Issue with EliteGroup 945GZT-M motherboard?

Question

Hey all,
I recently purchased an EliteGroup 945GZT-M motherboard with a Celeron 420 processor from Microcenter. I'd put everything together (all the drives, fans, etc.) but when I went to power up, nothing happened. No fans, no lights, no beeps, nothing.

Assuming it was the power supply (a cheap-o Microcenter brand 300 Watt ATX), I returned it to the store, where they gave me another one. This didn't help either, so I returned it for a 550 Watt PSU. Initially, this was no help, but after following the tips on the Microcenter website telling me to build it outside the case with only the essentials plugged in, the fans spun, and a red light lit up in the case faceplate. I assume the red was because I hadn't plugged in the system fan, or something to that degree.

Elated, I re-installed the motherboard within the case where it again worked as promised. I moved the case over to my monitor and keyboard, but found that it wouldn't turn on for me again. I really have no idea what to do here.

Thanks Karz!!

Everything is working beautifully, and the system is doing exactly as it should, with one exception. The power button on the front of the case maps to the reset jumper and vice-versa. Is there any way to fix this (switch the cables) without too much electrical work?

Thanks again!

Answer 1

Observe the processor cooling fan and the power supply fan. If the fans turn on for just a second or two, these are the possibilities:
1. Motherboard got grounded to case again when you moved it. Power supply sees it as an overload condition and kicks in auto-shutdown safety feature. Realign motherboard to case. You may have to insulate high points of the case that potentially touches the back of the motherboard.
2. Processor cooler may not be properly installed and getting in contact with motherboard circuit. Check the cooler.
3. Cooler fan not properly plugged to motherboard connector. If the rpm sensor wire gets disconnected, motherboard senses no fan and activates auto-shutdown safety feature.

If fans continue spinning but no single beep and display of POST, reseat the 4 pin 12V ATX power connector on the board.

Take note that even if the hard drive, CD drive and FDD are NOT connected, the bare minimum set up should be able to beep once (assuming a case speaker), display POST and open BIOS menu.