[PLUG-TALK] P4 and the damned power supply.

Russell Senior seniorr at aracnet.com
Sat May 29 03:48:05 UTC 2004


>>>>> "Jeme" == Jeme A Brelin <jeme at brelin.net> writes:

Jeme> That should be a band.

Jeme> Anyway, I am putting this P4 together for someone... simple
Jeme> thing, should be.  Integrated stuff on the board, P4 3.0GHz,
Jeme> stick o' ram, GeForce2 AGP card.  That's about it.

Jeme> I plug the stuff together and it doesn't power up.  This case
Jeme> and power supply were used on this fellow's former P3, but the
Jeme> power supply says 250W P4 12v Power Supply.  It's got the fancy
Jeme> P4 connector (labelled ATX1 on the motherboard).

Jeme> Anyway, when I DISCONNECT the P4 power connector, the thing will
Jeme> power on and fans will whir, but it won't boot.  Without the P4
Jeme> connector on the mainbord, it does nothing.

Jeme> Before I tell this guy his power supply is underpowered (which
Jeme> is the only thing I can think of), is there something else I
Jeme> should do/check?

Jeme> Would an underpowered PS cause this?

Jeme> I disconnected everything but the video, ram, and processor.

Jeme> Any clues helpful.

Er, why plug-talk?

Maybe (to test) a different video card (maybe a PCI).  For my father's
computer, we ended up going through about a power supply, and 3
motherboards before we figured out that we needed to upgrade the BIOS.
With its on-board video, it worked.  When we plugged in a AGP video
card, it wouldn't boot... no video, CPU fan spins, no other signs of
life.  Sounds *exactly* like what you are describing.

Eventually, Intel released a BIOS that worked, but the associated
notes gave no clue.

The other problem I had was a bad CPU ... but I got another
unpopulated motherboard out of the deal (sigh).

-- 
Russell Senior         ``I have nine fingers; you have ten.''
seniorr at aracnet.com




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