I'm trying to build my very first PC and I've run into a problem. After assembling all the parts and following a guide, I attempted to power it on without it being in the case yet—just doing a test run. The lights on the motherboard came on, the fans are spinning, but the monitor remains completely blank, even after waiting for about 30 minutes. I noticed a concerning red CPU light on the motherboard, but no other lights are illuminated. I made sure that the CPU is properly installed; it slotted in correctly with the arrows aligned, and I applied thermal paste as needed. However, I'm having issues with the cooler—its fans are running, but the RGB lights aren't on. It connects to a hub instead of directly to the motherboard, which complicates things. I tried connecting the cooler to both the CPU-OPT header and a FAN4_PUMP header, but still no luck. I'm really more worried about the system not booting rather than the RGB lighting. What could be going wrong?
1 Answer
First, I recommend removing the AIO cooler to double-check that the CPU is seated properly. It's easy to miss something there. After that, reattach the cooler and make sure the bolts are securely tightened. You should also plug the fan hub into a PWM pin on the motherboard for a chassis fan, and ensure the other cable is connected to the ARGB 5V header. The red light on the motherboard usually indicates an issue with the CPU, which could be due to improper seating or cooling.
I get what you're saying, but I’m confident that the CPU is seated correctly. I even got a more experienced friend to verify it. I’ll share some pics to confirm, but for the connection, I've tried swapping things around with the AIO and RGB plugs, and I'm still having no success. It’s really frustrating!