After four years I'm finally building my new workstation. I decided to build a *silent* system, since my former dual pIII was a vaccume cleaner. 
'Aight. I ordered all of my parts after I had enough from my last job. The only important parts worth noting at this point are:
I get all of my parts, put my system together, turn it on and.. nothing. The motherboard powers on, the monitor has power but there is no video signal. Lights are on, but nobody is home. No bios, no post; nothing.
Of course, this is a motherboard issue, right? I called up TigerDirect and ordered a replacement. Replacement comes, I spend another hour putting everything back together, plug the system in, turn it on and.. nothing.
Yea.. I call up Shuttle and start asking questions. It would appear that my namebrand "PDP Systems" chips were not functioning. I hang up with Shuttle, call PDP, chew the supervisor's ear out and get my replacement chips two weeks later.
My chips come in the mail, I plug in the ram, turn the system on and.. nothing. I was really boiling at this point. I was convinced that my ram chips were good and I was sent another faulty motherboard. I call up Shuttle again, chew that supervisor's ear out and get my replacement a week later.
At this point I had no desire to go through the trouble of putting the board back in the case and plugging all of the tiny wires back into their place. Shuttle's AN50R has a nice little feature where there is a power and reset button right on the board (go me). I slid the board out of the anti-static bag, installed the cpu/heatsink and ram, returned it to its foam base and balanced it atop my case as I plugged the ATX power connectors into the board. Flipped the switch, powered on and.. nothing.
At this point I've chewed out the ears of supervisors from TigerDirect (my first MB replacement was through them), Shuttle, and PDP. Of course, now I am convinced that it's been my CPU the whole time (and boy, was I pissed). This is also my first AMD system, so that didn't make me feel any better. I call up NewEgg and chew that guys ear out, but she tells me that because it's been over 30 days and I ordered an OEM cpu and I clicked the nice little "I agree" button before it was added to my cart, I had to either piss off or pay a nice 15% restocking fee on the most expensive part on my system. Riiight. Restocking fee on a dead chip? I don't think so. I immediately asked to speak to her supervisor. I tell the supervisor my situation but her only response was that I clicked the lovely "I agree" button the their order page. I told her, "You're not going to restock this thing-- it's fried! You're going to send it back to the manufacturer!" But she stood firm with the fine print that I had signed my $250 away to. And to think, I payed more to order it from a company that I knew had a good reputation for customer service. I even tried to replace it though AMD but was told that they do not replace OEM chips. I bit my teeth and called back NewEgg for a replacement with my CC in hand for their pure-profit restocking fee. What really made my blood boil even more is that AMD told me that their resellers have a one year warranty on all OEM chips, yet NewEgg wouldn't flex on my position. I spent the last month RMAing, shipping, and troubleshooting a dead system. In the process I've spent more than I'd care to mention in shipping and insurrance fees. NewEgg was also kind enough to note that I had to be sure to order a product with greater than or equal valule. Of course, by now their 3200+ chip had dropped in value and their website reflected this price. The 3400+ dropped as well so I figured I'd buy that anyways, just in case my Shuttle didn't like the 3200+ (even though I knew it was supported). Before I ordered *anything* I double-tripple checked that the chip would be supported by calling Shuttle. Yep. The 3400+ Clawhammer with the new core (AR) is definately supported. Great! So I ordered it on the spot. A week later, I get my nice little package in the mail with the cheapest packing material I've ever seen in my entire life. The OEM chip was protected in a little plastic case with foam on the buttom, but the box, about 18x7x2 or something had only a square sheet of bubble wrap about 8x8 floating around inside the package, the cpu flopping around all of the empty space.
Anyways, I had my CPU. The finally piece to the puzzle. I plug it in, being EXTRA careful with it and VERY gently while being cautious to apply just the right amount of thermal paste and making sure not to tighten the heatsink screws too tightly as to not crush the core. I plug in the power, flip the switch and.. nothing.
At this point I *knew* that everything was supposed to be working yet it didn't for some odd and unforseen reason. I KNOW that all of the hardware is supported by each manufacturer. I make 100% certain of that. I even tried two different BRAND NEW power supplies, TWO different AGP cards and even a PCI card just in case. I even ran out to Staples, bought a PNY 256MB DDR333 ram chip to make certain that PDP, though namebrand, wasn't the conflict since it was the only company that I was unfamiliar with. Still, nothing. I ended up replacing my PDP chips prior to testing the PNY, so I've got two new chips on their way. :\
Lets recap what has just taken place.
Ordered:
Replaced:
Extra sure:
Details:
So now I've thoroughly chewed out the supervisors from each company I ordered my primary parts from. Supposedly they're all supposed to work, how am I supposed to argue a replacement on parts shipped that were tested good?? Only option is CPU, but this problem does not appear to be cpu related, yet it's not ram and motherboard is supposed to be good? My brain and my checking account are fried on this one.
/me die
'Aight. I ordered all of my parts after I had enough from my last job. The only important parts worth noting at this point are:
- Shuttle AN50R motherboard [ Retail ]
AMD Athlon64 3200+ clawhammer 1MB L2 (mobile) [ OEM ]
2x 1GB PDP Systems pc3200 Signature [ Retail ]
I get all of my parts, put my system together, turn it on and.. nothing. The motherboard powers on, the monitor has power but there is no video signal. Lights are on, but nobody is home. No bios, no post; nothing.
Of course, this is a motherboard issue, right? I called up TigerDirect and ordered a replacement. Replacement comes, I spend another hour putting everything back together, plug the system in, turn it on and.. nothing.
Yea.. I call up Shuttle and start asking questions. It would appear that my namebrand "PDP Systems" chips were not functioning. I hang up with Shuttle, call PDP, chew the supervisor's ear out and get my replacement chips two weeks later.
