A8N-SLi Deluxe Won't Post. Please Help

[bradm20]

I just received all the parts for my new machine, put it all together and when i turn it on all the fans spin but there is no post. I went ahead and stripped it to the bare minimum of mobo, cpu, ram, video card and it still will not post, there are no error codes. I went ahead and pulled the CPU and tried booting and I get a "no cpu installed" audio error. So I am assuming the problem is with the mobo recognizing the chip, or the actual chip.
The puzzling thing is Asus says with the older bios 1004 that the system should still post, but only recognize the core as one chip. Does anyone have experience with this board and X2 chips? Help is appreciated.


A8N-Sli Deluxe
AMD Athlon X2 4200+
2GB Corsair LL PC3200
(2) Sata II Hitachi 250GB Hard Drives
eVga 6600GT PCI-E Video Card
Audigy 2 ZS Platinum video card

 

[FastEddie]

What power supply are you using?

 

[bradm20]

Antec NeoPower 480W.

 

[Deinonych]

I've had a CPU die on me before, and that system exhibited the same symptoms you are describing. The power light would come on, fans would spin, but nothing else. Do you, or possibly a friend have another (working) Socket 939 proc you can try to see if the motherboard is the culprit? Likewise, try booting with just one stick of RAM to eliminate a possible memory problem.

 

[bradm20]

Already tried booting with a one stick of ram, no go. This is a brand new system with retail Athlon X2 4200+ so unless the processor arrived dead I doubt that is the issue. It might be that the bios doesn't support X2 although it is hard to update the bios if the system won't even post.

 

[bob661]

Does 1004 support Rev E CPU's? Because I think the only way the bios will pick up one core is if it supports Rev E's.

 

[bradm20]

The reviews I read online say even with bios 1004 an X2 cpu should post, that is what is confusing me here. Is it the mobo or actual cpu? I wish i had an extra to test it.

 

[bob661]

This may sound silly but have you tried reseating the CPU and HSF?

 

[Insomniak]

I don't think X2s were supported until BIOS 1007.

 

[bradm20]

Yeah, I tried reseating everything a few times.

Originally posted by: bob661
This may sound silly but have you tried reseating the CPU and HSF?

 

[bradm20]

Does anyone have experience with the stock bios and X2? I am wondering if it is normal to not post at all, or I have a faulty motherboard.

Originally posted by: Insomniak
I don't think X2s were supported until BIOS 1007.

 

[FastEddie]

Do you have another psu to try? The 480W is a multi-rail psu---I've been waiting to see how dual rail psu's fair with dual core processors.

 

[slsmnaz]

Is the 4-pin ATX plug in the board? Did you reapply the AS5 (or other stuff) every time you re-seated the HSF? It only takes a split second for that to shut down.

 

[slsmnaz]

Also, try reseating the vid card. Are you sure it's in the slot marked for the single card? Have you cleared the CMOS? I think the memory should be in B1 too.

 

[MADMAX23]

Originally posted by: bradm20
Does anyone have experience with the stock bios and X2? I am wondering if it is normal to not post at all, or I have a faulty motherboard.

Originally posted by: Insomniak
I don't think X2s were supported until BIOS 1007.

My experiences with the asus A8N SLI Dlx rev 1.02: I keep using Bios 1006,ok?
If I update my Bios to 1012 or 1013 my system won't post at all with my actual settings (overclocking), and, like yours, fans spin and DVD/CD drives work too but the system won't post. On the other hand, If I don't do any overclocking, my system will always post and boot into Windows w/out any issue.
I would suggest you to update to Bios 1006 at least or to 1007/1008.
Note that 1007 and 1008 have a memory bug called "Trc 22 clocks bug". You can check it with CPU-Z 1.29 and can be corrected manually with RightMark Memory Analyzer 3.55 everytime you boot into Windows.