PC Tech Support

Okay, so I am building a new computer. I get everything setup. I put everything in the machine besides the video card and RAM, cause I haven’t got them yet. Besides that. I turn on the power switch to my power supply. Only the power supply turns on for just half a second. Nothing else on the computer turns on. What do you think the problem may be?

You really need the RAM before you can expect it to operate even somewhat normally. However, if you’ve managed to plug everything in correctly, you should get some unique sequence of beeps from the motherboard that tells you what’s wrong with it. In this case I would expect it to tell you there’s no memory available. Do you get any beeps when it tries to boot?

I don’t know that it should shut off right away, but it’s certainly possible. In my opinion it’s not worth messing with until you get your memory in.

Well I rechecked my wires and turns out it was a 12 pin connection. Yeah it gave me 19 on my Dr.Debug which translates into “No memory found”. Thanks for your help though, now I must wait for the UPS man to be at my door!

Best practice is to build the absolute minimum bootable system first and then add components 1 at a time and boot again.

IOW, wait till you have the video card and RAM and try again :smile:

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I was too anxious to wait. :smiley_cat:
I’m glad nothing MAJOR happened knocks on wood.

glad you got it sorted out! I have built quite a few rigs over the years… but as I got older, I came to appreciate having someone else labor over the process… :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

well, that coupled with the fact that components have become ridiculously inexpensive (comparatively speaking), and having a machine custom built is only marginally more expensive than building one yourself…

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I felt when building mine a great bond between man and machine though, Having someone else do it seems like it would take some of the fun away,

This is my first build, and the only experience I have is putting a graphics card in and more RAM. Other than that I’m all new at putting a computer together. The first intial thought going through my head was " Okay Jesse, this piece your holding is $400.00 don’t mess this up.tightens screw Was that too tight? " It’s a fun experience so far, and I believe that everyone should try it atleaset once. by the way the machine I’m referring to is mentioned in this thread, code named The Monster. (PC Part Picker)

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oh, it does indeed! :smile:

haha… I felt the exact same way the first time I tried to install a CPU… the pins always seemed to give the impression they would bend at the slightest touch… had to calm those shaky hands! :smile:

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I haven’t bought a desktop PC since my old Quanta Pentium 90 Mhz in early 1990’s! :blush:

Having said that, I used to build my family PC’s too (usually just handed down my retired gaming rigs) but didn’t have time recently so bought a CyberpowerPC desktop… my first desktop PC bought since 1990’s and guess what? Bad motherboard on arrival. Seriously!!! the MOBO!?!

Had a similar experience with iBuyPower and gaming laptop. Not DOA but the wifi card was faulty, they didn’t partition the drives correctly (left a huge portion of space un-allocated), and the Windows Activation failed!

So… back to building my own…

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yeah, there is always the risk of DOA components … I’ve experienced that as well, and in a few cases, I had the vendor reimburse me for the cost, bought the individual part and just installed it myself… sort of a best of both worlds, I suppose! :smile:

p.s. on an unrelated note, check your inbox here… from one gaming dad to another… :wink: