Is my motherboadrd faulty?

D

DarkStranger

Geek Trainee
I've just put together the following system:

Antec 900 case

Motherboard

Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R, iP35 Express, S775, PCI-E(x16),
DDR2 & DDR3 1066/1333/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX

CPU

Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 3GHz

RAM

Corsair 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 1066MHz/PC2-8500 XMS2 Dominator Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered CL5(5-5-5-15) E.P.P. DHX Technology Lifetime Warranty

Graphics

XFX 8800GTX OC version 600MHz 768MB 2xDVI GDDR3 PCI-E

HDD

Seagate ST3500630AS 500GB Hard Drive SATAII 16MB Cache 7200RPM

CPU Cooler

Zalman CNPS9500

Also a 250GB SATA drive and a Seasonic M12 600 PSU.

Problem:

When I switched the PC on for the first time, the power came on for about 5 seconds then I heard a click and it went off and then came back on again and stayed on but I got no picture and no beeps.

I tried disconnecting everything and even building the PC out of the case but still never got any beeps or a picture.

A couple of knowledgable friends say the motherboard is faulty. Is this the case?
 
Start off with a basic configuration:

Motherboard
CPU
CPU heatsink
1 stick of RAM in the first DIMM slot
video card
Power supply

Lay the motherboard on a non-conductive surface for this test.

Make sure any and all power connections on the motherboard and video card are plugged in.
Make sure the CPU heatsink is secure. Uninstall, then reinstall it if you need to.
Make sure that any jumpers are set in the proper place. The motherboard should list the default jumper settings.
 
Big B said:
Start off with a basic configuration:

Motherboard
CPU
CPU heatsink
1 stick of RAM in the first DIMM slot
video card
Power supply

Lay the motherboard on a non-conductive surface for this test.

Make sure any and all power connections on the motherboard and video card are plugged in.
Make sure the CPU heatsink is secure. Uninstall, then reinstall it if you need to.
Make sure that any jumpers are set in the proper place. The motherboard should list the default jumper settings.
Click to expand...

Pretty much tried that. I unplugged all fans & HDDs and had minimum parts connected outside the case. The video card whines if no power is connected.

Shouldn't the board have beeped if it was working?

One thing I did notice, when installing the CPU, though it was in correctly (I triple checked this), it did seem a little tough to close the holder using the lever but seemed ok once I closed it. How difficult should it be to close this?

Also, the actual motherboard box was not sealed when I received it (not sure if they always are) and the cable bag had was open. Do you think it could somehow be a 2nd hand board?
 
Hi Stanger, I've also got this problem with a new build I put together the details can be seen in my siggy.

I've posted a message in the Motherboards, CPU forum, but I'm thinking like yourself that it is the mobo thats not working.

I know that power is ok as the mobo power led lights up and the keyboard plugged into the P/S2 port on the mobo the keyboard led's are lit so it seems that the mobo is powering the keybaord OK.

But I get no mobo bleeps and no display, so think that it's either a case of the BIOS being corrupted, maybe been flashed unsuccesfully at some point, and hence there's no BIOS for the CPU to run the POST code from......

or.....

the CPU is bad and is unnable to run the POST from the BIOS anyway.


What I'm trying is...........I've ordered a replacement BIOS PLCC EPROM chip (approx £10.00) to replace the one on the mobo, and see if this corrects the problem.

If this doesn't sort it out then I'm going to try and test the CPU in another working PC to see if it's that before I buy a new CPU.

If the CPU then turns out to be OK, then I suppose I'll have to replace the entire mobo, which will be a pain, as I know that my RAM, Graphics Card, PSU, etc are all OK, and know that all connections are OK....so it has to be either the CPU or the MOBO......

Hope this helps.....

I'll let you now how I get on, as it seems that ours is the same problem.

Karen
 
Have you tried this? I saw the following on a site the other day:


"To verify it is not the motherboard giving the problems, take a paper clip and insert it into the green and black terminals of the PSU plug -after it is removed from the motherboard of the computer.

Press the power button on the computer, if the fan spins inside the PSU, the motherboard is the problem. If the fan does not spin, the PSU is likely at fault."
 
DavidNW said:
Have you tried this? I saw the following on a site the other day:


"To verify it is not the motherboard giving the problems, take a paper clip and insert it into the green and black terminals of the PSU plug -after it is removed from the motherboard of the computer.

Press the power button on the computer, if the fan spins inside the PSU, the motherboard is the problem. If the fan does not spin, the PSU is likely at fault."
Click to expand...

