hi this is my first post ever here and would like to try it out cause u all seem to know alot more then me hehe. well anyways heres the scenario: went out and purchased 1) Epox rda motherboard that has the new nforce2 chip
2) athalon xp 1800+ cpu
3) new case with 300 watt power supply .

well i plugged it all in accordingly ie cpu fan, mobo power ,and the switches.

well i went for first try and hears what happened. one lil dribble of power to the power supply fan and the heatsink fan then nothing and if i wait a few seconds and try again i get the same thing. this was repeated then i tried switching the lil plug-ins around for the on/off power switch and led. still nothing better than a lil whirl of the fans?
where did i go wrong i even phoned the retailer about this and he was kind enough to walk me thru the first part of the conections and he couldnt figure it out so he said to bring it in and his "tech team" will look at it. well that will cost more $$ and i figured why not try the net first. so any input would be nice.
thx azzy

Try it first with just a bare minimu of devices hooked up...the minimum would be CPU, RAM and video card, plus the CPU fan.

Also you may want to try it with the motherboard out of the case and sitting on a non-conductive surface.

Also consider that your 300W power supply may not quite cut it....http://members.shaw.ca/need4speed/Power%20Supply%20Choices.htm

well mjc ive read that article and im like er ...wow! i never really considered that a power suppy could be so important. and i have tried to boot the system with the absolute bare minimum. still no avail :( and to think i got a geforce 4 ti4400 128 mb agp card for this comp omg. dude i need more power especially on the +12v. currently my power suppy is @ 14A/30A/10A. well ive spoken with the seller of this comp and hes more than willing to replace the "case/power combo" with a new higher grade 350watt power supply for no $$. so ill try that tommorrow or the next day and post my results.

thx man u rule.

did you hook up monitor power from the pc or direct from the mains? the monitor will take a lot of the power from the psu.

Two possibilities. First is a faulty PSU, second is a grounding problem - as posted above, you could try to boot whilst the MOBO is out of the case on a non-conductive surface, but before that, ensure that all the motherboard spacers are in place and seated correctly.

It's more likely to be a PSU fault though, - the switched mode PSU can go wrong in lots of places - and this one sounds as if there is a control problem inside. Nothing you can do about it, just replace it. If you can test the PSU's output with a voltmeter it would help you find out where the problem lies, it isn't a difficult task, but don't worry if you can't perform this test.

Your GeForce4 Ti 4400 128mb video card requires inordinant amounts of power and that's your problem. I suggest at least a 400watt power supply.

Sometimes this indicates that the cpu heatsink/fan is not connected correctly. The motherboard senses that the fan is not turning (even though it is) so shuts down the power as a protective mechanism.

Make sure this fan is plugged into the correct connector on the motherboard. If it is, then you may need to replace the fan.

Following up on GW's observation regarding the fan connector placement...I just checked the manual for your board and FAN 1 and FAN 2 are right next to each other...it would be easy to plug the CPU fan into the wrong header.

There was also a follow-up on the installation of the AGP card. It seems that due to its proximity to the RAM slots it needs a bit of extra care to ensure that it is seated properly and locked in.

thx all for your assistance i got it to work i changed the psu. lol next time no more case/power suppy combos plz

peace geeks

Good work Azzy