My new P6N- SLI wont post

[thewalrusking]

Now I have a new MSI p6N-SLI (pci-e 1.0a), BFG 8800gt (pci-e 2.0), Crucial Ballistix 1gb ddr2, e4500 c2d.

It wont post, I dont have any video on the monitor, monitor doesnt even notice it turning on. Everything powers up every fan goes 100%, which to me is odd as my old pc's would start at 100% then lower since its not needing the cooling. But it just runs. I hear the cd drive spinning up and HDs too. The power led on board is on plus the led near the cmos button is on.

I was reading that my gfx board is a pci-e2.0 and my mb is pci-1.0a and to get it to work people have flashed their vid card bios to change the card to 1.0a. BUT other people seem to be running the card without doing this.

Now is the mobo supposed to beep when I turn it on, you know when it posts? no beeps, i took out the memory and no beeps, i unpluged everything except the cpu, vid card, and mb, nothing.

Do I need to buy a new vid card? Im so pissed cause the 8600gt is POS compared to the 8800gt. Anyway is there any way to find out whats wrong? Remember no beeps, and no video.

 

[chizow]

There could be a few things:

1) Shipping BIOS has PCI 1.0a vs. 2.0 problems. My BIOS 1.5 worked fine for me when I had an 8800GT, no problems there.

2) Your RAM may have problems POSTing at SPD settings. Some other boards have had this problem with certain 2.1-2.2V kits. What speed are your Ballistix and do you have any other DDR2 you could use to just get the system to POST? Again, a BIOS update could fix this.

3) Your PSU may not be supplying enough power to the video card. Make sure you use a rail that isn't supplying power to anything else, like HDDs or optical drives, or even a lot of fans.

If your case has an internal speaker and jumper for it, then you would hear a beep, but lots of new cases don't. The P6N supplies a USB/led attachment that gives you POST indicators with a series of LED codes. If you have a monitor with multiple inputs, make sure you have DVI input selected on the monitor. Also, some monitors apparently have problems detecting a signal from BIOS.

What I would try:

If you have a different video card, monitor, or RAM, try to swap those one at a time just to make sure the board is POSTing. That will help you identify the problem part. Once you get into the BIOS or are able to boot, then you can make any necessary changes to the BIOS, or flash your BIOS to a newer version.

 

[thewalrusking]

Ok thanks for this, alot of stuff to try. Now I have a Cooler Master 500W PSU, only 70% efficient, but I tried it only with plugging in the dedicated PCI-e connector, now will there be enough poweer here? Also it supplies a 2Molex to 1PCIe power connector converter, will this supply power just to atleast post?

Now my old MB beeped 2 times when it posted correctly (always) so the lack of beeps worried me. It came with a metal thing that looked like what the 4 LED warning light bracket thing pictured is but I didnt look to long at it and didnt see the LEDs on it, will look again.

The case has a speaker wire that no matter if I put it on the jumpers one way or not it will not beep. Funny thing is the card will really squeal with a warning when the power on it was disconnected but its fine when powered.

Thanks!

 

[thewalrusking]

k tried a diff vid card, 8600gt, kingston ram, monitor, nothing made it post, still the exact same thing, it just sits there with all the fans going 100%. What I also did was bought a P6NGM, the only intel board they had and its very similar to the good mobo, so this worked perfectly with my ram, 8800gt, and all the rest. So my new question is, if I get my RMA mobo P6N SLI, will the next one work or am I still up a creek? I really want the sli cause it has alot more features, and u can overclock it, the reason i bought the e4500 in the first place.

 

[Zap]

Do you have all the power cables plugged into the motherboard? That includes the square 4 pin. Also, try running the board outside the case - this means put it on the cardboard box that it came in and hooking it up there, in case something is shorting it out inside the chassis.

 

[thewalrusking]

did that, and reseated every cable, took it out of the case and still nothing. I just hope the new one will not have same probs, as I really have no money to spend on another one.

 

[felipedu]

I have the same issue with the following configuration:
P6N platinum, MSI 8800GT 512MB, 2GB DDR2 800 Kingston Value, C2D E6700, Thermaltake purepower 600W, ASUS silent square EVO. Last week I had a Gigabyte 8800GTS 320MB and everything was OK until the 8800GT.
After so many tries I can make it post with the method of turning off three times the board, but now neither video card make it.
The fans, DVD drive, Hard Disk, internal LED´s, post LED´s and everything else are fine, the color code of post LED's give a 1,2,3 Red and 4 Green lights aka "waiting for video card". I tried with other PSU, other memory modules, PentiumD 805, Ati X1900, assemblin outer the case and nothing. The last thing I will do is to connect a PCI VGA Card and try to backup my RAID 0 configuration and change the Board.
(Sorry for the english)