It sort of points to the power supply, doesn't it?  You  had the same problem with the old system, and the other two parts test okay 
in another system, so it is reasonable to suspect the power supply.

Also, your two basic "known's" are not correct.  First of all, some things could be going and/or lit up, but the power supply still 
could be weak enough to not be able to boot the whole system.  Second, things could have come dead on arrival.  Many of the bad 
reviews on NewEgg.com come from people who got bad products.  Some even returned the product and got another bad product 
replacement!  I think that you are right to think that this is rare.  But I can tell you that I once got an ASUS motherboard, which 
in the past was known for quality, with bad networking hardware right out of the box.

One thing that you might try is to unhook the power to the hard drive and see if you can get past POST.  That would indicate that 
the power supply can supply a little power, but not enough to get the job done.  The one problem with this test is that some power 
supplies need a load to start up, and the motherboard may not be enough of a load by itself.

http://www.pcpower.com/support/ATX_troubleshoot.htm has a check for a power supply, but it is a very poor test.  Your power supply 
could be failing and still pass this test.  (I have had a power supply that passed this test but was no good.) You might try it 
anyway.  If it passes, then that does not mean anything, but if it fails, then you know that the power supply is bad.

Make sure that the motherboard is standing well off of the case so that there is no chance of the traces on the bottom of the 
motherboard touching the case, except where the stand-offs are screwed in.

If you can borrow a power supply to try the system out, then that would be ideal.  Swapping in new parts one at a time can get 
expensive.  Cheap power supplies are not too bad (nice to have a spare), but powerful game power supplies can run pretty expensive.

And, of course, there is the time-honored technique of disconnecting everything and adding components one at a time, with the caveat 
that the power supply may need a load to run at all.  So, you may have to leave a drive connected.

HTH

Dean Kukral


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "jimi moore" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 11:22 PM
Subject: [PCBUILD] New Build


I've recently started building a new computer. I believe I've assembled all
of the parts and connections correctly. The problem however is that upon
booting up, the system doesn't past POST. There are no sounds, and no beep.
There is also no red light showing at all. However all of the fans are
spinning, and there is a green light on the motherboard, so I know it's
getting power. My system specs are as follows:

Power Supply: 700W GameXstream
Motherboard: Asus P5N-D
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700
RAM: Two 2048MB sticks of DDR2 Corsair RAM.
Graphics Card: Nvidia 8800 GTS
HDD: 500 GB Western Digital Caviar

The HDD, Graphics Card, and Power Supply are from my old system. Now, the
reason for building a new one in the first place was that my old one was
having the exact same error. I know the HDD works, because I've tested it in
another machine. I've also tested the Graphics Card in another machine. Both
worked flawlessly. I highly doubt it's the Power Supply, because of the
green light on the motherboard and the fact that all of the fans spin. I
also doubt the new parts I've ordered were shipped dead on arrival. Hence we
have a problem that really confuses me. I am getting the same error in my
new machine as I was having in my old, but the only things that could be the
problem I'm certain are not.

So, can anybody help me out here?

Jimi Moore

 

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