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No POST blues

F

ffpm757

Junior Member
Good evening, all! I have been reading these forums for a long time and have gained valuable insight time and again by simply lurking, but I've just developed an issue that I can't seem to find an answer for.

I just built a new system (specs below) and I can't get it to POST. I've checked and re-checked the connections, re-seated the video card, CPU, sound card, and RAM, checked to make sure that my PSU is set to the right voltage (there isn't a switch on it), said a prayer, danced a jig, and have run out of ideas that don't involve swearing and the beating of things with a hammer. On to my specs:

MB: Asus A8N-E
CPU: AMD Athalon 64 X2 4400+
PSU: Fortron FX600-GLN 600W
RAM: OCZ Platinum DDR 400 2x1GB
Video: HIS ATI Radeon X1900XT
HD: WD Caviar 320G SATAII
Sound: Creative SB X-Fi XtremeMusic
Case: Lian Li V-Cool PC-1000B Plus

When I plug the system in and switch on the PSU's independent power switch, the green status LED on the MB lights. When I press the power button, the case fans, CPU fan, chipset fan, and GPU fan will rotate maybe half of a revolution, then stop. I can press the power button again after this, and nothing happens. If I unplug the PSU, leave it alone for a minute, then reconnect it, I can reproduce the fan movement once, then must unplug again to get it to repeat.

Any thoughts? From what I have read, the favorite answer seems to be a faulty PSU. Are my symptoms consistent with that diagnosis? Is there something that I can do to rule anything else out? I've just spent a bundle on all this shiny stuff and don't want to drop a lot more into it, but I'm not too averse to springing for another PSU from somewhere local (BestBuy or CompUSA are about my only options) to see if that will take care of things.

Thanks much.
 
That's one of the things I checked when I was re-affirming that all my wires were going the appropriate places. Also, I pulled the MB out of the case and set it up on cardboard with just the video card and CPU fan attached, attached all the power connectors, and tried to power up again, with the same result as when the parts were assembled in the case.

Anything else you can think of off-hand? Thanks for the help!
 
You didn't miss it, I neglected to mention it. No, the PSU fan doesn't spin up; it will only lurch with the others like I described earlier, and then come to a halt.
 
You could try another power cord if you haven't already. To bad you don't have another power supply around to try before you go out and buy one.


unmerited
 
Here's the latest chapter in the saga... I tried taking the PSU by itself and shorting the PS_ON to the corresponding GND (pins 14 and 15) per a suggestion I read, and the PSU fan spins up and remains on. I don't know how to quantitatively test the power output from the PSU itself, but I assume that since the fan motor works in the test I did, the PSU must be good (is that assuming too much?). This leads me to the following possibilities: 1) The MB may be bad, or 2) The PSU just won't work with my MB. Any thoughts on the likelihood of either of these being the problem? Is it possible that a 600W power supply isn't putting out the power that my configuration requires? I've even tried pulling the video card from the MB and tried to only run the MB, CPU fan, chipset fan, and RAM, which gave me the same momentary fan twitch, then nothing.

Edit: I've also tried to reset the CMOS to no avail.
 
I'd say you've done pretty well for yourself, but the only way I know of isolating the problem is testing each of those with known working components.


unmerited
 
Thanks for the words of encouragement. I've contacted Asus tech support via their website and will patiently (yeah, right) await a reply. I did some research and found a way to check the PSU power output with my multimeter, and everything is nearly spot-on the advertised range, voltage-wise (my mm won't measure amperage over 400mA DC, so I didn't go there). The way I see it, if the MB were functioning properly, I should get some beep codes when I try to power it up without video, which I don't. For good measure, I pulled every last thing from the MB and tried to power ONLY the MB which should also generate some beep codes once switched on. The end result was the same: green LED on with application of power to PSU, a momentary twitch from the PSU fan and chipset fan on power up, then nothing. No beeps, no boops, no dice.

Fortunately, nothing has exploded, melted, or otherwise catastrophically failed in a horrifying yet spectacular and awe-inspiring Hindenberg-esque manner, so I'm still going to chalk this one up as a draw. I've ruled out everything I can at the moment beyond a MB problem. I was worried that I'd made a mistake going with the Fortron PSU. My knowledge about PSUs is limited, but I did a search and plenty of folks recommended it to power a similar system.

Thanks for all the help, and to those of you who read without replying, thanks for at least looking in to see if you could offer a hand!
 
Originally posted by: ffpm757
Thanks for the words of encouragement. I've contacted Asus tech support via their website and will patiently (yeah, right) await a reply. I did some research and found a way to check the PSU power output with my multimeter, and everything is nearly spot-on the advertised range, voltage-wise (my mm won't measure amperage over 400mA DC, so I didn't go there). The way I see it, if the MB were functioning properly, I should get some beep codes when I try to power it up without video, which I don't. For good measure, I pulled every last thing from the MB and tried to power ONLY the MB which should also generate some beep codes once switched on. The end result was the same: green LED on with application of power to PSU, a momentary twitch from the PSU fan and chipset fan on power up, then nothing. No beeps, no boops, no dice.

