Computer specs: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/qjxm
I bought this computer and put it together a week ago. It was my first time ever putting a computer together, done following a guide since I had little idea what I was doing. However, it worked and has been running fine until last night. Story time!
Now, the fan that came attached to the back of the case was really loud, so I bought another fan to replace it. Last night I installed the new fan. Unlike the previous fan, which only had a connector that attached to the power supply, the new one had a three-pin connector that attached to the motherboard. I connected it to the CHA_FAN1 socket and tried to turn the computer on. Nothing seemed to happen. Thinking it might be an issue with CHA_FAN1, I tried plugging the fan into CHA_FAN2. Still nothing.
The new fan came with a molex adapter, so I stuck that on the connector and plugged it into the power supply instead. Hooray, the computer made noise! Unfortunately, it was just that one fan starting up. The heatsink fan didn't start up and the computer didn't boot. After attempting to power the computer on and off a few times (with the fan still connected to the power supply), eventually it did boot up, albeit rather slowly. The computer worked fine for the rest of the night. I figured I would just have to leave the fan connected to the power supply and that would be the end of it.
However, when I shut the computer down last night, I noticed something odd: the computer didn't power down when Windows shut down. I had to manually shut it down by holding the power button. Strange, but it didn't seem like a big deal; it was just another step to shutting the computer down.
Today, the computer won't boot at all. The case fan will run, but nothing else, just like before, and unlike before, powering it off and on again doesn't seem to help. Nothing has changed in the computer except that fan, so I have no idea what's going on.
So erm...long story short, I tried to install a new fan and probably screwed up the motherboard somehow. Now I have a very expensive paperweight on my desk. :( What can I do?