Powering up issue

joshcork

Hey guys wondering if anyone can give us a hand with this doozy.
I have a ASUS M2N32 Deluxe wireless Mobo
AMD64 x2 5600+
4GB Corsair XMS2 CL4 in 1GB pairs
3 Seagate 250GB HD
1 150 GB Raptor
XFX 8800GTX
600W Zalman PSU
ASUS CPU Cooler
LG CD/DVD thingy
and a ASUS Vento 7700 Case


Here's the situation, last night I finished putting it all together checked all the connections twice. Tried power on and nothing happens, the only thing that indicates that power is there is a LED on the mother board that lights up as the PSU switch is turned on at the back, before the case switch.
Now I'd love if it was just a connection problem for the soft switch power button on the case but I'm sure its as the manual says. The thing is I can hear the PSU come under load (the transformers hiss inside changes tone) as the power switch is turned hit but no fans spin up, no BIOS' POST and no HD spin up nothing. But the valiant LED remains on unchanged.
I tried disconnecting various parts to see if it was a load issue but no joy I will take a multimeter to the PSU tonight but I'm moving to the idea of a dead Mobo. A question I have would a faulty CPU cut the power like that or just the motherboard, or is there some protection element in action here cutting the supply to components.

Anyone with idea's for testing would be appreciated.
Also there isn't some hidden work button on these motherboards no .

Thanks

8T8

One thing to try is to rule out a short inside the case so pull the motherboard out and plug in only the bare minimum to get it up and running so CPU,GPU,RAM and power on and see if it posts.

If it doesn't have you got another PSU you can test with just on the off chance doesn't matter if it's not powerful enough to drive everything in the system just to see if it powers on the motherboard.

Try pulling two of the 1GB sticks as well so only two DIMM slots are populated and clear the CMOS.

shrapnel222

if the led on the motherboard is switching on, does it have a little display showing an error code? check out that error code on the manual and forums- try with the minimun components as 8T8 suggested- do you also have another power source you can try- more often than not, you'll find it's a faulty mobo.

joshcork

Thanks guys, I was reading around some boards here and there earlier today and what you guys are saying seem to be the next step. Unfortunately there is no indication on the mobo so no error code, but by the feel of things there simply is no startup to give an error code. I'll test the voltages from the PSU tonight with a multimeter from work so that will at least confirm the PSU isn't a complete dud. The PSU is ATX v2.0 with 84% efficiency so it's spec ok I'd say.

I hope its a simple matter of tightening the screws a bit too much for the mobo to case, i'll short out the case soft switch aswell to eliminate a faulty switch. Don't have a spare PSU handy but will look into it if tonights testing is a failure.

joshcork

OK I tried the whole build out of the box thing (had the MOBO on my chair) with the bare minimum CPU, GPU, CPU Fan and 2 sticks of Ram. Got the exact same result as when everything is connected together so...

Tested the PSU with a multimeter and I get only the stand-by voltage although I noticed something odd and will have another test with it all put together, if it is what I think I might not tell ya cus it'll make me look pretty stupid

I'll be able to test again on Saturday night can't get home until then

requiem1

i'd actually like to know cause i had the same issue with my latest board from asus and if you could shed some light on the issue it'd help me alot. But in saying that i tried all different components and had no success. Let us know anyway

joshcork

Right here's what was wrong with the power.

The Zalman PSU has the 20 pin ATX power supply or something separated from a 4 pin accessory. This would give you the option of not having to plug the extra pins into a board that only needed 20 pin power.

The thing is when plugging in the power the two plastic bits fit together in a certain way so its all flush on the Mobo. I only noticed it in the office when testing some voltages on the plugs.

So it powered ok got to the stage of getting GRAW working BUT.

It seems I have clear the CMOS at every restart as the GPU or something will not display an image. This is obviously a pain in the rear area so has anyone come across this before/fix it.

I got all the primary drivers installed so its a fairly low level thing in the BIOS of the board or GPU as it is the GPU's BIOS that shows first on startup.

Is it going to be a matter of flashing the BIOS' or what is there another simple thing I'm mssing?

8T8

Not sure I follow exactly what happened there.

ATX PSU's & motherboards now come in 20-pin and 24-pin variety.

In the case of the 24-pin variety the last 4 pins are detachable so as to be backwards compatible with ATX 20-pin boards.

There is also the separate P4+ connector which is very similar to the detachable 4-pin connector but these are the 4-pin power connector that has been around for a while now & have their own separate connection point.

So I don't get quite what happened you plugged in the 24 pin ATX connector & it powered on ?

As for the bios flashing the latest would be what I would try first and clear the CMOS after the flash.

joshcork

Yea its hard to explain I'll get a pic of it tonight to show it better. I have a 24 pin ATX but the PSU has the option of 20 or 24pin and I incorrectly inserted the additional 4 pin piece such that it wasn't making contact with the pins. So not enough power was there for the management system which didn't send the signal to the PSU to turn on fully from standby power giving the impression something was broken.

As far as the CMOS thing I have a few tricks up my sleave for tonight, but it seems the RAM I got isn't actually on the Qualified vendors list from ASUS (It would seem I didn't look close enough at the model). Although the model I have works for most people as the Mobo tends to detect the wrong default settings from the sticks. So I'll flash the bios to the new version then manually set the timings so with any luck that'll sort it out.

I think I'll need some more cooling solutions from Komplett, the GPU/North-bridge runs too hot for my liking would burn my finger off if I left it there too long I'd say.

8T8

I see I understand now.

I hope nothing has been damaged on the board & it's more of a bios compatibility issue.

For cooling I would say the heat pipe solution already on it is good enough you shouldn't need to replace it and it cools quite a few components which would be tricky to replicate because most chipset coolers are not low profile & would interfere with graphics cards in the PCI-e slots.

joshcork

Ok uploaded a couple of attachments there of the power thing I was on about I hope it makes things clear.

