt

Thermal issues were my first thought too. I don't really understand what auxilliary connector you have plugged in. Is this a molex connector that you have plugged into the board near the PCI-E slot, or do you mean the 4 pin connector that goes near the CPU?

I hope it isn't something silly like the system was working fine to start with and you just had a problem with the optical drive, but now you've fiddled with it and there is a proper system error now!

icq3800846: The AUX connector is normally a 4 pin (2x2) block with yellow and black wiring that powers the CPU, should be near the CPU socket. This is needed with modern processors to get any boot activity from a system in addition to the ATX block.

Many motherboards like the asus's can have molex's that also need connecting for "extra power" cus the standard atx spec doesn't cut it with their board design. Check in the manual for your motherboard to see if there is any special power requirement. But I can't see one on the picture of the BFG board on their site.

It's a good call with the "fan only" molex headers - they only provide power for fans and vary the voltage dependant on how hot the case is - these shouldn't really even be used on fans as there have been loads of cases where they cause havoc. Best stick to "proper" molexs.

Make sure the 4 pins labelled "use this connector for single cpu" half is detached from the 4+4 connector and is plugged into the board's aux 4 pin plug. the other 4 pins are for dual processor boards and are not needed on this board. If the wrong half is plugged in it might be causing you issues.

Matt

Matt, I meant I just didn't know what Axion Knight meant when he said,

"To rectify this I plugged the auxillary 4 pin connector from the PSU"

Sorry, my mistake I didn't make it very clear.

I didn't know if he meant the 2x2 connector or a 4 pin molex.

Having said that, I would be surprised if the system booted at all if the 2x2 connector had been left off to start with.

I also wondered if plugging a molex into the PCI-E slot may have overloaded the 12v rail it is pulling off of, especially if his particular power supply only has one 12v rail.

I should have made my reply a little more clear. Sorry.

No worries mate - good logic though; it could be overloading the one rail - maybe try a different set of molexs for the graphics card, they might pull off the seperate rail...have heard some stuff on the inquirer site where they tried to boot a sli setup off a quad-rail psu and the molexs they chose to power the gfx cards were pulling off the same rail meaning it switched off almost immediately despite being a 650W quality PSU!

Try that Axion_knight - a different connector for your graphics card if you need one and/or for your optical drives. Might have a different distribution over the rails in the PSU.

Matt