Foxconn A7VMX-k issues

[ActorMW]

Hello all,

Long time reader of A-Tech & the forums, only post rarely but here I am with an issue of my own now.

I've got an A7VMX-K that I've had issues with from the beginning. Upon purchase I installed with an AMD 4850e CPU, Antec HE430 PSU, 4GB Corsair DDR2-800 and 1 HDD & 1 DVD both on the IDE port. Not to power hungry.

From the start I had trouble getting the thing to boot or even POST. It would come up if only 1 of the 2 drives was plugged into the board but not both. I could have just 1 of the drives plugged in, hit the power and as soon as the fans started plug the other ribbon cable in and it would see both. A bit of an iffy practice but it worked. So I finally got everything installed and the PC worked fine for awhile. It would shut down and boot fine but not if I unplugged the PSU, then it would have the same issue.

After some time the thing crashed and would not POST under any circumstances, not even with only CPU & RAM. Seemed to me like the MB was the issue as the RAM tested fine in my other PC. Just to be certain I swapped the HE430 with a HE500 from my other PC and magically it boots just fine. No issues whatsoever. So now I think its the PSU...

So, I get an RMA for the PSU and in the mean time someone lends me a little DELL PSU to use... The thing won't POST on the DELL PSU. And what's more. I test the HE430 into my main PC (which is a C2Q 9450, has 5 HDD, an ATI 4850, etc. much higher power draw.) and it seems to work fine. I'm typing on it right now.

Does anyone see a factor I'm missing? The MB seems fine with one PSU but not another similar PSU and the system doesn't even draw much power. The 'bad' PSU seems to power my main system just fine too. Very strange and I can't figure out the problem! I don't want to pay to ship either unit for RMA because I don't know for certain what is really causing the problem.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

 

[mpilchfamily]

There is a big difference between the 2 PSUs. The HE 500 offers more power. So the porblem isn't a bad PSU but the inability for that PSU to power the system.

 

[ActorMW]

I think maybe I wasn't clear here.

The system that does NOT work with the 430w PSU:

Foxconn A7VMX-K
AMD 4850e (45w)
4GB (2x2GB PC-6400)
1 HDD
1 DVD
1 Wireless NIC
1 80mm Case fan

The system that DOES work with the 430w PSU:

MSI P45 NEO
C2Q 9450 OC'd to 3Ghz
4GB (2x2GB PC-8000)
5 HDD
1 DVD
Asus 4850 512MB
1 Wireless NIC
3 80mm Case fans

I think the system that DOES work clearly draws more power which is why I am at a loss to the cause for failure in the low power machine.

My only thought is that the A7VMX-K might be more sensitive to a power quality issue from the HE430 and the MSI board can handle it better. Any thoughts on that?

Sorry for the lack of clarity in the original post! I was in a hurry and tried to be brief! Bad combo.

Thanks for any thoughts!

 

[ActorMW]

** Edited to delete double post.