Possibly Dead Motherboard (VNF4 Ultra) -- Ideas??

[MajorPayne]

Good morning. I have had a Chaintech VNF4 Ultra since before Christmas, and have loved the board. After adding a fan to the chipset, I have been able to keep it running at 300HTT for the past 3 months with rock-solid stability, and no heat issues (Thanks to the CoolerMaster Hyper6 CPU cooler, and a LOT of case fans).

I recently had the power supply in this computer die, and I did not have another one which was powerful enough, so I had to use a 350W PSU (A good one, but not large enough for all of my cooling stuff, etc., and only had the 20 pin hookup -- which this mobo will work on). I had been getting BSOD's since I changed to the smaller PSU, despite unhooking my case lights, spare optical drives, etc.

Last night, I got a new Enermax CS718-S case with a very good 480W PSU. I installed the motherboard and all goodies in the case, did a 2+ hour wire-routing job, so it looked great, and turned on the computer -- no video, no beeps, no post, NOTHING! The power button will also not turn off the system once it is on.

I removed the motherboard, and all components, checked for anything behing the mobo that could short it (spare screws, extra brass mounts where they should not be, etc.), and found nothing. I then remounted the motherboard, and connected ONLY the CPU fans and the video card. I still get no video, post or beeps. I then thought that maybe there is a problem with the PSU, so I connected the mobo to the old (low power) PSU, since I KNOW that it at least booted with that PSU -- still nothing. I then removed the motherboard and reseated the CPU/heatsink, and reapplied thermal paste to it (the CPU looked fine, no signs of cooking, etc). I then did the same thing with the chipset heatsink, and discovered that it had been a little loose -- still made contact, but was quite wiggly, etc. I remounted it, after applying AS5 to it as well, and then reconnected everything, but still no boot, no video, no post, and no beeps, and the power button does not turn it off.

I see 3 distinct possibilities here. 1) the motherboard is fried -- possibly I cooked the chipset because of the loose heatsink, possibly latent damage from the PSU that dies, or something happened while installing it in the new case. 2) The Video card (or video card slot) had an issue when I was re-installing it -- maybe it was loose in the socket when I powered it on, or something else happened with it. 3) I missed something in my troubleshooting.

I have made sure at each juncture that ONLY the absolutely necessary components are connected, and that both the main power supply cable AND the 4 pin cable are connected, as well as the CPU fans, etc. To make troubleshooting harder, this board has a known issue where if it does not detect a PCI-E card, you get no video, no post, no beeps -- the same symptoms as a fried motherboard. Additionally, I do not have any other system with PCI-E to test the video card in.

What I would like to know is what everyone's opinion is on what I should do next? I can maybe wrangle 1 upgrade out of my wife, and even that is pushing it a bit (we are kind of tight on money right now), and I MUST have this system working by Friday afternoon at the latest. Should I run to Fry's and sink money into another motherboard? Should I run to Fry's and sink money into a new PCI-E video card? Are there troubleshooting steps I missed that I should try first?

I personally think that the motherboard has died, and I did not miss any steps troubleshooting, but it is always hardest to see your own mistakes. Anyone's advice on this would be welcome, since I may have overlooked something (or if you think I SHOULD replace a part, let me know which you think is most likely to have died). Thanks.

 

[Fern]

Last night, I got a new Enermax CS718-S case with a very good 480W PSU. I installed the motherboard and all goodies in the case, did a 2+ hour wire-routing job, so it looked great, and turned on the computer -- no video, no beeps, no post, NOTHING! The power button will also not turn off the system once it is on.

I'm not following - it won't turn on, NOTHING. But you also say the power button will not turn off the system?

So, what is "on" that wont turn off?

Other suggestions:

-Recheck all jumpers

-Clear CMOS

-Try NOT hooking up the power/reset buttons on case. Short the mobo pins to get PSU/power started (in case bad power button on case)

-Take mobo outta case, regular drill - just install cpu (HSF), ram, vid card, Monitor, KB & mouse. PSU also. If it won't boot, see if you can get proper beep code by removing ram or cpu and trying to boot.

Fern

 

[Buz2b]

Originally posted by: Fern

Last night, I got a new Enermax CS718-S case with a very good 480W PSU. I installed the motherboard and all goodies in the case, did a 2+ hour wire-routing job, so it looked great, and turned on the computer -- no video, no beeps, no post, NOTHING! The power button will also not turn off the system once it is on.

I'm not following - it won't turn on, NOTHING. But you also say the power button will not turn off the system?

So, what is "on" that wont turn off?

Other suggestions:

-Recheck all jumpers

-Clear CMOS

-Try NOT hooking up the power/reset buttons on case. Short the mobo pins to get PSU/power started (in case bad power button on case)

-Take mobo outta case, regular drill - just install cpu (HSF), ram, vid card, Monitor, KB & mouse. PSU also. If it won't boot, see if you can get proper beep code by removing ram or cpu and trying to boot.