Fortunately, nothing has exploded, melted, or otherwise catastrophically failed in a horrifying yet spectacular and awe-inspiring Hindenberg-esque manner, so I'm still going to chalk this one up as a draw. I've ruled out everything I can at the moment beyond a MB problem. I was worried that I'd made a mistake going with the Fortron PSU. My knowledge about PSUs is limited, but I did a search and plenty of folks recommended it to power a similar system.

Thanks for all the help, and to those of you who read without replying, thanks for at least looking in to see if you could offer a hand!
Click to expand...

FSP (Fortron) makes excellent, top-tier power supplies....you bought the right one. Sounds like the mobo is toast, RMA that sucker!
 
this might sound stupid but try this

1.) remove mobo completely, batteries, jumpers and everything that can be removed. leave it out for a while
2.) get a dust can and blow the hell out of the socket gently, (i know it does make sense but u get the point)
3.) then cpu, 1 stick ram, video only.
4.) dont use the switch on the case. remove everyting from the front panel pins and just slowly use a screw driver to short the pins for the power switch

if nothing, just replace the board with ur seller, if too late or they are simple a**es, RMA it

EDIT: dont forget to put back jumpers etc.
 
Good to hear that my power supply is top of the heap; that's the impression that I got from the research I did even though I'd had no direct experience with the brand myself. I'll do what nadirshakur suggests, and, for the sake of completeness, will post the outcome. Thanks again!

Edit: I have been shorting the two power switch pins with a screwdriver in lieu of using the power switch since I pulled the MB out of the case and set it up on the "testing bench" (the cardboard-covered top of my filing cabinet). That's a great suggestion, though; it allowed me to eliminate the variables of a faulty case switch or associated wiring.
 
After following nadirshakur's advice (and left the setup sitting apart for over an hour), I experienced the same problem. I'm in the RMA process with Asus right now and hope to have this issue resolved in a timely manner. If anyone you know is looking at one of these, you may want to dissuade them from making the purchase. I took a chance on the Asus board after moving away from their products years ago, figuring that the quality of the final product would have improved over the span of 7 years or so. Looks like I may have been mistaken! Oh well, in the mean time my previous system is still functioning and I'll RMA as many of these MBs as it takes until I have one that works properly. Keep your fingers crossed for me that the next one shows up with a pulse!
 
Good luck with your RMA. Personally, I wouldn't give up on Asus that fast. I've built a LOT of systems with their mobos and had good luck, plus, nobody supports their mobos with BIOS updates/documentation like Asus.
 
It's good to hear a different perspective on the matter; I admittedly have a slightly sour taste in my mouth since my new toy showed up already broken. You're absolutely right though, the documentation that came with the board is informative, easy to follow, and pretty comprehensive. Hopefully I can rock and roll right through and be up and running in no time once the replacement arrives.
 
Look forward to you telling us you are rocking and rolling once your replacement arrives. You should have a lot of fun with that system.


unmerited
 
dont let this be ur decider on Asus, they make grade boards. Did they give u a hard time with the RMA? they usually ask u to try another CPU, memory video etc. which I hardly doubt would be causing this but better make sure than wait for a mobo and have the same issue but if u dont have spare parts i guess thats ur only choice for now.
 
When I filled out the form on their website and included all of the details that I've shared with you here, they didn't give me any grief at all over an RMA; in fact, the first email I received from them was something along the lines of "Here are your RMA number and your shipping instructions," so I can't complain about that! If there is a problem with one of my other new components (which would probably cause me to spontaneously combust in frustration), I'll deal with that when the time comes. If I hadn't fairly exhaustively ruled out the other possibilities, I think they would have given me a hard time, but since I did as much troubleshooting as I could, things went pretty smoothly. It's all in their hands now; hopefully in 10 business days from the time they receive the RMA (10 days? What's up with that?) I'll be updating this thread using my new system.

Thanks again for the help.
 
I just received my replacement MB today, and here's the update I promised for all of you who were following my saga. Everything seems to be working well so far, and I've just run a 3DMark06. The results are:

3DMark Score: 5146
SM2.0: 2062
HDR/SM3.0: 2245
CPU: 1647

To be honest, these numbers don't mean a whole lot to me, but to put it into some sort of context, I ran the same test on my old PC. It came back with 760, 370, N/A, and 675, respectively. It's a significant upgrade! I'm not really sure where my scores "should" be, but I'm thinking that these are pretty good.

Thanks again to everyone for the help!
 
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