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need help- system wont boot

Nick08

Nick08

Nick08

Associate
Joined
20 Jan 2008
Posts
176
And i think it's because i need a BIOS flash. Essentially i have followed the instructions, plugged the two power cables in, cpu is in place with heatsink, grpahics/HD/DvD drive are all in.

When i boot up, with the monitor on, all the fans start spinning including the CPU cooler. Theres a red light on the graphics card and a green light on the mobo.

However- thats it. No beeps or anything, and nothing comes up on the screen.

system is :
-asus X38 P5E
-antec nine hundred
-corsair 620
-E8400 + thermalright extreme
-ocuk 2 GB ddr2 1066
-3870 X2
-samsung 320 GB

One thing i wasnt sure about was the Power LED. I have the HDD, PWR switch and RESET in, but not the power LED (because i cant find the cable)

This is my first build, so i have never flashed a BIOS before. If anyone agrees that the problem is the BIOS, could you please explain how i can update it using a USB pen.

All help is appreciated.

p.s sorry about the poor english, in a rush atm.
 
I can explain how to flash it, but you must get it to boot first!

See this post and note make CD also in case it doesn't see your USB stick.
When you get this up it the path as in D:/ followed by the BIOS name as an example.

You need a lot of care here, as we don't know what BIOS your board has shipped with, and some find they get one chance only on ASUS boards and E8xxx chips.

You only need the on / off switch (think this board has an onboard one) to make it work.

NEVER RUSH UPDATING A BIOS!!

Try one stick of memory only?
 
Ok, i have changed the RAM to some older DDR2 that i know works (1GB). and there is no change on the monitor.

I have installed an older intel C2D processor, with the older RAM, turned it on and still nothing comes up.

That kind of gives me the impression that either the mobo is naff, or im doing something wrong (which is far far more likely).

I really am stuck, so i will just write down everything i've done- would be great if anyone could read through to see if i've done something stupid (probably have)

1. installed the CPU+RAM, nothing went wrong here however the RAM took quite a bit of force to get in. applied thermal paste + heatsink

2. plugged the 24 pin (i think) cable from the PSU into the mobo. plugged the smaller 6 pin cable into the mobo. (this leaves a 4 pin cable coming out of the PSU).

3. Plugged the PWRSW, HDDLED, and resetSW into the mobo. (no sign of a power LED). Also plugged the USB/firewire cables from the front of the case onto the mobo.

4. installed the DVD-RW, plugged it into the PSU, and connected it to the mobo using a red cable and into a SATA drive (number 1 i think).

5. Installed the hard drive, connected it to the PSU and to the mobo the same way as i did the DVD-RW. This time into the SATA port below.(number 2)

6. Plugged all the case fans into the PSU.

7. pushed the audio card that came with it into the mobo. (havent plugged anything in to the audio card)

8. pushed the graphics card into place, and connected it to a 6 pin cable from the PSU.

9 connected the monitor to the back of the graphics card using the grey cable, DVI i believe. (instead of blue)

There is still an "AUDIO HD" and "AC'97" cable coming from the case, but i dont know where they go.

Again apologies for the poor english- anyone got any suggestions? Would really appreciate it now as the ASUS/OcUk technical support is closed.

edit- highlighted step 4/5 because i was most unsure about these- they came with no box/instructions.
 
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Your english is good!

2. plugged the 24 pin (i think) cable from the PSU into the mobo. plugged the smaller 6 pin cable into the mobo. (this leaves a 4 pin cable coming out of the PSU).
Click to expand...
See picture.
Note top right 8 pin ATX....you said 6...is that a typo or have you used the wrong connector.

3. Plugged the PWRSW, HDDLED, and resetSW into the mobo. (no sign of a power LED). Also plugged the USB/firewire cables from the front of the case onto the mobo.
Click to expand...
I think the ANTEC cases don't have an HD LED anyway...so dont worry. (I need to check this)

Have you tried clearing the CMOS as you've changed the CPU.

EDIT: I new this case didn't have something, and it's a speaker if you have the same as in this thread. (Antec 900)
That may be why your not getting beeps

I think I would'nt be alone in suggesting what most of us do next in this situation.
Disconent all the stuff not needed just to get it to boot such as firewire / USB to case hard drives and CD rom.
You have an older chip to allow you to update the BIOS, so the issue I mentioned above about one chance only to flash CPU does'nt apply.

Also try the adaptor that comes with the graphics card onto standard VGA.
 
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Aye i meant 8 pin not 6. And yep it looks like the 900 doesnt have a speaker, thats a real bummer tbh.

Will try and reset the CMOS later today, going to take a break and get some work done now tho.
 
I'm not sure on your graphics card, but I just read...

Moving to the front again we can see we have two power connectors. One is a 6-pin connector while the other is an 8-pin. The 8-pin is generally quite annoying as a lot of power supplies don’t have the connector for them. Fortunately MSI have chosen to include a 6-pin to 8-pin connector to help with this issue however

See picture..

You got both in?
 
The reference board ships with both eight-pin and six-pin power connectors - a la Radeon 2900 XT. Given a board TDP rating of around 196W, it requires two six-pin connectors or, preferable when overclocking, one six-pin and eight-pin connector from the PSU. What's annoying is that it won't function with the single eight-pin connector attached, which does provide enough power.

Another..

On the back you can clearly see where the GPUs sit, and the bridge chip sits between them. The entire black plate you see on the back here also acts as a heatsink. The shroud makes contact with the backplane bracket; so again, there is no place for the card to exhaust into your case. Remember, only two 2x3 (6-pin) power connectors are required; you do not need the 2x4 (8-pin) connection unless you are overclocking.
 
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right ok, so i can just plug an additional 6 pin PCI power cable to the 8 pin socket. Take it it doesnt matter which side it goes in? i.e. having 2 open pin sockest on the left or right
 
See thread...

you have to plug both power connections in
you can plug in a 6 pin into the 8 pin connector (which is what I've done) but you loose the ability to overclock via overdrive in ATI driver

I take it yours didnt come with an adaptor to make your 6 pin 8?

It should only go in one way, but take your time.
 
thanks a lot mate :)

I dont actually have time to do it now, need to go out and sort some stuff out. Will try it at around 5 pm and see what happens. cheers.
 
Your welcome.
I expect most of us have done similar.

Your post was clear and easy to follow....always helps.

First build?
Well done you!
 
lol I done somethign similar on my first build and took me hours of puzzling to eventually notice that the psu switch wasnt on haha
 
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