BleepingComputer.com: Freshly Assembled PC will not power on...

Ok. So its time for a huge upgrade of PC parts. I painstakingly and carefully selected each component for my own reasons which I will not explain, and purchased them from Newegg. I'll make a list of them for reference:



ASRock H55DE3 Motherboard

Intel core i5 650 Clarkdale 3.2 GHz CPU

Nvidia Gigabyte GTX 460 SE 1GB video card PCI-E 2.0

x2 ADATA 2x2GB DDR3-2000 RAM

XION PowerReal AXP-850R14N 850W ATX 12V v2.2 / EPS 12V v2.91 PSU



The rest are of no consequence. I unpack/assemble everything into a new case, ATX size, plug all my stuff in, turn on the PSU switch, hit the power button, ANNNNNND.....

nothing. Not even a little bit.

But thats a lie, there is a little bit. The NIC card is lit up, showing a 100Mbps Link and the activity LED is flashing. So there IS power! After alot of crazy ideas that did or did not pan out, the power supply seems to be working. I tried it on a different, older, PC and it booted fine. So that's out.

I tried a different power switch, so that isn't it. The motherboard needs to be OC'd to support the RAM I chose, and if RAM isn't setup just the way they say, apparently it won't turn on, but I had all four slots filled, number one, and number two, I put in a 2 GB stick of DDR3-1333, which is supported by both the motherboard and the CPU. So it apparently is not the RAM.

The video card is currently in use on this computer I am typing on, so that's quite obviously not it.

What I've narrowed it down to thus far is either the CPU or the motherboard, and from what I know and experienced, motherboards will still power on without a CPU, and this one did not. But I can't be sure it's not a fail safe to do that, so I have doubts.

Everything is leaning towards the motherboard, ever so slightly, and the CPU's character is still a wee in question, and there is the off chance that somewhere I messed up and the PSU won't work with the Mobo or something ridiculous like that.

Anyone have ANY ideas or theories? I'm thinking about RMAing the mobo but I want to be sure there's nothing I can do on my end before I do that. If we can eliminate the Mobo and it's the CPU, well there not much to do about that, RMA.

Also I should say that I have never broken or fried a part by use or ESD or otherwise, and have never been shipped a bad part either, in all my 13 years of ordering parts and assembling computers among other things. I had the 8-pin connectors plugged in the mobo and the 24-pin also. The CPU fan doesn't twitch even a little, nothing happens when I hit the power, which usually means it's the PSU, except the PSU works on my older comp.

Thank you to anyone who reads this and many thanks to those that help!



EDIT: I just read in the feedback tab of the Motherboard page that if my PSU is not ErP/EuP it will *appear* to be DoA, which it's doing, quite well in fact. Is this true? Did I purchase a Mobo that REQUIRES ErP PSUs? And if so, why the **** is this not mentioned on the page?

This post has been edited by 3therea1: 10 February 2011 - 09:43 PM

Before RMA`ing the mobo. I will guess you put all the parts together and plugged the monitor cable into the add-on card. Correct?

Try plugging it into the on board video card. See if it will at least post. If you can then access the BIOS, disable the on board. Save changes, shut it down, plug in to the add-on and give it a whirl.

Also it appears the video card needs power supplied from the PS directly. I`m sure that you made the needed connection(s) to it as well.

Yeah I forgot to mention I tried all that, I tried without the video card, with it, with 4 pin/24 pin, 4 pin/20 pin, 8/24, 8/20, used the PCIE connectors etc. Actually, that reminds me I have another question. The PSU is Crossfire ready, and thus has two bundles of PCIE power connectors, each with two 6 pin and a random 2 pin to get the 8 pin connector. Am I supposed to use one bundle per card? Since I only got one card I was a little confused at which connectors to use.

But either way nothing did the trick, which was surprising. There have been various people saying that a ErP/EuP ready mobo requires a similarly rated PSU, and pretty much all of them have a reply that says No, it should work with a regular PSU, based on no information, just their opinion. Anything I have found so far from manufacturers repeats ASRock's bit, which says, "To meet the ErP/EuP standard a ErP/EuP power supply is required...." which means nothing to me since it could be taken to mean that if you want the meet the standard you need it, or if you want your mobo to power on at all you need it, so I'm still in the dark on this one. I'll keep at it though, still searching even now.

