Friday night head scratcher help :(

pgi947 · 14 Jul 2012 at 21:10

Evening all,

Just rebuilt into X79, many hours later I'm at the point where I hit the power button, the machine will fire up for a half second or so (enough for LED's to come on and fans to twitch) and then off again.

What I've tried so far:

Jumping the PSU (green and black), PSU fires up fine
Removed all memory and tried one module at a time, same fault
Removed everything with the exception of one stick of memory, nothing.

Have been googling for a while and its getting exhausting, keep reading about the probability of the motherboard shorting against the case so I removed the motherboard enough to keep it away from the case and still nothing.

Really starting to scratch my head over this now so if anyone has any ideas or suggestions please share!

Motherboard is a Gigabyte X79-UD7 with a 3960X.

Thanks in advance chaps

SOLVED: TL;DR - CPU was a dud!!

pgi947 · 14 Jul 2012 at 21:15

Nightglow said:
It's Saturday night.

Is what I've just realised :rolleyes:

Starting to loose track of time!

Sorry, PSU is a Corsair HX1000, Just about to remove completely from system to bench test.

Edit: Fully bench testing is going to be a pain too, damn watercooling.

pgi947 · 14 Jul 2012 at 21:43

Well I take it this wasn't supposed to be on the underside of the chip :rolleyes:

pgi947 · 14 Jul 2012 at 21:49

My guess atm as that sodding sticker the seller (had the sellers hologram logo on it i might add) put on was causing a short.

pgi947 · 14 Jul 2012 at 22:16

Well thats that, machine doesn't boot

damnit.

pgi947 · 14 Jul 2012 at 22:25

The bay, via reputable seller however, have sent them a message already, looks like the chips a dud, time to get my money back and go retail I suppose.

pgi947 · 14 Jul 2012 at 22:34

What would happen if I booted with no processor in? Would the PSU still flick over and power the fans etc...? As I really need to be 100% sure on the problem here.

pgi947 · 14 Jul 2012 at 22:58

Not looking good anyhow, with CPU in, hit power nothing now happens, remove CPU hit power the same happens.

pgi947 · 14 Jul 2012 at 23:03

Really? I've never had a dead motherboard and/or CPU before so I have absolutely no idea.

Any specific way of testing?

pgi947 · 14 Jul 2012 at 23:09

Yeah I've jumped the PSU, everything connected powers up just fine. Tried with no GPU, 1 stick of memory (alternating between different sticks), any combo I try atm including removing the CPU results in, well, nothingness

Going to setup a better test bench tomorrow and see what happens.

pgi947 · 14 Jul 2012 at 23:13

Not that I know of, might pop into one of the local independent stores on monday (provided I don't make any headroom tonight/tomorrow) and see if they would mind giving the motherboard/cpu a quick test without charging me an arm and a leg.

pgi947 · 14 Jul 2012 at 23:18

scottmuir424 said:
if you were closer would have helped you out bud

Cheers

Right im going to rip it back out and have one last dry run before I get some sleep.

pgi947 · 14 Jul 2012 at 23:44

scottmuir424 said:
is the cpu located the correct way on the mb which way is writing on the chip

Writing is upside down as you look at the chip installed in the board, so the little arrow thing points to the top right corner as indicated on the socket clamp.

doyll said:
Might be a good idea to have CPU tested before you return it to seller.

Yep, Scott I may well take you up on that offer if I don't make any headroom by tomorrow!

pgi947 · 14 Jul 2012 at 23:45

scottmuir424 said:
unless your wanting to post the cpu down and i can test it and post back to you

That may well be a very very good option, I'll see how I get on tomorrow and let you know.

Have just tried with everything completely removed from the case and still get the same thing...nothing.

pgi947 · 14 Jul 2012 at 23:52

Good to know, I'll be in touch with you either way tomorrow! This is why these forums are awesome

I've been going at this now for 9 hours straight, I'm tired, pretty hungry and stink of TIM so I'm going to leave doing anything else until I've had some sleep and cleared my head, make sure I don't do something daft out of tiredness.

pgi947 · 14 Jul 2012 at 23:58

wazza300 said:
have you done a full cmos clear? leave mb battery out overnight and then try

Not yet! I have had the cmos battery out for a few mins at a time but I'll go take it out just now to make sure, the manual clear for the cmos is via a jumper of which I don't have

Edit: Motherboard manual says just to touch the pins with a screwdriver!

pgi947 · 15 Jul 2012 at 00:02

linwelin said:
damm that sucks, hope you get your money back.

Me too buddy, me too, I should be ok either way, if its the chip I have Paypal on my side should things get nasty and if its the motherboard thats died then I got it from a member of OcUK staff on the MM

pgi947 · 15 Jul 2012 at 00:18

Its out, probably won't get back to it for another 12-15 hours so should be nice an clear by then

I don't know what the problem is at all, I've never had a dead motherboard or dead cpu in the 15 years i've been fiddling with computers so I've not a clue on the symptoms.

The only fault I've ever had similar is from a dead PSU, but in this case the PSU fires up fine once i've jumped it.

pgi947 · 15 Jul 2012 at 00:32

Ahhhh I forgot this thing has a dual bios switch!! I'll try the the other switch tomorrow!.

I can't get the system to boot far enough to give me a code, earlier in the day I could get the fans to twitch and LED's to flash for a half second or so, now nothing at all happens. Its all setup on a box ready for tomorrows effort.

pgi947 · 15 Jul 2012 at 09:29

According to the seller that sticker on the underside is for warranty purposes? Seems very very random place to put it.