Turned in my Z68 MB for a Asus P8 Z77-V PRO...sigh

[Daniel ~]

New board arrived yesteryear, Won't boot at all! Can't even reach the boot screen.

Been Down as Patti's water cooler need new "O" rings. Fixed Patti's box, now I can work on mine. May be scare here for a few days while I get sorted out...

I think it's the Motherboard again. But I'm trying some G.Skill ram as a replacement for my Corairs.

I have NEVER seen a MB so Fussy about RAM!.... If it is the RAM. My last board the Asus 68Z couldn't OC, this one can't boot, may be the RAM. But My CPU worked fine in the 68 board, except that it would not OC one little bit.

Now I can't reach the BIOS! The stuff is pretty simple, yet i always FEEL like it my fault when parts don't work as they should....I guess it's the price one pays for not really knowing what one is doing.

So I'll keep rotating parts until l I can get a boot!

My Real mistake this time was in Asking Corair rather than Asus which RAM to buy... if it is the RAM ":O}

[Gizmo]

Ok, do you have ANY LEDs lighting up on the board? I need to know EXACTLY which ones are lit/unlit.

[Daniel ~]

Its quite a show really...

Basically (with some variations) It bounces from memory led to CPU led to Graphics card LED... it never makes it to the hard drive, then repeats for as long as I can stand to watch, in case it was memory tunning I let it go on for a half hour once.

But when I first installed it it simply never tried to boot, or failed and let my machine run, My water coolers fine, temps in the low 20s C. CPU is at lest know partially good, it ran fine, but would not OC. an unlocked chip, in the 68Z. It booted fine an hour before I swapped boards.

Ok Then Some times it skips the Graphics card and just hits RAM blinking two or three times, then the CPU blinks once, repeat, endlessly.

When I first started down this road of tears, I got a simple single beep, which repeat a long intervals, which my manual says means one of the following

1.VGA detected (We would like it to be this one! ":O}
2. quick boot set to disabled
2.no keyboard detected

Its never gotten far enough to light my keyboard and if Quick boot is disable, hell then that's the default and it's got nothing to do with me!!

Just so you know I have no RAM at present, RMA'ed as Asus didn't agree with Corsair when they said it would work.

I ordered these RAMS

To meet these requirements..My God, RAM has gotten cheap!

[ThunderRd]

When you get the memory, do the minimal boot thing.

Out of the case, (don't try this inside the case, maybe there is a standoff or something shorting out a trace on the MB), power supply, 1 stick memory, KB and video card. You DO NOT NEED a hard drive connected to do this, so don't connect one.

Remove the CMOS battery for at least 30 minutes. Clear the jumper with the shunt or the switch, whatever you have. Then put the batt back in.

If it does not boot, keep changing the memory slots. Then change the stick. Hopefully you can get to the BIOS with this minimal setup.

Do you have another graphics card? If you do, it might help in eliminating the possible problems. I keep a simple PCI card around for this purpose. You have 2 PCI slots there. Try them both.

Don't get pissed that I asked this, but you did plug in the 4 or 8 pin connectors to the MB, and the extra power cable(s) to the video card, right? The MB power cable is the one I sometimes forget, and then the board won't boot, of course.

After you get the minimal boot setup, if it still does not boot, let us know what BIOS beeps you get, if any.

If it does boot, add the other components one at a time, and see which one craps out the boot.

[Daniel ~]

Been there done that":O}

My board uses slip-in stand offs rather than the screw in kind, you can see them all from the back. I'm 9 for 9 on the pins, no extras none misplaced. no extra card, but boot an hour before to it., same same with all my parts except the Mb

They didn't OC but they booted..

Out of the case is all but impossible as I water cool. I get pretty locked in once the cooling systems charged, If I removed it from my case...no cooling, at lest no safe cooling.

tied minimum boot, both with and with out the TPU switch on.... many times.

I've followed the Asus tech's setup and one or two others, some pretty sharp people, my last board just didn't respond as there's did, at all.

What I want to know is what's next if it doesn't boot to my new RAM today?

It can't be my CPU can it? I mean they boot and work or they don't right?

Much appreciate you taking the time to outline procedure, don't do this enough that I can't forget the obvious!! and at this point something should become obvious, but I don't know what, other than my own inexperience...":O}

[Daniel ~]

Huston we have a boot! LOL

This is one of those moments that test my resolve and commitment to truth! ( it actually was! LOL)

I could say, the RAM arrived I stuck it in and problem solved! But then I couldn't bush my teeth, (I don't shave, so that's when I get the best look at times creation
drapped across what use to be a rather pleasent and youthful face.)

(Yes I'm dragging this out, I kinda have to come at it sideways if you know what I mean)

But the Ram arrived and we went into the LED ping pong between RAM and CPU.
I wanted to cry, but I sucked it up and took another long look...

Pull my GPU card, so I could pull the battery, let sleep, let her dream of electric sleep (Phip K Dick), Mean while I hooked up more lights and grabed my magnafing glass. I checked everything. As suggested I took her down to GPU, CPU and RAM.

Then I removed the back pannel. all stand-offs in their proper place and no extras...