Forgive me but I'm not sure I quite understand that.
You mean on the 24 pin power connector?
How is the power button on the case going to switch the PSU on if it is unplugged?
 
kazgirl said:
Hi Stanger, I've also got this problem with a new build I put together the details can be seen in my siggy.

I've posted a message in the Motherboards, CPU forum, but I'm thinking like yourself that it is the mobo thats not working.

I know that power is ok as the mobo power led lights up and the keyboard plugged into the P/S2 port on the mobo the keyboard led's are lit so it seems that the mobo is powering the keybaord OK.

But I get no mobo bleeps and no display, so think that it's either a case of the BIOS being corrupted, maybe been flashed unsuccesfully at some point, and hence there's no BIOS for the CPU to run the POST code from......

or.....

the CPU is bad and is unnable to run the POST from the BIOS anyway.


What I'm trying is...........I've ordered a replacement BIOS PLCC EPROM chip (approx £10.00) to replace the one on the mobo, and see if this corrects the problem.

If this doesn't sort it out then I'm going to try and test the CPU in another working PC to see if it's that before I buy a new CPU.

If the CPU then turns out to be OK, then I suppose I'll have to replace the entire mobo, which will be a pain, as I know that my RAM, Graphics Card, PSU, etc are all OK, and know that all connections are OK....so it has to be either the CPU or the MOBO......

Hope this helps.....

I'll let you now how I get on, as it seems that ours is the same problem.

Karen
Click to expand...

Hi Karen,

My parts are only a few days old so I will look at sending them back (instead of getting a BIOS chip).

Meanwhile, I went in to PCWorld and thought I'd ask one of the tech guys what he thought and he suspected the CPU and possibly my cooler not being seated correctly. I seem to have installed it ok though.
The lack of beeping suggests the motherboard but the guy in the shop said not necessarily.

By the way my case has no speaker but these days the motherboard usually does, no? Also, the board doesn't appear to have an LED to indicate power is going to it which was unusual.

Personally I think the motherboard could be the problem only because the box and cable bag were not sealed when I received them but I may return the CPU as well to be sure.

Let me know how it goes with your part changes and what works.
 
Its funny you should mention the cooler, now I've got a water cooling system installed and I've applied thermal grease, then the waterblock which has been firmly bolted on to the CPU, but the waterblock has a LED on it, the power lead for which I've plugged into the CPU Fan PWR mobo connector, so I've also been wondering if the fact that the mobo can't detect any fan on the CPU PWR connector if this is the cause, but as there is a 3-pin power connector for the waterblock LED connected to it I can't see that it would be a problem.....
 
kazgirl said:
Its funny you should mention the cooler, now I've got a water cooling system installed and I've applied thermal grease, then the waterblock which has been firmly bolted on to the CPU, but the waterblock has a LED on it, the power lead for which I've plugged into the CPU Fan PWR mobo connector, so I've also been wondering if the fact that the mobo can't detect any fan on the CPU PWR connector if this is the cause, but as there is a 3-pin power connector for the waterblock LED connected to it I can't see that it would be a problem.....
Click to expand...

The Zalman fan I connected spins up and has a 3 pin power connector which I connected to the motherboard ok. I did however notice that the motherboard CPU FAN connector has 4 pins not 3. Could that have anything to do with it? Perhaps I should try the stock cooler?
 
My mobo also has the 4-pin CPU fan connector, but the 3-pin connector I have attached to it only has 2 cables, live and ground, to make the circuit to power the LED......

I may try connecting up a fan to it and see what happens, I'll give it a go now, and post back in a few minutes...
 
Ok, when I had the mobo it came with a little fan that clips on to a chip heatsink, and the instrcutions for it say (only to be used when using passive/water cooloing solutions) so it looked promising.....

BUT....

Put in the fan as per instructions and connected it to the mobo CPU fan connector, and then connected the waterblock led cable to a dfiffernt chassis 3-pin fan connector......powered up and still no beeps/display/POST....

So it isn't that either....

The only other thing I can do while waiting for the new BIOS chip to come is to try and test the CPU in my other PC to see if it's the CPU, but I've only got enought thermal paste left for a single application, so won't then be able to replace the original CPU back in my working PC if the CPU is bad....

So thinking about it I'll wait few days for the new BIOS chip to arrive, and in the meantime see if I can get my hands on some more thermal grease.


Hope you have better luck than me....
 
kazgirl said:
Ok, when I had the mobo it came with a little fan that clips on to a chip heatsink, and the instrcutions for it say (only to be used when using passive/water cooloing solutions) so it looked promising.....

