If yourmotherboarddoesn’thavea POST
codedisplay,it mayhaveerrorbeepcodes,
emittinga seriesofbeepsthatcanhelpyou
identifyproblems.
If you’restillstruggling,seeif youcanfinda
friendwitha similarcomponentsetuptoyours- theymaybeabletolendyoua componentor
twosoyoucanswapyoursoutandseeif you
havea faultyone.PCscanbea painwhenthey
don’tstart,butif youdohavea faultit’susually
onlyonecomponentthat’stoblame– it’sjusta
questionoffindingit byprocessofelimination.
PLANYOURBUILD
Nowputthecoresystemtooneside,take
thesidepanelsoffyourcase,andhaveaIf you’re lucky enough to have a motherboard
with an on-board power button, just push it
to start your new machine. If not, find your
motherboard’s front panel headers, which are
usually at the bottom right of the board. Check
your motherboard manual to identify the two
pins for the power switch. You can short them
out by placing a metal screwdriver between the
two pins and start your machine.
If your PC starts, enter your motherboard’s
EFI (usually by pressing Del on startup) and
checkthatyourmotherboardhascorrectly
identifiedallyourmemory,yourCPUandyour
SSD.If allis workingfine,gotothenextstep.If
yourPCdoesn’tstart,you’llneedtodiagnose
theproblem.Startbyswitchingoffthepower
supplyanddouble-checkingthatallthepower
connectorsarepluggedinsecurely.
If thatdoesn’tsolvetheproblem,try
reseatingthecorecomponentsonebyone.
Startbycarefullyremovingthegraphicscard
(flipdowntheclipontheedgeofthePCI-E
slotfirst)andthenplacingit firmlybackinthe
slot.If thatdoesn’tsolvetheproblem,dothe
samewiththememoryand,asa lastresort,
trytheCPU.
It’salsoworthcheckingyourmotherboard
manualatthispoint.If yourmotherboardhas
a POSTcodedisplay,checkthefinalcodeit
displayswiththechartinyourmotherboard
manual– thiswillhelptopinpointtheproblem.Younowhavea fullypoweredbasiccore
system.Pluga keyboardandmouseintothe
USBportsonthebackofthemotherboard,
thenplugthepowersupplyintothe mainsand
connectyourmonitortooneoftheDisplayPort
orHDMIportsonthebackofyourgraphics
card.Thenflipyourpowersupply’srearswitch
totheonposition.
FEATURE / CUSTOMISATION
You may need to push two parts together to make
an 8-pin PCI-E graphics connector, then plug it into
your graphics card
Use a screwdriver to short out the power switch
pins and start your test systemThe CPU 12V socket is usually found in the top-left
corner of the motherboard
If you’re using a
tower-style CPU
air cooler, make
sure the fans are
directing air in the
same direction
as your case’s
airflow system