[Resolved!]

I traded my cousin some really expensive RAM that I happened accross for his old desktop, that he put his graphics card into that he swapped from his newer computer. If I plug the desktop into the wall and try to turn it on nothing happens. If I open it up I can see that the where the wire from the power supply plugs into the graphics card there Is a little light on. So clearly some power is getting somewhere…

How do I go about trouble shooting this, and what tools do I need? I assume at minimum a multi meter? Not really sure what to do, it’s been decades the last time I built a computer.

Board says “Asrock H110M-HDS”

Edit: Attached a Pic and noticed the light is actually on the graphics card, not motherboard. Added addtl info.

Update: So now all of the sudden the fan spins. I am at a loss as to why it spins now, as I haven’t actually really done anything. I ordered a speaker for the mobo, so waiting for that.

Final update: It works! I apparently had either a bad monitor or bad display port cable. But using another monitor with DVI I was able to finally get it to fully boot!

I am not sure what got the fans to eventually work, maybe just a cable was jostled.

I really appreciate all the advice! I definitely know a lot more and feel better equipped to do things with it now.

  • @CorkyskogOP
    5•1 month ago

    Sorry, I hadn’t had it fully opened on the other side… it’s actually the graphics card that has a light. I got tricked when I was looking in from the other side.

    • @[email protected]
      -2•1 month ago

      That power connector is not supposed to hang loose in the air. Check the handbook for the mainboard to find out where it’s supposed to connect to.

      • @CorkyskogOP
        3•1 month ago

        It’s plugged in. I believe those are extra for something else thar he ziptied to the graphics connection. Here are a couple images.

        • AlteredStateBlob
          5•1 month ago

          It’s fine. The PCI-e is another one for a graphics card that requires more connectors to be attached.

      • Bezier
        3•1 month ago

        The 6-pin connector? That very much looks OK to me. I don’t see where it would go.

        However there’s disconnected 2 pins on the graphics card.

        • @SolOrionEnglish
          3•1 month ago

          It looks to me like that’s a 6+2 connector and they only needed the 6-pin so the +2 is just left dangling, which afaik is fine.

          • Bezier
            3•1 month ago

            I saw 8 solder blobs, but I’m not sure if it’s actually an 8 pin anymore.

            • @SolOrionEnglish
              2•1 month ago

              Oh, yeah, okay, good point. I didn’t notice the solder. I’m not sure if it’s actually a six pin anymore. I have zero clue how an 8 pin GPU would react to only having 6 pins.

              • @[email protected]
                2•1 month ago

                If you look closely on the upper picture in this reply, you can see, that there is only a 6-pin connector, the 2 extra soldering points are unused.