Having a big problem with my new rig :( help

[Robscure]

EDIT!!! Refer to post #10... suffice to say, I got it working. The problem was due to a small temperature reading cable which came with the 285... once removed, it works fine. Thanks everyone for the advice and help, but to anyone who thought it was the PSU, you were wrong ... this PSU is working lovely... everything is running quiet and cool... this Noctua sounds so nice

I finally finished piecing it all together, with extra careful and tidy cable management and everything... so the moment of truth... I plug the power cable into the psu... I wait a few moment... flip the switch.... the lights come on.... I have a sigh of relief, but I still haven't pressed the power button.... so I do! And then! the fans come on! but only for a split second before shutting down...

Please someone help me find out what the problem is... I've got everything plugged in accordingly... the only thing I can think of is that I'm using an nvidia GTX 285 which apparently requires a minimum of 575w of power... and I only have a 520w psu.... I had no idea it would require such a psu, or I would've gotten a higher one... I thought I would max at 300w.... *

could it be? would that be why it powers down when I press the power button?

could it be anything else?

thanks in advance

[aidanjt]

Your PSU should be fine. But do you have another PCIe graphics card just to rule it out anyway?

[Goldfish92]

Sounds power related... you could try booting with the graphics card removed... if the fans stay running you probly haven't got enough juice an will need a new power supply

[Robscure]

unfortunately i dont have another gpu... ill try to disconnect the gpu entirely... thanks for the advice...

The PSU might be DOA... in which case I'll get it replaced... its brand new, and i just tried to start it fresh for the first time now and its not working so... we'll see.....

EDIT: yeah... I just disconnected the GPU from the psu and now its booted up and running nicely...

I need a higher PSU....

[aidanjt]

Odd.. the 285 can't be using more than 225W, unless you're overclocking your system something silly I can't see anything draining as much as that, much less the 480W ceiling of your PSU. Consider the possibility of the card being poorly seated, some of those PCIe slots are funny and the pins don't always align perfectly. The card itself may also be faulty.

[TAKTAK]

the 520w corsair should have more than enough grunt TBH...

as said, try and reseat it, and ensure that power cable are firmly connected.

[djglenn]

According to Corsairs website (Power Calculator), the HX520W can handle that card, processor and 2 HDD's no problem (and they are normally pretty conservative).

There must be something else amiss...

[merdat]

It's unlikely to be the power unit . Recheck that everything is connected and as already stated try with vid card disconnected.

I still find it very strange that it may be the corsair that is causing your problem. Maybe better trying to borrow a power unit before buying a new one.

[Blitzen]

No way doe that card draw nearly 600W. It not that hungry.

I know this may sound daft, but is there power going to thr card? If so, the lead mightbe knackered so try a different one. Most good quality PSUs supply 2 PCI-E connectors with modular units.

Why does eveyone seem to think its not the power when it almost certainly is PSU related *may be just a cable). COrsairs are no more reliable than any other mid-high brand PSU.
Beides, if it wass from Scan, the RMA should be pretty painless.

[Robscure]

EXACTLY!!! the card cant use that much, I thought so myself!!!

So! What I did was... unplug everything... and check each device one by one!

And I figured out the problem!!!!

Now I'm installing my OS as I type this! WOOHOO!!!

My first build, and the cable management is beautiful, and its running clean and quiet... I'm thoroughly pleased.

The problem was that the 285 came with this little wire for Temperature Reading and I plugged that into the mobo... well I had that connected all along, and once I removed it, it worked! So it was that one single little stupid worthless wire making the computer shut down each time. Once removed, it all boots perfectly.


Woot

[aidanjt]

Lol. I knew it wasn't power related. Yeah, it was probably your BIOS attempting to be all smart..

[Robscure]

Lol. I knew it wasn't power related. Yeah, it was probably your BIOS attempting to be all smart..

lol I don't know why that little temperature connector would make such a big fuss, its seriously so small, like 20cm long, and one or two wires max... only a 2 prong (very tiny, like the fan connectors)...

Hey, Aidanjt, maybe you can help me with a minor problem I'm having, which I'm sure I could fix on my own, but hoping to save myself some time and trouble...

It seems, as I'm installing my OS, that the system is only detecting a single HDD... my 500gb WD... but I have 2x 500gb WD.... I have them both hooked up to the same power wire into my PSU, because its modular and has 2x SATA power connectors on the other end... and I have my SATA wire plugged into the mobo, but these are two separate wires, one for each... I plugged them both into the black sata box, as opposed to the red ones... there's only one black box... I think its special, labelled "Power" or something along those lines... I dont know... but anyways... im trying to figure out how to make my system detect both HDD's and to accept them .... I want my main of course for OS... but the other for movies/games....

I've never done this before so I'm not sure what to do... I thought this too would be plug and play, but I've apparently done something wrong.

Thanks

[aidanjt]

There really shouldn't be any problems. Hard drives are litterly a matter of plug and play, even when the system is already switched on. Try different cables and different ports. But generally Port's 0 and 1 should be used and be ok.

[Robscure]

There really shouldn't be any problems. Hard drives are litterly a matter of plug and play, even when the system is already switched on. Try different cables and different ports. But generally Port's 0 and 1 should be used and be ok.

Maybe I have them both in port 0.... I thought that the single little black "box" where there's two slots... was for ports 0 and 1....

Also... this is my first time running a 64gb os.;.. is there any reason why I have a C:\Program Files (x86) .... as well as a C:\Program Files ??????????

thanks again

[aidanjt]

Yeah, the black block is just a mechanical interface for two ports. Refer to your motherboard manual for port numbers of particular ports.

[Sputnik]

Well done on finding the fault, I had a similar problem once which turned out to be the BIOS thought the CPU fan was too slow so it kept shutting the PC down immediately after being started.