T3500 motherboard won't boot

are you sure of the correct pwr sw pins of Dell proprietary front panel header of T3500 and you short the two pins w flat screw driver?

https://funkyimg.com/i/VmoU.png

I would not be concerned of plastic bag static at this point.  the risk is minuscule although nonzero.

PS you are posting in AW

So, T3500 has no hacks, like "these pins must be connected this way on the front panel or I wont boot" ? Or maybe it is using special PSU with some logic on it? I am using the normal PSU like Thermaltake gamer PSU.

Yes, I found that image of the front panel and shorted Power Switch pins. Not only thosepins, but also we scanned through all the pins on it, but nope. Doesn't turn on the PSU. I guess it is because chipset is broken and doesn't send startup signal to the PSU?

I do not think it is a special board.  If it does not turn on at all, that is worse than No POST.  are you sure the cpu socket pins are not bent since you got it w/o cpu installed?  If seller honors no DOA, consider return it telling seller what you did w your test.

power supply must be EPS12v  evga 700BR bare minimum.

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@nuliknol wrote:

I have bought a T3500 motherboard without CPU, installed Core i7 920 on it, connected a working PSU, shorted the Power Switch pin which is located in the middle of the front panel, but the cooler of the PSU won't start spinning. 

 

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Well is that the only thing your'e going off ... that the fan's not spinning on the PSU? A lot of the newer PSUs have control over the fan - so the fan won't spin at all under no load or low load scenarios.  The fan not spinning that could be entirely normal for your PSU. 

Also, 920 .. stick a Xeon in it!  But I guess one step at a time. 

Hi,

You might try the following :

1- Is the amber LED on the mother board illuminating when you plug the power cord ? It indicates that the standby power is coming out of the PSU (not that the PSU is good), but it will allow for the next step;

2- With the AC cord plugged, Press and hold the little button in the back of the PSU : you should see the green light next to the button illuminating. When pressed, this button triggers PSU fan as well as front fans (with standard DELL PSU). Normally, you should also see a green LED illuminating on the mother board (towards the front panel)

3-If all of the above is OK, then a miswiring should be suspected. Check for the Pin layout correspondence and for wire soldering defects. You might also want to try the front panel button itself by measuring resistance on the right pins pressed and depressed.

4-If you have another CPU on hand try the mobo with it. Beware that the i7 920 is pretty beefy when it comes to power and has no demand based switching like most Xeons...

From another perspective, as far as I know, all T3500 mobos miss a chassis sensor, it should be okay to start them with the proper wiring outside of the case, like most computer systems. However, like everytime your run a bare mobo, take very good care of the GND wiring/plating (grounding everything while avoiding shortcuts - Test it before putting power cord).

T3500 Owner's Manual 

Not sure if the chassis intrusion switch was optional or what effect it had.  I never had my Dell's hooked up to a monitor when removing the side panel (space constraints).

Please screengrabs below.  #24 on MB image is for intrusion switch.  Images will appear once approved by a moderator:

• The T3500 came with a Xeon processor. Odds are that the bios was never updated. In order to upgrade the cpu, you probably need to install the latest bios update.