HELP: Attempted upgrade of PC gone wrong

[Badfinger]

My guess is also the power supply, except that it worked for another computer. It's generally not the wattage, you can get a 700w PSU for like $25 bucks (they're garbage to be clear, but you can get a lot of watts for cheap). Generally the problems are the amperage on the 12v rails (for the fans and gpu) and the ability to sustain a power load. I've had thermaltake psus, they're pretty good, and looking at yours it's an 80 bronze rating. The pedigree isn't the issue, it just might be a baddy.

 

 

If you haven't boxed everything back up yet, my last ditch suggestion would be take the motherboard out of the case and see if it POSTs. You might be getting a weird short somewhere.

[clyde]

kinda disappointed that we may never find out what the problem was.

[Dragonfliet]

Wow, what a total nightmare man. You have my absolute condolences. 

[osmosisch]

At least you're not alone:

https://twitter.com/K2theSwift/status/750534380666388480

[PileOfMeatballs]

Okay. I've had some time to cool off (and also appreciate how much stuff I can't return and have to put up on eBay).  So I'm going to make another effort to get this build off the ground.  I'm going to buy a new case, just in case there is a short in one of the connectors, and a new PSU.  So I have a new question:

 

For the PSU, I'm looking at 80 PLUS Gold certified PSUs in the 700w - 750w range.  With a gtx 960 video card, core i3 processor, 4 DDR4 ram sticks, a 1T Hard drive and possibly an SSD, I think I'm still well within my power budget.  Does this sound right to everyone?

 

Thanks again for all your help.  All of you Slyboots have been more helpful than any other source I've tapped for info about this.  

[clyde]

You can put all the components into PcPartsPicker and it will give you estimated wattage needs.

[ratamero]

I think a good PSU in this range should be more than enough if you don't have a monster of a video card (or SLI stuff), but as clyde mentioned, there's a number of wattage calculators out there! 

[Badfinger]

A 750W 80+ Gold PSU is hilarious overkill for an i3 and a GTX 960. You'll be fine. If there's a legitimate price difference something in the 500-650 range will do you fine. If your PSU is NOT the problem, I'd keep it. If you still have concern, definitely check sites with different wattage.

 

For reference I'm running an i5-2500K (older, more power hungry architecture) with a 970 and 4 hard drives on an Antec 500W and it's fine.

 

I am going to again suggest before you buy more stuff to remove the motherboard from the case and plug everything in one at a time  next to it (like on a static shield bag) and see if it posts.

[feelthedarkness]

i just remembered another real low level troubleshooting thing i ran into with my last build. make sure you're not over tightening things. i think when i first got the liquid CPU cooler, i screwed it down a few turns too much, and it was distorting/slightly messing up the socket connection. 

[PileOfMeatballs]

  On 7/8/2016 at 3:51 PM, Badfinger said:

I am going to again suggest before you buy more stuff to remove the motherboard from the case and plug everything in one at a time next to it (like on a static shield bag) and see if it posts.

Thanks. I've already done this. Same problem. But I appreciate your being thorough.

[Badfinger]

  On 7/8/2016 at 7:21 PM, PileOfMeatballs said:

Thanks. I've already done this. Same problem. But I appreciate your being thorough.

 

Gotcha, if you posted that I missed it. My apologies. Keep working on it!

[SuperCatFriend]

Hey, one thing I've not seen mentioned is to "breadboard" the system before putting it in a case. By that I mean put the CPU / mobo / ram together on top of the motherboard box with the mobo's anti-static bag underneath the board to keep it insulated. Put the graphics card into the board and connect the power supply and power switch. See if it POST's then. If that's OK, it means your'e shorting it out somehow in the case.

[PileOfMeatballs]

PROGRESS!!!!  I got the computer to POST, all components in.  IT'S ALIVE!!!

 

However I have a new problem.  I'm trying to install Windows 7 from a DVD and it loads the install program. Ask me the language.  The it says that it can't find the CD/DVD driver.  I'm using an external DVD drive for this.  I've tried putting the MoBo disk in the drive to see if the drivers are there but they are not.  I've tried the drive in every USB port the system has.  It also doesn't make sense to me that the PC will recognize the drive and load the windows installation program, then fail to recognize it.  

 

Suggestions welcome.  

 

Thanks again for all your help.  

[osmosisch]

Install from USB, microsoft has downloads for usb installers these days. Of course there I'm assuming you have another PC available to put the iso on the USB stick.

[PileOfMeatballs]

  On 7/9/2016 at 9:39 PM, osmosisch said:

Install from USB, microsoft has downloads for usb installers these days. Of course there I'm assuming you have another PC available to put the iso on the USB stick.

My other computer is a Mac.

[clyde]

So was it the power-supply?

[Nappi]

Nice to hear that you were finally able to mke progress!

You can create a bootable USB Windows installer on OS X with Boot Camp Assistant. However, I'm not entirely sure if it makes some boot camp specific modifications to the installer. I'm fairly certain that you can make a bootable USB drive using other mac tools as well.

[PileOfMeatballs]

  On 7/10/2016 at 12:27 AM, clyde said:

So was it the power-supply?

 

That's my guess.  I replaced the case as well but I think if the short was in the case, things would have started up when I breadboarded it. 

[PileOfMeatballs]

I'm officially up and running.  System works.  Windows 10 installed (for better or worse).  Already played 2 hours of The Witcher III.  

 

Thanks again to all of you who help.  This whole process would have taken a LOT longer without you. 

[osmosisch]

Awesome! Congratulations.

[feelthedarkness]

Yay!

 

Few things are more annoying than the doubt laced mystery of unworking computer parts, but it's SO satisfying when that new thing boots up. 

[JonCole]

For the record and I'm sorry I'm late with this, but some PSU's may have a high total wattage but not enough voltage rails to properly power everything. Basically too many things are asking for too much power and the PSU just doesn't have enough big voltage bandwidth channels to deliver that power (this is highly dumbed down, honestly I don't fully understand it because my electrical engineering courses are a little buried in the memory banks). This can usually be avoided without having to do considerable research by buying Gold/Platinum PSUs, in my experience, as they tend to not cut any corners that budget PSUs sometimes do.

[PileOfMeatballs]

  On 7/11/2016 at 3:21 PM, feelthedarkness said:

Yay!

 

Few things are more annoying than the doubt laced mystery of unworking computer parts, but it's SO satisfying when that new thing boots up. 

 

Ugh.  Tell me about it. This fucker was a thorn in my side for 3.5 weeks.  All good now though.  

[Dragonfliet]

I'm so happy you got it working, even if it was a nightmare to get there. 

[pabosher]

  On 7/11/2016 at 10:02 PM, PileOfMeatballs said:

Ugh.  Tell me about it. This fucker was a thorn in my side for 3.5 weeks.  All good now though.  

 

Mine took me three months. I know the pain.