P8-Z77-V motherboard- My Pc build ain't working

joaoflu

Junior Member
Apr 15, 2013
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My first attempt at building a PC is a fail.

Motherboard's an Asus P8-Z77-V.

First time I turned the PSU- a BeQuiet 630W- on, I hadn't plugged in the EATX 12V cable, so understandably it wasn't working and the DRAM red light was blinking. However, now that it's plugged in, the DRAM red light is constantly turned on and nothing shows on my monitor. My monitor when not connected to any system whatsoever claims to be looking for a PC connection, but when I connect it to the motherboard it just goes black. and on standby This happens both on a VGA monitor and on a Display Port monitor. It happens both when I connect the monitor to the motherboard graphic outputs and when I connect it to the GTX660 outputs, but I generally try it out on the motherboard's outputs to reduce from the chance that the graphics card could be to blame.

I've read up a number of possibilities that lead me to think it may be that my Corsair Low Profile Vengeance may be incompatible with the motherboard. The model number is CML16GX3M4A1600C9.(4x4gb) and it is not in the QVL that Asus has for this motherboard. The depressing fact that some motherboards just aren't compatible with some of the most popular brands out there in RAM was something I was not counting on when I ordered this setup, so I resist to the chance it could be this.

I've tried to use one stick at a time, both starting from closest to the CPU and furthest away, and still no POST to the monitor (if POST is the correct word). But no luck. So if it were faulty RAM this would solve the issue because it would most probably be only 1 or 2 of the sticks not all of them, which inclines me to think it could be the incompatibility instead.

Other possibilities include: first half a dozen times I turned this on and off test, I did so with only four standoffs, the four that came as default with the Zalman Z11 Plus case I bought. Only later on did I add another 4 standoffs and make it pretty damn firm. Could I have shorted the mobo due to not enough standoffs first time around?

I have the green light show up when I turn on the PSU. I'm using the PSU best as I know how. It's not quite modular and it comes with two big collections of cables. One going to the EATX 12V connector I mentiioned above and the other to the EATX PWR with 24 pins. The cable of the 24 pin PWR connector has one pin that has no metal inside, all plastic which is suspicious.

The Zalman Z11 case has a weird issue in that it has two fans with 3 pin connectors so I'll need a bridge to adapt them, but I extremely highly doubt that that is the issue.

I've been adding a Phanteks 14PE as a heatsink and a cooler, and I've used thermal paste on the CPU. Maybe I've spread it wrong, too much?

I did have to rought it about quite a bit as I committed a bunch of errors setting it up, so maybe I broke something in the mobo? The Wifi card came with a screw so tight even a lighter couldn't loosen it up so I've left it without a screw and maybe it's loose and shorting something but I highly doubt it's that too.

Initially I had an SSD drive connected but realising that I was disconnecting the PSU abruptly and the short life span of SSDs that get disconnected prematurely, I disconnected it. The DVD player is still on with the Asus CD, though, as I believe that's what's supposed to appear when the monitor boots up in order to, I suppose, configure the BIOS.

So what do you think this could be?
 

dawp

Lifer
Jul 2, 2005
11,345
2,705
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have you tried the memok button? it suppose to allow any dimms to work in our boards.
 

Galatian

Senior member
Dec 7, 2012
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I had a very similar issue when I was building my first rig last December. Check all your cables. Unplug them all and plug them back it. Also make sure your RAM has contacts. I found that my RAM sticks weren't all the way in. I had to push them in pretty hard. Either the ASUS slots are very tight or the Corsair PCB are...fat.
 

joaoflu

Junior Member
Apr 15, 2013
10
0
0
I had a very similar issue when I was building my first rig last December. Check all your cables. Unplug them all and plug them back it. Also make sure your RAM has contacts. I found that my RAM sticks weren't all the way in. I had to push them in pretty hard. Either the ASUS slots are very tight or the Corsair PCB are...fat.

