ATX 12_V 4-pin white power plug.. Needed to be connected 100%?

H

HDBox2d1

Gawd
Joined
May 19, 2005
Messages
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Hello. I am having a professional IT company sort out some computer problems i have.
They are telling me, my PS and Mobo does not need to be connected to the 4 pin white ATX_12v plug. Is this correct? They are saying i get the processor power from another cable that is connected to the motherboard. They might be talking about the main 24-pin main power plug?

I checked my Gigabyte's manual and it says. "The ATX-12V power connector mainly supplies power to the CPU. If the ATX_12V power connector is not connected, the system will not start. This is not true... Yesterday on 9/21/05 the white 4-pin ATX_12V plug was not connected, and i was able to turn on my computer. Run windows and talk on aim. What is happening? how i am able to turn on my computer without the ATX_12v being plugged in. :(


The manual also states "please remove the sticker on the motherboard before pluggin in while the ATX power supplier is 24 pins; otherwise, please do not remove it." I do not understand that. Do they mean, if you connect the 24 pin main connector to the mobo, you don't have to use the 4 pin ATX_12V plug?

When i turn on my computer, i hear 5 short beeps. I checked Gigabyte's manual and it list "processor error" for #5 beep code. Why is that, do you think since the ATX_12v is not connected, thats the error i'm getting. I never heard this beep code error before. First time i heard it was this week. And i have been playing on my computer for a month.

I'm going to call Gigabyte and ask them what the beeps mean.. I'll update this thread with their response.

Thanks for helping me! :)
 
If the manual says you require that 4pin +12v to start the machine, you unplugged it and you are now getting a CPU error beep code, i would say it's fairly obvious you need to plug the 4pin +12v back in. Weather it incidentally managed to work for a day or not doesn't really matter.

As for the sticker, they mean that if your PS only has 20pins, don't take off that sticker and accidentially plug your 20pin into the wrong 20pins. The sticker would make sure your 20pin plug goes to the correct 20pins. It doesn't have anything to do with the additional 4 pin +12v except for the fact that it provides 12v current also. Generally speaking, the more power you give your machine the better. Plug everything in that you can.
 
I got my 8 to 4 pin molex adapter today!
I'm going to plug it in when i get home in 3hrs. This should fix the 5 short beeps that my computer was giving me. If this does not fix the problem....
I will be posting again in stress-mode if this done not work.
See ya :)
 
Can somebody please "chime" in.. or post a reply on what to do.
I received my 8 to 4 pin molex power adapter today. I connected it to the white 4 pin atx plug. When i turn on my computer i hear 5 quite small beeps.

Anybody know how this could be happening? Motherboard, Power Supply, Video Card, Processor, Sound Card, TV Tuner Card failure.

As you might know my HIS X850XT PE video card fan is not spinning. I'm getting 80 degres C when i chat on aim and not do anything else.

I called Gigabyte and they told me the 5 short beeps was a power supply error.
I'm guessing they told me this b/c my 4 pin atx plug was not connected. Well now its connected! :(
My gigabyte's manual list the 5 short beeps is a processor error.

Can anybody help me? I would be so thankfull :(
Should i return the processor,motherboard,video card, and power supply;and start all over? I'm sorry for all the questions! i'm a noob haha

If there is anything you need to know about my computer, i will tell.
 
Ok, for one thing, this is not exactly very clear. First of all, just for your own reference, the extra four pins provide a 12V line powering one or two vital parts of the motherboard and the CPU. Newer systems and power supplies just simply combined the standard 20-pin connector used for everything else with that seperate 4-pin connector into one bigger 24-pin connector because all modern systems REQUIRE that extra 12V line now. I have tried booting a CPU on an older PSU without the extra 4-pins once a long time ago and it just would not boot at all. Plugging in a PSU with those extra 4-pins caused it to boot and run without error. To me this verifies what CPU, motherboard, and PSU manufacturers have been saying about it. If your PSU has only a 20 and a 4, then it should be as simple as plugging the 20 into the 24-pin slot of a motherboard, then the 4 next to it. You just have to be sure to get them in there right. Unless you posively force the plugs (tell me you didn't do this,) they should only go in the right way. If you did have the 24-pin connector from the PSU and that's what your board uses, then just don't worry about that extra little four pin plug from the PSU.

