Hey guys, so my PC parts came yesterday; naturally, I was super excited!



I did a test run with just the board, cpu & heatsink, video card, and ram installed. Worked like a charm, it whirred to life.

When I finished doing the internal build in the case and did my first power up, my worst fears were realized. The LED's flashed and the fans whirred to life... Then suddenly faltered and stopped.

As you could imagine I was about to tear my hair out in disbelief. With tears streaming down my face I cursed the PC Gods for killing my mobo. ...........but in the end I had to realize... yeah it was my noob ass that messed up.

However, I am determined to make this work. I have already sent back the old mobo for a replacement unit. I have also ordered an anti-static wrist band to lessen the chances of another mishap.

The main reason I posted up my failure, is I want to ask you guys, What should I do better next time when installing my MOBO to ensure that I don't mess up?

A couple of questions:

• I still haven't figured out what the direct cause was, but which surfaces can I absolutely NOT let my motherboard touch? I was building on top of the Gigabyte case (like they did on the newegg tutorial)
  
• Is it okay to lay the motherboard on a wooden table (the one pictured above)?
  
• Will the motherboard short if it touches ANY of the metal casing of my NZXT Phantom? When first placing it in, is it okay that the standoffs are a little off and touching some other part of the bottom of the motherboard than the holes?
  
• What is the best way to grip the motherboard when placing it into the case? Should I put the motherboard first into the case before the PSU?
  

Oh, wise WL tech gurus, please help me out! Make it so I am idiot-proofed for the second round of building (facepalm).



EDIT: In case anyone was wondering, I didn't just call my MoBo defunct after that initial try, I went through each part from RAM to the GPU to see what was the cause. I did the paper-clip trick to see if it was the PSU, it wasn't. I reset CMOS, removed the battery for 20 seconds to reset BIOS. Ran the motherboard with just the CPU & Heatsink, etc. Pretty much everything in the book.

Might've been the Bios. My computer BIOS got corrupted, and I resetted the breakers, and did the CMOS trick, and it didn't work. Got a friend to fix my Bios, and it worked fine.

• I still haven't figured out what the direct cause was, but which surfaces can I absolutely NOT let my motherboard touch? I was building on top of the Gigabyte case (like they did on the newegg tutorial) - Nothing metal.
  
• Is it okay to lay the motherboard on a wooden table (the one pictured above)? Yes
  
• Will the motherboard short if it touches ANY of the metal casing of my NZXT Phantom? When first placing it in, is it okay that the standoffs are a little off and touching some other part of the bottom of the motherboard than the holes? Not sure.
  
• What is the best way to grip the motherboard when placing it into the case? Should I put the motherboard first into the case before the PSU? With your hands, and yes.
  

I'd go with the anti-static. I built my computer on a wooden table on a wooden floor and touched the case each time before I touched a part just for safety.

[Anubis]

This sounds to be a pretty rare case. First, to answer your questions of contact with metal: While the power is disconnected from the motherboard, any contact with metal shouldn't cause any issues. Running the board while placed on any non-conductive surface should also be just fine (the wooden table you mentioned). One potential area for short-related errors is if motherboard risers placed in the wrong locations (i.e. not under a screw hole), as these can potentially short out the board upon power-up. For the order in whch to place the components in the case, it really depends on the case and personal preference. Though I usually try to place the power supply first.

Unfortunately there's not enough information to determine the exact cause of the failure, but I'll list a few possibilities starting with the ones you mentioned:

• Static shock is a possibility during assembly, which is why many people use static bands as you mentioned. Usually any issues would show up later in the hardware's life anyway. This seems unlikely, as I have never seen someone shock a board in such a way.
  
• The board could have been damaged during installation or a misplaced riser. Unless you scraped up the board on something or it had a major manufacturing defect, I'd find this unlikely.
  
• The power supply may have failed. It may have worked initially, but when under a heavier load, or under a load for a longer time, something may have gone wrong. There is no way to verify this other than to put a load on it and test its outputs with a meter.
  
• The CPU could have failed. If the CPU fails, the board won't power on. Another possibility for DOA.
  
