[venkdaddy]

I have a Dell system that's 4-ish years old, and today I tried transferring everything into a new case with a new PS. (Corsair 400R case, Capstone 650W PS) The system was working fine before I took everything out of the old case. When I try to boot up in the new case, the power supply comes on; the rear fan that's plugged into the MB starts up, but then stops after ~10 seconds; the DVD drive light flashes briefly; but nothing else happens. No lights on the MB that I can see. I've checked several times that all the power cables are plugged in correctly; I think they are, but I'm new at this so I could be missing something. I don't see any places on the MB where anything else power-related could be plugged in. (I've got my 20+4 main power, 4-pin CPU, and SATA connectors for my HDD and DVD. Those were the only available connectors on my old PS, so I don't think I'm missing anything.)

My MB is an ipiel-rn2 with a Core 2 Quad 9??? CPU, with 8GB of RAM (4 x 2GB).

As I said, it worked fine this morning before I took it apart, so I have no reason to suspect any of the components are bad. (Unless I broke something in the process of rebuilding it, which is possible.) I'm wondering if anyone has any insights into what the problem might be. My next step is to go back and try to get everything to work in the old case again, but I'm hoping to avoid that if it turns out to be a really east fix that I'm overlooking.

Thanks for any help,
-john

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Hello venkdaddy

Did you use standoffs to mount the MB in the new case and if so do they correspond with the screw holes on the MB, no extra ones that could be shorting out the MB.

Is the MBs I/O plate fitted correctly at the rear of the case as in all ports are snugly in place, a badly fitting I/O plate can also short out the MB.

You have told us that the rear chassis fan spins but do not mention whether or not the CPU fan does, please clarify, is the CPU fan still connected to the fan header on the MB.

You have four sticks of Ram, please remove them, lightly blow out the slots and then reseat the Ram securely.
If you have an add on video card repeat the same procedure as above.

Let us know how you get on.

[phillpower2]

Hello venkdaddy

Did you use standoffs to mount the MB in the new case and if so do they correspond with the screw holes on the MB, no extra ones that could be shorting out the MB.

Is the MBs I/O plate fitted correctly at the rear of the case as in all ports are snugly in place, a badly fitting I/O plate can also short out the MB.

You have told us that the rear chassis fan spins but do not mention whether or not the CPU fan does, please clarify, is the CPU fan still connected to the fan header on the MB.

You have four sticks of Ram, please remove them, lightly blow out the slots and then reseat the Ram securely.
If you have an add on video card repeat the same procedure as above.

Let us know how you get on.

[venkdaddy]

Okay, I did find a MB offset that wasn't where it was supposed to be. I took it out, put everything back, and tried again.

Now, it does almost nothing when I power it on. The DVD drive light turns on, and it sounds like the HD might be spinning, but that's it. No system fan, no CPU fan, no lights on MB. I'm thinking I may have everything installed the right way now, but the MB is fried. (Not a huge deal, since I was planning to upgrade it relatively soon anyway.)

Any chance it might be something else? Thanks again for your help.

[phillpower2]

It is possible that the MB and possibly other hardware has been shorted out by the stray standoff

You may need to remove the MB and do a barebones set-up outside of the case but before you do please do the following;
Disconnect all power cords from the computer.
Confirm that the MB has an onboard BIOS speaker that normally emits a single beep when the computer boots up successfully.
Ground yourself by touching a bare metal part of the case or the PSU.
Remove all four sticks of Ram.
If you have an add on video card remove it and connect the display to the MBs video port, if no add on video card is used connect the display to the video port as you previously did.
Reconnect the power cables etc and then press the power on button.
Let us know if the behavior changes from before as in any error beeps etc.

You are welcome btw

[venkdaddy]

I tried it, and got nothing, so I'm pretty sure the MB is dead. It's all good; I'll chalk it up as a learning experience and get my mom to get me a new MB and CPU for Christmas.

[phillpower2]

Sorry to hear the above update is not better news

Try the most basic of tests on your PSU, an example video guide to help you below;