Then I notice some thing...My stand-offs are little clips that you poke through from behind, then screw into from in front, one of them is only half way inserted, but the screw is in, but loose, I make the adjustment... Couldn't see where this might be critcal...

Do the CLRTC thing and sit there, I'm out of options, this works or...I reach over and hit it the big black button...and she boots!

I thank everyone in the univerce, then see if she can boot again! I re-connect my drives and sound, that's all there is! She Can!

Tears of joy stream down my face...(No wonder I look so old!)

I think I'm overclocked to 4.7 but haven't figured out a way to tell...

My temps went up a bit from 23 to 30C

I took some pics for everyone! ":O}

In the end I can't really say what caused my difficulties, the stand off has to be suspect, but I really can't see how. 1/2 way is futher away from my board as far as contact. Maybe she just wanted a slow start.

[chrisbard]

Glad it worked! Can't help myself though and I must ask you, is there a led for linucs boot fail on that smart mobo? )))
Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.2.2; en-gb; Desire_A8181 Build/FRG83G) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1

[Daniel ~]

Thanks Chris, it was a bit of a hardware ordeal...":O}

And No. As there has never been and can never be a Linux boot failure, there hasn't been any demand for an LED.

How can you tell when MS has failed to boot?

Answer:

You can't....unless it crashes....":O}

[Daniel ~]

Thank you Gizmo and ThunderRd for the moral support advice and encouragement.... I was feeling pretty all alone with this, it was good to know that you still take on my probables as if they were your own...":O}

[Daniel ~]

I think I know what gave me my boot!

While I was disconnecting my case fans, to minimize my boot load, it occurred to me that I don't have a CPU fan, water-cooled you know, So I hooked up a case fan to my CPU fan power...

Just now I'm watching a video (singularity Computers) and the guy goes into the Monitor section and Disables the CPU fan monitoring, because, he says, it will prevent boot!

I forgot I had thought of this and plugged in my case fan...untill I saw the video...hey I was trying a whole big lot of things!

I still don't think prayer hurt my efforts any...":O}

[ThunderRd]

Originally Posted by Daniel ~

Just now I'm watching a video (singularity Computers) and the guy goes into the Monitor section and Disables the CPU fan monitoring, because, he says, it will prevent boot!

You would know if this happened, because there would be a visible boot error something like 'CPU FAN FAILURE' ...press F1 to continue' or the like.

On Asus boards, you can disable the CPU fan monitoring in the BIOS in the section called 'hardware monitoring'. I would recommend, though, that you don't disable it. Instead, connect your water pump to the CPU header on the board. Your pump runs on 12V and that header is also 12V. If you use a molex or the like to connect the pump to power, cut off the molex and replace it with a small fitting that fits on the board header. That way, if it ever isn't working, the machine won't boot, and you know where to check.

As for your successful boot, congratulations! I'd probably suspect that the new memory and the long CMOS clear did it, rather than the standoff, but who knows. The Asus boards can be a bit finicky when you are swapping out kit, and sometimes they need that sacrifice of a firstborn to boot. By habit I do the CLRTC any time I swap out anything.

Funny though, Corsair memory works in EVERYTHING. I don't think I've ever had a situation where any memory I've had from them did not work properly anywhere I put it, whether it was on the QVL or not.

[Daniel ~]

Yeah, that's why I went with Corsair first.

After spending hours try to get any OC at all and failing, I shut her down for two hours I return and it's back to Memory LED blinks, CPU LED blinks back and forth they talk and say nothing and go nowhere. Until I shut it down and try again.

After two mother boards and two sets of completely different RAM, I'm finally asking...is it the CPU? It never OCed, I was going to post that I'm beginning to wonder if it is unlocked.

Everyone else just hits the Auto OC and they get 43 to 47 multiples on the OC. I hit it and it just ups BCLK from 100 to 103 to get me to 3500 as apposed to stock at 3400.

It's never increased the multiplier, not for me and not on auto Tune.

Someone tell me why I shouldn't RMA it?

I've watched at lest 10 hours of video (and took notes!) on how to set this board up. I may not be even lose to expert, but I've come to know my way around this board a bit and there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it, I test my ram and it's fine.

Unless someone has a idea I haven't tried? I'm going to RMA my first CPU.

I'll pull the battery over night again and see whats what tomorrow.

BTW My cooler has a piggy back connect of the power line so it comes on and goes off with the computer. It also has temp and fan control...I'm not sure I'm understanding what your suggesting I might do? ":O}

[ThunderRd]

Dan, how much voltage is the RAM getting?

In other words, look in the BIOS and give me the memory voltage. Probably something like 1.6-1.9v or similar. Then check the specs for the memory. What is the recommended voltage?

I am *HIGHLY* doubtful that your problem is the CPU.

[Daniel ~]

Part of me says it can't be the CPU, another part says that after two boards and two sets of RAM on what is probably the easiest to use board I've ever seen...it has to be....or else it's my fault!!!!! ":O}

Sorry no can reach BIOS, But I know my ram...it's at 1.65, CPU is at default voltage. I was Auto tuning Just before I shut down. (I push a button and the system tries to find the best OC stability, which for my box is 100MHz increase) no need to change voltages..

