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OK all. I've been reading for about an hour or so trying to find a solution and unfortunately I'm not able to get this PC working.

OK here's the details: I just recently got this PC through a bulk purchase. I've only had it for a few days and I've never seen it running. So I'm not 100% sure the exact software specs. As for the hardware, I'm an idiot and riding in the truck now and forgot to get exact details. But I do have photos of the insides if that would help.

So here's the problem. I plug the PC in and a green light (on the power supply) starts blinking fairly rapidly. I believe its every time, but I know it's most of the time a green light on the "Ethernet" card by the Ethernet port is also blinking. No other signs of life are shown from the PC that I can detect in my newb state. My first impression was that I either somehow unplugged something and replugged it in wrong. After checking and rechecking and cross referencing online I determined that the components were hooked up correctly. Only one I was suspicious of and that was the main power connection to the mobo which was due to the male end being about 2 pins shorter than the female end. So I went and got another power supply with the same size connection as was on the mobo. Still no power and still blinking green light(s). So now I'm convinced that it's not the power supply but just to make sure I remove the PS from another working PC and tried both PS and they both worked on the other pc's (tried it on two PC's). So I attempt to narrow down possible components that could be causing the problem. So I unplug the power cord from the power supply and begin unhooking each stick of ram and each drive, etc just to find the light blinks no matter what is plugged in or not plugged in. Only connector that makes a difference is the main power to mobo. If its connected it blinks green. If its not connected it is a solid green. Unfortunately I didn't think to hook all connectors BUT the mobo up to see if it worked. But I did disconnect all but the mobo and it still blinked green when plugged in and stayed solid when not.

So basically. What am I missing? Is it a bad mobo? Can I fix it myself cause I can't afford to get it fixed. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you on advance.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by rubberman

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Brief note for (and to move past the unhelpful quip from ): a PSU LED that blinks only when the motherboard is connected most commonly means the PSU is entering a protection/reset cycle when it sees a fault on the board. Rather than guessing, run a short, ordered set of checks to isolate whether the fault is the PSU, the motherboard, or something creating a short.

  1. Safety first: unplug mains before touching anything and follow ESD precautions.
  2. Bench test the board outside the case on a non-conductive surface (cardboard). Connect only CPU+cooler, one known-good RAM stick in the recommended slot, the 24-pin ATX and the 4/8-pin CPU power. Do not connect drives, GPUs, front-panel headers, or USB. Try powering by briefly shorting the two power pins on the front-panel header (or use the power switch).
  3. Clear CMOS (remove battery or use jumper) before the bench test.
  4. Test the PSU independently: unplug it from the motherboard, short PS_ON (green) to any ground (black) to force it on, and check that the main rails/LED/fan behave. Use a multimeter if available. If the PSU fails this test, replace it.
  5. Inspect the motherboard visually: look for bulging/leaking capacitors, burn marks, loose standoffs or screws under the board, bent CPU-socket pins, or damaged VRM components.
  6. If the PSU runs by itself but trips when the mobo is attached, the board is almost certainly pulling the PSU into protection (shorted component, VRM, or power plane fault). If no visible damage and these steps fail, the motherboard is likely defective and replacement is the practical option.

If voltage testing or component-level work is uncomfortable, a local shop can do the bench/PSU checks cheaply.

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Watch the movie Idiocracy...

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