I finished assembling a PC with used components, but it shows no signs of powering on. The only thing that lights up is the ASUS RGB logo on the motherboard. Pressing the case power button does nothing, and no fans or other LEDs turn on. I've checked the 24-pin motherboard cable, CPU power connection, RAM seating, and front-panel pins against the motherboard manual. I also tried different RAM sticks and slots, cleared the CMOS using the two pins, and tested the PSU with the paperclip method. What should I check next to identify the faulty component?
3 Answers
If this is an AMD platform, the first boot can sometimes take a few minutes while the memory is being trained, especially after clearing CMOS or changing RAM. However, you should normally still see fans start spinning. Since absolutely nothing happens when you press power, waiting longer probably won’t solve this by itself; concentrate on power delivery and a minimal out-of-case test.
Remove everything nonessential for the first test: graphics card, storage drives, USB devices, front-panel connectors other than the power pins, and extra RAM. Leave one memory stick installed in the slot recommended by the manual. If it still has no fan movement at all, the problem is more likely the PSU, motherboard, CPU, or a short against the case rather than the monitor or operating system.
The motherboard RGB lighting usually only proves that the PSU’s standby power is reaching the board; it doesn’t confirm that the system can actually start. Recheck that the 8-pin CPU/EPS cable is connected near the CPU and that it’s the CPU cable, not a PCIe cable. Then try a bare-minimum test outside the case with only the motherboard, CPU, cooler, one RAM stick, and PSU connected. Start it by briefly shorting the power-switch pins with a screwdriver.
I already tried shorting the power pins, and the case button worked previously, so I’m going to focus on the CPU power connection and testing the board outside the case.