So I bought a new proc and mobo today to replace the dead mobo in my server. New stuff is an AMD Phenom II Black X2 560 and a MSI 785GTM-E45 board. Set it up... and nothing. Well, almost nothing. Fans spin, lights (in fans and power light on mobo) come on, hard drives spin up. But that's it. Black screen. Sometimes a beep. Sometimes 2. Sometimes 3. Sometimes none.
Tried new PSU, new ram, video card instead of onboard. Nothing helps, and there's no consistency to the beeps. I can power up 3 times and get 3 different beeps.
Pulled the board out of the case, removed and replaced the proc and fan. Put in JUST keyboard, 1 stick known good ram, and new known-good psu. Still nothing.
Reseated the proc, verified that the 4-pin CPU power was connected. Hooked up monitors to all 3 onboard video just in case it only uses one at first. Tried an add-in video card again. Still nothing on the screens at all. Used the reset jumper. Pulled the CMOS battery. Did the jumper again. Still nothing.
Took the board back to microcenter and swapped for their last one. It does exactly the same thing... random numbers of beeps, nothing on screen at all. The only way to get a consistent beep error is to remove the ram completely. Then you get the correct beep code for that. If there's any ram installed, it's just random beeps as far as I can tell.
Tried all the above stuff again with the new board, still no luck.
There is SOMETHING happening, since I noticed that the cpu fan starts out full blast, but then slows down after a few moments. But that's all. There's no other sign of life in the board. Argh!
Could it be a defective CPU? I didn't swap that... and I have no other AMD boards here to test with. Or did I get so unlucky that I got 2 bad boards in a row?
I can go back to MC today or tomorrow to swap CPUs. Or I can wait till Sunday, when I'll be visiting family in Cincinnati - the MC there still has this mobo in stock, so I could swap it out there. I'd prefer to keep using this model mobo - it's got dr2 (which I have plenty of lying around) and has 6 SATA. This is going to be my window home server, which uses 6 hard drives currently (well, 6 internal and a couple external...)
Tried new PSU, new ram, video card instead of onboard. Nothing helps, and there's no consistency to the beeps. I can power up 3 times and get 3 different beeps.
Pulled the board out of the case, removed and replaced the proc and fan. Put in JUST keyboard, 1 stick known good ram, and new known-good psu. Still nothing.
Reseated the proc, verified that the 4-pin CPU power was connected. Hooked up monitors to all 3 onboard video just in case it only uses one at first. Tried an add-in video card again. Still nothing on the screens at all. Used the reset jumper. Pulled the CMOS battery. Did the jumper again. Still nothing.
Took the board back to microcenter and swapped for their last one. It does exactly the same thing... random numbers of beeps, nothing on screen at all. The only way to get a consistent beep error is to remove the ram completely. Then you get the correct beep code for that. If there's any ram installed, it's just random beeps as far as I can tell.
Tried all the above stuff again with the new board, still no luck.
There is SOMETHING happening, since I noticed that the cpu fan starts out full blast, but then slows down after a few moments. But that's all. There's no other sign of life in the board. Argh!
Could it be a defective CPU? I didn't swap that... and I have no other AMD boards here to test with. Or did I get so unlucky that I got 2 bad boards in a row?
I can go back to MC today or tomorrow to swap CPUs. Or I can wait till Sunday, when I'll be visiting family in Cincinnati - the MC there still has this mobo in stock, so I could swap it out there. I'd prefer to keep using this model mobo - it's got dr2 (which I have plenty of lying around) and has 6 SATA. This is going to be my window home server, which uses 6 hard drives currently (well, 6 internal and a couple external...)
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