Re-PSU'ing my PC

[FUSION X16XE]

HELP lol

Lots of wires and not a clue what goes were! :confused:

I dont want to put a powerful wire onto something that only needs a small suply.

Any online walkthroughs? Anybody from admin fancy telling me what to do.

Im not stupid but i just dont want to "guess" and break something lol

[wisewood]

Its been a while since i did any of this, but doesnt everything just fit into where it should go.

Motherboard is a unique connection. Hard drives / cd/dvd drives have the same connector and a floppy drive (if you even have one) has a smaller connector.

They should all only fit in one way around so no problems.

[FUSION X16XE]

I think ive got it!

Couple of questions tho:

On the mother board plug it can split into two parts, 20 pin and with the other bit attached 24pins, do i just leave the 4pin bit dangling?

I also have some large 6 pin conectors that are in a rectangle, cant find anywere for them?

[FUSION X16XE]

Ok all thats done, got a green light on my motherboard, go to turn it on and it spins but doesnt turn on, it like spins for a second at the most??

[Jack]

Its just a case of plug in everything that fits.

Don't forget the motherboard may well have TWO seperate plugs. When you say "it spins", what spins? HDD? CPU fan? Case fan?

In fact, what motherboard is it, and what PSU?

[FUSION X16XE]

PSU is a Ez cool ps-05 600w (brand new)
Im not sure what the mobo is but it sais ASUS on it.

When i re-assembled everything i pluged in the screen and power cord to the mains and switched it on at the back on the PSU and the CPU fan, case fans and PSU fan spins for a second then just spin down till they stop?

I dont even touch the power button on the front for that to happen, and when i do it doesnt do anything?

Really starting to annoy me now and i kinda need the pc on saterday night! panicing now lol

[Welsh Dan]

You might have missed a 4 pin connector to the motherboard. ASUS likes to put them top left.

[FUSION X16XE]

You might have missed a 4 pin connector to the motherboard. ASUS likes to put them top left.
Yep, got that top left by the keyboard/mouse plugs?

Im to scared to try and power it up incase i funk something lol

I have two un-used 6pin (3by2) plugs?

[Welsh Dan]

Those 6pin plugs are for graphics cards, if yours doesnt have the socket then dont worry. All you need from the PSU to power up the PC is the big 20/24pin one and the 4 pin one, both plugged into the board.

As per PM..


You wont break anything. The blacks are all grounds, and the green is the "trigger" wire. The motherboard would normally ground the green wire in order to turn the system on.

If you're still having no luck, take the PSU back and get a branded one ie antec, cheiftec, tagan, ocz, hiper. Your EZcool/trust/qtec 60938503948534watt one is going to cope with less than a 380w branded one would anyway.

[Jack]

Graphics card require power? Although it would power on but not boot if that was the case.

My GFX card uses a 1x4 power cable, FDD power connector I think it is. The 3x2 is unused on mine, its dangling down at the front lol

[mikey14sr]

Some motherboards need 24pin + 4 pin plugging in so check them again, make sure they're fully plugged in too.

[FUSION X16XE]

Everythings pluged in, 20pin and the other 4pin over in the corner. still wont start? would the mobo light be red if it was that that was funked?

[Jack]

http://www.jsp-tech.com/admin/FileEdit/upfiles/power%20I_X.jpg

Could also be CMOS battery, my dad's refused to boot when that was flat.

[mikey14sr]

Could be a dodgy psu, they do get through from time to time

[FUSION X16XE]

If i was to try the PSU in my other pc and it worked that would rule out the PSU right? Therefore im left thinking its the motherboard, if the PSU works?

[Jack]

Yup, if it works on another computer the PSU is fine. As said, have you checked the CMOS battery?

[mikey14sr]

Did the old psu go pop? if so, it probably did take the mo-bo out with it, and possibly the graphics card, hard drive, processor etc.

[FUSION X16XE]

Did the old psu go pop? if so, it probably did take the mo-bo out with it, and possibly the graphics card, hard drive, processor etc.


:cry:

Thats not what i wanted to hear! Where is the CMOS bat Jack? :thumb:

[Jack]

On the motherboard :p round silver thing, looks like a 10p.

