I have a dead computer right now and am hoping to get some help with it here a few months ago my motherboard shit the bed, if i were to turn the computer on it would freeze at the first screen and not let me go into bios or do anything. so i ordered a new motherboard (it was a pain to find one for my BTX case, but i did) and hooked everything up to it and powered on my machine, it started booting for about 2 seconds and then turned off. I tried it with a different power supply, same thing. also, it only will start to boot if i unplug the power from the back and then plug it back in. (the regular "on/off" button is useless) you can see my frusteration i'm sure... did the mobo i ordered(off of ebay) never work, is it something else, or am i just missing something obvious? thanks for the help guys =)
it's possible for the motherboard to have not worked out of the box, but before we assume... we need to look at a few other things. Your ram config, how much of it and in what slots? it may be a bad stick. I'd also investigate the harddrive... can you boot to bios? The tricky part is it's shuting itself off... I'd make sure everything is connected properly and well seated. Differnt board, differnet psu = same problem / must be something else... did you build the pc the first time?
It sounds like the power switch plug connector has the pins in the wrong order. You will need to consult your mobo manual and perform a pinnout.
I tried it with all possible ram configurations, unplugged/replugged everything and the problem ersists. (it's not the pins in the wrong order because i ordered the same board the computer came with) it is a gateway "gt5220" for all who are curious i'm about to take it to best buy (only becaus ei have a gift card leftover from christmas) and pay them to worry about it...but i want to try everything that's fre before i waste any money. thanks for the help so far, lots of advice, just not the right advice. =p
I took it to bestbuy today, they told me to get copper inserts to put between the screws and the mobo and that will fix the problem...so i'll buy some and then update you guys again. if that fixes it i'll also let you know. thanks for the speedy replies. =) @Adderall_Assasin: i had the heasink set up right with the right paste and everything.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh noooo!!! You have to use those. The mobo mounts to them with screws. Actually, a lot of mobo's come with those as standard hardware. If you mounted the mobo without them, you probably fried something. The solder points on the back of the mobo will short out on the metal case. Those screws also act as grounding points.
so i just started working on my computer again today, here's the update. I used all screws and it no longer shorts out. After the computer gets to the first boot screen now (press f12 for boot options, f2 for bios, that screen) it freezes up. If i press enough buttons on the keyboard it starts to make some noises, nothing special, just enough to know it's getting some signal. I'm thinking it's the processor now. any words of wisdom before i go out and sspend 50-200$?
Can you still RMA the mobo? When a board shorts out, it can cause permanent damage. Although sometimes you can get lucky.
