No POST on second Gigabyte GA H170N-WIFI: Where to look next?

[Anachronaut]

Board: Gigabyte GA H170N-WIFI
Processor: Intel i3-6300
Memory: Crucial Ballistix DDR4-2400
Power Supply: SilverStone PS-ST55F-PT 550W 80+ Platinum

The problem:

When I hook everything up and trip the power switch pins, the CPU fan starts spinning for about 2 seconds, and then stops. The board does not POST, and there is no sound from the small case speaker I attached for this process. My first thought was that this was a motherboard problem, so I exchanged it for another, but encountered the same problem. I have tried this with the memory in all different kinds of configurations, including no RAM installed at all, the results are the same either way.

Where to next?

I think I have eliminated the memory as a possible problem. Do you think that I should look at the power supply or the processor for the next attempt to solve this issue? I do not currently have another PSU or 1151 CPU just laying around, so I would like some opinions before I move to the next step.

 

[trs96]

It's much more likely the PSU than the CPU. OTOH even one bent pin in the CPU socket could prevent the POST from
completing. I've never seen a bad, brand new Intel CPU though. Is the PSU new or have you had it work in other builds ?

 

[Anachronaut]

It's much more likely the PSU than the CPU. OTOH even one bent pin in the CPU socket could prevent the POST from
completing. I've never seen a bad, brand new Intel CPU though. Is the PSU new or have you had it work in other builds ?

Thanks for your reply. All of the components are brand new, including the PSU. I agree that it is very unlikely that the CPU is bad. I am trying to sell an old computer, and if I don't get much interest this week I will try to use its power supply, a 650W SeaSonic Gold that has been extremely reliable. If I get interest in that computer this week, I will leave it as is for the purposes of selling it and try another solution.

 

[kiiroaka]

Make sure that you disconnect USB and audio harness cables like those that go to the front panel, SATA cables and the SATA power connectors. Bent pins on a USB connector will short +12V. Do not connect a mouse or keyboard (a bad mouse can prevent powering up). Do not have any peripherals connected. Remove any video cards and any PCI and PCI-E cards. All you want connected is the PSU, heat sink & fan, 1 stick of RAM.

CPU fan twitching usually signifies a bad CPU since it means that +12V is crow barring; no CPU fan twitch usually signifies a bad PSU, but that doesn't rule out the EPS voltages being bad, so a CPU power tester is called for. Uh, you did connect the 6 or 8 pin EPS connector, didn't you? No built-in video usually signifies a bad Intel CPU. While that PSU may be new it could still be defective. Try another, known good, PSU.

 

[Anachronaut]

Make sure that you disconnect USB and audio harness cables like those that go to the front panel, SATA cables and the SATA power connectors. Bent pins on a USB connector will short +12V. Do not connect a mouse or keyboard (a bad mouse can prevent powering up). Do not have any peripherals connected. Remove any video cards and any PCI and PCI-E cards. All you want connected is the PSU, heat sink & fan, 1 stick of RAM.

CPU fan twitching usually signifies a bad CPU since it means that +12V is crow barring; no CPU fan twitch usually signifies a bad PSU, but that doesn't rule out the EPS voltages being bad, so a CPU power tester is called for. Uh, you did connect the 6 or 8 pin EPS connector, didn't you? No built-in video usually signifies a bad Intel CPU. While that PSU may be new it could still be defective. Try another, known good, PSU.

Thanks, this is the kind of diagnostic help I was looking for. On this build though, The problem has been solved. I tried another power supply and it now seems to be working just fine. I sent the SilverStone PSU back, but Amazon was out of stock so a replacement would have taken at least a month. Since I didn't want to wait that long, I bought this one at my local MicroCenter store:

EVGA SuperNOVA 650 GS

Since this is a small build, I wanted a shorter PSU and this also fit the bill. What's a little bit scary, is that even though the new PSU seems to have the system working fine, I still wonder about the processor as per the indications you mentioned above. It did work with two other PSU's however, the above mentioned EVGA and an older 650W SeaSonic Gold from another build. Oh well, if the processor does turn out to be bad it will just be another challenge to tackle! I do not have any sort of equipment to independently test a power supply.

I really wanted to like the SilverStone PSU, it's 80+ Platinum, quite short, and also relatively inexpensive with a recommendation by Jonny Guru. Since it is quite a new unit, perhaps they had problems with early production or part consistency. Hopefully they will get things sorted out because I think SilverStone will have a very competitive product if they do.

P.S. I think you meant 4 pin or 8 pin EPS connector, and yes the 4 pin was connected as this is what my motherboard takes. I was surprised though that this came off of the same cable as the 24 pin motherboard power connector on the SilverStone PSU. It was wired into the same connector on the PSU.