BUT....

Put in the fan as per instructions and connected it to the mobo CPU fan connector, and then connected the waterblock led cable to a dfiffernt chassis 3-pin fan connector......powered up and still no beeps/display/POST....

So it isn't that either....

The only other thing I can do while waiting for the new BIOS chip to come is to try and test the CPU in my other PC to see if it's the CPU, but I've only got enought thermal paste left for a single application, so won't then be able to replace the original CPU back in my working PC if the CPU is bad....

So thinking about it I'll wait few days for the new BIOS chip to arrive, and in the meantime see if I can get my hands on some more thermal grease.


Hope you have better luck than me....
Click to expand...

I tried building the PC out of the case again using the stock CPU cooler, some different DDR2 RAM sticks and an old PCI graphics card. Still nothing, just the cpu fan spins up then down as if it shuts down and then it spins up again. So, same thing as before.

Going to RMA the board and CPU for sure and maybe the RAM as I have no idea if that's ok or not.
 
Hiya,

I've just spent half the night trying to do a hot flash of the bios chip from the "broke" mobo using my other PC and Uniflash and a bios file downlaoded from Asus' website....

And well it has more or less confirmed for me that it is the BIOS chip as, when I had inserted it into the PLCC socket on the working mobo, which was dodgy as hell, removing the good bios chip - using a paper clip - and then inserting the bad bios chip, all with the system powered up, and to think a couple of weeks ago I was scared at just updating the BIOS on my old PC...lol.

Well anyway once it was in and I ran Uniflash from the DOS prompt, Uniflash can't read the "bad" BIOS chip, and doesn't recognise it at all, even though the Uniflash website says it supports the chip in question, (M50FLW080A)....

Which is quite strange actually coz when I tried to use the AWDFLASH util, it did at least recognise the chip as being the M50FLW080A, but would't flash the downloaded BIOS file to the chip as it kept on asking to copy the current BIOS to file first, and then gives a message "error - source file not found" and then quits the program and returns to the DOS prompt....so this seems to suggest that it can't find a BIOS file on the chip to save before flashing the new file to the chip.

Hope all this is making sense...lol.

I've tried hot-flashing the dodgy BIOS chip no less than 8 times tonight, and so after no success, after all that, I don't want to keep pushing my luck, or I'll end up frying the good BIOS chip and MOBO in the process...

So all in all I'm going on the basis that the chip is cooked, and that hopefully when I get a replacement chip it will sort it out......fingers crossed...lol..


I'll let you know how it go's...

Hope u manage to get yours sorted out, probaly take a while though with the whole RMA process....

Speak soon

Karen
 
kazgirl said:
Hiya,

I've just spent half the night trying to do a hot flash of the bios chip from the "broke" mobo using my other PC and Uniflash and a bios file downlaoded from Asus' website....

And well it has more or less confirmed for me that it is the BIOS chip as, when I had inserted it into the PLCC socket on the working mobo, which was dodgy as hell, removing the good bios chip - using a paper clip - and then inserting the bad bios chip, all with the system powered up, and to think a couple of weeks ago I was scared at just updating the BIOS on my old PC...lol.

Well anyway once it was in and I ran Uniflash from the DOS prompt, Uniflash can't read the "bad" BIOS chip, and doesn't recognise it at all, even though the Uniflash website says it supports the chip in question, (M50FLW080A)....

Which is quite strange actually coz when I tried to use the AWDFLASH util, it did at least recognise the chip as being the M50FLW080A, but would't flash the downloaded BIOS file to the chip as it kept on asking to copy the current BIOS to file first, and then gives a message "error - source file not found" and then quits the program and returns to the DOS prompt....so this seems to suggest that it can't find a BIOS file on the chip to save before flashing the new file to the chip.

Hope all this is making sense...lol.

I've tried hot-flashing the dodgy BIOS chip no less than 8 times tonight, and so after no success, after all that, I don't want to keep pushing my luck, or I'll end up frying the good BIOS chip and MOBO in the process...

So all in all I'm going on the basis that the chip is cooked, and that hopefully when I get a replacement chip it will sort it out......fingers crossed...lol..


I'll let you know how it go's...

Hope u manage to get yours sorted out, probaly take a while though with the whole RMA process....

Speak soon

Karen
Click to expand...

Very brave of you trying all that! Shame it didn't work.

