My housemate is having a nightmare with a new pc he's putting together. Ordered all the components from Scan about 2 weeks ago.

We built it, booted up fine, then consistently had issues with it blue screening whilst installing an OS. Returned all the bits, Scan tested and decided the motherboard was faulty. He got it all back today. We've put it together and now it wont even start up. There is power to the board as the LED on the board lights up. When you press the power button, all the fans spin once or twice and then all stop. Nothing happens. They wont do that again until you remove the power lead and plug it back in again. Power on, fans spin, then nothing.

What should we check, before he goes mental at Scan again tomorrow, who to my surprise appear to be making life very difficult for him. Is it likely to be yet another motherboard fault? Have checked the gfx card and mem are seated properly, but havent done the cpu yet, but they dont tend to not seat properly do they.

I cant remember the exact spec now, think its athlon 64 3500+, MSI board, geforce 7600GT, 2gb DDR667 (i think). Any help much appreciated on this one.

ive had that - its probably one of two things...

1. The PSU is not powerful enough <--- Very likely, esp at that spec

2. You have plugged the case cables into the mobo incorrectly. <--- Less likely

D - the exact same spec booted up before, only a 350W PSU however as it worked before I don't think it was that. Double double checked the case cables and they were ok.

Gama - tried booting it up with just cpu and adding other bits - made no difference.

Anyway, being the lazy git i am nowadays, by the time I'd got up (bout 20mins ago), he'd already spoke to scan and they are collecting it all again today. They are going to build it themselves and see what happens, then hopefully get it working, and return a built, working machine to him by Tuesday. We'll see....

re. psu - appreciated its quite low, but it did boot up fine originally, and now nothing. the spec hasnt changed one bit. the psu came with the arctic cooling silentium case. a very nice case but seems stupid it only comes with 350W, i would have thought 450W would be a much better idea. i like the case though, i might use it for my next build.

anyway its all back at scan so will see what they say on monday.

Yes exactly thanks phil.

scan said it sounded like another faulty board, anyway i shall let you know when they get in touch on monday or tuesday.