[ale] Have a hardware question on no POST

[David S Jackson]

On Tue, 2014-10-21 at 10:20 -0400, Jim Lynch wrote:

> After pushing the power button on the front panel, the fans come on, the 
> lights light but no output on the monitor.  No POST.

If you've got a new CPU/mobo/memory it should POST. Period. If not, you
missed something fundamental.  Like maybe a power connector or didn't
seat the RAM or CPU or something.  That's my first blush reaction. (I
would put the video card in a anti-static bag somewhere--just leave it
out.)  Unless there's some basic hardware/firmware wildcard you haven't
noticed or mentioned. 

Did you connect the little PC speaker thingie from the plastic bag?

Did you look at your mobo's instructions to make sure you're getting the
+/- pin outs right on the front panel connections?  (Should still POST
tho.)

Personally, when I build a box, I want to touch the CPU once only.  So
I'm not a fan of popping them in and out. Especially after attaching the
heat sink and fan. They're very easy to drop or bend the pins on.  Very
easy to ruin, especially if you don't do this often.  You can somewhat
recover a CPU with bent pins, etc, but I've never ever seen them work
properly afterwards.  So, really, if it were my money, check the easy
stuff.  If it still didn't work, then I would take the box to Micro
Center or someplace I trust and pay the $70 or whatever to fix your goof
and tell you what you did wrong.  I have learned a lot from youngsters
who build 10 boxes a day and know all the latest ins and outs. And there
are many. They're happy to share their wisdom if you can talk to the
tech who works on it.  If you're willing to risk buying yet another CPU
then go for it!

But if the problem is more complicated, you might want to look at some
of the Tom's hardware forums and start getting very specific about your
components, etc.

Dave