Heys all, finally got all my parts in and spent hours sifting through non-detailed instructions(although they did have picture diagrams) and finally completed(or so i thought) successfully my new computer. connected all the peripherals and went to turn the power switch, for about 3/4ths of a second i was blissfully happy, until the computer started to power down again. It seemed to repeat the process without me touching the power button a 2nd time indefinitely as well.

After pushing the button, i see the led light up and i also saw one led on the motherboard light up as well, and i hear the fan(not sure which, there's 4 maybe im hearing all 4 of them tho) start up but just as quickly it all dies down and after 2 or 3 seconds later it repeats the process.

So with those clues, can anyone please help me in troubleshooting this?

A couple other things that might be an issue that i wouldnt know, when i was applying the heatsink, i didn't realize how fast the thermal paste dried and i took to long screwing in the mount for the heatsink and end result, the heatsink got shifted just a tiny little bit so its a little crooked and the paste dried so...can't move it.

Also Quizz suggested i get the sapphire radeon hd 6950 1gb video card but when i as finalizing my purchase, in the time between me selecting it and about to checkout, the card sold out. so i ended up buying the sapphire radeon hd 6950 2gb video card, i dont know if that extra 1g ram means my power supply just can't power it up and i need a stronger one than a 650w?

And lastly, i dont know if this happened while i was assembling the computer or if it arrived this way, but one of the Sata pair connectors on the motherboard seems to be missing, specifically the sata 7-8(which sucks because 1-2 and 7-8 are the sata 3 connections). I was hoping even though that seemed to be missing that it would still work but maybe not given how things are...

That's everything i can think of, hopefully whatever you guys think may be the problem is a simple one and that i won't have to buy or replace anything, but let me know and i'll see what i can do.

Could be a number of things. To help narrow down, list the specs of your build with brand names and all. motherboard, video card, processor,  hard drives, etc. And let us know what all was hooked up at the time you tried to power on.

Did you use a surge protector or power strip?

I've seen something like that happen because a power button was simply stuck. So give it another look over, and list your specs please :)

if you use w7 it will restart a lot of time before it is done!check the website of your nobo vendor get the paper for your mobo there

read them make sure all is connected has they say (on average it is all plug and play so you wont have many issue understanding

when that is done go in bios ,make sure all is according to the same booklet again it is all faily simple(to access bios press del key (spam the key about every second till the screen change(not the black one if you get a black screen restart and try to time better,once in adjust like mentionned in booklet,once that is done .you should be fine

make sure cd drive or dvd drive is first boot put ms window 7 disk in (make sure to use 64 bit or 32 bit depending what you chose(it prob is 64 bit)

lets it run for 30 minute watch it once in a while read what it ask chose what you want ,again its plug and play so it is all self explanatory.

after a bunch of reboot ,update (will probably need  a bunch of restart to get all updated ,get microsoft security essential,ms sweeper (beta)to be used once a month when you re sleeping.

go to ati/amd website and search for you update there ,(always uninstall yours first.)the screen will change size its normal you will be at ms default size.

once you updated ati driver your done restart and enjoy your system.

and as far as your sata connectors are concerned. you have to watch REAL closely to the model of the motherboard. Sometimes they give you a generic picture of that series of motherboard, but the SPECIFIC board you have, doesn't have those.

Example they may show a pic of the Asus k85743  and you have a k854743  ..one freakin number off! and its different. hehe.

You must have pluged in the the main 20+4 pin, but did you plug in the 4/6 pin power connector? (Right Above the CPU Socket)

Pics of Guts Help

Receive any error Code? (did you plug in Mobo speaker to hear beep codes?)

Originally posted by gravitz

I've seen something like that happen because a power button was simply stuck. So give it another look over, and list your specs please :)

This happened to my friend, similar result. He thought it was the motherboard for the longest time, but it was the case he bought and the power button would get stuck down when he tried turning it on. Would turn on for a few seconds then turn off.

This also happens occasionally when the motherboard is shorted by its back touching the metal case. Make sure if your case/motherboard has pegs to raise it off the case that you use them. 

If you are concerned with the video card drawing too much power, you should be able to boot up the system without it (of course you wouldn't be able to see anything unless you have onboard video). Just unplug the power and video card and try turning on the system and seeing if the result is the same.

