Home-built system will not boot

Hello,

I just spent several hours building my first computer, however, I have been having some major trouble.

Everything went relatively well, and when I first switched on the power supply, it all looked very promising. The green led on the motherboard turned on and the system looked ready to go. However, hitting the power button (or shorting the power pins) elicits no response from the computer. No fans spin, no beeps emit, no explosions erupt. Just...nothing. And I have now been sitting here for an hour, reading through every guide I could find, clearing the CMOS, reseating the ram, checking that both power plugs were in all the way, pushing in the graphics card, taking out the RAM, unplugging all non-essential headers, unplugging all things from the IO board, checking for loose screws and wires...everything. And still. I get the same result every time. Absolutely nothing.

Well, okay, that's not quite true. When I turn the power supply on, I immediately get this tiny noise coming from the PSU. Hitting the power button makes it disappear. However, no other effects occur.

I know the power supply works without load because I took it out of the case, started it up using a paperclip, and probed its plugs with a voltage meter.

I have to say, this is all very depressing, and the most likely thing that comes to mind is that my brand spanking new Asus M5A99X R2.0 Pro motherboard is fried. However, I'm hoping someone out there in the big wide world can put me out of my misery, and point me towards a solution.

And thoughts are welcome!

What chip are you using?

Sounds like a dead chip or a defective mobo, the latter being most likely.

Theo, I am using an AMD FX-8350 paired with an Nvidia GTX 970.

Specs are below:
AMD FX-8350
Nvidia GTX 970
16 GB G.Skill Ripjaws
Asus M5A99X R2.0 Pro Motherboard
Corsair H75 liquid cooler (could make taking it out of the case less than ideal)
Extreme sound 5.1 sound card
1TB Hybrid hard drive
Tagan 900 watt PSU

Well, you'd be better off using the integrated audio on your motherboard than you would be using that soundcard. It's ancient as far as I can tell and will not sound nearly as good as a modern solution, even an integrated one.

If you've tested your power supply, the next culprit is the motherboard. You can try 1 stick of RAM at a time going from slot to slot but I seriously doubt that's going to make any difference in this case. It's rare to get a dead CPU out of the box. Much more common to get a dead motherboard.

I'm not familiar with Tagan. I know they've made decent PSUs in the past. No idea what the deal is with the model you have.
I would suggest you swap the motherboard. We like the Gigabyte GA970AUD3P around here. It's a 970 board, not a 990X board, but we find it to be a more robust overclocker than the M5A ASUS boards. The only boards that get recommended for FX cpus around here are the one I just mentioned, the 990FXAUD3P (rev 4), the Sabretooth, and the Crosshair V.

I would suggest you swap the motherboard. We like the Gigabyte GA970AUD3P around here. It's a 970 board, not a 990X board, but we find it to be a more robust overclocker than the M5A ASUS boards. The only boards that get recommended for FX cpus around here are the one I just mentioned, the 990FXAUD3P (rev 4), the Sabretooth, and the Crosshair V.

Click to expand...

The M5A99X is a good board TheOCN, it will not Oc the Fx 8350 to the moon but it is stout enough at stock up to around 4.5 Ghz. I own one so I'm speaking first hand.

There are (?) two 8 pin plugs are you sure you have the right one plugged into the motherboard?
Pin out is different btw them.
Probably you know this and have it right, just many power supplies use same plug with different pin out.

woboy, my power supply only came with one 8 pin and it fit, so I assume that's the one I wanted.

The other ones he speaks of would be PCIe GFX card power plugs and people have been know to plug them into the mobo by accident.

Look on your PSU to see if there is a 4x2 plug instead of a straight 8 pin.

Did not mean to be silly, just some power supplies come with PCIe plugs identical appearing but different pin out.
It is something I check and recheck when building. Wish it was something that simple.
MB or CPU, looks like.

Rayrays, no there is no 4x2 plug. There's one 4 plug, and one 8 plug. And woboy, it's okay, as a first-time builder, it's a fair question to ask

I breadboarded the system with no results, but in awhile, I'm borrowing a PSU to see if that's the problem. Hopeful it will be; the PSU that I currently have does respond when I short the power switch circuit on the mobo, it just doesn't start to apply anything to the motherboard. However, if it goes wrong, It strikes me as most likely to be a mobo problem.

I think I would start with the motherboard manual and case manual, unplug every connector on the board and start over checking each plug as I go, once in a while I frig up the power and reset.

Caddi daddi, I tried to turn the system on with nothing but a stick of ram, the CPU, and the main power connectors and the mobo wouldn't even post so plugging in other things is unlikely to help.