4p 12v connector on board may be faulty?

[SinCrisis]

Hey guys,

I recently changed out my heatsink and psu. I changed from the intel stock cooler to a passive one by silverstone and a 500w silverstone psu to a 700 ocz psu. For some reason, everything in the case works except for when i plug the 4p 12v power connector in, its the one by the cpu. When that 4 pin plug is in, turning the computer on results in everything turning on and then shutting off immediately. Does anyone know why this is happening? is there a way to fix it myself?

[x88x]

So, just to clarify, you have everything hooked up normally but with the 12V MBB connection not plugged in, and it works just fine, but when you plug in the 12V MBB connector, it exhibits this behavior?
(just to make sure we're talking about the same connector):

If that is correct, well, it's rather odd that it works without that power connector, but I would say that the 12V rail in your PSU that the connector comes off of is unstable/dying. You can get an adapter to pull off a molex rail, but if the PSU is under warranty, you really should just RMA it.
adapter:

[SinCrisis]

I will go and order this adapter, but i feel that it may be the board since my other psu now exhibits this same behavior when i plug it in. Could it be something with the new heatsink? such as having it too tight?

also, is this what im looking for? http://www.frozencpu.com/products/10...V_Adapter.html

I'm having trouble finding a short adapter that's 4pin to 4pin, everything seems to be 4pin to 6 or 8.

[x88x]

Yes, that should work just fine. The 6 and 8 pin adapters are probably for PCIe power feeds on GPUs.

Considering that your other PSU now does the same thing (I assume it didn't before), I wouldagree that it is probably a problem with the MBB. Tightening the heatsink could have done something, particularly if you tightened it to the point of cracking some leads on the MBB, but let's hope that's not the problem

[SinCrisis]

how do i check if its damaged my motherboard?

[SinCrisis]

OK so i wondered if it was my heatsink being too tight and, possibly irrationally, i loosed one screw a little and turned it on and voila it works. Is it still my motherboard? Is something cracked and the loosened screw allowed the leads to touch again? If so should i get a new mobo to be safe?

Also, now that the psu turns on with the 4 pin in, nothing shows up on my monitor. It causes my monitor to wake from sleep but then it shoes no dvi signal and goes back to sleep, is this now a gpu issue?

[x88x]

Having the HS/F tightened too far may have just been bending something, or it may have cracked something. Either way, personally, as long as it's working I would leave it be.

Does your computer have a system speaker? If not, do you have one that you can hook up? (It connects to a header on the MBB, not the sound card, in case you didn't know.) The system speaker will usually beep if something is wrong, and depending on the sequence of beeps, sometimes it'll actually tell you what's wrong. Without that information, it sounds to me like you have some bad RAM in there. TBH, I wouldn't be too surprised if that were the case. It's not common, but not unusual, for some RAM chips to get fried when you switch PSUs. I'm not sure why exactly, it probably has something to do with irregularities in voltages that all PSUs have; the RAM becoming accustomed to one, and then switching to another fries them..or something along those lines. So, I would pull out all your RAM and try it one stick at a time. It is unlikely (though not impossible) that all of your RAM sticks got fried, so hopefully at least one should work.

[SinCrisis]

I do not have the speaker on the motherboard. However, since the board isnt event posting on my monitor could it be something with my gpu? I pulled out teh rams but they dont smell like they fried and look perfectly fine. Shouldn't my board at least post on my monitor and freeze if it was a ram or other hardware issue?

[x88x]

If you have bad RAM, your board will do..well, pretty much exactly what it's doing. I suppose I use 'fried' in a rather loose way; you generally will not see any physical difference, and there will not be a smell. It is entirely possible that there is a problem with your GPU, but imo the RAM is the more likely culprit. Though actually, it occurs to me just now...if your GPU has a dedicated power hookup on the board, make sure that is plugged in. That could also create the behavior you are describing.

[SinCrisis]

well the gpu fan comes on, ill try the ram see if one works. The new heatsink does push on the first ram bit a little, i really hope its not that, but then again i guess it would be cheaper and less work if its the ram and not the motherboard.