Went at the boot failure thing again last night, I'm pretty sure it's the RAM but can't get very repeatable results.
I went off changing only the DRAM settings forcing them to
(5-5-5-18 800MHz these default values never work on re-boot)

5-5-5-18 667/500~/400~MHz
4-4-4-12 800/667/500~/400~MHz
(best results with the 667MHz range will reboot perhaps once or twice then no more)
Also the DRAM voltage was upped to 2.1V for all as oppose to auto
Tried with SLI Ready enabled/disabled.
Tried with only two of four sticks in no change although I didn't test it all that much, but I'd obviously like to find a solution for all four sticks.
It's some setting the BIOS is auto setting something(s) after the first boot that prevents/makes difficult the booting then after, but seems to have no noticeable affect in windows

I'm running out of idea's I feel it's close but can't understand why it will sometimes work with a setting then not work a boot or two later.
There's a massive amount of setting to choose from and I don't know what half of them do. One or more of them together will make it work I'm sure but trial and error just aren't an option, the combinations are endless.

I thought perhaps something might be faulty and I will get Memtest going tomorrow morning for the day to be sure. But I was playing Stalker last night on Max settings for like 3 hours without a glitch. Also run 3dMark before that fine.

tuxy

I had much the same problem for a while also with a asus motherboard and it tured out to be a faulty memory stick. The memory passed memtest86 for 8 hrs + no problem and seemed to work fine in windows/games. I would always have to reset the cmos to get it to reboot.
But when I RMA'ed it to g.skill they found a fault and I am now waiting for the replacment.
Next time it fails to boot try just one stick at a time and see if you can get it to boot with out resetting the cmos.

8T8

Those power cables are normal that's the 24-pin ATX connection.

Try unplugging the 4-pin power connector near the GPU which you can see in this shot the white connector near the blue PCI-e slot surrounded by capacitors.

Also did you update the bios if so which version did you try beta bios on their site ?

joshcork

Tuxy sound man that might be the next option alright (one stick at a time thing), we shall see tonight. Another thing that I should have posted eariler was that on almost all of the successful boots the computer hangs after the mem check page with a

Checksum Error, Bios defaults loaded
message

I always assumed I got that message was because I had reset the CMOS but after looking around the net today that seems to indicate faulty RAM perhaps.

8T8 I flashed the BIOS to 1001 beta the other day with no problems so we're up to date alright. That 4 pin is for the CPU supply I think no booting with that one disconnected, there's a separate 4 pin point for that from the PSU anyhow. No the power thing is fine now it was all me with the mistake I'll make a better pic of what I had trouble with this evening.

joshcork

Here are two more pics that show it much better.

Making progress on the RAM thing, can now boot consistenly enough and now only have to have the PSU switch off for like 3 mins between boots. I had reverted to an older BIOS to see if the setting I was changing would have any better luck.

Found that
having the 0706 BIOS
CPU Frequency at 200.0
DDR2 Voltage at 2.1V
Peg LINK in Auto (Default)
DRAM CONFIG
Speed at 667MHz
rest in Timings in AUTO
The Skew set to advance 450ps for both channels
the SLI Ready to optimal
AMD Live to enabled
AMD Cool'n'Quiet in Auto

interestingly enough when I go back into the bios it correctly detects and sets the timings for my ram usually they are set slower when the speed is 800MHz.

with those setting I don't get a CMOS checksum error the occasional boot failure as restarting the PC doesn't work and it takes that rightly so as a failed post.
Will go back to the 1001 version of the BIOS tonight and see if the restarting thing gets any better. Another week of this and I'll say I'll give up and get some other RAM that is guaranteed to work for this board, which is what I should have done in the first place

8T8

Really something can't be right as 2.1v for DDR-2 just to get it running stable is not normal.

By the way PEG link mode should be set to disabled that's a crazy auto overclocking of the PCI-e graphics card slot feature.

SLI Ready Memory should also be disabled as again this is another auto overclocking feature though it requires SLI branded RAM still turn it off.

Under the chipset header Linkboost should be set to disabled as well.

Set AMD Live & Cool&Quiet to disabled as well just to see if anything changes.

joshcork

8T8 all that was tried and it wouldn't work, it does defy belief, I was just getting bored of it all and thought what the hell lets see what happens when I turn on all the stuff I'm supposed to turn off and viola things get better, relatively that is.

The new BIOS didn't have any noticeable affect, one of the main reasons to revert back to the old BIOS was to find the Linkboost option, was missing in v.1001. It was shown in the manual so I thought I'd give it a try, but on loading the v.0706 it was missing so the manual was wrong (newest version of manual now I checked), ASUS really let things go with this one.

I know what your saying prob not a good idea to let these setting go for the the duration the RAM might fail sooner than it should if it's being put under unnecessary stress. I'll give it another week of testing and after that if I don't find a better solution it'd be wise to just bit the bullet and get the proper RAM for it.

8T8

Could be the board though Asus have a spotty history when it comes to nForce boards which is why I personally avoid any Asus NVIDIA based product.

Whatever it is they are always riddled with nasty bugs of some kind and Asus kicks them onto the market before they are ready.

I know it is a gamble but if you can test the RAM in another PC do so because if it is okay I'd would get another motherboard instead of torturing yourself with the Asus & that's speaking from personal experience.

joshcork

You know you have a good point there 8T8 I'll look into it I'm coming back to Ireland soon so I might just order it from Komplett and pick it up as I'm home. It'd also be cheaper too to replace the board as oppose to the RAM. I'll look into it, it's non trivial trying to find a board thats right for you.

Thanks all, I'll keep ya posted about what happens next