[jimbob-mcgrew]

still no luck fusion ?
im fairly sure if your motherboards only got a 20 pin u dont use the 4 pin that attaches to it, and theres a seperate 4 pin that looks similar that needs to be used for certain boards.. if your board doesnt have that attachment u wont need to use that either, if everythings cool, it should fire up with only those connected. some boards are fussy, u sometimes need to manually reset the bios when u change hardware. you might wanna look it up.. but on the majority of boards, youll find a 3 pin arrangement on the board, usually right next to the cmos battery they were talkin about.. and a little jumper will be bridging 2 of those 3 pins.. what u do is (while the pc's powered down) swap the pins from 2&3, or 1&2, whichevers default, to the opposing side. i.e: if its on 2&3, switch it to 1&2, leave it there for 5 or so seconds to clear the memory, then return it to its origional position. and like mikey said make sure that 20 pin connector is on good and proper. whenever i get probs building pc's, its good to start bare bones and work your way up, i mean a pc will fire up without ram, graphics card or any drives, itll most likely beep its tits off at you but atleast u cant single out problems, if it works like that, re-installing everything one by one will tell u when u find a problem as it wont fire up when the culprits connected.

[mikey14sr]

If you can mate try to get a pic of the board up, that might helps help you a bit more.

[FUSION X16XE]

As requested, if these aren't good enough then ill get more.

http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb121/beattyhoskins/DSC00946.jpg
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb121/beattyhoskins/DSC00942.jpg

[FUSION X16XE]

I also have what looks like a 4pin power conection like on the drives, this is on the graphics card, it can been seen in the pics above the yellow plug, do i plug this into the PSU?

[wisewood]

i would say you need to find the specs for the graphics card to know for sure.

[FUSION X16XE]

Im trying lol its nls, its a radeon x800 xt 256mb

[wisewood]

http://ati.amd.com/products/radeonx800/radeonx800series/index.html

Yes. The XT model needs to be connected to your PSU. And they suggest a 300+w PSU for optimum results.

[FUSION X16XE]

Hmmmm cheers pal, atm the pcs in bits so im going to just try parts till something happens, will keep this thread updated and please if you have any info post it.

Rep on its way if i can.

[Welsh Dan]

Pull the graphics card out completely. And the modem.

[wisewood]

have you tried removing the ram and trying one stick at a time. I've had faulty ram before that stopped pc from booting.

[FUSION X16XE]

yep i have tis just a bare mobo now.

Have also put the jumper on the reset option for 6 seconds,

Shall i just put in the graphics card, processor and 1 stick of memory back and try to boot it?

[wisewood]

i would definatley try doing it with the bare minimum to try and find the fault. Does the mobo have an error code display on it?

[FUSION X16XE]

No, cant see any display.

Shall i try it with 1 stick of memory, prosessor and the graphics card and HDD?

[wisewood]

not many have them these days. quite useful though when they have. just flashed up a simple number and you check the manual to see what the problem is.

[FUSION X16XE]

Right so far i have striped the whole pc to its seperate components and re-assembled the mobo, one stick of memory, one HDD and the processor.

Now instead this time i plug in the power cable and turn it on at the back (this is where it used to start for a second then stop btw) and turn it on at the front, now it turns on for a second and then spins down like before!!!(but by the front switch) ahhhh right im going to swap over a stick of mem and if no difference ill swap HDD.

[FUSION X16XE]

oooo right i disconected both HDDs so there is none in the system and started it and its all sounding like is working i.e fans spinning and lights on on front.

But i cant see anything on the screen?

[mikey14sr]

you won't if the graphics card aint in

[FUSION X16XE]

righty, its sorted i am a genius!! I think when the PSU went it took a HDD with it! Now this is the bad news it was my HDD with all my music and porn on!!! DOH!! Lesson lernt, always back up files children.

Is there any way you can get files off a funked HDD?

Thanks to everybody who helped, rep added acordingly.

[mikey14sr]

Depends how old the drive is, some manufacturers will take them back if they're still in warranty and have a go at recovering the data for a fee, but don't expect it to be cheap!

One of my drives randomly burnt out a chip a while back, that one had all my music on it but as I was building a new pc and had most of it on disc (headunit takes mp3's) I didn't bother sticking the warranty claim in.