While down, I plugged in a USB 2.0 extension off a mother board header to a back card slot. That's it that all I did, add 2 USB-2 ports

When I turned the power supply back on and failed to boot. I removed it...but I have not been forgiven, she won't boot.

[Daniel ~]

Whatever it is I don't think this is a BIOS setting. While it was running I tried a lot 45-48 over-clocks with CPU up to 1.45, it's recommended that you leave your RAM at speck in these ranges so I do.

In any case when it fails an OC,and it always does, it just reboots to last or default OC settings, it doesn't hang or need special attention.

[Daniel ~]

I got some sleep, a good start after so much futile thought. I've decide to give this a day or two off, let me rest up a bit. For me Hardware is a nerve racking business, for reasons rooted in my distant past its very hard not to be emotional when things go wrong...I'm riddled with guilt and have to gain distance to sort myself out.

I hate to pull this motherboard. My feeling is the more I install and un-install the more likely I am to do harm in search of the problem.

It seems like it might be a short in the case, but here's thing , This board replaces an Asus 68 Z which replaced a P5Q which ran great! They all have the same stand off's, the last board which NEVER had a problem booting, is in fact all but the same board with the major difference basically being The Sandy bridge and Ivy chip sets.

My case is a larger tall full tower Lian Li case, uncluttered, I can see everything from 5 feet away-

( Trust me I spend most of my time taking a much closer look! )

I really don't believe that there is a case short, but without better direction, I don't know what else to do but to either go ahead and try to RMA the CPU, or rest up, steel myself for the journey and pull it apart and check it out....then RMA the CPU, still unsure of what heck is happening.

As unlikely as it seems, if it is the CPU this all makes sense, if it isn't what ever is wrong has to be something I did, twice, as the chip would not perform as it should with either motherboard or RAM sets.

As I prepared myself better to revive and set up this board than any before it, as I lavished care upon both boards and RAMs. ( my fist really new build in 3-5 years you know?)

The Rams were never for a second been out of speck and neither board has ever accepted any of my OC settings, they both just reboot at stock or the Auto tune setting of 3.5, which itself is ridiculous (most get 4.4 - 4.7 with auto tune) for this gear and if it is the CPU, plenty of cause to return a chip I paid extra for it's unlocked and over-clock abilities.

So If any of our hard-ware Gurus are about and have the time everything I know and have done is posted here. I would really appreciate your insight and guidance.

(Some one save me from having to tear down my creation! LOL)

As for you ThunderRd...unless I'm very much mistaken, this is the course you wanted to recommend but didn't have the heart to say it straight out...

If I'm right, thank you for letting me come up on this in my own time...

If I'm wrong Please tell me and tell what cha think!

This is my way of saying thank you for the help you given and the time you've taken.

I'll be around in the evenings for sure. Patti gives her computer heavy use in the day and goes to school at night. Sometimes I can slip in, sometimes I can't.

[ThunderRd]

Well, I don't have anything new to recommend other than this: don't forget that it is still a possibility that the replacement board is also bad in some way. It has been a long time since I've seen consecutive bad boards from Asus (although my record is 3, of the same model - got a working one on the fourth try - several years ago) but as a rule I would say it is far more likely than a bad CPU.

Wait for the other guys, but at this point I'd:

1. do the long CMOS clear thingy again, see if it boots. Power it completely off, unplug the mains so there is no residual current, do the CLRTC thing, remove the CMOS battery, and let it sit that way for at least several hours, overnight better. Maybe there is some BIOS corruption of some sort. Have you done any BIOS flashing to the board yet? If it boots after this, you might try flashing the BIOS to another version.

2. strip it down and go with the minimal boot process, and then if it's still not reliably booting, and I couldn't find another CPU to test in it, I would RMA the MB again.

Just my 2 cents. Anyone else?

[Daniel ~]

OK, that's what I wanted to know, the next step if I can't find the problem.

my background concern is that I only have about 12 days left to get my CPU back to newegg for an exchange. I returned and then bought a new board so I have lots of time on my MB.

5 min later:

I paused in my response to pull my Graphics card, Do the CLRTC thing and then pull the battery for the night..., I just gotta ask....Did you feel guilty asking for the fourth board? if you were clear in mind you wouldn't...but did you? LOL

I'm wondering how wide spread my phobias are? ":O}

This board has the all you need is power and thumb drive emergency flash back, now that Patti's box is back up, I can rename the file ( you have to do that) and I'll try. I used the newest BIOS updated without a problem in Easy Bios. (thumb-drive update)

I can grab an older BIOS, but I don't think Asus lets you revert, we'll see!

Thanks it's always great to have a second opinion ...even if it was yours first ":O}

[Aedan]

How's the power supply on the box? Got a different one you can try?

[ThunderRd]

+1 for Aedan's suggestion.

No, I did not feel guilty in the least in asking them to give me what I paid for. I knew heaps more than their techs did about the board, and how it was supposed to behave.

You should be able to flash to any BIOS version in the curent crop of Asus boards safely.