New build from newegg / cpu or mb may be doa

[TechBoyJK]

Hi Guys,

I just ordered two barebones systems from newegg. One for me and one for my dad. I put them together at the same time. Different cases, both Antec.


Motherboard - ASUS| M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 880G R
CPU - AMD|Phenom II X4 965 3.4Ghz
SSD - 90GB OCZ Vertex II
RAM - 2GBx2 GSKILL F3-12800
PSU - ANTEC|500W EA-500D GREEN RT


The one I have in my dad's case works great. The one in mine, seems doa.

For my dad's, Windows 7 Professional installed in less than 20 minutes. All drivers, printers, devices, etc. are installed and it works great. I have a user setup for him, his wife (my step mom) and her kids.

With mine, the led on the MB turns lights up green once I connect the PS. The first time I went to turn it on, it started to spin up, then died. It was on for maybe half a second. The next time I hit the power button, nothing. If I unplugged the power cable and turned it on, same thing, it would start to spin up then die.

I've tried both power supplies and both machines and ruled that out. It won't boot with either PS. My dad's boots with both. I tried disconnecting all devices and chassis fans, no luck. I don't think it's the ram, because I'd expect it to power on at least and beep or something if the ram was bad. I pulled the MB and PS out and tried to power it up on my desk (in case there was a short with the case or something). No luck.

Going to setup an RMA, but not sure how to decide if I rma the cpu or mb, or both. The MB doesn't beep or anything. The LED stays green though, so it's getting juice.

Should I RMA MB, CPU, or both??

 

[Axon]

Have you reset the CMOS? Pull the battery out of the motherboard for a good five minutes.

Also, you can swap your dad's CPU into your mobo and vice versa. PITA, but doing so will immediately narrow it down for you. Sounds like the CPU. Unlikely to be the RAM in a complete no boot situation.

 

[TechBoyJK]

Have you reset the CMOS? Pull the battery out of the motherboard for a good five minutes.

Also, you can swap your dad's CPU into your mobo and vice versa. PITA, but doing so will immediately narrow it down for you. Sounds like the CPU. Unlikely to be the RAM in a complete no boot situation.

I'll try the cmos thing when I get home.

However, wouldn't the Motherboard beep at me if it were the cpu?

 

[Axon]

Not necessarily. For example, I've had situations where I over clocked my CPU too aggressively and absolutely nothing happens when I try to power up. No beeps, nothing.

 

[TechBoyJK]

How did you get it to post? clear the cmos? or did you kill it? I'm not trying to overclock or anything. just put it together as it's configured from the factory.

 

[Axon]

In that scenario I cleared the CMOS by removing the battery from the motherboard, which reset the BIOS settings. In your case I think faulty hardware is more likely but it's worth a look.

 

[jchu14]

Yea, like Axon said, start swapping parts from your dad's known good parts into the bad system to find the culprit. Also, make sure you didn't forget to connect the 4pin/8pin cpu 12v connector. I've done that more than a couple of times, and it's always a head scratcher.

 

[TechBoyJK]

Well, I contacted Newegg.

They agreed to refund/rma on both the motherboard and cpu. I told them I didn't have time to test everything, nor did I have the tools to determine the faulty equipment.

So they provided me with a free UPS label to ship the cpu/mb back for a return. I will be credited back the amount.

With that in place, I simply re-ordered the parts new again. It's the best version of cross shipping I could pull off. I have twice the money put out, but I will get half of it back in a few days once the RMA/return is processed.

My guess is it's the motherboard. When I get the new motherboard and CPU, I'm going to put the current CPU in the new motherboard to see. That way, if it works, and the original CPU is not faulty, I will just keep the original and send newegg the unopened one back.

 

[mfenn]

Yeah, I'm thinking mobo as well. Did you swap the RAM between system to check that?

 

[TechBoyJK]

yea. as I said.. it wouldn't even post up or try to start. just died immediately. anytime I've had bad ram, it would at least boot, and start beeping because of faulty ram.

 

[TechBoyJK]

fortunately, I live in st. louis, and these things come out of Newegg's Memphis depot.

I can pay for the cheapest UPS ground shipping and still get stuff the next day. I'm not that stressed. I put my order in before 10am. It should ship out today and I should get it tomorrow.. if not monday.

 

[Zap]

However, wouldn't the Motherboard beep at me if it were the cpu?

Nope. 99% of the time the only beeps you will hear (and not always) are a long beep for RAM and a staccato beep for video (both sometimes repeat).