Ok, that little bit clarified, on to the problem at hand. First of all, your "8-pin to molex connector" which I presume is a molex to SATA power adaptor should have nothing to do with this matter. Even if your harddrives were improperly powered, your system will still turn on and everything, though obviously it can't use the drives. The only way this cord could have any relation to the problem at hand is if it had a short, in which case, you wouldn't have had problems before you got it, only after, so this has no bearing on your current problem as nearly as I can see.

Next up the video card. First of all, if you're running 80C just in plain windows, you have GOT to replace that HSF or fix it. I don't remember what was considered to be a life degrading temperature for a GPU exactly, but, I'm pretty sure it was in the upper 70s, so I think you're cutting noticably into the lifetime of that expensive sounding video card of yours. Don't play around with that much money unless you're rich (in which case, send some my way so I can get rid of this damaged old AGP video card already.)

Anyway, at this point, I would say that what you need to do is narrow the problem as much as you can. Firstly, unplug that video card and any other cards you may have in there. Most importantly, unhook that raptor you have there, and other drives/etc that aren't 110% necessary to get the system to just turn on and do nothing else. Raptors are notoriously power hungry. We need to diagnose this at an earlier stage of the bootup right now. Second, see if you can't find a friend with a reliable power supply that you can borrow to see if yours is damaged perhaps. If you can't do that, the only way I know to find out for certain if it might be would be using a multireader (which, I'm willing to bet, is more than you want to get into.) Heck, another motherboard would be great for testing if that were a possibility.

Unfortunately, the only information we have right now is that you get an error code that signifies a processor problem. This can mean something is wrong somewhere on the motherboard -- perhaps one of the voltage regulators for example -- it can mean that at some point during installation you seated the heatsink a tiny bit wrong and your CPU fried, and finally, it can mean that your PSU is messed up or just plain too weak (hopefully removing all extra devices will tell us whether your PSU is sufficient or not, but, it won't tell us if it is maybe damaged or not...)


BTW, this topic really doesn't belong in the AMD processors forum. It COULD be a processor problem, but, the actual diagnoses and etc really aren't very processor specific. I would tend to say that you would have gotten the best results from the motherboard forum as they would know more of the ins and outs of this sort of problem -- particularly any problems that may pertain to Gigabyte boards. IMO, an admin should really move it there so you maybe get better results?
 
Nazo:
I'm sorry for not being clear. I think my eyes were full of tears when i wrote that. Also, i am a complete computer noob/computer novice. So its hard for me to describe technical problems..

I did not force the plugs in. They went in easy. My motherboard has a native 24 pin plug, and my power supply has a native 24 pin plug. I connected that, and the 4 pin atx.

You said "Your "8-pin to molex connector" which I presume is a molex to SATA power adaptor should have nothing to do with this matter." This is NOT true.

Its a molex adapter for the 4 pin white atx plug. It has Nothing to do with SATA power. Its a legacy power plug that has a 8 pin male to a 4 pin male connector. You connect one side to a 8 pin female plug from the power supply to the 4 pin atx plug on the motherboard. Understand now?

Yeah, i am going to RMA the video card this upcoming week. haha i wish i was rich.
This past week i could Not even afford a whole tank of gas!!! its messed up :( i'm so sad.
I was planning on keeping the $550 video card for 4+years.

Before i could get to your "point" i did something else. Gigabyte technical service rep told me "Try taking out the ram sticks, then turn on your computer.. listen for 2 loud beeps"
I did what he said and my beeps went on and on. Past the beep error code list. I turned my computer off at 13 beeps. The error beep code list stopped at 12 beeps. I went one over.

