Update: RMA in and working great so far! New Biostar T5 XE dead?

[Engineer]

Just got around to building my new Core I5 system today. Put everything together including Seasonic 550W supply, 8800GTS (512M), 4GB (PC1333 DDR3 2 x 2GB Patriot ram running at 1.599V), OCZ 120GB Vertex SSD and a WD 640GB Blue drive.

Powered up fine and set BIOS settings. Installed Windows 7 fine. Started settings on Windows applications and suddenly (instantly) powered off. Tried to power back on and nothing. Unplugged for a few minutes and still nothing.

Swapped power supplies and changed to a 7300LE lower power video card. Nothing.

Removed ram - nothing.

Noticed that neither board power LED is on when supply connected and turned on.

Sounds (and looks) like a dead board to me.

Edit: Just called Biostar and they seem to agree. Have to RMA to Biostar instead of Newegg because I already sent off for the damn rebate and removed the UPC. CRAP!:''''''(

 

[ExcaliburMM]

Sorry to hear about your board.

I got an ASRock X58 Extreme open box at the Egg, I'm crossing my fingers that it works because I usually go with higher tier brands. I wish I'd had the money for a nice DFI X58.

 

[Engineer]

I stripped everything from the board and connected it to the power supply (just for poops and giggles) and it actually spun the power supply up but the power LED's are both off on the board (meaning abnormal). I assumed something popped on the board. I can only hope and pray that it didn't take down anything else in the process. Everything was working so well up until I opened Internet explorer, lol!

Checked the SSD and it's fine. Will check the harddrive out next.

No way to check the CPU or memory until I receive another board (and no, I'm not sending it to you slackers to test! ).

Trying to stay positive during this mess.....*sigh*

 

[Engineer]

I contacted Newegg (after filing for a RMA with Biostar) in the chance that they would issue an RMA even though the UPC was missing from the box (for rebate). Not only did Newegg issue an RMA, they sent a prepaid shipping label to return the board. There is no better service than Newegg, period!

 

[ExcaliburMM]

Glad to hear Egg is working out for you. Best of luck with the RMA and getting your build running.

 

[Engineer]

Glad to hear Egg is working out for you. Best of luck with the RMA and getting your build running.

Thanks. This is only the 2nd board that I've ever had to not work correctly or just to outright die. Both were Biostar!

However, the first one (years ago) was an open box from Newegg so it wasn't a total shock.

 

[ExcaliburMM]

Yeah the ASRock I ordered is Open Box and I'm crossing my fingers it isn't a dud. I'm trying to arrange for some DDR3 in the FS/FT forum and head down to Microcenter Monday to get me a 920 D0. This is all in case it does go bad, I don't want to risk going over the 30 day return for refund that open box has on it.

I've never used Biostar and I don't think I've ever considered them. Then again up until this week I'd never considered ASRock. We shall see what happens.

 

[Engineer]

Yeah the ASRock I ordered is Open Box and I'm crossing my fingers it isn't a dud. I'm trying to arrange for some DDR3 in the FS/FT forum and head down to Microcenter Monday to get me a 920 D0. This is all in case it does go bad, I don't want to risk going over the 30 day return for refund that open box has on it.

I've never used Biostar and I don't think I've ever considered them. Then again up until this week I'd never considered ASRock. We shall see what happens.

I've got an Asrock Dual-775VSTA board that has been great throughout the last 3 years (or more). Good luck and thanks...I needed anything I could get after watching this go down today, lol! :argh:

 

[Engineer]

Just installed my new board (Thanks Newegg for the great RMA service! :biggrin and so far...so good. Still setting up and learning Windows 7.

 

[lopri]

Very nice. Glad to hear the new board works well. It's actually one of the most interesting P55 boards along with DFI's mini-ITX board to me. Any overclocking yet?

 

[ExcaliburMM]

Glad to hear things turned out well. Just sent my ASRock back for a refund and they charged me a restocking fee and I paid return shipping.

 

[Engineer]

Very nice. Glad to hear the new board works well. It's actually one of the most interesting P55 boards along with DFI's mini-ITX board to me. Any overclocking yet?

I've never been one to overclock. Not sure why, but I've never had the itch to do so. I just noticed that the memory is running at 1066 even though it's rated to 1600. I'll probably take it to 1333 and test it to see how it compares to 1066 (as I suspect the latency will be higher at 1333 - strange there is no SPD setting on the ram for 1333 but there is for 1600).

I haven't had much time to tweak yet. Just making sure that the board is stable for right now.

As for interesting, the price for the board and ram made it interesting. It was a little noticed combo on Newegg for this board and 4GB of Patriot Sector 5 DDR3 PC1600 ram - for just over $100 around Black Friday (after rebates and cash back from Bing). Couldn't pass it up.

While I was waiting for the board to return, I picked up 4GB of PC1600 DDR3 OCZ Gold ram to go with the Patriot. Final price of $34.xx after rebates and cash back from TigerDirect sealed the deal on that one! 8GB on Win 7 Pro 64 bit = all good!