[natdaddy1230]

This is my first computer to build and when I tern it on it come on for 20sec and it go's off i really need so help.

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Specs?

[Kurenai]

Specs?

[natdaddy1230]

my motherbord is a Elitegroup P4M800PRO-M my power supply is 550W atxp4 my processor is a Intel Pentium 4 3.2ghz 800mhz 1mb L2 cache i have 512mb ddr ram
i hope you can help me thanks

[Kurenai]

Buy a high quality motherboard?

Seriously though, if you just power it up, and boot into the BIOS, and let it sit, does it still just power down after 20s?

[natdaddy1230]

it go's off after 20sec no matter what i do

[Dan1887]

sounds like u might have a heat issue and that the motherboard shutting pc down to prevent damage, make sure heatsink and fan on cpu properly, check in bios for temps. anything over 40 for cpu right on start up is a warning sign and anything over 40 for ur mobo ever is a warning sign.

[natdaddy1230]

what is this heatsink fan

[warriorscot]

what is this heatsink fan

If you dont know things like this you shouldnt be building your own computer, building is fun and saves money but you need to do your homework before hand.

The heatsink is the metal thing you fitted on top of the CPU, did you apply thermal paste before you fit the heatsink.

[natdaddy1230]

my bad im not thinking right i know what a heatsink is and i did put thermal paste on it i am a computer programer but not to good with hardware do you know any good web sites that might help

[Kurenai]

Are the cpu fan and chipset fan both spinning? Other than that...bad RAM or power supply, I think.

[warriorscot]

What i would do is try booting it up on a table on some cardboard it will make it easier to swap out parts and inspect them. We cover it in one of our guides on new build problems. Try it with either stick of ram one at a time with no HDD basically the minimum amount of hardware try and eliminate as many possibilities as you can.

[cliff283]

****EDIT
After messing with it more it's not even 3 seconds. It powers on and then turns right back off.
****EDIT

I'm having nearly the same problem as this guy with the same motherboard.

I actually signed up on this forum today to ask a similar question. Only mine doesn't stay up for 20 seconds.

I get about 3 seconds of power then it all goes off. The CPU fan starts spinning up, the lights on the front of the case come on, then it all powers back down.

All new parts, though I did admittedly go cheap on the motherboard. While you get what you pay for, I can't imagine this company could still be in business if all the motherboards didn't work correctly.

I guess the board could just be bad. I did make sure everything else is working. The power supply I have is 400W "ATX switching power supply" (Cheap as well, came with the case ... I'm tryin to make a machine on a budget here lol) ... it's 20pin, the motherboard (According to the online manual I found) supports both 20 and 24 pin ... but that's only supposed to be a problem if the power supply is 300 watt or less.

I can't imagine it being a heat issue, not after only 3 seconds, though I suppose that's a possibility. (I've taken off the heatsink and put it back on about a half a dozen time to try and make sure).

I tried having only the power switch connected to the front panel but that didn't change anything.

Some of the brass pins on the CPU socket on the MB are bent a little which I suppose could be cause the problem ... though I figured it was at least power on and just not work if that was the case.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

-Cliff

Edited by cliff283, 08 November 2006 - 09:00 AM.

[burnoutnotfadeaway]

I had the same problem. Buy a new decent PSU. Simple.

[cliff283]

I had the same problem. Buy a new decent PSU. Simple.

I have another Power supply that I know works, I'll try swapping them and see if the problem goes away.

[cliff283]

Nup, same problem with a different PSU (That I took out of a working machine to test).

I'm thinking bad board at this point. Anybody else got any other ideas?