I traded my cousin some really expensive RAM that I happened accross for his old desktop, that he put his graphics card into that he swapped from his newer computer. If I plug the desktop into the wall and try to turn it on nothing happens. If I open it up I can see that the where the wire from the power supply plugs into the motherboard there Is a little light on. So clearly some power is getting somewhere…
How do I go about trouble shooting this, and what tools do I need? I assume at minimum a multi meter? Not really sure what to do, it’s been decades the last time I built a computer.
Is it posting? There should be led indicators that flash, usually an array of them. (The pattern as it lights up means stuff.) and if connected to a monitor, it should also flash some kind of boot screen. If it completes posting, it’ll at least go to bios. If the LEDs aren’t flashing at all…
the first step is to pull everything out and re-seat it. (Ram, gpu, power, etc.)
Start with seating the power sockets (to mobo, the minimum needed RAM, cpu and cpu fan (connected to cpu_fam header; usually next to the cpu).
Side note on ram, if it’s dual-channel or more, it matters where the ram goes. Consult your manual.