i have tried with nothing hooked up but CPU heat sink fan and mother board.. no hard drives dvd drives graphics card still does it... i guess tomorrow i will go buy a new power supply and see if thats it...
if it was a bad mother board it would not start at all right, same for if bad CPU it would not start up... i am so upset with my self that my first build is giving me trouble...
Are you sure the Heatsink and all the fasteners are installed correctly?
If you used pre-applied thermal paste, you did remove the plastic covering it?
ok well i tried another power supply i had from another computer does the same thing.. i then went and put a new heatsink on same thing.. i have unplugged everything but main power and cpu power same thing.... with or with out memory.. so have no clue..... for my first build this shore is turning into a pain in my butt... i keep telling my wife i bet its something stupid i am ding wrong.... anyone else have any ideas.... i am so ready to throw the dang thing in the trash i am so upset with my self..
Here are member TVeblen's troubleshooting steps that you might want to work through and see how far you can get.
It sounds like bad hardware or bad connections of some type, but you need to eliminate each piece of hardware one at a time as best you can.
You can test RAM and hard drives, but without special tools you can't really test power supplies or motherboards.
TVeblen’s method for a no start PC
Strip it down and then add components back, one at a time, to try and isolate the offending component.
The test (power off, power cord unplugged):
• Disconnect everything externally connected except the mouse and keyboard (printers, USB devices). If you are not using a wired mouse and keyboard see if you can borrow one.
• Disconnect the power and data cables from all the drives inside the computer (Hard drives, DVD/CD drives).
• Remove all the cards installed in the PCI slots including the video card. (be careful handling them and place them on a non conductive surface while testing).
• Remove all the RAM sticks (same rules as above).
Now connect the power cord and turn the PC on.
• The motherboard should start beeping. You should get a beep code that tells you there is no memory. This is good, it means the processor is functioning and the motherboard is good so far.
• Now add one stick of memory in Slot A1 and power on. More beeping: "no video card" beep code. This is good.
• Then add the video card and connect it to the monitor. You should get no beeping and you should see the BIOS screens, ending with the message that there is no boot device.
If you get no video then switch the one memory stick installed for another one and test.
Continue adding components one at a time.
If at any point the PC fails the the last component added was the problem one.
If you removed everything and there is only the Motherboard (with integrated video), processor, and power supply to contend with and it does not POST or show anything on the screen, then the problem is one of those three.
If you have tested by using another power supply then you are down to two. CPUs rarely fail, so motherboard is the most likely guess.
Try performing a CLRTC or Clear CMOS as a last ditch effort, and check the 3v battery. Both long shots, but what do you have to lose at this point.
i am going to try to take the cmos battery out for awhile then put it back in and see...
Another possibility is a short, usually between the case and the MB.
To test this many home builders do "breadboarding" where the PC components are tested outside of the case.
The MB cardboard box is very often used as the breadboard.
Here is one link with a Pic and better explanation.
Breadboarding - General-Homebuilt - Homebuilt-Systems
just want to say thanks to everyone who helped.. i have tried everything cant figure this out... grrrrrrrrrrrrrr ready to throw out in the street and never try to build a pc again...LOL
Nah... don't give up just yet, and certainly don't give up on the idea of building a PC yourself.
Not that it's any consolation given your current situation, but believe me when I tell you there's probably no greater joy than when you finish three days of hard work putting all the parts together (when you are NOT an engineer) and finally do plug it in while it's still on the kitchen counter where you've been performing the whole surgery, and push the POWER button on the case and it DOES NOT EXPLODE but instead actually appears to be working properly!
Anyway, you've actually tried stripping it all apart, down to its bare bones of power supply, motherboard, and CPU? And it still shuts off after 6 seconds and then powers itself back on 6 seconds later?
Have you phoned Intel for support? It's their motherboard and their processor. the auto-shutdown could certainly be a protective response for thermal or voltage overload reasons. But what/how/why would it power itself back on again? That has to be BIOS (which is motherboard) controlling and causing it I would think, not the CPU or PSU.
It's possible you've not mounted the board to the case properly I suppose, if all the "standoffs" haven't been inserted right, especially in the area of the CPU itself. But I would expect rather different symptoms from a "short".
I'd ask Intel's advice at this point, to explain how the power-off/power-on symptom can conceivably occur. What might cause that?
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