Core 2 Duo Extreme (Asus P5B, 2 GB Corsair), no boot, no nothing

[egandt]

Ok so I have this new PC:
Core 2 Duo on an Asus P5W DH Deluxe, heatsink Noctua NH-U12
2GB of Corsair XMS2
Silverstone V60F PW (600W)
ATI X1800XL or x1300 (testing only)
1 NEC 3550A, 1 WD 36GB Raptor

1. Installed everything and turned it on for the first time nothing happened after the FANS spun up and the Drives spun up.
2. Disconnected all extra adapters (USB, DVD, HD ...), still nothing
3. Swapped Video cards, nothing
4. Removed MB from case, removed heatsink/CPU reseated everything, nothing happens same as before.
5. Tried secondary PS Enermax, failed to do anything as well.
6. Tried all combos of RAM and sockets both single and dual nothing.

Result Over 2K is equipment and nothing happens, not at all happy out to purchase a second MB, as replacing an x6800 is not something I want to try talk about messy. Any ideas?

My plans buy a new MB, CPU and RAM for testing it sucks but what other choice does one have!,m saddly I have not any DDR2 or INTEL CPU availiable. By the way this sucks big time its just no far, feel like I'm pissing money away.

ERIC

 

[theteamaqua]

well if all conenctions are fine then its most likely be ur RAM ...

try different RAM, there r some concern about the RAM compatibility with the board
(any board)

 

[egandt]

Currently on Order new P5B MB, 1 GB of Mushkin RAM, and a P4 805 CPU, why well if you spend 2K + on a system why not spend another $375 to test everything. Basicly this way I can test the MB, MEMORY, and CPU most likely I can send back the CPU un-opened same with the MB, but worst case I fit the bill for 30% and resell it on ebay. Basicly this whole thing sucks, not far in the least, and its driving me mad, yet what can one do, but suck it up I just hope its not the CPU since if its the CPU I need to return an OEM CPU no easy task the last time I tried (took 6 weeks and a million phone calls, well it felt like a million phone calls).

One pissed customer,

ERIC GANDT

 

[Wall7486]

Have you tried booting with 1 stick of RAM yet?

 

[topspin12]

It would be smart to try some more testing before buying more hardware

 

[GuitarDaddy]

does the mobo have the voice post reporter? plug in some speakers and see if you get and messages or beeps

 

[Necrosis]

It could possibly be your bios.

 

[Kwint Sommer]

I'm not familiar with that particular motherboard but odds are that if you haven't flashed it over to the latest bios then it isn't going to work with a Core 2 Duo.

 

[egandt]

1. Not much more I can test without alternate hardware, since with one of every part I can not begin to work out what the prolem.

2. As for sound no, very unimpressed, ABIt and MSI both have meaning full error display, but ASUS does not, why not give me an idea whats wrong instead of forcing me to guess. the speaker works in another case so I assume the MB is just never sending any error, which means that its not even that far along the boot.

3. Last time I saw a problem like this was with a BAD CPU (org. T-Bird 1GHZ chip), thus the CPU is my guess, but I'm trying everything else I can think of before RMAing a new CPU since with the built in protections there should be little chance to damage a CPU. With my T-Birds one overheated, and the second a heat sink ground off the edge, not designed for a T-Bird, but for a PIII coopermine, I lost neaver 2 month and $300 or that set of exchanges. Don't want to go there again.

4. This the suggected MB from Anand's "feeding the monster" (hence why I bought it), one of the few to say it supports Core 2 Duo on the box, so I would not expect a BIOS update would be required to boot the CPU first time (I plan to update the BIOS first thing assuming it ever boots).

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: Wall7486
Have you tried booting with 1 stick of RAM yet?

 

[Pabster]

You might try dropping a different chip in there. It is possible your BIOS doesn't support Conroe.

 

[Kwint Sommer]

Originally posted by: egandt
1. Not much more I can test without alternate hardware, since with one of every part I can not begin to work out what the prolem.

2. As for sound no, very unimpressed, ABIt and MSI both have meaning full error display, but ASUS does not, why not give me an idea whats wrong instead of forcing me to guess. the speaker works in another case so I assume the MB is just never sending any error, which means that its not even that far along the boot.

3. Last time I saw a problem like this was with a BAD CPU (org. T-Bird 1GHZ chip), thus the CPU is my guess, but I'm trying everything else I can think of before RMAing a new CPU since with the built in protections there should be little chance to damage a CPU. With my T-Birds one overheated, and the second a heat sink ground off the edge, not designed for a T-Bird, but for a PIII coopermine, I lost neaver 2 month and $300 or that set of exchanges. Don't want to go there again.

4. This the suggected MB from Anand's "feeding the monster" (hence why I bought it), one of the few to say it supports Core 2 Duo on the box, so I would not expect a BIOS update would be required to boot the CPU first time (I plan to update the BIOS first thing assuming it ever boots).

First, the suggested motherboard from anandtech's big motherboard roundup was the P5W DH Deluxe.
Secondly, odds are about 98%it has something to do with your motherboard not liking something. Maybe the PSU (it happens though it's rare), more likely RAM and by far the most likely is that your need to update your bios. Call ASUS and they will mail you a bios chip for $5.

 

[liebremx]

egandt:

Check the sticker that is on top of the Firmware Hub (flash memory) to know the BIOS revision of your motherboard. There's a big chance that the version is not the one supporting the XE. You need revision 0211 according to Asus' Support Website.

