Member Avatar for The-Praetor

Okay I just went and spent about 1400$ on all these computer parts and when I put them togather I got nothing. My fans would run and my LED lights and CD drive light would blink on for about a second then everything would turn off. I fiddled around with the power cords and I got it to where it would keep the fans running and the LED lights and CD drive lights would stay on for about 5 seconds before turning off, but the fans would continue to run. The power light on the Motherboard is on and the hard drive sounds like its starts to boot up but then goes silent. My monitor has been blank this whole time. Then I did the barebones thing and the only thing which ran was the CPU and video card fan. I did not see anything on the monitor this time either. I have checked everything several times and everything is plugged in as it is suppose to be, but I don't know why I don't get anything on the monitor or why the lights go off.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

AMD 64-bit 3500
A8N-Sli Deluxe
2x512 corsair value ram
cooler master 460W PS

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Dani AI

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This is a very common set of symptoms for first builds — intermittent lights, fans spinning but no display and an early shutdown. The tips from and point to the right areas. Below is a concise, practical bench-test and troubleshooting checklist that fills gaps for future readers so a premature RMA is less likely.

  • Bench test first: place the board on a non-conductive surface, connect only PSU main and CPU power, one stick of RAM in the board’s primary single-stick slot, the GPU (if required for video) and a monitor. Use only what’s needed to POST.
  • Power checks: confirm the 24‑pin and the separate CPU 4/8‑pin are firmly seated. If your PSU is modular, verify the cable orientation. If the system powers but shuts quickly, try a known-good PSU — cheap or failing PSUs often trip and cut power.
  • Memory and video: test one RAM stick in every slot (one at a time). Reseat the GPU and try a different video cable or monitor. If the board has an onboard video option, try it to rule out the card.
  • Listen and read codes: attach a motherboard speaker or watch onboard LED POST codes. Those beep/LED patterns narrow down the failing subsystem fast.
  • CMOS and sockets: clear CMOS, visually inspect the CPU socket and cooler seating (no loose heatsink, no thermal paste on contacts). Don’t force anything; bent pins or a mis-seated cooler can stop POST.
  • Safety and next steps: use basic ESD grounding, avoid testing powered components with the case open if unsure, and only RMA one part at a time (swap a spare PSU or RAM first when possible) so you know which component was faulty.

For context: the case-contact and RAM-slot suggestions in this thread are typical fixes, but methodical bench-testing above is the fastest way to identify whether it was a short, PSU, memory, GPU, or truly a CPU fault.

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Member Avatar for Devonalper

Do you have the small gold pieces in your case that raise the mobo off the bottom. If you dont the motherboard has been shorting out against the metal case. If you are lucky you havent fried your motherboard. When i built my first PC i had that problem.

Devon

Member Avatar for moderate_rock48

Also, make sure you have the ram in the right slots. it is color coded, so if you have one stick in the blue slot on one side, the other stick needs to go into the blue slot on the other side. The RAM should be in the blue slots.

Member Avatar for The-Praetor

Thanks guys, I did end up taking it out of the case when I called the mother board company and they told me my CPU was defective... so I have since then mailed back my CPU for replacement and btw I did put in the standoffs and everything fits alot nicer, I'm so glad I didn't fry my mother board :cool:

Member Avatar for Devonalper

The standoffs might have fixed everything and the CPu wasn't defective at all.

Glad it worked that problem got me so frusturated.

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