My friends i7 build wont post.

[AznAnarchy99]

First off a little back story. My friend called me and asked me to help him troubleshoot his computer that he just bought.

He bought this..

http://www.tigerdirect.com/app...o=4689367&Sku=B69-1075

* Asus P6T Intel X58 LGA 1366 Motherboard
* Intel Core i7 920 Processor
* 12GB Patriot Viper Tri Channel PC10666 DDR3 Memory
* Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.B Hard Drive
* Ultra M923 Full Tower ATX Case
* Ultra LSP750 750-Watt Power Supply

and a
Radeon HD 4850

From what he was telling me, it would not turn on, the fans would go on and off etc. Well I head over there and take a look at it, and found out that he did a horrible job putting the parts together. He didnt put standoffs under the motherboard so the board was bent so it would fit the I/O. He tightened the screws to the case extremely tight. The stock cpu cooler was loose as he could only fit two of the legs on. It was just in horrible condition.

I took everything out of the case, set it up outside and i got it to turn on and stay on. I then installed everything perfectly but when it came time to try to hook up the monitor i found out that it wouldnt post. I tried everything that I could think of, clearing CMOS, putting the memory in the orange slots, switching out the video card, switching out between all of the RAM sticks, switching out PSUs and none of that worked. The board does not beep, and does not show anything on screen.

Im thinking the motherboard might be screwed from how it was bent and so tightly screwed onto the case without standoffs. Before I go tell him to RMA/ exchange it, is there anything else that I forgot to do?

 

[KILLER_K]

Have you removed the cpu and replaced it back again and checked the heatsink. If that heatsink isn't on secure, {not sure if you are using the stock} it will not allow it to boot because of the heat build up.

Some boards will only boot if the ram is in a certain spot. You should check the manual and see what slot will work for 1 stick. Have you removed the motherboard from the case and tried it, sometimes a short in the case will cause these issues.

If none of this helps it then i would rma it or return the board.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Yea reseated the cpu and reattached the heatsink twice to make sure. It wasnt that. I checked the manual for the ram positions and that didnt work as well. I tried it outside and inside the case, no go. Guess its RMA time.

 

[Billb2]

Originally posted by: AznAnarchy99
He didnt put standoffs under the motherboard

If he shorted out the motherboard against case there's no telling what the problem may be.


Tell him he needs to buy a new mobo. I don't want to pay for his stupidity with an RMA.

 

[zinsae]

Same thing happened to me and guess what? It turned out to be my PSU. Not enough juice to the mobo.

 

[totalcommand]

Originally posted by: AznAnarchy99
First off a little back story. My friend called me and asked me to help him troubleshoot his computer that he just bought.

He bought this..

http://www.tigerdirect.com/app...o=4689367&Sku=B69-1075

* Asus P6T Intel X58 LGA 1366 Motherboard
* Intel Core i7 920 Processor
* 12GB Patriot Viper Tri Channel PC10666 DDR3 Memory
* Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.B Hard Drive
* Ultra M923 Full Tower ATX Case
* Ultra LSP750 750-Watt Power Supply

and a
Radeon HD 4850

From what he was telling me, it would not turn on, the fans would go on and off etc. Well I head over there and take a look at it, and found out that he did a horrible job putting the parts together. He didnt put standoffs under the motherboard so the board was bent so it would fit the I/O. He tightened the screws to the case extremely tight. The stock cpu cooler was loose as he could only fit two of the legs on. It was just in horrible condition.

I took everything out of the case, set it up outside and i got it to turn on and stay on. I then installed everything perfectly but when it came time to try to hook up the monitor i found out that it wouldnt post. I tried everything that I could think of, clearing CMOS, putting the memory in the orange slots, switching out the video card, switching out between all of the RAM sticks, switching out PSUs and none of that worked. The board does not beep, and does not show anything on screen.

Im thinking the motherboard might be screwed from how it was bent and so tightly screwed onto the case without standoffs. Before I go tell him to RMA/ exchange it, is there anything else that I forgot to do?

Everything has been switched out tried and switched out except the motherboard and processor right?

One thing to check is if any of the LGA1366 pins are bent on the motherboard, making bad contact with the processor. If your "friend" did a terrible job of that also, he might've f'd that too.

The last thing to do would be to switch out the motherboard and processor if you have an X58 board handy (unlikely).

 

[totalcommand]

Originally posted by: Billb2

Originally posted by: AznAnarchy99
He didnt put standoffs under the motherboard

If he shorted out the motherboard against case there's no telling what the problem may be.


Tell him he needs to buy a new mobo. I don't want to pay for his stupidity with an RMA.

How do we pay for his RMA? Not saying we don't, just wondering.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Originally posted by: zinsae
Same thing happened to me and guess what? It turned out to be my PSU. Not enough juice to the mobo.

I switched out the psu with another psu that he had in his old system. I would think the psu would have enough juice to just power the mobo and cpu so i doubt that its that. I did check the socket too because I wanted to make sure he didnt screw that up but that was the one thing he got right.

I would like to switch the cpu out but I dont have any spare x58s lol

 

[Quiksilver]

Originally posted by: AznAnarchy99
First off a little back story. My friend called me and asked me to help him troubleshoot his computer that he just bought.

