Just built a bare bones asus computer and when i press the power on button the thing fires up for about 2-3 secs tha stops.

any computer gurus got any ideas. I have checked that the memory and processor are in properly and the graphics card. Also checked the connections on the harddrive and DVD drive. They all seem fine.

Any advice much welcome

Ta

Dave

Surely something to do with fans and temperature?

I read that as "anus" computer which seems strangely appropriate 🙂

Pardon me if I make some elementary error here but I would have thought if it was temperature issues it would take longer than a couple of seconds.

My rather old PC does this if it has been turned off from the mains for a while – repeated pressing the button gets its started after a few goes – its attempts to boot for longer each time. I balme this on the small rechargable battery on the motherboard no longer holding charge – could be totally wrong tho

Won't be anything to do with any of the components external to the motherboard (except maybe the power supply) as if it only stays on for 2 or 3 seconds the BIOS hasn't yet had time to boot, let alone access the Hard Drive to boot the OS or any of the other components.

Suggest you try a different processor and RAM if possible…

What processor and RAM are you running? And the rest of the components (including the GFX card) too… If you've bought a Barebones ASUS PC, as is often the case with Barebones systems, the Power Supply may be pretty low wattage, and only designed to work with minimal additional equipment (ie. no external GFX card really) and a low powered processor. And have a look at the Power supply, let us know what the wattage on that is too…

What exactly do you mean by 'stops' – what's it doing at this point? Has it turned itself off ? Has it beeped at you (and if so how many times)? Can you get to the bios setup?

I'd be inclined to disconnect the drives – and mebbe memory too – and see what happens – as it boots it'll beep to tell you what's missing (RTFM/google).

make sure the on/off button isnt getting stuck in as this will cause it to shut down

press in then it springs back out

As what others have said, disconnect as much as you can, run it off the onboard graphics if board has it, just processor and ram. A few years ago a certain type of board had a jumper set in a position where it wouldn't run til you move it over, don't think it was asus though. See if the bios runs. You usually get a beep warning if the ram is dodgy. If still no look, check the processor is seated okay, it'll be something stupid.

It could be a fault with the motherboard, it does happen, and that would be difficult to isolate without actually trying a new motherboard. Temperature issues can develop extremly quickly – my brother had a system in which the cpu fan had become dislodged in transit, and a few seconds was all that was necessary for things to fry.

The absence of any BIOS beeps suggests that it might be a psu issue, either a faulty one or simply an underpowered unit. Todays components (especially cpus and graphics cards) can require quit a lot of power and powerup can be a pretty stressful time.

is it beeping when it starts up? you may be getting beep error messages, just listen out for groups of beeps before it shuts down, then find out what they mean according to your mobo manufacturer, might help

if you've built it up from scratch ie installing the motherboard into the case did you put any of the little round insulators between the screws and motherboard?
it could be something is shorting out somewhere.

I'd hazard a guess at the PSU mate.

What specs is it ?

Right gents, i've took the graphics card out 9it has onboard graphics), checked the CPU (3.06ghz dual core intel socket 775), removed checked and re-installed the 2 x 2gig ram d (ddr2) and checked the harddrive and DVD connections.

the CPU fan,graphics card fan and PSU fan all spin up but only for 1-2 secs.

no beep which I assume means it's not getting through the the bios? correct?

the CPU connnections 'seem' ok,

PSU = 300watt peak.

motherboard and PSU are already installed in the case, it was abarebone system.

unplug the drives and try and boot without them

Take everything off the mobo except the CPU & see what happens
If it doesn't fail, start adding bits & trying it each time, starting with the RAM

Does sound like a PSU problem.

300watt is enough to get everything going, though to be fair if you want to run a half decent GFX card the PSU will need replacing ASAP.

Unless of course as someone else has said it might be a motherboard issue. No beep does sound like not getting through to the BIOS.

just took the cpu and graphics card out and it didn't switch off. So it would appear to be one of those

is it safe to run the cpu without fan for a few seconds to see if its that?

