Help with Dell Mobo swap to new case etc.

[Shadowlid]

Hey guys so I’m running into a problem with a computer I’m putting together. So I’m using a dell motherboard and swapping it to a cheap gaming case and put in an aftermarket psu. I’ve got the power switch pins figured out and can get the computer to power on and off with the power switch. It will power on and all fans spin.
The problem I’m having Is I get no video and no power to the usb ports or PS2 ports. Things I’ve tried.

1. Another know to be good 750W gold rated power supply – same results
2. Two different GPUs one powered by the PCIe slot GT210 and a RX 570 as well as the on-board VGA.
3. Ive used a PS2 keyboard and no lights come on
4. Tried front panel as well as all usbs in the rear with no luck
5. Ive unplugged all hard drives and the dvd drive one at a time and also with all unplugged.
6. Cleared Cmos and changed battery
7. Booted without any ram and got the two beep code which I googled was normal and put one stick of ram into each slot and booted each time, also tried another stick the same way… same results.

This motherboard was running 100% fine when I took it out of the dell case though it was about 6 months ago and has been sitting on a shelf since.

I normally don’t deal with prebuilt computers so is there just something weird about dells that you can switch the power supply or something else?

Just let me know if there is anything else I can do if all else fails I’m just gonna try and buy a cheap LGA 1155 motherboard and just swap out.


Thanks all for the help!

Shadow

 

[trents]

Dell, HP Lenovo and all the mass computer producing companies make their stuff in a proprietary fashion. I've given up in trying to make proprietary motherboards work correctly in aftermarket cases. Their connectors and pin blocks are non standard. And then there are other goodies like air temp sensors that if not connected will cause the bios to throw errors at boot up.

 

[Shadowlid]

Dell, HP Lenovo and all the mass computer producing companies make their stuff in a proprietary fashion. I've given up in trying to make proprietary motherboards work correctly in aftermarket cases. Their connectors and pin blocks are non standard. And then there are other goodies like air temp sensors that if not connected will cause the bios to throw errors at boot up.

I didnt know about air temp sensors and all of this yikes well guess ill just buy and aftermarket board and pop the cpu in it. Bought a lot of computers from a yardsale is the only reason I have this one only have like $20 bucks in it so another $65 wont hurt.

Thanks for the info!!!

Shadow

 

[trents]

Oh, yes, then there are goodies like non standard pin headers for case ventilation fans and CPU cooler fan. It drives you nuts! A year ago I thought I got a good deal on a used HP socket 1155 motherboard. About $18. I was gonna put it in a case someone gave me and I already had CPU, memory, hard drive, etc. By the time I bought an air temp sensor, a power switch with the right connector, a front panel for USB and audio with the right connector and a couple of adapter cables for fans (all used off ebay of course) I was out more than if I had just bought an new aftermarket motherboard. And it never did work like it should on top of that. That's happened to me before. I should have learned.

The only time it works like it should is if you are just replacing the motherboard in the original case.

 

[Robert17]

Similar to the above, I recall the 24 pin connector was smaller on one HP machine's MB requiring an adapter for it to get power. Then there was the proprietary BIOS and diagnostics that hated every piece of hardware not HP. This was years ago but I suspect not much has changed in the approach to PCs that mass producers engineer.

 

[DaveB]

Mostly, this is true about HP/Dell/Lenovo motherboards, but not totally. I've been running an X79 mATX HP/Pegatron motherboard for about 5 years now. All the power, USB and other interface connectors on it are standard and it works perfectly. I'm even able to overclock my Xeon E5-1620 to 4.4 GHz using XTU.

 

[Bill_Bright]

This motherboard was running 100% fine when I took it out of the dell case though it was about 6 months ago and has been sitting on a shelf since.

With which PSU?

Since you have tried more than one aftermarket PSU and got the same results, it is unlikely your aftermarket PSUs are faulty. To confirm one way or another if this is a proprietary issue or not, I suggest you try the Dell PSU again. If all works with the Dell PSU, then it is most likely both the PSU and the motherboard have been modified by Dell to make them proprietary.

These companies will claim they do this for all sorts of reasons that have been "spun" to make it sound consumer friendly. I say "bull feathers". It may be tin-foil hat time, but I say they do it to force consumers to buy more expensive replacement parts that are only available through them.

Since none of these companies manufacturer their own motherboards, PSUs or cases, you would think it would cost them more to outsource these modified products from the OEM makers. But when you can go to ASUS, Foxconn, Delta, Micron, WD and promise to buy 1,000,000 units during the next year, you can demand and get some serious volume discounts even with those proprietary modifications.

 

[trents]

I'm in total agreement with Bill_Bright. These mass producers want to make sure you have to buy their replacement part and pay their premium price. The mass quantity purchasing discounts Bill mentioned suddenly go out the window and the consumer get's the shaft. A classic example is laptop batteries. On older laptops, you can buy a capable replacement battery for a fraction of what Dell or HP will charge. Yet, on many or most newer laptops that option is now gone because they put some kind of ID chip in the OEM battery that checks with the computer's bios to see if it's OEM and aftermarket batteries won't even work or won't work proplerly. This is also true for the chargers on many newer laptops. Though to be fair, some of this proprietariness may be related to the fire hazard issues we have seen with newer battery technology.

 

[Super Nade]

Which exact motherboard are you trying to rehouse? Dell systems can be a bit annoying when it comes to readjustments. At work we use T7600s (dual Xeon, FB-DDR3). I upgraded the GPU to a 1080 and no POST! Well, after several individual component swaps and tests, the only thing that got it working was a CMOS reset followed by sequentially removing and re-seating the DRAM. I would start with this. AFAIK, Dell do follow ATX 2.0 standards, so you should be fine with the PSU power assignments. It wouldn't hurt to download the manual and check the pin assignments on the 24-pin and AUX/EPS(?) sockets.