[FUSION X16XE]

Think ill just start again, one hdd for system files and another for personal files, am i right i thinking i can have a 3rd to back up my personal one?

Also what i RAID?

[mikey14sr]

Have you not got a dvd drive then? As I can only see 2 SATA cables plugged in in the pics.

I normally have one drive for all the operating system and programs, then a second for personal files, then just back up anything I can't get hold of again.


Definition: RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent (or Inexpensive) Disks. It involves the configuration (setting up) of two or more drives in combination for fault tolerance and performance. RAID disk drives are used frequently on servers and are increasingly being found in home and office personal computers.

RAID is a method of creating one or more pools of data storage space from several hard drives. It can offer fault tolerance and higher throughput (http://www.bestpricecomputers.co.uk/glossary/throughput-accounting-software.htm) levels than a single hard drive or group of independent hard drives. You can build a RAID configuration with IDE (parallel ATA), SATA (Serial ATA) or SCSI hard disks (http://www.bestpricecomputers.co.uk/glossary/iscsi-protocol.htm) or, in fact, even drives like the old 3.5" floppy disk drive!

http://www.bestpricecomputers.co.uk/images/raid.jpgThe exact meaning of RAID has been much debated and much argued. The use of "Redundant" is, in itself, a contentious point. That several manufacturers have deviated from accepted RAID terminology, created new levels of disk arrangements, called them RAID, and christened them with a number has not helped. There are even some single disk RAID configurations! Double parity, RAID 1.5, Matrix RAID etc., are examples of proprietary RAID configurations.

Data can be distributed across a RAID "array" using either hardware, software or a combination of the two. Hardware RAID is usually achieved either on-board on some server class motherboards or via an add-on card, using an ISA/PCI slot.

RAID arrangements are used for Network Attached Storage (http://www.bestpricecomputers.co.uk/reviews/advice/network-attached-storage.htm).

RAID 0 and RAID 1 – the most common types of RAID (http://www.poweroid-video-editing.co.uk/Reviews/Articles/Storage/RAID_0.asp)

Other types of RAID: include RAID-0 (http://www.bestpricecomputers.co.uk/glossary/raid-0.htm), RAID-1 (http://www.bestpricecomputers.co.uk/glossary/raid-1.htm), RAID-0+1, RAID-1+0, RAID-10 (1+0, 10 refer to the same thing), RAID-2 (http://www.bestpricecomputers.co.uk/reviews/advice/RAID-2.htm), RAID-3, RAID-4, RAID-5, and RAID-6


Basicly mainly used by companies and people who are looking to save every last nano-second they can when bench-marking.

[Jack]

We use massive RAID arrays at work. I set up my dad's PC with two 500gb SATA drives in a RAID 1 array after he suffered a hard drive fail and got paranoid about data loss lol. Usually its either used to make two (or more) drives appear as one big one, or to have one drive mirror data from another (so if the first fails, you can fall back to using the second with no loss of data). Bear in mind you will probably need to install a RAID driver if you want to use it at home, and if you use windows XP it doesn't come with one; so if you need to reinstall XP you'll need the driver on a floppy disk for use at install time.

As for recovering data, try a program called ZAR (Zero Assumption Recovery). I used it to grab about 98% of the data back off my dad's old dead drive.

I'm not convinced the HDD fail was the cause of the PC refusing to boot though, even if all drives failed it would still load the BIOS and not find any drives.

[FUSION X16XE]

I set up my dad's PC with two 500gb SATA drives in a RAID 1 array after he suffered a hard drive fail and got paranoid about data loss lol.

Thats what i want, has funked up everthing loosing all that data lol ive been trying to get it back all day from mates!

Yer, confused.com'd me to, but that seems to be the only thing, im thinking the computer does self-checks before it boots? Well maybe i have a virus on that drive that is stoping it booting and is 'telling' it to shut down?

Also ive always wanted to try something, can you have to HDDs and different OS on each one? Like boot the pc and you can choose what OS to load? :confused:

[Jack]

Dual-Boot, yes. You could even partition one hard drive with multiple operating systems.

Computer does self checks, yes, but thats only to verify RAM integrity and check for the presence of drives - if it were to check the integrity of the hard drives it would be there for hours lol