Hi All,

My 15ry old's PC was due for an upgrade (won't play SIM's 2 smoothly
shrug) and I have been collecting the upgrade bits over a while for
her.[1]

As she built her last PC I asked her if she would like to do the same
with this and she said she would ;-)

So, anticstaic mat, wristband, parts screwdriver and away we went.

When we came to the magic moment (mobo, cpu, ram, wires all in) we had
power (front panel led, cpu fan etc) but no POST beep? We fitted the
video card and still nothing (in case there was a problem with the
speaker etc).

I rechecked all the basics with her (I was especially careful when she
fitted the brass mobo standoff pillars) but couldn't see anything
wrong.

I told her I would sort it out for her (assuming something was 'dead')
and left it for another day.

Yesterday I took the mobo out and ran it on the bench, all was fine!
(starting it with small screwdriver, so psu, mobo, cpu, ram, video all
ok).

Re checked the case standoffs and even fitted fibre washers on them,
re-fitted the board into the case and the front panel wires (power /
hdd led, power and reset switches) turned on .. nothing? ;-(

I pulled all the front panel wires off again, started it with a
screwdriver and it ran doh!

Hmm, re-fitted the 'reset' switch .. won't start thinks, 'they have
wired the reset switch wrong' so held the reset switch in and power
cycled .. still nothing?

Measured the resistance across the reset switch wires and it was
'short' no matter what you did with the switch sigh.

Pulled the front panel and switch out and there was a nice solder
splash across the reset pair ... I have seen a few incorrectly wired
switches in my time but can't remember seeing this before. I was just
annoyed we missed it at the time, assuming something was duff (some of
the bits weren't brand new etc) and I didn't think to check for
something so obsure (the case at least was new) ... ;-(

The strange thing was the heatsrink covering the solder joints on the
back of the switch would have to have been added *after* the solder
joints were made, so you would have thought they would have seen the
'splash / whisker' at that point?

I have since told her what the fault was and she's looking forward to
finishing the build off soon. I wished she had soldered the switch on
herself .. the last project she made had over 100 led's and that
worked first time!

All the best ...

T i m

[1] 'Mum' is having her old PC ;-)