Cougar S550 + ASRock 970 Extreme4: PC does not power on

[scooper22]

Hello,

I've just built a new system with an Asrock 970 Extreme4, AMD Phenom II X6 1090T, Sapphire Radeon 6950 and Cougar S550.

I assembled the parts yesterday, but it does nothing, no spinning of the fans, no power on the drives, nothing.

I am now totally desperate because I can not explain what it could be. It is not the first system that I've put together and I've been doing this since the i386DX. As far as I can tell, the assembly was working fine, everything is in the correct slots, everything is correctly connected.

I checked whether: the CPU power supply with the 4-pin instead of 8-pin connector changes anything; if the 20-pin ATX power connector instead of the 24-pin changes anything (the MB instruction writes explicitly that we here freedom of choice here), graphics card out, RAM module repositioned, disk drives removed and unplugged all connections to the front bezel. The mainboard has an onboard reset and power button on the circuit board so that the regular power button is not needed. Also, operating the onboard button had achieved nothing.

Then I took an old 350W ATX Power Supply (took out the video card and detached the drives to create some buffer) and pressed the power button. Behold - board comes to life, the numbers on the Dr.Debug (onboard diagnostic display) run through, then beeping because no installed boot media and graphics card - everything fine!

Exactly the same configuration, this time with the Cougar - no response.

The S550 is from November 2009, so just under 2 years old. It was handled well and did his job perfectly in the previous system.

I therefore do not understand why it does not work in the new system. To me it seems as if the power supply does not react to the power-on request of the board, but I've never heard of something like this, especially something like this is sure yet defined in the ATX standard ...? In the previous system also an ASRock motherboard was installed, so the same manufacturer and it worked there.

Something like that has never happened to me and I can not imagine that there could be something such as power supply incompatibilities. The Cougar did cost much and it amazes me that the second cheaper power supply makes everything without hickups, but not the Cougar.

What should I do? Is there a trick I have not applied properly, perhaps? The board is brand new and cutting-edge, maybe the power supply is in some way too old? Is there a fix for the power supplies so they collaborate with current boards? What's going on?

I know a lot of question but I'm also really clueless and grateful for any help!

 

[Enigma8750]

It could be as simple as no power on the Outlet where your rig is plugged in .. then check the power strip and for good connection there.. then check the connection on the PSU itself. then turn off the power switch on the PSU and then back on. after 15 sec.

Then check to see if your 24 pin is plugged in good and your CPU 4/8 Pin is plugged in..

If you have done all these things then you have a short probably behind the board.
Take off board and Check Every stand off.. and then check again.. You have a stand off too many on and it is showing a short on the PSU and the PSU is not powering on..

 

[JrRacinFan]

Check the switch on the back of the psu, it may be faulty. Return the Cougar because obviously something is a miss with it.

Something to check before you do that. Make sure the power supply is out of the rig with nothing connected then attempt a jump start on the psu itself

EDIT: To be more descriptive, pin 16 (Green) to any Ground(Black).
Jump those 2 connections with a paper clip to see if you get the power supply's fan spinning.

 

[scooper22]

Hi there. Thanks for the hints and the cool picture !

I rebuilt by old rig (old MB, CPU and stuff) with the Cougar and it instantly works flawless. So the PSU seems to work here (and has since 2 years).

On the new rig I stuffed all cables into the right sockets (verified multiple times, they are also protected from wrong assembly by coded connectors) and I tested all combinations of 20/24-pin ATX and 4/8-pin CPU to no avail.

The new rig with an old ATX PSU worked instantly (!).

This leaves me with:
old PSU + old MB = works
new PSU + old MB = works
old PSU + new MB = works
new PSU + new MB = no power-up

I haven't tried hardwiring pin 16 to GND. I know it's about the same as pressing the power-button (not exactly) but I feel coward fumbling with a bent wire here ^-^ .

Also I think it *will* power up because the Cougar-PSU *does* work - but in the old rig.


I read some PSUs won't power up if there's no load on both 5V and 12V wires so I connected the Gfx and drives to the PSU, but it didn't change anything.

 

[JrRacinFan]

So one can deduce it's either the above with a short kicking in the power supply's protections, observation by enigma. Or the Cougar isn't getting a pwr on/ok signal?? Incompatibility with the new board perhaps? Still stand by my words , return the Cougar for a different brand even if it's a beQuiet.

 

[scooper22]

Looks like we think of the same.
Here are some scenarios I've come up with:

- Cougar detects faults the other PSU does not and refuses to power-on (PSU okay, board/CPU/RAM not)
- Cougar does not recognize power-on request because of fault (PSU defective, board okay)
- Cougar does not recognize power-on request because of differrent protocol (PSU okay but weird, board okay)
- Cougar does not power-on because some requirement not met because board layout is different, e.g. no load on 5V, etc. (PSU okay, board okay but weird)

How to rule some scenarios out?

 

[eidairaman1]

Same Motherboard with a Antec 650 Watt Earth Green Model, which works perfectly fine, sounds to me Cougar dont meet specs to run that motherboard.

I always reset the motherboard bios before initial powerup, n bench run the components before putting them in the case (reduces the amt of problems from the start)

 

[scooper22]

Found another guy who can't run the combination Cougar S/SX 550 + ASRock 970 Extreme4.

(autotranslated)
A very respectable power supply. The build quality is a dream, just like the noise, you hear nothing really pure.

There are plenty of cables available, which are already covered. The only drawback here is the 8-pin CPU power connector is on the same or a 4 +4 pin connector depends on it. Because you always need but never both, I do not understand why it is not just a 4 +4- pin connector has done to it? The last yet perfect.

However, I had to return the power supply, unfortunately, nothing with this power supply the motherboard came on. This is an ASRock 970 Extreme4. So in any case buy this power supply if you have this motherboard. I guess just once, that it is similar with other ASRock motherboards behave. So watch ASRock owners prefer to search for a different brand.

Since it is top but otherwise in pretty much every respect, it gets 4 stars, deducting gibts incompatibility for the ASRock.

He could return the PSU as it was a new buy, but mine is 2 years old, no returning here.
His was the SX550, successor of my S550 and two years newer. Seems like it still has got the same product base.