Originally posted by Nvious

You must have pluged in the the main 20+4 pin, but did you plug in the 4/6 pin power connector? (Right Above the CPU Socket)

 

Pics of Guts Help

 

Receive any error Code? (did you plug in Mobo speaker to hear beep codes?)

i did plug in the huge 24 pin one! but i didn't know there was another pin power connector that i was supposed to plug something into. i'll look into this. meanwhile here's my specs

Gfx card- Sapphire flex hd6950 2g ram

psu - corsair 650W TXV2

ssd - 64g crucial m4

memory- 4gx2 corsair vengeance ddr3

motherboard- msi p67a-gd55

processor- intel i5 sandy bridge 2500k

cd/dvd- asus dvdrw-24B1ST

hdd- 2 tb western digital caviar black 7200rpm

cpu cooler/heatsink - cooler master hyper 212 plus

that should be everything

to answer a couple other questions, to the person who mentioned something about w7, this is the very first time the computer is being turned on, so i haven't had a chance to even set up the bios yet let alone install an OS.

and i plugged it into a surge protector. not just a 6-way strip but an actual surge protector

Originally posted by Sephiroso

Originally posted by Nvious

You must have pluged in the the main 20+4 pin, but did you plug in the 4/6 pin power connector? (Right Above the CPU Socket)

 

Pics of Guts Help

 

Receive any error Code? (did you plug in Mobo speaker to hear beep codes?)

i did plug in the huge 24 pin one! but i didn't know there was another pin power connector that i was supposed to plug something into. i'll look into this. meanwhile here's my specs

Gfx card- Sapphire flex hd6950 2g ram

psu - corsair 650W TXV2

ssd - 64g crucial m4

memory- 4gx2 corsair vengeance ddr3

motherboard- msi p67a-gd55

processor- intel i5 sandy bridge 2500k

cd/dvd- asus dvdrw-24B1ST

hdd- 2 tb western digital caviar black 7200rpm

cpu cooler/heatsink - cooler master hyper 212 plus

that should be everything

 

to answer a couple other questions, to the person who mentioned something about w7, this is the very first time the computer is being turned on, so i haven't had a chance to even set up the bios yet let alone install an OS.

and i plugged it into a surge protector. not just a 6-way strip but an actual surge protector

ok this is probably the problem, I'm looking at a picture of your motherboard now. plug in your 24 pin power connector and theres another 8 pin over by the back i/o panel, Try that and see what happens

I Also just took a look at your video card. If i found the right one, be sure to connect the 2 6 pin pci-e power connectors to it as well. This wouldn't cause a restart if it wasn't connected, but your video card wouldn't perform to its potential

Originally posted by gravitz

I Also just took a look at your video card. If i found the right one, be sure to connect the 2 6 pin pci-e power connectors to it as well. This wouldn't cause a restart if it wasn't connected, but your video card wouldn't perform to its potential

gravitz i will love you for a very long time man, i totally missed that other 8pin connector, i see it in my manual now. i'm gonna open it up and try it, i hope i have time cause i have to leave for work soon hah. as for the gfx connectors i did that. but i think you found my problem, thanks so much and ill report back with hopefully good news soon.

EDIt: just got the 8 pin connector in, was hard too...not enough room to manuever fingers. anyway wont have enough time to test it and switch computers to report but i will be back in about 6 hours so youll hear from me then, thanks again for all the help and hopefully everything will check out

Hah, no problem. You can feel free to PM me any time if you need anything else!

Okay that 8pin connector turned out to be the issue, its now able to properly turn on. and it loaded the bios menu by itself the first time. but that's where i start having issues.

first off, the screen seems a bit distorted. it doesn't look like it should in the manual. it seems to be a resolution error(i'm using a 22 inch( i  think) tv as my computer monitor) that's a minor issue however, but a slightly bigger and annoying one is the text that details what an option does tends to not clear itself out when i exit out to see a new menu and it overlaps over old information. again that's a minor issue that i was sure would work it self out when i installed windows/drivers.

i finally found the boot up screen in the bios and set my dvd drive to be the first bootable device saved changes and restarted my computer after putting in the windows 7 disc but nothing ever came up. it showed the msi screen that's actually the gfx on the box the motherboard came in for half a sec then goes to a black screen with a never-ending blinking underscore. the OS disc never got loaded up.

i dont think the issue is with the cd/dvd drive because it opens up just fine, the green led shows up after i close it making it look like its actually reading the disc, and i also can kinda hear its gears churning. and also the dvd does move after closing so i know it spun at least a little bit(as in i put the dvd facing one way, and when i take it out its facing another way).

anyone think they know what my issue is?

a little bit more information is the windows 7 that i was trying to install was windows 7 home premium OEM. i read somewhere that i needed something called an OPK? but i think thats only if i was intending to sell this computer which i dont but idk if you HAVE to have that to install an OEM or is that just something that has nothing to do with my needs.

also when i saw the boot up screen showing all the boot up options in the order, i did notice there was a couple diff cd/dvd drives, 1 was my asus dvd drive i bought, another was 'usb cd/dvd drive' another was uefi(i think) and i saw i could list my asus under as well. is my issue that i simply need to disable all these other drives even though i set the Asus as the 1st bootable device?

please help me ;_; thanks.