He bought this..

http://www.tigerdirect.com/app...o=4689367&Sku=B69-1075

* Asus P6T Intel X58 LGA 1366 Motherboard
* Intel Core i7 920 Processor
* 12GB Patriot Viper Tri Channel PC10666 DDR3 Memory
* Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.B Hard Drive
* Ultra M923 Full Tower ATX Case
* Ultra LSP750 750-Watt Power Supply

and a
Radeon HD 4850

From what he was telling me, it would not turn on, the fans would go on and off etc. Well I head over there and take a look at it, and found out that he did a horrible job putting the parts together. He didnt put standoffs under the motherboard so the board was bent so it would fit the I/O. He tightened the screws to the case extremely tight. The stock cpu cooler was loose as he could only fit two of the legs on. It was just in horrible condition.

I took everything out of the case, set it up outside and i got it to turn on and stay on. I then installed everything perfectly but when it came time to try to hook up the monitor i found out that it wouldnt post. I tried everything that I could think of, clearing CMOS, putting the memory in the orange slots, switching out the video card, switching out between all of the RAM sticks, switching out PSUs and none of that worked. The board does not beep, and does not show anything on screen.

Im thinking the motherboard might be screwed from how it was bent and so tightly screwed onto the case without standoffs. Before I go tell him to RMA/ exchange it, is there anything else that I forgot to do?

I would never ever use any Ultra PSU's for any rig. Just go read the HardOCP review of one of their 750W (iirc) PSU's that couldn't even handle anything beyond 400W. Also Hitachi drives are horribly slow compared to other drives on the market.

Other than that he probably killed his motherboard but who knows what else he killed until he gets a new motherboard.

 

[zinsae]

Originally posted by: AznAnarchy99

Originally posted by: zinsae
Same thing happened to me and guess what? It turned out to be my PSU. Not enough juice to the mobo.

I switched out the psu with another psu that he had in his old system. I would think the psu would have enough juice to just power the mobo and cpu so i doubt that its that. I did check the socket too because I wanted to make sure he didnt screw that up but that was the one thing he got right.

I would like to switch the cpu out but I dont have any spare x58s lol

In my case, I couldn't get my mobo to post. Sometimes, I would get the case fans to spin and that's it. I swap my brand new Basiq P350 (350w) with a 600w Corsair from my other gaming pc and still got the same problem. Couldn't get it to post. Then, I thought the mobo was bad so I bought a new one and guess what? Same problem, no post. I then thought it was the RAM no being compatible.. checked and the 4 GB (2x2) RAM are fine. I then thought my HDD led and PWR SW or Reset SW were not in the right place... nope, they were fine. Could it be my CPU? Nahhh... I basically swap everthing but the CPU. I couldn't get it to work.

My mobo has an option of either 20 or 24 pin power cable to mobo. I tried them both with 20 pin and added the extra 4 pin to the mobo and the 8 pin 12V. Couldn't get it to boost. I thought I would have to return everthing so as my last resort, I grab another PSU sitting in the garage and tried it.... guess what?... It worked!!!!

I ran to the store and picked up the Antec 500w PSU on sale for 64 bucks.. hooked it up and now my new HTPC is running like a charm...

My suggestion? Take your build to your local pc store and ask them which psu would they recommend.

... just my 2 cents - good luck

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Really your 600w Corsair couldn't do the job? I find that surprising. I built another system for another friend using a 450w Corsair and it runs like a beast.

 

[jaggerwild]

The X58 boards have a known issue with certain PSU, also there are reports of warping of the board in the case mountings. Best bet is use a different PSU to check it also untighten all screws on the MB in the case. See if this helps you out............
Regards!

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Originally posted by: jaggerwild
The X58 boards have a known issue with certain PSU, also there are reports of warping of the board in the case mountings. Best bet is use a different PSU to check it also untighten all screws on the MB in the case. See if this helps you out............
Regards!

I ran it from a table top as well as the case. And I tried two different PSUs. I told my friend to return it, but Im hoping he returns it all and I would help him hand pick parts to build a new rig since that tigerdirect one is crap.

 

[deimos3428]

Originally posted by: AznAnarchy99
From what he was telling me, it would not turn on, the fans would go on and off etc.
...
I took everything out of the case, set it up outside and i got it to turn on and stay on. I then installed everything perfectly but when it came time to try to hook up the monitor i found out that it wouldnt post.
...
Before I go tell him to RMA/ exchange it, is there anything else that I forgot to do?

To me, these statements taken together sound very much like the motherboard simply isn't receiving enough power. It wasn't working, you took it all apart and it worked (possibly with less hardware installed?), you put it all back together and it stopped again.

Your PSU should be capable of delivering enough power, and you've already swapped out that component, so verify that you don't need an additional power connector to your motherboard. I apologize if this is obvious and you've already done so, but according to the P6T manual, pg. 2-36:

"Do not forget to connect the 4-pin / 8-pin EATX12 V power plug; otherwise,the system will not boot."

If that's not it, yeah...RMA away.

 

[jaggerwild]

Try an over night Cmos clearing, as Deimos said as little hardware as possible.
"He didnt put standoffs under the motherboard so the board was bent so it would fit the I/O. He tightened the screws to the case extremely tight. The stock cpu cooler was loose as he could only fit two of the legs on. It was just in horrible condition."

No stand offs mean it grounded out, smell the MB if you smell burnt electronics, RMA away!