MSI K7N2 Delta-ILSR Power problem?!

[Russ2kSE]

So I worked all last night trying to fix the damn thing. It wants to keep powering off on its own. So I unplugged all the devices from the board and powersupply except the only needed items, the board, power switch, and memory (cpu fan of course left on). Still turns off. Reset bios, still. Put system into safe mode by the jumper. Still.

Okay so I gave up, and took the board, memory and processor into a local place that sells these boards. They have seen a few problems with them. 4 hrs later, $55 short they tell me the heat sink wasn't on the chip right so it caused the board to think it was hot and shut itself down right away! He said he ran it for most of the day. So I am like whatever! He left it on there how he had it. I took it home, hooked it back up, and there it goes again!

The 1st night it ran fine, no hd, but I ran it the whole evening. The 2nd night I powered it up, it started to do this. Nothing changed. So now I am getting ticked off. I am about to take my whole case, and system back to those guys and tell them see....

Anyone who has used this board have any ideas? I have built many systems and this is the first one that is being a pain in the butt.

 

[infinite012]

Is the power cable plugged in securly at the back of the power supply? I've had a similar problem, but it was with a FIC motherboard. I thought it was a motherboard/overclocking fault, but it just turned out that it was the power cable connected to the power supply wasn't secure.

 

[Russ2kSE]

It's as tight as it will get.

 

[Doh!]

Sounds like a setup problem. The store's explanation makes a perfect sense (not "whatever").

 

[Russ2kSE]

Well that really helped.

It maybe a good reason, but its not the cause of my problem.

 

[KF]

I don't recall anyone here having a special problem like this with that particular mobo.

Why exactly is it you are sure the HS is not the problem? Are you monitoring the temps? It is about impossible to tell if a HS is mounted solidly by looking at it. A common problem is to have the HS shifted a little so that the it is lifted off the CPU slightly by the socket step. What you should do is take off the HS and remount it to make sure.

You can try the mobo on a box outside the case to eliminate the possiblity of something trapped behind the motherboard shorting it out. While you are doing that, turn the mobo over and shake it to make sure nothing conductive is laying on it.

Other than that, things to suspect are the the power connector, the power supply, or possibly the switch. Without being able to substitute, you are in a bind.

You can leave the plug to the switch off and power up using a screw driver or jumper to momentarily make a connection.

 

[CZroe]

I installed a HEAVY all-copper Volcano. Everything seemed correct but the system would always power down in less than a couple seconds. Turned out, it was the HSF. Even though it appeared to be attached correctly, I practically just touched the HSF clip with my scredriver and the heavy thing popped off and rolled all over the innards of my PC! Everything was alright, and I stiall can't get the damn HSF on right (The clip just seems like it isn't meant to get under the plastic nubs) but it was the problem even though it was flat and touching the entire surface.

Mine was the regular MSI K7N2G-ILSR. "Delta" just means "guaranteed C-revision capable of 400MHz FSB" (AKA, nForce2 Ultra 400) when it's normally a gamble with the original board.

 

[Russ2kSE]

I am on my new system as I type this now! Thanks for the help guys. As it turns out, my new case had a defective power switch. I grabbed another switch off a old case so I can use my system for now! The amount of trouble a powerswitch sent me through. ugg. oh well.

 

[KF]

Good to see that it is sometimes possible to fix a problem other than by RMAing the mobo.

Too bad you are out the $55 without getting a fix from them. Not surprising though. Tracking down problems to their source is painstaking and time consuming, and therefore prohibitively expensive.

Most of the time when I have had things fixed by others, they are not fixed. For instance, ages ago I bought a VCR, when they were sort of a new thing, which cost over $1000. It had an intermittent problem that I attempted to get fixed twice, once under the 60 day warranty, and the other time they charged me $70 for "cleaning and adjustment". Both times the shops claimed they could not reproduce the problem. By the second time I tried to get it fixed, it would almost always misbehave 20 minutes into a recording. And when I got the VCR back after 3 weeks in the shop and paying $70, it did the same thing. Shops WILL NOT do anything that takes time, diligence, and patience. They do their repairs in 10 minutes and put 1 hour on the bill. If it takes two guesses, they bill for 2 hours. Etc. If they can't fix it, they charge you for something or other and claim it was fine while in their shop. They can't afford to screw around forever: this is their source of income. What they probably did for three weeks was spot check my VCR for a couple of minutes periodically. If they left it record for 30 minutes like I told them, they would have seen the problem.

They weren't lying about the adjustment though. They screwed it up royally. The picture which was pretty good before adjustment, was very poor. I had to junk the $1000 VCR. I would not put up for sale junk with problems like they do on the FS forum.

From experience, this is they type of result I EXPECT from pros. You are fortunate to get the equipment back in as good condition as when you left it with them. I pity people that have no choice but to leave it in a professionals hands.