Make sure your disc works on another computer.

You don't have to actually install it, but make sure it boots. I've had OEM discs go bunk before because of dirt/fingerprints/etc. IDK why the Win7 install dvd seems to be more finiky than most every other DVD, but yeah.

The OPK is only if you are making a blank HD image to transfer to a bunch of bulk pre-built computers. I've used OEM discs fine in the past.

If the disc boots fine on another computer - play with the BIOS settings some more. You should see your SATA DVD drive listed there and put it ahead of anything else.

When installing Windows, sometimes you have to wait a while.  It will look like it isn't doing anything.  Even when installing it to an SSD, it will sometimes take several minutes at a time in which it looks like the system has completely locked up.  It's doing stuff in the background, but just isn't telling you about it.  Now, if you leave it for an hour and still nothing happens, then something might be wrong.  But try that first.

Ok, you have set your first bootable disc to the DVD reader and the secondary to a harddrive.

As Quizz said it could take a few minutes, I have seen up to 3 minutes delay during the hundred or so OSes I have installed so be a little patient.

You should hear the DVD start to run and when it does you should push the anykey, it might be that your TV misses that text because it is just out of the screen or something.

"Push any key to boot from the CD" is the usual message. If you don't you should get the message that it found no OS on your harddrive and ask you to push any key to reboot.

Does it do anything or just lock itself up?

Also power light and such doesnt mean that the board is finding your DVD drive

Can you confirm in the BIOS that the system can see the DVD drive?

Usually on the first screen in the BIOS it will list all your drives by their part number

You should have 3 drives listed - your 2 HDDs and the DVD drive

In the past i have had issues with where SATA drives are plugged in (this though is more to do with IDE controllers and having seen your mobo it doesnt have an IDE so dont worry, nice mobo by the way!)

resit your heatsink on the CPU, did you do the apply a pea size glob thermal compound in the middle then press the heat sink on to it?. I think this will even more likely be the reason if you used the stock cooler that come with CPU's, they're not that good and tricky for first time builders. The power on then off is normal if unpluged your PSU, but should boot up on the second, if repeating, then there's a good chance your CPU getting to hot and the built in Intel heat protection cycling the Pc boot to protect it from damage.

Originally posted by IAmMMO

resit your heatsink on the CPU, did you do the apply a pea size glob thermal compound in the middle then press the heat sink on to it?. I think this will even more likely be the reason if you used the stock cooler that come with CPU's, they're not that good and tricky for first time builders. The power on then off is normal if unpluged your PSU, but should boot up on the second, if repeating, then there's a good chance your CPU getting to hot and the built in Intel heat protection cycling the Pc boot to protect it from damage.

+1 on the cpu heatsink reaseating with correct thermal paste. I'd look online to see what the manufacturer says for exactly how to apply the thermal paste to the cpu. Some say apply them differently, but usually less is more.

I think there's something hardware related going on still. You shouldn't have screen corruption in your BIOS menu like you described. Might want to see how it operates with just one stick of RAM in there (and then the other) to see if there's possible memory issues. You might want to disconnect the SSD and hard drive too and just see if you can get it to boot off the DVD first.

Originally posted by IAmMMO

resit your heatsink on the CPU, did you do the apply a pea size glob thermal compound in the middle then press the heat sink on to it?. I think this will even more likely be the reason if you used the stock cooler that come with CPU's, they're not that good and tricky for first time builders. The power on then off is normal if unpluged your PSU, but should boot up on the second, if repeating, then there's a good chance your CPU getting to hot and the built in Intel heat protection cycling the Pc boot to protect it from damage.

I considered that when I did my earlier post as well, but I don't think it fits how it acts here.

Instead of locking up it should reboot as soon as it overheats. Usually is this due to the heatsink not sitting perfect, not the cooling paste in itself (but when you open it up and change the paste it will fix the problem anyways unless you mount it wrong the second time as well).

This might be the problem still and checking that the heat sink is correctly mounted is a good idea of course.

As for the DVD that the DVD opens is just proof that the powercord is plugged in, but it doesn't tells us anything more. However did OP put it as the main boot device and that means it is in.

I see one of 3 issues likely:

1. OP can due to his screen not see that he must hit space or another key to actually boot the DVD.

2. The DVD has some dirt, clean it.

3. Something is weird with the harddrive. Check that you can see it in the bios and check so it is the secondary boot device.

The fourth is that the heat sink isn't sitting straight against the processor. While the original cooling paste is so so it would be no problem with it just booting up W7, then it would overheat when he started to use a lot of processor power.