Help: Motherboard not working?

[wolverineTO]

I am doing my first build.

Before installing everything in the case, I wanted to test if the motherboard works. So outside the case, I connected the Motherboard, CPU, RAM, video card, and PSU (both ATX and ATX_12V) and turned on the PSU. And I get nothing, no LEDs light on MB, not even the PSU fan spins. I did the paper clip test for the PSU, and it works. I thought I got a dead motherboard, so I RMA'd and got a new one. But I still have the same problem, which leads me to believe it's something wrong that I'm doing. Can someone help?

Should I connect everything to motherboard including monitor and see if it POSTs? I doubt this would make any difference though.

Motherboard: Gigabyte 990XA-UD3
CPU: AMD FX6100
PSU: Corsair VX550W
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL 8GB 2X4GB DDR3-1600 CL9-9-9-24
VideoCard: HD Radeon 3650 512MB DDR2

[xalex0]

put inside the case

[thinfilms]

How exactly are you turning it on without the case? Are you using a switch or manually shorting the (correct) pins?

If your sure your starting it right, isolate components.

-test GFX on another system
-test other RAM or RAM on other system
-test CPU

[wolverineTO]

How exactly are you turning it on without the case?

By turning on the on switch on the PSU.

Even if i don't connect to a case (and power on thru that), shouldn't the MB lightup some LEDs with just the power from the PSU?

My aging LAN Party MB that I currently have, when PC is powered off, still has a LED lit up. That only goes off when I turn off the power on the PSU.

I don't want to put everything in the case only to realize the MB is dead.

[george__]

Your probably not turning on the motherboard... When you hook up the PSU and all the parts to the MOBO, you have to short "power" pin on the motherboard (with a screw driver) to turn it on.
Check the Motherboard manual to see which pins are for power :D

Edit: Also check memory configuration. If you only have 2 sticks of ram make sure they are in dual channel configuration??
Like with my asus board I have 4 ram slots in total. And the ram slot configuration are 1A 2A 1B 2B. So I connect only ram slot 1 and slot 3 because I only have 2 x 4GB sticks of ram.

[wolverineTO]

OK, it seems I did in fact need to connect the MB to the case to power it on (or do the pin shorting).

I just quickly connected the MB front panel connectors and turned on the power from the case and looks like everything is working.

However, there were no lit up LEDs on the MB, but I guess that may vary depending on the motherboard.

Thanks for your help.

[george__]

@wolverineTO - does the motherboard have LEDs? From the crappy pictures I can find on the internet all I see are caps.
So is everything working?

[wolverineTO]

@wolverineTO - does the motherboard have LEDs? From the crappy pictures I can find on the internet all I see are caps.
So is everything working?

I looked closely, it didn't seem like there were any. I couldn't find any info in the manual or web whether the 990xa-ud3 has LEDs or not. I assumed most/all MBs did.

[xalex0]

By turning on the on switch on the PSU.That's genius.

[george__]

@wolverineTO - who knows :P. Remember to put your memory in dual channel! I also have a DFI lanparty motherboard... It was a Ultra-D that I made into a Sli-D lool
@xalex0 - that's what told me he probably didn't turn the motherboard on :P