At 01:57 PM 11/21/2004, you wrote:
>I just finished building a new pc, but when I turn on the power switch the
>pc doesn't boot. However the keyboard responds by lighting up briefly (to
>be specific, the "print screen", "scroll lock" and "pause" keyboard keys
>light up briefly when I turn on the computer, but nothing else happens).
>The motherboard is a Syntax S661M with SiS661FX Northbridge and SiS963L
>Southbridge. The CPU is a Pentium 4, 2.80E Ghz. The processor was inserted
>correctly. The thermal compound was placed on top of the processor and the
>heatsink was then attached. The power supply is labelled OKIA420ATX and
>has 420 watts. There are two DIMMS memory slots, one of which is populated
>with a 512 MB module. There is a hard drive, a cdr/cdrw drive, a floppy
>drive, and a modem. I disconnected the modem,the hard drive, the CD drive
>and the front USB, but the problem persists.
>Please help me, I don't know what to do.

HI Michael,

You have started out doing the right things. I have built many PC's from
scratch, and here is a few of the common things to check for.

1.) On P4's, there is a separate 4 pin power connector from the power
supply (one of the things that makes a power supply "P4 ready"), called the
"ATX" plug, make sure that is plugged into the motherboard. It won't power
up without it.

2.) This may sound silly, but I recently put together two AMD systems for a
friend, and the power supplies were shipped by default with the 115/230V
switch set to the 230V position. This stumped me for a few minutes since
the other PSU's I had gotten before came already set to the 115V position
and I didn't bother to check. This can cause the same symptoms.

3.) Try removing the video card (make sure the PC speaker is hooked up).
This might get it to evoke some beeps from the speaker. This would be proof
that the basic CPU and motherboard functions, but the video card is
preventing this when plugged in. Some of the newer high end video cards
require more power than can be delivered via the card slots, so they need a
separate power connection, check that.

4.) If still no-go, then remove the memory. Again, a no-memory condition
typically evokes a set of beeps that would indicate basic CPU/motherboard
functionality.

5.) Check to make sure that nothing is shorting out the motherboard to the
case. Perhaps a standoff in the case that does not correspond to a mounting
hole on the motherboard. You can try removing the motherboard from the case
and placing on a non-conducting surface and connecting the basic components
(CPU, memory, video card), to see if it will power up.

If all this fails, then it pretty much points to one of the remaining
components is faulty, if you have spares to try, do that. Start with the
PSU. There have been reports of some PSU's not playing well with some
motherboards, like Asus. Check the motherboard web site, particularly their
customer forums (if they have any) to see if there are any such reports.
There have been some discussions on the Dev Hardware forum
(forums.devhardware.com). Beyond that, the CPU or motherboard may be
faulty. I checked the Syntax web site, and it looks like it should support
the Prescott processor.

Russ Poffenberger
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