As I'm RMAing within 7 days of purchase it'll be quicker than you think. I phoned up this afternoon, filled in the RMA form online whilst on the phone to the guy in customer services, he agreed that I wouldn't incur the testing charge for sending back the CPU, RAM and MOBO (also blagged a tube of thermal grease in the process), had my RMA number by mid afternoon, got home and packaged the items with the letter I wrote yesterday detailing the problem, tomorrow all I have to do is call them to arrange the courier to pick up the box, that'll be picked up Wed/Thu so it will arrive with them by the weekend.
They say as the RMA is within 7 days they fast track the testing too so, with luck I should have everything by about Wednesday next week! oh and if something is faulty (which it has to be) they will refund the cost of the courier. :D
 
Really glad it's worked out OK for you, thats a really good service especially if they refund the courier fees as well......and especially good that they use a courier, given the Royal Mail strikes at the moment......!!!

You'll probaly have yours sorted before me, I've sent the details and payment to the supplier of the BIOS chip, today (well Tues - just realised the time......lol...!!!..) by 1st class recorded delivery then have to wait for it to be received by the supplier, then wait for the chip to be mailed back to me, and I think the supplier uses Royal Mail as well, so with the strikes I'll be lucky to receive anything this week now, if at all.....

When I bought the CPU, the seller sent it 1st Class recorded delivery on 26th June and I still havn't received it, I ended up buying another one, though the seller has now finally agreed to refund me in full once he receives confirmation from Royal Mail that the item has been lost by them...so fingers crossed that my BIOS chip doesn't go astray as well with the confusion with the strikes.

Anyway I'll let you know how it go's, again really glad you managed to sort out such a quick RMA, hope the replacements work out for you...!!
 
Quick update.

Having sent my board back to the company I purchased it from, I've been told that it had bent pins. I haven't been told where.

I can't believe I caused this myself (not like the CPU can be inserted the wrong way round!). Anyhow, a new one is apparently on its way to me and should arrive in the next couple of days.

The CPU & RAM were tested and are working ok so they are being sent back to me also.

It took longer than expected as there was apparently a backlog of items to test and not enough techs as some were on holiday.
 
Hi there again,

Glad to hear your getting it sorted, can't imagine what pins they are talking about, I'm trying to think of what pins there are on a mobo that u could have bent, only thing I ca think of is if a capacitor, or some other sticky out thing (technical terminolgy there..lol..)....may have been bent and broken the solder or something, but you'd have noticed that I'm sure.....

They probably don't want to admit that the board was broke in the first place and so are just saying any od thing.....not that you care really...lol...as long as they are sending you a new one....!!!!

With mine.....latest is....:

I got the BIOS chip back and tried it and this didnt fix it either, though I contacted the BIOS chip seller and he is going to send me another chip free of charge with a different BIOS version on it.....

In the meantime I ordered and received a new mobo, same model (M2N32SLI Deluxe).....so I put everything back together, on the new mobo, and its working like a dream.....

Had a few teething trouble with Vista activaton.....but went ok after I rang the activation line....

Then been having these seemingly random shutdowns for no reason....checked all my BIOS settings and seems OK, I think I've narrowed it down to power surges in my domestic electrical supply, as there are a coule of industrial plants up the road from me, and I've noticed in the past that my lights often seem to flicker and fade at times.....so I've bought a surge protector and connected the PC's PSU to that, and so far it seems to have sorted it, though I won't be certain till a few days of continuous use...

Meanwhile the original 6000+ CPU that I had been waiting for, but then ended up buying another, well the original seller sent me a replacement......so now I've got a spare 6000+ CPU, a spare M2N32SLI mobo,....... if this new BIOS chip sorts it that is,........ I've got 2Gb of PC2-5300 RAM going spare as well.......so beginnings of another PC...lol....

I tested both the CPU's before the new mobo arrived, and they are both fine, so I knew the CPU wasnt at fault.....just wondering if this mobo can be salvaged now......hmmm...we'll see....

Anyway hopefully if this BIOS chip comes tomorrow, I may try the original mobo with the spare CPU and RAM, to see if I can get it working.....

Hope I can as I'd really like to build another PC and maybe sell it to cover some of the cost of my new PC, or maybe even buy that 2nd 8800GTS for SLI, and buy some more PC2-6400 RAM taking mine up to the max 4Gb......oh well we'll see.....

Right good luck with your new Mobo when it arrives,, and at least you can rest assured knowing that your RAM and CPU are good as well......

Don't you just love computers....lol.

Some new problem to solve nearly every day.....

So there you go, my PC specs in my siggy are my actual rig now.....FINALLY....lol.

Let me know how you get on with the new board, be really nice to hear you got it up and running....

Kaz
xx
 
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