Thanks for the reply too

The card looks like it takes two 6 pin connectors.

The PS is Crossfire ready. Meaning the power and connectors are available. But for a single card I would think only one bundle is needed\used.

I`v pretty much exhausted my .02 worth of advice. We have a few excellent Hardware wise members who check in regularly. Hopefully one will pop in here and have a fix for you shortly.

Sorry was`t of more help.

Ah its all good. Its quite the conundrum. I've been doing this for a long time and I've never had any problems, til this lame Erp stuff showed up. The whole big deal is that when its off it uses less than 1.00W

They made my new build not work for ONE WATT!?!?! Lol. Thanks for your help!

Try a decent power supply first.

Pull everything out of the case, set the board on something non conductive. Only CPU,memory (1 stick only) and a videocard need to be installed. Hook up power (24 and 8 pin), the 6 pin connectors to the video card, and short the power pins for a sec and see if it boots.

Just a wild shot here but check the clear CMOS jumper on the motherboard to make sure that it did not ship with the jumper in the CLEAR position.

Ive had that happen before and the system would not fire up.
Took me a long time to figure out too.
Might be worth checking.

 Eyesee, on 11 February 2011 - 05:09 PM, said:

Good thought. Hate when they do that.

I actually did check the CMOS jumper as well, lol. I tried just about everything. I did also try a working power supply, but it also is not ErP, so of course it didn't work. I already ordered a Thermaltake Toughpower series to replace the Xion, and my buddy is gonna take the Xion off my hands for almost what I bought it for, so if in a few days I get the new PSU that SHOULD work with it does not, then I'll have to RMA the board.

The Xion PSU did work in a different PC, 24 pins and all that. With the H55DE3 board though it didn;t even turn on, no lights, fans, nada. So the board must be making it not work. The only thing left to try is an ErP rated PSU. I'll be sure to post what happens when I get it, I'm expecting it Mon or Tue, most likely Tue.


EDIT: While we're waiting, I'd like to ask, there are many different BIOS updates for this board, I obviously cannot know if Ill need any of them, but say I get version 2.2, if I upgrade to 2.8, will the update include all updates between 2.2 and 2.8? Or does it vary by manufacturer?

Here's a link to the BIOS d/l page for my board if it's something that needs to be looked at to know:

http://www.asrock.com/MB/download.asp?Model=H55DE3&o=BIOS

Also I just noticed I do need to get at least 2.20 for my CPU hehe.

This post has been edited by 3therea1: 11 February 2011 - 08:48 PM

Looking at the size of the update packages it would appear each is a separate update. None are all inclusive of the previous version(s).

IMO. Hold off on any updates until the PC is up and running. Then, should you experience any of the problems listed as being fixed by the BIOS update, do only the one(s) necessary.

Flashing BIOS has come a long way in reliability of the process. Rarely when done correctly do you toast a chip. But the chance is always there. Limit the flashing to only when and if specifically needed to address a known BIOS issue that an offered update was made to address.

Okay, sounds good. Never had to update a BIOS mostly because I wasn't willing to take the risk back when it wasn't so reliable haha. Well I guess that's it for me until tuesday, if I think of anything else I'll be sure to post it, you guys are awesome! :D

Thanks a lot for all of your help guys!

We are here to help.



Keep us posted.

Well, I don't think anyone is going to believe what I found!

The answer to my main question is: No, an ErP/EuP PSU is NOT required to use this or any other board with ErP/EuP standards. It turns out, when I took everything apart (yet again) that there were two standoffs in the case that were not under screw holes, and as I can assume now, causing a short, preventing the board from powering up.

Incredible right? That apparently was the entire problem. Everything is working, I am using the system right now and its *incredible*, I couldn't be happier. Thank you everyone for all your help and suggestions, and take this as a lesson to make sure everything is done correctly, no matter how small! ;)

This post has been edited by 3therea1: 16 February 2011 - 09:46 PM

Thanks for letting us know.

Many times it is the simple things that get overlooked.

Yeah I know, I felt really stupid for a while, then I got it up and running and forgot all about it! Wheeeeeeee!