As someone else has suggested – make doubly sure the mboard is not shorting out somewhere on the case panel behind it. Remove the board and put a thin sheet of plastic (or sommat) behind it & try again…
Good Luck.

try just the cpu with fan and no graphics card

try just the cpu with fan and no graphics card

just tried it,and it looks like the CPU or the fan.

switches off when they are connected.
just disconnected the fan on the cpu and it's still switches off.

looks like the cpu/motherboard interface is the problem.

can you bend those pins when installing it? and will that effect that interface?

those teeny weeny little gold pins. In the old days when I worked in IT you could if you were very very careful indeed sometimes get away with straightening a couple of slightly bent pins. Wouldn't be so sure now, there's lots more even smaller pins…

Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!

so much for trying to save some dosh by DIY.

what a hamfisted dick i am.

Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!Bugger!

back to scan to tomorrow to plead for some help and probably a new case etc.

If your BIOS can't detect that the CPU fan is spinning then it may shut down to avoid damage. (mine does)

you say the fan is spinning but make sure the fan detect line is connected to the right header on the motherboard.

sorry to hear that 🙁 good luck

The connection for the fan is into the CPU fan connnector on the motherboard Graham, just double checked just to make sure

A few years ago a certain type of board had a jumper set in a position where it wouldn't run til you move it over

it was the Asus A7N266.

Web review here with correct jumper diagram

You'd be doing well to bend a CPU pin as these days the CPU generally drops in (ZIF= Zero Insertion Force) unless of course you put it in backwards and just shoved… 😀

Cpu fan plugged in?

Clear CMOS?

Yeah, you would be hard pressed to bend a CPU pin these days, as Graham says they are ZIF.

I would say that almost for sure your PSU will not be up to running that amount of kit. I would have specced a minimum 500 watt in any modern machine as a minimum. What GFX card is it, as they pull a massive amount of power these days.

User Error??

it's a radeon hd 4670 512mb.

cheers djglover that makes me feel much better

lowey, did that guy with the pushed rp23 get in touch?

Does the motherboard have any integrated graphics?

If so, try plugging the monitor into that and removing the fx card.

What are you seeing on startup – are you even seeing the bios screen before it shuts down? Does the MB have a bios battery installed?

Check you have installed the memory correctly – (I'm a bit out of date, not built a pc for a few years now) but the last time I built one, I'd not put the memory in the correct sockets (dual channel ram), which prevented the pc getting very far. As soon as I realised the simple problem, after about an hour of swearing and checking the mb switches evy, it was all systems go.

Is the pc speaker beeper plugged in – how many beeps are you hearing before it resets?

300w is far too little really for a modern pc, its a pointless economy imho.

it's a radeon hd 4670 512mb.

You're likely to need at least a 400W PSU to run that GFX card with everything else, if not more.

My new PC is an ebuyer special, cheap case and MOBO etc. But all good functional gear, just low spec… Came with a 350W PSU. This is only just enough to run a fairly low spec GFX card on top of the standard spec (it wouldn't support an ATI 4670 like yours I doubt) without uprating the PSU. But then I don't need a superb GFX card, and won't be adding any additional equipment on top of what it's got now, so it'll do me. Otherwise, as stated above, fitting a 300W PSU is very false economy as you will always have to uprate it as soon as you fit any more components to the system!

Scan test stuff on the spot, and replace it there and then if necessary. Doubt you could damage the CPU, they don't even have pins any more, it's all in the socket.

You can run it without the fan for considerable time, but the heatsink is ABSOLUTELY essential. 2-3 seconds is enough to fry the CPU. Have all the necessary power supply connections been made to the motherboard (might be more than one)?

300W PSU is not enough at all for modern PCs you really should be pushing even past 400W and looking at least 500W, like already mentioned. It may not be that but I say stand a good chance to be, I run a 750W in mine as 650W that it came with got pushed at times and that's before added my new soundcard which has a power supply to it.

I dont mean to sound unsympathetic but please tell me you have done a better job with my light 😉
Feel for you they are a pain in the arse to deal with those bloody computers.

I did not choose the 300w PSU is what already fitted as it was a barebone system.

The only reason for adding the pci graphics card was for MTB video editing only.

Is there thermal compound between the cpu and heatsink / fan?

Is there thermal compound between the cpu and heatsink / fan?

sure is

and yip Johnny, i would be concerned, given this episode with electronics

Have you run it with JUST the CPU in?

i.e. disconnect power and signal to all drives, remove all cards including graphics, run with just CPU and memory in and nothing else.

If it still won't get past BIOS in that state then it is unlikely to be power (though I do agree that 300w is pretty ambitious for a system these days).