QC5000-ITX does not turn on

[faustie]

Hi,

I have switched my old mobo with an ASRock QC5000-ITX, but the computer now does not turn on. I've checked the power supply ("paper clip test") and it seems to be fine (it also powers up the CD driver). Is there a way I can test if power is being delivered to the motherboard? Do you have any suggestions about what else might be wrong? Oh, and I manually shorted the power and reset pins on the motherboard (wasn't sure if the cable from the case matched the motherboard), but saw no sign of life.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[parsec]

Re: QC5000-ITX does not turn on

To check for power being supplied to the board, I check the LEDs next to the RJ45 network input jack on the board's IO panel. Those LEDs will light up with a network cable connected to an active Internet connection.

Otherwise it is difficult to check for power being supplied to a board the first time the PSU is switched on. Usually any power or other LEDs on the board itself won't light up until the board is switched on the first time following the PSU being switched on.

If your old board was a different size than ITX, there might be a short circuit between the board and a mobo standoff on the mother board tray of your case. Or something else is shorting the board to the case. If you could confirm the PSU does work (on another PC) then you may need to remove the board from the case, "mount" it on an insulated surface, and connect the PSU and short the pins on the board to start the board. If that works, it seems you had a short circuit with the board mounted in the case, or one of your other components is causing the problem.

Just noticed you have an HP case, was that an all in one PC with the PSU supplied by HP? If so, the PSU, or really its connectors, may be a proprietary design by HP and is not compatible with standard boards.

[faustie]

Re: QC5000-ITX does not turn on

To check for power being supplied to the board, I check the LEDs next to the RJ45 network input jack on the board's IO panel. Those LEDs will light up with a network cable connected to an active Internet connection.

Otherwise it is difficult to check for power being supplied to a board the first time the PSU is switched on. Usually any power or other LEDs on the board itself won't light up until the board is switched on the first time following the PSU being switched on.

If your old board was a different size than ITX, there might be a short circuit between the board and a mobo standoff on the mother board tray of your case. Or something else is shorting the board to the case. If you could confirm the PSU does work (on another PC) then you may need to remove the board from the case, "mount" it on an insulated surface, and connect the PSU and short the pins on the board to start the board. If that works, it seems you had a short circuit with the board mounted in the case, or one of your other components is causing the problem.

Just noticed you have an HP case, was that an all in one PC with the PSU supplied by HP? If so, the PSU, or really its connectors, may be a proprietary design by HP and is not compatible with standard boards.

Thanks for the detailed info, parsec. The network light is not on. I will test your other suggestions and report the results (may take a little time, as I'm heading out of town for about a week). Thanks a lot for your help, though.

[Britgeezer]

Re: QC5000-ITX does not turn on

My money is on "may be a proprietary design by HP and is not compatible with standard boards".

[faustie]

Re: QC5000-ITX does not turn on

Thanks again. I finally found some time to get back to this. I checked the PSU connector, and the colors match the ones in the mobo manual. I've also tried a different PSU, but it didn't make a difference. In none of the cases, the LED next to the Ethernet connector lit up.

The only connector from the case that does not match the board is the one from the front panel (LEDs, power button, and reset), so I'm not connecting it. Instead, if I manually (using a jumper) temporarily short-circuit the reset and power pins on the mobo, chassis and APU fans start running, but still I don't get any video output (or any other sign of life, really).

Could it be something about BIOS? Or the memory? I only have one memory stick and I've put it in DDR3-A1. The only other current connections to the mobo are: optical drive (SATA3-A0), hard-drive (SATA3-A1), and chassis fan. What else am I missing? I appreciate your help. Thanks!

[Britgeezer]

Re: QC5000-ITX does not turn on

The other PSU was a standard unit for ATX, or proprietary?

Another thread reminded me of my favorite revive a "paying dead MB" trick.

Put a bridge (jumper) on the clear CMOS pins. Remove the battery and wait as long as you can (I prefer at least an hour), replace battery, remove the bridge and try to start.

I have recovered many malfunctioning MB's with this trick, naturally you will need to change your BIOS settings, but assuming you fire up, but start with default and step by step make your changes.

[parsec]

Re: QC5000-ITX does not turn on

What Britgeezer asked about the second PSU you tried, I want to know as well.

What was the model of HP PC you have, which you have just changed its mother board for the QC5000-ITX board, correct?

I looked up some of the proprietary HP PSUs, and they really have different pin assignments compared to the ATX standard. Different enough to cause damage. I can't believe the plastic connector itself would be keyed the same as an ATX connector, meaning it would not fit in the board's PSU connector, but who knows.

I don't see anything in the board's manual about the PSU pin assignments or colors of wires...

When you said you, "... short-circuit the reset and power pins on the mobo", was that with the ground pin for each pin, or between the reset and power pins?

Not related to your problem, but don't use the SATA3-A0 and SATA3-A1 ports for your OS drive and optical drive. Those are supplied by the add on ASMedia SATA chipset, and will likely require you to load a driver for them while installing Windows. Use the other two SATA ports, supplied by the APU.

The BIOS should not be a problem, the default settings must allow the board to start up and provide a video signal.

Do you have the small speaker used for the POST beep codes? Your board has a header for one, you might get a beep code if there is a POST or start up problem.

It's possible your memory is not compatible with the board, what is the full model number of your Team memory?

Do you have any other cables from the case connected to the board? Seems that you might, such as for USB ports. Try disconnecting all of those, just in case they are proprietary and causing a problem. That includes fans on the PC case.

[faustie]

Re: QC5000-ITX does not turn on

Thank you all for your help. The second PSU is a standard ATX (a bit bigger than my original mini).

I disconnected everything and reconnected things, and now there is power, and things are running... almost. I now have an issue with windows getting stuck in a reboot loop. I think this is because of the missing (or mismatched) drivers. I wanted to see if I could get away without reinstalling Windows 7. However, the Windows recovery cannot fix the driver issues. I also could not install the drivers on the CD that came with the ASRock mobo because Windows somehow fails to run .exe or .ini files on the CD (I searched for the error prompt, and people say file association is lost or the system cannot run 32x applications anymore). But all of this probably does not belong in this forum anymore.

As for the HP case, I rewired the panel connector and hooked the pair of wires for the "reset" button on the case to "power" pins on the motherboard, and it works fine. I will use PSU's power switch to shut down the power if needed. So that problem is solved. Thanks!

[Britgeezer]

Re: QC5000-ITX does not turn on

Download the drivers you need from the ASR website, if you are really in an endless loop try safe mode and delete as many of the old system drivers as you can.
Once cleaned up install just the important ones (LAN) reboot a few times and either install from the drivers you downloaded or let PC look for what it needs.

[faustie]

Re: QC5000-ITX does not turn on

Thanks! Dumb question: how do I delete the old system drivers? I can go to the recovery mode (which gives me access to the command line) but not the safe mode.

Download the drivers you need from the ASR website, if you are really in an endless loop try safe mode and delete as many of the old system drivers as you can.
Once cleaned up install just the important ones (LAN) reboot a few times and either install from the drivers you downloaded or let PC look for what it needs.

[faustie]

Re: QC5000-ITX does not turn on

For the sake of completeness (if someone else ends up in this situation), I followed the directions in: http://www.dowdandassociates.com/blo...g-motherboard/ (used the accompanied ASRock CD from E:\Drivers\) to install the drivers. It took half a dozen restarts to replace all the drivers, but eventually Windows is working normally (without reinstalling). Thanks everyone for your help.