Well they're fit in in a ''wavy'' manner, which isn't a good sign at all. They seem to fit in but it's almost as if there's still more to go down but they can't without probably breaking them. The left or right side of a ram stick can be pushed further downwards, pushing the opposite side upwards.

Anyway, I'm going in. Things don't look at all, mostly I've been told things like it could be the CMOS, the Memtest, incompatibility of RAM... most outcomes point to the typical RMA that'll take weeks and weeks... sad
 

joaoflu

Junior Member
Apr 15, 2013
10
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Nah, no luck. Red light through and through. Becomes a blinking light with a quick flash of the uefi bios light when I press deep on it and it restarts the PC, but it soon returns to being a unflinching red light as usual.

Worse thing is I dunno what it could be, anything from the PSU cable, the mobo, the ram, this is infuriating. Rather than wait for an interminable rma, I think i'll just have to waste another 200 pounds on more parts to combine and see what's wrong.
 

joaoflu

Junior Member
Apr 15, 2013
10
0
0
I had a very similar issue when I was building my first rig last December. Check all your cables. Unplug them all and plug them back it. Also make sure your RAM has contacts. I found that my RAM sticks weren't all the way in. I had to push them in pretty hard. Either the ASUS slots are very tight or the Corsair PCB are...fat.

Damn it you were right. Before posting the last message tonight, I thought it wasn't the RAM because I'd been trying to fit them in the wrong way round, discovered they were the wrong way around because of an asymmetrical bump in the middle of the ram stands on the mobo, it didn't do the trick, so I thought damn. But now prodding at it more, it is indeed the damn RAM not being fully fixed down into the stand, with the latch closed, fully closed, an important detail, not just partially closed.

Only thing I worry now is, despite being grounded, all the static electricity I've passed on to the components, lol, but it's working at least. Now to the BIOS...
 

dawp

Lifer
Jul 2, 2005
11,345
2,705
136
1908 is out for the p8z77 v. I have it on mine and seems to work well.
 

rgallant

Golden Member
Apr 14, 2007
1,361
11
81
Damn it you were right. Before posting the last message tonight, I thought it wasn't the RAM because I'd been trying to fit them in the wrong way round, discovered they were the wrong way around because of an asymmetrical bump in the middle of the ram stands on the mobo, it didn't do the trick, so I thought damn. But now prodding at it more, it is indeed the damn RAM not being fully fixed down into the stand, with the latch closed, fully closed, an important detail, not just partially closed.

Only thing I worry now is, despite being grounded, all the static electricity I've passed on to the components, lol, but it's working at least. Now to the BIOS...
-I would hold off on the bios until you find your way around the system , making sure it's stable , runs every 100% fine before adding a new bios into the mix.
 

joaoflu

Junior Member
Apr 15, 2013
10
0
0
I'm not sure why I wrote ''Now to the BIOS'' after the problem was solved. It must have been a lapsus.

I'd wager that many people complaining about their PCs not working just didn't latch in their RAM fully, and that complicated things like BIOS not being updated are less likely to be culprits. A few weeks later I managed to waste a day looking for a solution to why the graphics card wasn't working, and it turned out to be the same exact reason why the RAM hadn't, I hadn't fully latched in the graphics card into the slot.
 

jcniest5

Senior member
Jun 2, 2005
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Well they're fit in in a ''wavy'' manner, which isn't a good sign at all. They seem to fit in but it's almost as if there's still more to go down but they can't without probably breaking them. The left or right side of a ram stick can be pushed further downwards, pushing the opposite side upwards.

From your descriptions, it sounds as if you are inserting the memory the wrong way. That's the only way it would do that="one end of memory goes in, the other pops back out." You should check to make sure you are inserting the memory in correctly. You do realize the slot in the memory stick isn't exactly in the middle, right? There's more pins to one side than the other and if you insert it in the wrong way, your PC wouldn't work. Worse yet, it may damage your memory, too.

Oops, didn't realize how old this thread is. The OP may already have found a solution to his problem. If not, I hope he reads what I posted. Hopefully that what his problem is/was.
 
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