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[Kadzar]

Can't you just use another VoIP service, like Skype or whatever?

[Gentlefish]

Ugh.

Is it possible for my front panel connectors to be incompatible? That's the only other reason other than a DOA motherboard that I can think of for NOT HAVING MY FUCKING POWER BUTTON WORK.

I mean, I'm going to probably end up taking everything back to Radioshack to get it all tested. But. Seriously. It shouldn't be this hard.

[gimlet]

You can test the mobo by momentarily shorting out the 2 pins the power switch would attach to - screwdriver or paper clip or something.   I used to do this with motherboards that I was using that I didn't have in a case.   If you do it more than a few times it gets to be a PITA, you can buy a power switch for like $1 on ebay - also good to replace a broken power or reset switch.

Oh, option 2 is to swap the way the reset and power switches are connected - you can use one as the other, there's not really an electrical difference just the confusion when you try to remember which is which...

[Gentlefish]

Hm. Then it might actually be a bad circuit. I tried that and it didn't boot even though the little green LED that says it has power is on.

[gimlet]

Or you have one of the other problems that will keep a newly assembled system from booting.  The usual suspects again:
- didn't attach the 4 pin power connector near the cpu
- memory not fully seated, or in wrong slots (ie 2 sticks should be in A1 and A2, not A1 and B2, (depending on how the manual labels 'em))  Always try it with just 1 stick, in the mem slot closest to the cpu
- video card or other pcie card not fully seated
- bad memory - tough to test it if it won't boot at all though...  ED:  Try 1 stick as above, then any others 1 by 1....

ED2:  And make sure it's not displaying to onboard video if it has one, a lot do that and you have to explicitly tell them to use a video card.
So what happens - does the cpu fan start?   Or nothing?

[Gentlefish]

-I've got both power connectors connected.

-Memory's fully seated. I'm not gentle on pressing down.

-No pcie cards put in (this time around)

-Memory's all good. I'm using it all on the old MoBo I'm trying to replace.

It's simply not turning on. No beeps, no whirring fans. Simply no response from the power button.

[gimlet]

Yea now it does sound like a HW problem - the only other thing I can think of is to look for shorts - motherboard pressing against metal for some reason.  Kind of unlikely.

If the power supply has a 115-220 switch, make sure it's in the right position, that's kind of rare now though, they all auto-sense.

No motherboard speaker hooked up right?   If you're gonna be in Radio Shack, I think they're like $5 or so - ask for "motherboard speaker", then you can listen to the beep codes, that can really save time narrowing down boot problems.  Or $1/$2 on ebay, but you'd have to wait a bit.

Oh, last simple (ugly) possibility is a bent pin on the cpu.  I fixed one once that wasn't TOO far off, never succeeded with one that was seriously bent but other people apparently have.

[Gentlefish]

Oh, there's a speaker. My mobo I have in now beeps on startup. There's no switch on my power supply. The only other button other than the on/off is the switch for the LEDs.

And none of the pins -appear- to be bent. And it's not like the motherboard itself isn't receiving power. There's one place where it asks for a screw but there isn't a hole behind it on the case but that's just because it's a smaller board than the one in there, it otherwise fits perfectly. It couldn't be that one screw could it? And it'd at least complain about missing a CPU fan and not just start up right? I'd get some sort of error instead of it flat out refusing to power on?

[Carnwennan]

Can't you just use another VoIP service, like Skype or whatever?

We've got another guy in our group that can't connect to Skype well, and Google Hangouts is just as bad, TS was the best for everyone.

[gimlet]

It couldn't be that one screw could it?

No, you can leave a few out.

beeps on startup.

Yay!  Thank you for having a mobo speaker   How many beeps?   And distinguish between long and short beeps, there's a difference.  If it's just one beep (normal start up) then hmmm.  Otherwise, what brand/model mobo, the codes are different between manufacturers.

And it'd at least complain about missing a CPU fan and not just start up right? I'd get some sort of error instead of it flat out refusing to power on?

I didn't understand this bit - are you saying you don't have a CPU fan?   Actually I think it won't start if the CPU fan isn't plugged in to the CPU Fan connector,  I think I remember that from when I plugged a cpu fan into the wrong header - it really HAS to go specifically into the one labelled "CPU Fan".   Hmm although ASUS looks like they have a "CPU Fan" beep code - so yeah, ASUS should give the beep code error.  Also make sure there's nothing keeping the CPU fan from spinning, wires get caught in there annoyingly easily :p

I asked about the CPU fan spinning 'cause there's a difference between the 3 cases:  CPU fan never spins, CPU fan starts for a second then stops, and CPU fan starts and keeps running.

[Gentlefish]

Heh. My current (old) mobo give a single, quick beep and boots up normally. I get zero response from the power button when the new mobo is plugged in.

[Karkov]

Hrm... Is this also the mobo with the bad PCIe slot?  If so I'd say it's just not worth the hassle and RMA it.

[Gentlefish]

Nah this new one is the one to replace the one with the bad slot which otherwise works. Also accidentally ripped off a plastic cap on one of the SATA ports on that old one. Luckily it didn't duck up too much.

[gimlet]

Yea I'm pretty much out of suggestions, about the only thing I'd do, if it was me, is remove all the cards, cables and memory, blow air in each slot, put in the absolute minimum to see if it boots - 1 stick of memory into the mem slot closest to the cpu,  use onboard video if it has it otherwise plug in 1 video card into the pcie slot closest to the cpu, power cables, power switch, mobo speaker, nothing else - no disk drives, no usb headers, no audio speakers, nothing, and give it one last shot at booting.

Then yea taking mobo/PSU to be tested is probably the least annoying next step...

Ed:  You're 100% sure the cpu and mobo are compatible right?  The only other thing I could think of is that slightly older mobos sometimes need a bios flash to use newer cpus, that's a colossal PITA catch-22...

[Gentlefish]

Should be. It's a brand new mobo, after all. The cpu is seated properly. Looks like Radioshack will probably just tell me to RMA it.