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M00lers

You can stick the SSD anywhere really, it's not necessary to actually install it into a drive bay.

Serephucus

Indeed. Think of SSDs as giant USB drives. Do you very carefully place your USB drive squarely on your desk? I dunno about you, but I just **** it in a drawer or on the floor. At the moment, my SSD is hanging in my case from the SATA cables.

While I wouldn't advise doing this if you move you're case a lot - you'll end up with boot problems, thinking you have a graphics card problem, and pulling everything out, and replacing things with spares, and cursing at everything in sight for a while... ahem- and then realising your SATA connection came loose. - your SSD will be perfectly fine with the treatment.

Leman

Vikings, while you don't need a drive bay, I actually have a spare 2.5>3.5 adaptor I can send/sell you if you want. :P

Vikings

Cheers for the advice guys, might take you up on that Leman just want to get it up and running first

Here's a few pictures and questions before I try boot.

https://picasaweb.google.com/barrybol77/DropBox?authkey=Gv1sRgCJXM9YH7lq32bQ#5631060772614569794

There's about 6 pictures there, tried to picture every part of the board - below is as it stands:



So I have:

- cpu in, heatsink on - cpu fan connected.
- ram in
- mobo installed
- front of case useb/audio/power switch/led's etc connected
- power supply 24 pin connected
- cpu power connected via 8 pin
- hdd's installed via sata (power and connected)
- dvd drive installed
- gfx card installed - 2x6 pin connected

Is that everything now? Am I ready to try and boot? Any glaring errors?

Leman

Did you remember to plug in the PSU to the wall? That's a major cause of failure (I wish I were kidding .:P)

That looks complete. Only way to be sure is to boot!

Vikings

Yep. Unfortunately no dice.

All plugged in, pressed the power button. The case fan attempted to move but didn't get started, nothing else came on.

There is a light going to the power button on the mobo.. not sure what/where gone wrong

Leman

Either the Mobo is incorrectly mounted and causing a short, or something isn't plugged in right.

Double check that the ram is fully inserted and that all the plugs are fully plugged, and if that still doesn't work, try placing the ram in the other two slots.

Tea_Bag

unplug everything that isnt critical to boot. HDD, DVD, fans etc. just leave mobo, CPU, GPU and ram. try again. if it fails, do you have a spare GPU and PSU handy?

Serephucus

To improve on Tea Bag's idea - assuming his doesn't work of course - pull everything out of the case, sit the motherboard on the bag it came in, and have only the following in the loop:

PSU, motherboard, CPU (and cooler ), GPU, 1 RAM module, 1 HDD, monitor.

Recheck your cables, make sure everything's where it should be. You shouldn't even need to plug in any of the small motherboard crap, just ATX, CPU and GPU power, and HDD and power/data.

If nothing happens there, it's either a motherboard or PSU problem, if you hear your PSU and HDD running, then you either have a motherboard or GPU problem.

Vikings

Ok unplugged dvd, both hard drives and case fan - went to boot, can hear the psu make a noise but nothing boots up.

When I have the psu plugged in and switched on, the motherboard has a light on it.

Have my old graphics card alright but no spare psu to try.

Anyone in the Lucan/Dublin area want to help me? (:o... probably bricked something knowing my luck)

Serephucus

I have about an hour or two free, but I can't get out to you. Do you have Skype/Google Talk or something?

Vikings

Just want to talk Serephucus for his help earlier, did a little troubleshooting and narrowed down to a faulty motherboard or processor.

Going to pick up a p8p67 pro off kucyk on adverts (good timing) and try that see how I get on then. Will report back!

Skerries

just as an aside i used a velcro strip to attach my ssd to the case so i can easily get at it without it moving

quarryman

Vikings wrote: »

When I have the psu plugged in and switched on, the motherboard has a light on it.

I had something similar when i put together my new build recently. Turns out i had missed a power connection to the mobo, seems they have more now since the Pentium 4 days...

The mobo would have a light but not power up when i hit the power button.

And THEN when it still didn't work i realised i had forgotten to flick the PSU on (there's a separate switch for it at the back).

Leman

Did you remember to test to see if it works if you take the Mobo out of the case and just lie it on top of the antistatic baggy? Like I said, it might be caused by a standoff causing a Short.

Serephucus

I had him try that. Didn't work. He also tried a PSU with an old motherboard and that worked fine.

Leman

RIght. That sucks.*:( I know how upsetting it can be to get a faulty bit of hardware and the ungodly hassle it brings.

Vikings

Lads, the phrase so close yet so far has never been more apt.

Picked up the new motherboard earlier and got went to a mates for a second brain. Tested the old GD55 a bit before coming to the conclusion it was bricked.

Pulled out the cpu and heatsink and put it into the P8P67 and success! With just cpu and heatsink out of case and psu hooked up it started up and stayed running. So got to plugging in the rest of the parts. When I had EVERYTHING wired up, same as I had with the gd55 board and booted up it worked. So turned it off and plugged in mouse, keyboard and monitor and booted up again. Stayed up and running but nothing on display.

Had a quick look around and reseated the sticks of ram. This is the only change I made and now it wont boot. I removed absolutely everything from the board and tried to boot, just cpu and heatsink and still nothing.

The heatsink fan spins for about 2-3 seconds and then cuts out. When I had everything still plugged in there is a number of led's on the 6870 that would also come on for the 2-3 seconds before everything cut out.

At wits end with it all at the minute!! I can't think of anything else to try - please god don't tell me this motherboard has gone kaput on me? I think I would cry!

Vikings

Back at it again this morning.

Here is what is happening:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npovQzoTngE

Press power switch, cpu comes on for about 2 seconds and goes off. Stumped. Nothing else connected.

Vikings

Very strange one here: when I have the cmos jumper in the clear position, hit the power switch and then remove the jumper, the system powers on and stays running. But if I put the jumper back on and try to start it again it doesn't work.

Any ideas?

Vikings

Sorry for spamming the place up but I took a video of what is happening:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtx0eN1Bxo

I just don't have the knowledge to work it from here - assuming it is workable! But it seems to be working, can't get a signal to the tv or monitor via the graphics card.... any help appreciated!

Leman

Try removing the Cmos battery and powering on, then shutting down and placing them battery back in.

It seems odd that the Cmos is affecting it. Is that one of the boards with the MemOK button?

Monotype

That's quite mysterious. Have you got a different PSU that you could try?

Serephucus

Since I've never used CMOS jumpers, what happens if you just leave it off completely, and turn the system on?

Vikings

Leman wrote: »

Try removing the Cmos battery and powering on, then shutting down and placing them battery back in.

It seems odd that the Cmos is affecting it. Is that one of the boards with the MemOK button?

Tried that just there, no effect. Without cmos battery won't start at all. With it back in it's the same as in the second video. It does have the MemOK button, i've been trying to start with that pressed and it has no effect.

Monotype wrote: »

That's quite mysterious. Have you got a different PSU that you could try?

I don't but I can try the PSU with my old mobo and cpu and i'm almost sure that will work. I did try another PSU last night in a friends but no joy there.

Serephucus wrote: »

Since I've never used CMOS jumpers, what happens if you just leave it off completely, and turn the system on?

Won't start at all with it removed. Attempts to start and cuts out in the default position, when I have it in clear and power on nothing happens but when I take the jumper off it kicks in full power and stays running. That's the only way I can get it running - I even plugged in a hdd and that runs but I get nothing to the screen from graphics card.