If you've been building PCs for a while, you already know that it's easy to overlook seemingly unimportant details during assembly. For a first-time builder, these mistakes can mean the difference between a smooth build and a pile of junk. If you don't know what you might have done wrong, you'll probably assume your brand new PC is somehow faulty.
Instead of frantically searching for RMA information for your new components, take a moment to examine these common rookie mistakes. It can save you hours of hassle and unnecessary panic, and get your perfectly healthy PC back to its original state.
6 No power due to loose or missing cables
Make sure all connections are secure
Aside from the fact that there are quite a few cables to connect when building a PC, some cables require more force to connect than others. These are usually the 24-pin power cables for the motherboard, GPU, and even the CPU. If any of these cables are not fully inserted at the PSU or motherboard end, you will not receive power to important components of your PC and you will think something is defective upon arrival.
I once forgot to install the extra EPS power cable for the CPU and it took me hours to figure out why the PC wouldn't boot.
Sometimes some of the front I/O ports don't work and you might mistakenly assume that the case is broken. Maybe one of the front USB ports on the motherboard has come loose. Sometimes you forget to connect some cables altogether. For example, I once forgot to install the extra EPS power cable for the CPU and it took me hours to figure out why the PC wouldn't boot.
5 Your new SSD needs to be initialized
SSD not recognized? Don't worry, it's not broken
If you installed a brand new SSD in your new PC build (instead of using your previous drive), you might be wondering if your PC doesn't recognize it. This usually happens with secondary storage when you first boot into your operating system and the secondary drive isn't listed in your system.
A simple oversight can easily lead you to believe that your new SSD is defective and needs to be replaced.
If you have installed your SSD correctly, the first thing you should do is initialize it in Disk Management. All you need to do is select the partition type (GPT or MBR) and your drive will be formatted and ready to use within seconds. A simple oversight can easily fool you into thinking your new SSD is faulty and needs replacing. What you need is just a few hygiene steps that are part of every new PC build.
4 PC does not start due to incorrectly installed RAM
The click does not mean that it is 100% in
This happens more often than you might think. Typically, you'll need to line up your RAM bars with the notch on the slot and press down until you hear an audible click as the bar snaps into place. However, in many cases, this click is not a guarantee that your RAM is fully seated in the slot.
If you see some of the gold contacts, your RAM may not be making proper contact with the slot, which can easily lead to a failed boot process.
You need to make sure that none of the contacts on your RAM stick are visible. You can look at the DIMMs from the side and check if this is the case. If you see some of the gold contacts, your RAM may not be making proper contact with the slot, which can easily lead to a failed boot. So before you panic about why your brand new PC won't turn on, make sure that your RAM is fully inserted into the slot on the motherboard.
Your radiator installation needs more pressure than you think
I happen to have been through this ordeal before. Last year, when I was helping my brother build his new gaming PC, we faced a strange problem. The PC would boot fine, but the CPU temperature was unusually high even when idle. We tried tweaking the fan curves, but that didn't help. When launching any application (even a browser), the PC would immediately shut down.
What seems to have happened was that we didn't apply enough pressure to the heatsink when we first installed the cooler, which resulted in CPU throttling.
We considered removing and reinstalling the AIO pump to ensure it had sufficient contact with the processor's IHS. And that was certainly the right decision because after reinstalling the cooler, the PC would not shut down and temperatures returned to normal. What must have happened was that we did not apply enough pressure to the heatsink when we first installed the cooler, which caused the CPU to throttle.
2 CPU not working due to missing BIOS update
Your motherboard BIOS may not be ready to use right away
This has been happening more and more in recent years. Since motherboard sockets last longer than 1 or 2 years thanks to AMD, many users found their brand new CPU stopped working on their new motherboard. This is because manufacturers are not always able to update each motherboard with the latest BIOS required to recognize a new CPU generation.
If you have assembled everything and still do not see a signal on your monitor after turning on the PC, it may simply be due to a missing BIOS update.
This means that you may get a motherboard with an older BIOS that won't work with your latest processor, so you'll need to remove your new CPU, install an older processor (that's compatible with the older BIOS), update the motherboard's BIOS, and then reinstall your new CPU on the motherboard. You can also do this via BIOS Flashback, an option available on certain motherboards that doesn't require a CPU to be installed to update the BIOS. In this case, just download the BIOS update from the manufacturer and complete the update.
So if you have put everything together and don't see any signal on your monitor when you turn on the PC, it may simply be due to a missing BIOS update.
1 PC with integrated GPU instead of graphics card
Make sure you disable your integrated GPU
Sometimes the system won't use a discrete GPU automatically, even if you've installed it on your new PC. In such cases, your PC will work fine, but you'll find that you're not getting the graphics performance you expect from your graphics card. This is because your applications will default to running on the integrated graphics instead.
To solve this problem, you need to go into the BIOS and disable the integrated GPU so that your PC is forced to use the separate GPU. This setting may be in a different place on each motherboard, but you should usually look for “Graphics Configuration” or something similar in the “Advanced” settings.
This will give you the performance you expect from your brand new PC right away and give you peace of mind that everything is OK. If your graphics card stops working in the future, you may need to reset the BIOS if you want to use the integrated graphics for diagnostic purposes.
Don’t jump to conclusions
Building a PC is a learning process. With each build, you get better, more confident, and better able to deal with unexpected problems. So as a new builder, don't panic if something doesn't go according to plan; it's part of the game. Instead, try to retrace your steps and see where you might have missed something important.
You can seek help from other community members on Reddit or XDA forums who have had the same problem, or consult tutorials from reputable publications. It's not impossible that you could end up with DOA hardware, but you shouldn't assume so either.