Fern

What he said. Can you explain precisely what happens when you push the power button; lights on drives, fans turning, power supply sounds, etc and any or all of the above?
Especially try disconnecting the power button and just use a screwdriver to "short" the pins that it connected to. Double/Triple check that the pins are correct also.
Clear CMOS with jumper and unplug system/remove battery for a few minutes.

 

[MajorPayne]

Sorry, I forgot to make it clear that the system DOES power on. All of the internal lights, fans, etc come on, you can feel the hard drives spinning at least a little, and the cd drives seem to blink thier leds ever few seconds. Nothing else ever happens. I have tried shorting the power on pins directly, and it made no difference. As for taking out the motherboard, and running it outside the case, I have not tried that, but I am not sure that this would make a difference.

At this point, I am leaning toward replacing the motherboard, since I think that is most likely the failed part, and my local PC Club has a deal on a DFI Lanparty UT SLI-DR at 150.00. Only slightly more than I paid for the VNF4, and I get the best SLI board in existence!

Any other thoughts on what I may have missed, or I am floggin the deceased equestrian so to speak.

 

[Silversierra]

The Vnf4ultra is less than $100 now(you said you're on a budget), if you liked it, you could get it again. The dfi is very good, but a little pricey.

 

[Buz2b]

Originally posted by: MajorPayne
As for taking out the motherboard, and running it outside the case, I have not tried that, but I am not sure that this would make a difference.

The reason it was suggested to try to boot the system outside the case is that there can be shorts, unseen by the user, to the case. These can be in the I/O area, the MB, etc. This is a common troubleshooting technique that does sometimes produces results and helps narrow things down. It is also a good idea to only put one stick of RAM in the board when trying the boot. It's really not a difficult thing to do. Just set the MB on the MB box or piece of cardboard next to the case and the Power supply should still reach it. Do not connect the power switch either; use the jumper method.
The problem is, the symptoms don't scream out BAD MB! It might well be a bad MB but it's not acting like one. Before you buy another, I'd try taking the system completely apart, including removing all cables. Set the CMOS jumper to Clear and remove the CMOS battery. After a couple of minutes, reinsert the battery and set the jumper back to Normal. Set the MB outside the case and install only the cpu w/heatsink-fan, one stick of RAM, video card, power supply and one drive. If you have it, use just a floppy drive with a boot disk in it. Then try booting by jumping the power switch pins on the MB. I know you stated you tried to boot with minimal components but this would be a bit better test. It's worth a shot rather than investing in a new board. Good Luck!

 

[MajorPayne]

Well, I took it out of the case completely, and tried booting with just the PSU wires, CPU and fan, and video card, and still no video, no boot, etc. This thing is driving me nutz!

Worse yet, after doing this last night, I made the assumption that it WAS a problem with the motherboard because of the way it was acting, so I took the plunge, and bought the DFI, and hooked it up outside the case for minimal boot -- no good either!!! I was also able to borrow another A64 CPU, and try it, and same result, so at this point, I am assuming it has to be a new videocard, and I am getting a new one this afternoon. If I still have nothing, then I am really gonna go nutz, and take up oragami (or something else non-computer related) as a hobby!

 

[jose]

MajorPayne,

Make sure you connect all 4 power connections on the DFI mobo. (recommend by DFI tech sup.)
That's the 24pin psu, 4 pin cpu, 4pin molex & the 4 pin floppy. One issue that sometimes causes this problem, is the fact that 6600GT's get their power from the mobo.
Sometime's that's an issue, hence the DFI tech told me to connect all 4 connectors.. He said that's not an issue w/ 6800's because they have their own power connectors.

Good luck, keep us posted.

Regards,
Jose

 

[MajorPayne]

Originally posted by: jose
MajorPayne,

Make sure you connect all 4 power connections on the DFI mobo. (recommend by DFI tech sup.)
That's the 24pin psu, 4 pin cpu, 4pin molex & the 4 pin floppy. One issue that sometimes causes this problem, is the fact that 6600GT's get their power from the mobo.
Sometime's that's an issue, hence the DFI tech told me to connect all 4 connectors.. He said that's not an issue w/ 6800's because they have their own power connectors.

Good luck, keep us posted.

Regards,
Jose

Well, I finally got it working. The original problem I was having WAS a dead motherboard -- stone dead. I managed to borrow a new processor and videocard from a friend to test it with -- stone cold toast.

Which brings us to the DFI board -- ALSO stone dead! And NOT related to the new PSU either! I have a new DFI board (I took the original one back) running right now, and I am back on track. And WHAT a board it is! I only installed stuff last night, and I already can go further overclocking with it than with the chaintech (I am running at 310HTT now, and I could not get past 300 HTT with the chaintech board). I am now running just a shade under 2.8 GHZ -- an overclock of 1GHZ!!! Not bad at all! And it is stable in prime and superpi too! I am definitely glad I sunk money into the new board -- it will be a good upgrade. I will miss my chaintech tho, it was a good stable board, and a great overclocker. Although I think I can safely say that I have one of the "good" winchester cores too, since it overclocks so well!