You can find a "few" notes of mine after the relevant sections below.
Hope this helps, and good luck. Also, a bit of un-solicited advice: I
highly recommend newegg.com for your son's future computer part
purchases. I've rarely (never, really) found better deals anywhere,
and their customer service is second to none. I mean that, really.
Neal
On Sun, 21 Sep 2008 23:45:13 -0400, "Erik A. Lilleskov"
<elillesk@xxxxxxx> wrote:
We have an antistatic wristband. My son says that he didn't use it
correctly at the beginning, so it is possible there was some static
discharge.
I've built dozens of computers, serviced hundreds, and have never
used an anti-static wristband, and never experienced any negative
side-effects. Unless you have reason to believe that there was some
sort of static discharge, I think it's safe to say that static didn't
cause the problem.
We checked the motherboard for shorting-- motherboard is mounted on
raised dimples integral to the case, screws seem to be mounted OK.
The case instructions mention spacers but there were none supplied--
I think they are outdated instructions.
The spacers are usually an essential part of mounting the
motherboard, AFAIK. I've never seen a machine without one. It's
possible that they came with the motherboard, but they usually come
with the case. My guess here is that StarTech just doesn't include
them with their cases.
It is also possible that this is the cause of the problem.
Motherboard-to-case contact is A Very Bad Thing (tm), and without the
spacers, it's possible that something on the back of the mobo is in
contact with the case, shorting it out.
Given the above, it seems like it's narrowed down to bad RAM, CPU or
motherboard, unless we missed something.
I don't suspect the RAM. If everything but the RAM worked, you'd get a
lot more behavior than the two seconds of fan-spinning you're
reporting.
It's possible that it's the CPU, but I also think that in that case
you'd get a bit more behavior than the two seconds' worth.
My favorites in this situation are the PSU or the motherboard. As for
testing/diagnosing, there's really only one way that I know of -
replace the suspect equipment with a part that is known to work. The
PSU is easy - you just unplug everything, and plug in a known working
PSU. The motherboard, on the other hand, is not so easy. You have to
take everything out, put everything in a working motherboard (which
has to work with your CPU and memory), and that can be a lot of work.