[PLUGintotheGRID]

I purchased an HP desktop a while back on discount. It had a nice i7 in it and 8gb of ram plus some other things I wanted so I figured why not, got it pretty inexpensively. Since then I've swapped out the power supply and the graphics card (Corsair 500CW and ATI 5780). Everything has been working perfect, haven't had a single hiccup with the system at all since day one or since my upgrade which I've had for several months.

Last night I purchased a new Coolermaster case to improve airflow and the overall look of the computer. I am somewhat novice at this but I understand the basics and have friends to ask for advice, so after a couple hours I have everything in the new case and I go to power it on but - no dice. I check all my connections and everything seems ok but it won't power on, so I take it all apart piece by piece and get my motherboard alone so I can see if I fried it. I am still having trouble powering it on but it seems to power on occasionally when I try. Very confused now so I take off my heat sink, dust off the processor, replace the heat sink and now it's powering on regularly.

Now I put everything back in the case, hook up all my components and boot it up. Boots up great, the computer is working like it was before I moved over to the new case, great. After checking a few things and making sure sounds, graphics card, and internet work - I go back to life as usual. Watching a few hours of netflix when all the sudden boom, the system shuts down and won't boot back up.

After working on the thing for about 5 hours I just didn't have the motivation to try to fix it last night. Figured it might have been heat related so I leave it and go to bed. This morning it still won't boot and I'm completely lost.

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Hi PLUGintotheGRID and

While it does sound like it could be heat related, you need to verify first you do not have any extra standoffs screwed in the case under the motherboard - a common mistake. Note cases are designed to support 1000s of motherboards so it is common for the case to have several more mounting holes for standoffs than the motherboard has mounting holes.

[Digerati]

Hi PLUGintotheGRID and

While it does sound like it could be heat related, you need to verify first you do not have any extra standoffs screwed in the case under the motherboard - a common mistake. Note cases are designed to support 1000s of motherboards so it is common for the case to have several more mounting holes for standoffs than the motherboard has mounting holes.

[PLUGintotheGRID]

I used a piece of paper to create a diagram of my motherboard holes and only put the risers in where they needed to be. I will of course check this again but I don't think that is the issue especially since it was up and running last night.

Thank you for your help!

Edited by PLUGintotheGRID, 15 February 2012 - 10:50 AM.

[Digerati]

especially since it was up and running last night.

I realize that can be make it seem like all is well, but note an extra standoff under the board may not make good (or in this case, bad) contact until after the system has warmed up and parts expand due to heat or vibrations so it is worth verifying again.

Are your fans configured to supply good "front-to-back" flow through the case? Did you use a proper layer of TIM?

[PLUGintotheGRID]

I haven't applied my own thermal paste. The heat sink and processor came pre-assembled. Would improper thermal paste stop it from booting at all?

I am concerned one of my wires may have drooped and created a short inside my case. I will investigate that this evening but I am simply just stumped.

[PLUGintotheGRID]

When I had the mobo out on it's on to see if I had fried it, I was attempting a post test and at first it wasn't working. Then it randomly starting booting for me and giving me three loud beeps and repeating that.

[Digerati]

I haven't applied my own thermal paste. The heat sink and processor came pre-assembled. Would improper thermal paste stop it from booting at all?

You said you took off your heatsink. Whenever you remove your heatsink after the computer has been run, you need to apply a fresh layer of TIM.

If the CPU has no TIM, it can can overheat almost immediately, causing the system to shut down. So no TIM will not stop it from booting at all, but it can result in the system shutting down so fast, it may "appear" it does not boot at all.

All the wires should be insulated so a "drooping" wire cannot cause a short, but a loose wire may cause a short if the exposed contacts come into something they should not.

Check you manual - the beep codes should be in there. 3 beeps could mean a number of things, depending on the BIOS brand. It often means they keyboard is not connected, but might also mean a problem with the RAM, or the graphics solution.

Recheck all your cables - especially the power connections. Note that most motherboards take 2 or 3 connections, and many graphics cards require a separate connection too.

[PLUGintotheGRID]

I just ran home and took it out of the case. I hooked up the power supply and managed to get it to boot but only after contacting the jbat1 pins. After that I was able to power on and off using the jfp1 pins. After I managed to get it booting regularly I grabbed my gpu, a keyboard, monitor, and my hard drive and I got my computer up and running. I am very confused.

I will grab some thermal paste tonight after work and re-apply. That could be why it shut down the other time but I don't understand my issue with my power switch.

[Digerati]

Keep us posted.

[PLUGintotheGRID]

SOLVED: Realized I removed my jumpers not knowing what they were... I am really stupid.

[Digerati]

What jumpers?

[PLUGintotheGRID]

The ones on JBAT1 and JPD1.

[Digerati]

Well, I had to look those up because there is no industry for such labels. But it would appear those are the CMOS jumper pins and certainly leaving the jumper in the reset position would mess things up. Glad you got it sorted out and thanks for the followup.

[PLUGintotheGRID]

I actually removed the jumpers all together - so I believe that is why I haven't been able to boot normally. I think that once I replace them I will be ok though I'm still not sure why I got a random shutdown last evening.

[Digerati]

Why did you remove the jumpers? There is only one jumper on a motherboard that needs to be "moved", not removed. And moved only for a couple seconds, then moved back.