 

[Henny]

What's the version of the BIOS you have. Now find out from Asus site what's the minimum version needed for Conroe.

I'd also suggest you lay the MB on a bench with minimum memory, CPU, HSF, known good video card and PSU. Clear the CMOS. Try it now.

Next try and borrow a cheap Celeron or P4. Now what happens. Try the Conroe in a known good MB if possible.

 

[Superrock]

If I were you I'd try the following:

1.clear the CMOS. Its usually a jumper on your board that needs to be shorted for a second while your power is unplugged. If the settings in the Bios were changed it won't boot at all.

2.double check your mobo connections. Doesn't sound like this is your first time building a computer but its easy to connect things the wrong way your first time.

3.make sure your board has the lastest firmware.

4. try swapping parts from somewhere that'll accept returns on items after you try it out like Fry's.

If you smell solder then turn off your system quickly and make sure your connections are right.

 

[Duvie]

The reason the 805D makes sense is he may need that to boot up the system long enough to flash it to a new bios...

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=106563

Read about 2/3rds of the way down and even a DW board needed to have the bios chip hot flashed on anopther board to be able to accept a Conroe....Anandtech likely had a newer board that was clear of the old stuff in the distribution channels...

 

[egandt]

Thanks for the suggestiosn, looks like its most likely BIOS, now if a MB does not support Core 2 Duo becuase of BIOS how can one sell it as supporting the Chip, not many people have a second socket 775 CPU laying around to use to flash teh BIOS so it does support Core 2 Duos. Oh well I will try the flash using an 805D tonight and see how it goes. once I finish with that I might redo the heatsinks since what the hell, (not sure about the heatsinks yet). Over alll this just plain sucks.


ERIC

 

[KJbruin]

If you haven't already done this, make sure that you have your 4 pin ATX12V power connected in addition to the 24 pin as without it your system will not boot.
For more info on this go to page 2-40 of the p5w DH manual.

 

[Some1ne]

According to the Asus support page, you need BIOS revision 302 or later for Core 2 Duo support.

And yes, it they're going to sell the board as supporting Core 2 chips, it really should support those chips out of the box.

 

[theBigLebowski]

egandt-

Having the same problem:

Core 2 Duo E6400
Asus P5B Deluxe Rev. 1.03G
2 GB pqi PC2-6400 RAM
ATI AIW X1900
4 Seagate SATA2 250 GB harddrives
Antec Smartpower 2.0 500 Watt
NEC 3550A

1. Installed everything... fans and drives spin up... no video, no diagnostic beeps.
2. Disconnected all drives and ports not on the IO Panel.
3. I don't have another PCI-E video card available, so I dropped in an old ATI Rage 128 card in to one of the PCI slots. No video.
4. Removed motherboard from case. No visible anomalies. Reseated CPU. No pins on the LGA appear to be damaged. Reseated RAM. Nothing.

That's when I showed up here. The BIOS seems like the most likely problem at this point based on what I'm reading online. I'd love to hear if you have any success updating your BIOS and getting the Conroe to run.

I have a Pentium 4 630 in another machine, but I really don't want to have to dismantle that machine to get this one working. It's the only LGA 775 chip I can think of that I have access to.

This is the first time I have ever purchased an ASUS motherboard (I'm a Gigabyte man.) and it is very dissapointing to have it advertised as ready for Conroe when it is in fact not ready. (If the BIOS really is the issue.) I guess that's the problem with being one of the first adopters. I was about to order a Pentium D system, when I saw that the E6400 was in stock. And now...

I have built about 100 systems for business and friends and have never had a system not give me some sort of feedback. Very dissapointing. Let us know how it goes.

 

[MrWizzard]

UH I read about that MOBO and the Core Duos, apparently some of the earlier bios won't boot with the Core Duo. You have to upgrade your bios.

By putting in a spare CPU to boot and upgrade the bios.

For people who don't have a spare CPU that works around you have to get ahould of ASUS and have them ship you the new bios chip, BIG PAIN.

Im just passing on what I read.

Sorry but I hope this helps. Your processor is probably fine...

 

[harbin]

I don't know if this belongs here. I have a ds3 and e6400. So far, has tried 2 memory sticks. None of them work. NO BOOT!
1 is patriot 2x512 PC6400 LLK, the other is corsair 2x512 PC6400c5.

 

[hchen]

Originally posted by: harbin
I don't know if this belongs here. I have a ds3 and e6400. So far, has tried 2 memory sticks. None of them work. NO BOOT!
1 is patriot 2x512 PC6400 LLK, the other is corsair 2x512 PC6400c5.

That's strange. I have a ds3, e6300 and corsair xms2 2x512 pc6400c5 memory and it works great.

 

[theBigLebowski]

If you read my previous post, I was thinking it was a BIOS problem that was preventing a POST or diagnostic beeps. After thinking some more, I yanked the RAM and started the system without it and I did finally get some diagnostic beeps (one long followed by two short). It is not clear if this is just an error because there is no RAM or if there is another problem.

BIOSCentral says that "An error was encountered in the video BIOS ROM, or a horizontal retrace failure has been encountered." So I tried a different card, same problem.

So now I am suspicious of the RAM.

 

[TheSynth]

Where is the Bios chip located on a p5b deluxe/wifi ap? I looked everywhere! The book says there's a big square to the left of the Intel ICH8R. All I saw were some tiny chips that didn't look very easily removable.