• Last, but certainly not least, the motherboard itself may have had a defect. This is the first place I would look, as I have seen more DOA motherboards than you can imagine.
  

Anyway, my order of suspicions would be: DOA motherboard, DOA PSU, followed by assembly error. I've never seen any Intel CPU arrive DOA. The only real way to rule out a manufacturing defect would be to have burned-in the hardware for a day, and even that's not completely definitive.

Did the motherboard's on-board power LED light up when you were testing it? If so, did the fans spin-up as well, or did they move at all?

hmmm I recommend watching these videos before you build your own pc

[video=youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=lPIXAtNGGCw[/video] ---> part 1

[video=youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=d_56kyib-Ls[/video] ---> part 2

[video=youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=RxaVBsXEiok[/video] ---> part 3

• The power supply may have failed. It may have worked initially, but when under a heavier load, or under a load for a longer time, something may have gone wrong. There is no way to verify this other than to put a load on it and test its outputs with a meter.
  

Ruled this out, I used a different PSU and got the same results. I also performed the paper-clip test (connecting the green wire to the black wire) and the PSU fan came on so I was able to confirm it wasn't dead.

Did the motherboard's on-board power LED light up when you were testing it? If so, did the fans spin-up as well, or did they move at all?

I did an external test - heatsink/cpu, RAM, video card were all connected. The external test worked, fan was running for at least a minute before I shut it off to continue building, which is why I was so crestfallen and surprised when my internal build failed. It had to be an assembly error on my part, but I can'tfigure out what - at first, I thought touching the metal case might have shorted it (it might have come into contact while I was placing the mobo since I was having difficulty placing it) - but since you said it would only short it if the motherboard was powered, that can't be the case. I'm trying to avoid duplicating that error at all costs (time/money since school is starting for me in 12 days).

The motherboard's LED light actually still turns on when powered, but when I start it up the fan spins once and dies immediately after. Strange..

hmmm I recommend watching these videos before you build your own pc

Thanks for the suggestion, I watched all of those videos, they were helpful. I also followed along to part II while I was building, but had to watch some other NZXT build videos because labels / instructions were very vague on the phantom user manual.

Additional questions regarding connections to the mobo:

• When connecting my USB 3.0, 2.0 connections, and hi-def audio how firm should I be pushing these connections in? I was scared I'd break the pins off - they were connected but took little effort to take off (compared to the 24 pin connector which requires a lot of force)
  
• When connecting to my fan ports (SYS_FAN) which have four pins, I have connections that are two pins (with a hole as a third) - are these connections usually very, very loose? I found that simply flicking the wire with a little strength would disconnect it from the mobo.
  

The motherboard's LED light actually still turns on when powered, but when I start it up the fan spins once and dies immediately after. Strange..

Bios. I had the same issue.

The motherboard's LED light actually still turns on when powered, but when I start it up the fan spins once and dies immediately after. Strange..

Bios. I had the same issue.

I reset it by taking out the battery. I also had a reset CMOS button which I used. Nothing. QQ ;__;

[Anubis]

Unless you were digging around in the BIOS changing random settings, which I highly doubt, I think that possibility can be ruled out. It sounds like a power regulation issue. Most likely a component on the motherboard failed after your initial test (it does happen). Should work just fine with a new board.

I had the same problem when assembling a PC. I did the same test that you did and I assemble the pc on a wooden table, the problem was when assembling everything in the case. I try with another power supply, I thought I had burned the mother or the memorys (never use anti-static wrist and never burn anything) and even suspect my video card which I had taken from the previous pc which had some problems, but none of that was. so I decided to check the fans ... who would say, the problem was there. The yellow wire (sensor) front fan was broken and made ​​contact with the metal walls of the case, this was the cause of the short. After many repairs, this was the first time I found something like that. Hope this helps.

@}{@K@P, Those are the videos I showed him.

Also, I built mine in my bed (lol?) and I wouldnt suggest you to put on the table, use the box because under the mother board there are some parts of the components, which I would keep it intact.