LANParty NFII Ultra fall down and go boom! He'p!

[DefRef]

While setting up my new rig, I was having some concerns about system stability in Prime95 and was tweaking FSB speed and CPU/RAM voltages.

Rather than trying to crank the voltages up to make it worked OCed, I was about to back the speed off and test a default and milder overclocks. After a couple of tweaks, I dialed the FSB back to 190 and the voltage to default, I hit F10 to save and restart and it DIED!!! I wasn't looking at it while it restarted, but I realized that the monitor hadn't kicked on - which occasionally would happen in the past (with other PCs) - though the hard drives were spinning. I hit the reset and still nothing.

Looking inside, the POST diagnostic LEDs flash the 1st and 3rd, then the 2nd stays on and that's all she wrote. A couple of times, it beeped every secord or two, but the crappy printed manual doesn't have anything in the way of trouble shooting info other than "make sure the monitor is on". (Thanks, DFI. ) At work now, I've looked thru the PDF on the CD and it's not offering much in the way of guidance. The light sequence has definitely changed from what it did before.

In the front of my manual was an addendum sheet on goldenrod paper explicitly warning not to power off or unplug the PC while rebooting after adjusting the CPU speed and I didn't - I just did the usual "tweak, hit F10 to save and reboot, live life" routine.

I've reseated the RAM (though the LEDs on the sticks are on) and cleared the CMOS jumper (the only place less convenient for this thing would've been on the underside of the mobo - absolutely retarded placement) a couple of times, but I'm still stuck. The keyboard doesn't light up either and I've tried two other KBs with no success, so any requests to press Alt+F2, etc., won't work at the moment.

I really need to get this puppy up and running ASAFP and any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

__________________
System specs:
DFI LANParty NFII - 7/18/03 BIOS ? Athlon XP 2500+ Barton @ 2200 MHz (200x11) default voltage ? Thermalright SLK-800A ? 1 GB (2x512) Geil Golden Dragon PC3200 ? Chaintech A-FX98 GeForce FX 5900 128 MB (450/900) ? Maxtor 160 GB/Western Digital 200 GB/Maxtor 60 GB/Maxtor 40 GB (all 7200 RPM) ? Lite-On 52/24/52 CD-RW ? Lite-On 16X DVD ? Antec Sonata w/380 W TruePower ? Generic WinModem ? Windows XP Professional SP1 (Corp.)

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Did you clear the CMOS? Does your board support the insert key recovery option? You just hold the key down while powering the sytem on. If that doesn't work you can remove the CMOS jumper cap and battery, unplug the system and let it sit for 10-15min. then replace everything and try it again.

 

[pinoi007]

I also bought this motherboard because of the reviews. It started working fine at first, but it didn't like me setting the FSB to 200 or around there. It would light the 2nd LED after rebooting, I think thats the "testing for memory presence" problem. I updated the bios and it fixed it... for a little while. Then back to that 2nd led problem. I tried everything to fix it. It beeps at you when you take out the ram but gives you the 2nd LED when its in. I've tried reseatting, but nothing. To me it seemed like the BIOS was decaying. And then all of a sudden it died on me. I couldn't even boot it up. I really liked this mobo because of all the stuff it has... but my suggestion.. Since this is their 1st rev of the mobo..return it and get something else like NF7-S.

 

[pinoi007]

Oh.. another problem i didn't like is that when you put the jumper in the clear cmos setting, the whole computer powers up like normal.

 

[DefRef]

I cleared the CMOS (mentioned above) and the BIOS was updated to the latest available. (7/18/03)

The LANParty suits my needs perfectly, so switching to an NS7 isn't really an option. Did you have any contact with DFI about your BIOS dying or did you just RMA and get something else?

 

[pinoi007]

I just returned it at my local fry's.. I didn't want to mess with fixing it anymore.. and no i didn't contact DFI about it.. I wasted too much time already trying to fix the motherboard.

