i started putting together a computer by my self yesterday. i mounted the motherboard, the powersupply, the hadrdrive, and the floppy drive. when i switched the computer ON, i ran for about 5 seconds and then turned off by itself. also i dont have any OS installed yet, i just wanted to look at the BIOS. when turned on nothing shows up at the screen.

when i turn it on, the cpu fan is running the LED on the motherboard is on, the power supply is running but after about 5 seconds it turns off by itself. have any of you have had this problem before, if so what could it be that i might have done wrong.

here are the specifics on the hardware:

- ASUS A7N266-VM motherboard
- AMD Duron 1300MHz processor
- 128Mb DDR 333 ram
- 300 W powersupply

i can give you other specifications if needed.

thank you in advance.

- negative_zero

well... if you haven't already, take everything out that doesn't need to be there... just leave in ram, video, HD, floppy and processor... if that doesn't work then check out support forums at asus to see if anyone has had similar problems... I know I hade a couple problems with my MSI but looking around forums fixed my problem... I was forgetting to plug in the speed sensor for the cpu fan to the fan plug on the mobo... some mobo's require that cause they don't want to fry your cpu... and on that note, make sure your cooler on your cpu is on nice and tight and proper... it could vary well just think it's overheating... AMD's can overheat in the blink of an eye without a heatsink/fan, and some mobo's have an automatic shutdown if it overheats...

also... most mobo's now come with some sort of diagnistic lights that flash in a sequence during boot up... different arrangements in the colour of the light means different stages... I know mine had that and it would halt at a particualr light setup and from that I was able to half-find out where the problem was... if you don't have this, well... on to more traditional methods...

try the above methods, and if nothing works, come back...

Very good advice mac.
zero: What was the last thing that was displayed before it shut off? Any error messages? Failures?

quote:

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What was the last thing that was displayed before it shut off? Any error messages? Failures?

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nothing really. i have the monitor connected to the system but when i turn it on the monitor gives me the message "no signal" like it wasnt connected to anything but just turned on.

- negative_zero

Monitors will display No Signal for any number of reasons. Usualy because the computer is not on, or it is not plugged in. But every once in a while it's because the video card is dead or dying.