My chips come in the mail, I plug in the ram, turn the system on and.. nothing. I was really boiling at this point. I was convinced that my ram chips were good and I was sent another faulty motherboard. I call up Shuttle again, chew that supervisor's ear out and get my replacement a week later.
At this point I had no desire to go through the trouble of putting the board back in the case and plugging all of the tiny wires back into their place. Shuttle's AN50R has a nice little feature where there is a power and reset button right on the board (go me). I slid the board out of the anti-static bag, installed the cpu/heatsink and ram, returned it to its foam base and balanced it atop my case as I plugged the ATX power connectors into the board. Flipped the switch, powered on and.. nothing.
At this point I've chewed out the ears of supervisors from TigerDirect (my first MB replacement was through them), Shuttle, and PDP. Of course, now I am convinced that it's been my CPU the whole time (and boy, was I pissed). This is also my first AMD system, so that didn't make me feel any better. I call up NewEgg and chew that guys ear out, but she tells me that because it's been over 30 days and I ordered an OEM cpu and I clicked the nice little "I agree" button before it was added to my cart, I had to either piss off or pay a nice 15% restocking fee on the most expensive part on my system. Riiight. Restocking fee on a dead chip? I don't think so. I immediately asked to speak to her supervisor. I tell the supervisor my situation but her only response was that I clicked the lovely "I agree" button the their order page. I told her, "You're not going to restock this thing-- it's fried! You're going to send it back to the manufacturer!" But she stood firm with the fine print that I had signed my $250 away to. And to think, I payed more to order it from a company that I knew had a good reputation for customer service. I even tried to replace it though AMD but was told that they do not replace OEM chips. I bit my teeth and called back NewEgg for a replacement with my CC in hand for their pure-profit restocking fee. What really made my blood boil even more is that AMD told me that their resellers have a one year warranty on all OEM chips, yet NewEgg wouldn't flex on my position. I spent the last month RMAing, shipping, and troubleshooting a dead system. In the process I've spent more than I'd care to mention in shipping and insurrance fees. NewEgg was also kind enough to note that I had to be sure to order a product with greater than or equal valule. Of course, by now their 3200+ chip had dropped in value and their website reflected this price. The 3400+ dropped as well so I figured I'd buy that anyways, just in case my Shuttle didn't like the 3200+ (even though I knew it was supported). Before I ordered *anything* I double-tripple checked that the chip would be supported by calling Shuttle. Yep. The 3400+ Clawhammer with the new core (AR) is definately supported. Great! So I ordered it on the spot. A week later, I get my nice little package in the mail with the cheapest packing material I've ever seen in my entire life. The OEM chip was protected in a little plastic case with foam on the buttom, but the box, about 18x7x2 or something had only a square sheet of bubble wrap about 8x8 floating around inside the package, the cpu flopping around all of the empty space.
Anyways, I had my CPU. The finally piece to the puzzle. I plug it in, being EXTRA careful with it and VERY gently while being cautious to apply just the right amount of thermal paste and making sure not to tighten the heatsink screws too tightly as to not crush the core. I plug in the power, flip the switch and.. nothing.
At this point I *knew* that everything was supposed to be working yet it didn't for some odd and unforseen reason. I KNOW that all of the hardware is supported by each manufacturer. I make 100% certain of that. I even tried two different BRAND NEW power supplies, TWO different AGP cards and even a PCI card just in case. I even ran out to Staples, bought a PNY 256MB DDR333 ram chip to make certain that PDP, though namebrand, wasn't the conflict since it was the only company that I was unfamiliar with. Still, nothing. I ended up replacing my PDP chips prior to testing the PNY, so I've got two new chips on their way. :\
Lets recap what has just taken place.
Ordered:
- 1x Motherboard
1x CPU
2x RAM
Replaced:
- 2x Motherboard
1x CPU
5x RAM
Extra sure:
- 2x PSU
3x VGA card
Details:
- *Shuttle's AN50R supports both Clawhammer and NewCastle Athon64 CPUs
*Shuttle's AN50R does NOT support RAM in x4 or x16 configurations or Registered, supports ECC
*PDP's Signature line is x8, unbuffered non-ECC
*AMD tells me that their OEM cpus could be crap, NewEgg seems to have the same oppinion with their own shipping methods.
*CPU could be bad (again), but would a faulty CPU cause the system not to turn on??
*PDP tested both of my gig chips in a motherboard with the same chipset and left it on overnight to guarentee that they worked.
*Shuttle tested their board before sending 2nd replacement
*There is what looks to be a gouge along a thick group of copper(?) wiring on the PCB just north of the processor. The gouge entends and chips (smoothly and very slightly, more like a dent) the side of the PCB itself. The gouge does not appear to have severed the connectors, but it is physical damage and does not rub off, almost as if someone dropped it. Supervisor (supposedly) tested the board prior to shipment, so the board should be ok? Also, this damage could not have been done within the packaging.
*OEM CPU could be faulty, cannot be tested before shipped from NewEgg, AMD subtly suggests crapness in their OEM products
*VERY poor shipping on replacement CPU. Could be bad again??
*Tested board with more well known name-brand memory, so memory should not be the conflict.
*I did a search on google with several different search terms and could find no mention of anyone else with problems
So now I've thoroughly chewed out the supervisors from each company I ordered my primary parts from. Supposedly they're all supposed to work, how am I supposed to argue a replacement on parts shipped that were tested good?? Only option is CPU, but this problem does not appear to be cpu related, yet it's not ram and motherboard is supposed to be good? My brain and my checking account are fried on this one.
/me die
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