 

[DefRef]

Now it gets weirder. I popped out the CMOS battery and let it sit for a long time while I worked, I go back and reseat it, hit the power button and IT WORKS!!! Yea? Not so fast...

After reattaching some HDs, I booted into the OS and ran the Nvidia demos for my co-workers. I power down and put on the others, hit the power and PFFFT!....nothing. It doesn't respond to the on-board power switch.

WTF?

 

[Slash621]

Your setup is one i want to copy exactly as far as CPU Mobo RAM goes... Keep posting your results here..

 

[DefRef]

OK, I popped the battery and jumper as before and disconnected all the drives - basically returning it to the state it was when I got it going - when I power up, the 4 diagnostic LEDS all light up of a quick flash and then nothing. No power is getting anywhere, no fans turning, etc. Subsequent presses get no reaction at all.

 

[DefRef]

Update: As I disconnected everything, I unplugged the power connector to the floppy drive and on a hunch, thumbed the power button...AND IT FIRED UP! Huh?!?

Inspection of the power pins showed one was bent up, so there must've been some sort of short there. Straightened it out, plugged it back in and it's running now. (For the moment. )

Thanks to those who tried to help.

 

[Iron Woode]

Originally posted by: DefRef
Update: As I disconnected everything, I unplugged the power connector to the floppy drive and on a hunch, thumbed the power button...AND IT FIRED UP! Huh?!?

Inspection of the power pins showed one was bent up, so there must've been some sort of short there. Straightened it out, plugged it back in and it's running now. (For the moment. )

Thanks to those who tried to help.

It is the little details that trip up even the most experienced users here on this forum.

 

[Slash621]

werd to that. hopefully i dont have to deal with that sorta thing

 

[DFITechsupport]

Hi DefRef,

1. To over clock, especially using SATA H/D, please set the clock speed of AGP/PCI/SATA to 66/33/100 MHz.
2. To clear the CMOS is last thing you can do if your system got no POST after overclocking. (Unplug the power, move the jumper to the other end and move it back in about 10 seconds)
3. If clear the CMOS doesn't help, probably the contents of the BIOS chip were totally corrupted. Please return the board to the place where you bought it from for RMA or E-mail to tech@dfiweb.com together with your mailing address. We'll send you a BIOS chip to fix this problem.
Thanks

DFI Techsupport

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: DFITechsupport
Hi DefRef,

1. To over clock, especially using SATA H/D, please set the clock speed of AGP/PCI/SATA to 66/33/100 MHz.
2. To clear the CMOS is last thing you can do if your system got no POST after overclocking. (Unplug the power, move the jumper to the other end and move it back in about 10 seconds)
3. If clear the CMOS doesn't help, probably the contents of the BIOS chip were totally corrupted. Please return the board to the place where you bought it from for RMA or E-mail to tech@dfiweb.com together with your mailing address. We'll send you a BIOS chip to fix this problem.
Thanks

DFI Techsupport

If you are stating you will replace and ship the bios chip free of charge then I'm damned impressed with what DFI is doing in the customer support area :beer:

 

[Actaeon]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER

Originally posted by: DFITechsupport
Hi DefRef,

1. To over clock, especially using SATA H/D, please set the clock speed of AGP/PCI/SATA to 66/33/100 MHz.
2. To clear the CMOS is last thing you can do if your system got no POST after overclocking. (Unplug the power, move the jumper to the other end and move it back in about 10 seconds)
3. If clear the CMOS doesn't help, probably the contents of the BIOS chip were totally corrupted. Please return the board to the place where you bought it from for RMA or E-mail to tech@dfiweb.com together with your mailing address. We'll send you a BIOS chip to fix this problem.
Thanks

DFI Techsupport

If you are stating you will replace and ship the bios chip free of charge then I'm damned impressed with what DFI is doing in the customer support area :beer:

Same here... suprised to see such service.

Really cool seeing hardware companies posting on here, giving out advice.