Now My Computer Does Not Post. But this is another matter :p

I shouldn't do what you told me. I'm a computer novice, i will mess things up even more if i take every component out and test that way.. Like i said To The Top, i took out the ram and placed the ram back in.. and now my computer doesn't even post.

I'm further down the path of errors now. Just b/c i tried to fix the comp. on my own.

That would suck if the CPU died. You said "it can mean that your PSU is messed up or just plain too weak." I hope this isn't true. I have a ATX V2.0 535 watt power supply. It should be powerfull enough to run my system. Don't you think?

I'm sorry, since i'm a total computer noob/computer novice, i could not decide where to post this thread. You know, my manual said it was a processor error. So i posted it in here. Gigabyte technical service rep said its a power supply problem. And you say its a motherboard thread. Admins, move this thread someplace.

Thank you for your help Nazo.. You typed alot. thanks :)

Now whats the next step? getting my computer to post.. haha :(
 
Ok now, my old Pentium 3 board doesn't even require the usage of a legacy connector, even it uses the 20-pin connector, though it doesn't use the four. The adaptor you bought I'm pretty sure is only for really really old motherboards, so I can't see what you're using it for, but, I'm thinking that if you are actually able to plug it into something then something is very fishy here. You should not need any such special adaptor, a standard modern power supply should be sufficient. If you are using such a plug hooked into the 4-pin plug and actually found something you could plug it into somehow, then you may be drawing power away from the CPU by using it.

I'm sorry, but, I think you really do need to try unhooking all unnecessaries. If need be, get someone to help, but, a messed up card or drive or something can always cause a problem. If, for example, there were an almost short on the 12V line, but, not quite enough to trigger the protection, it might be sending improper power to the CPU and board. Anyway, we've established that your PSU is probably not insufficient power wattage-wise, but, to be honest, that's not really saying that much. The truth is, a really high total wattage power supply sounds great, but, in effect, they don't always provide really stable voltages and such. Then, there's still the possibility that yours could have gotten damaged, say from a surge or having been dropped in shipping, or a number of other possibilities (btw, lol, just to be certain, ensure it's not set to the wrong voltage -- most PSUs have the ability to switch between 110V and 220V for travelling...)

If you have to get someone to help, that's fine. I learned by doing without any help, and, well, I lost count of how much hardware I've destroyed. Of course, if you're careful enough and pay attention to what you're supposed to be doing, it's actually pretty easy to do such things without screwing anything up. Plus, I didn't have the internet to ask for help and instructions on back then... Anyway, in this case, we're just talking about unhooking the power cords to harddrives and other such devices and simply pulling your various PCI cards out. All, you need to get a system to post is video (and, some even have onboard so you can even unhook your video card.) Even I have yet to manage to ever mess that up. Also, since you've already tried removing your memory, try just putting in one stick, and if that fails, try taking it back out and putting only the other stick in. Never hurts to be thorough.


BTW, have you tried resetting your BIOS? *shrugs* You never know, voltage could have gotten set too high or something. If you don't know how to do this, don't worry, it's quite simple. Just turn off your system (unplug it even, just in case) then locate the appropriate jumper (you'll have to look in the motherboard's manual to find this, but, it's usually called something along the lines of JBAT or something to let you know it involves the battery.) Sometimes you just pull the jumper out, but, usually you have to switch it from connecting pins 1 and 2 to connecting 2 and 3 or the other way around. After you do that, wait a few seconds, then move it back to the correct pins and try turning your system on. Well, there's no harm in trying it, even if it probably won't help.
 
Plug in the 24 pin ATX and the 4 pin 12V ATX plug, this is the one that eclipse pictured. If your mobo has the OLD AT style plug DONT use it. You want your 24 pin, and the 4 pin connected
 
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