Project Ignorant Bliss

Soldato
OP
Joined
21 Jan 2016
Posts
2,915
The cable routing looks stunning with the new grommet replacement, they look better fitted than I expected them to :D

Also, can you explain what the fan gaskets are for as I'm not sure if it's to do with the SP120s funny shape?

Great work though :)

Basically from what I've read, you can increase the efficiency of a radiator by moving the fan further away - this allows air to flow a bit better behind the dead spot of the fan centre... With the fans right up close against the radiator grill you have a large area of low airflow directly behind that section of the fan.

The foam gasket itself is just forming a seal against the radiator - the front one especially would always have some small gaps where the fan is fastening to the rad through the case. Again it's small stuff but it just ensures that all that lovely high pressure generated by the high static pressure fans has nowhere to escape but through the radiator. It certainly doesn't help that the fans don't have a normal edge to seal against the rad either!

It's not so much a question of why, more a question of why not lol.

Yeah the 24 pin is now screaming out for custom sleeving and a special bulkhead grommet too... Not quite sure exactly what to do with that as there are a couple of pins that have two wires smooshed in there (corsair RMx has voltage sense lines in addition to those pesky capacitors). Need to see if those wires can still fit through a 4mm comb if I run them both inside a single sleeve until the exit the back of the case.
 
Last edited:
Soldato
OP
Joined
21 Jan 2016
Posts
2,915
Cheers, time to throw up a help flare though!

So I need some help lads - the ignorant part is starting to show.

I decided to pop the stock cables back in while I wait for my PSU tester so that I could get it all up and running.

First things first, when I turn on the plug the standby power light that Asus says should be green appears to be amber. Hmm...

So, push the power button and it all kicks into life - the pump starts up, the fans (powered through the mobo) turn on and the graphics cards light up but I got no video and no beeps, nada. If I leave it running then I get all the POST error leds lit up in amber.

Oh, also perhaps someone can tell me if this is normal - both GFX cards light up initially, but the SLI bridge LED is off. Then after a few seconds the first GFX card goes dark but the bridge turns on. Then the GFX card comes back on again.

Anyway, after a bit of fiddling around I have very carefully just bumped the GFX cards out of their slots and disconnected them, running the hdmi into the onboard connector. After doing that, the thing posts and I managed to install windows. The funny thing is the power led is still amber and every single POST led is still showing amber, but the computer appears to work absolutely fine without the GFX cards installed - I am infact writing this very post from the new computer.

Asus says this about the POST leds:

The POST State LEDs provide the status of these key components duringPOST (Power-on-self test): CPU, memory modules, VGA card, and hard disk drives. If an error is found, the critical component's LED stays lit up until the problem is solved


Now call me dim, but how am I managing to write this post from a seemingly fully functional (albeit with my GFX cards currently disconnected) computer with CPU, Boot device, Ram and VGA all showing errors on those LEDs?

Any ideas as to what the badger's beard is going on here would be much appreciated.
 
Last edited:
Associate
Joined
3 Aug 2014
Posts
2,470
Location
Slamannan Falkirk
really nice build. love the cable grommet.. if you decide to do a few more I would be interested myself..

youre saying the system boots fine with onboard graphics but wont boot with the GFX cards?

have you tried a single card?
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
21 Jan 2016
Posts
2,915
Fine is relative...

With the cards shunted out the slots and disconnected it works as you would expect, BUT the Q-LED lights are all lit, which according to the manual means there's a problem with each of them (the CPU, the VGA, the HDD and the RAM), but I don't see how they can all fail POST and yet the system works.

I can't shunt one card out while the other is in, the bridging piece won't allow it... although maybe I could get both out, then manage to put one back in actually - i'm off to try that.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
21 Jan 2016
Posts
2,915
Hey guys...

Well I'm a bit down in the dumps - no one has been able to diagnose thus far why it's not working.

General feeling is leaning towards a defective motherboard, just on the basis that it's statistically less likely to have 2 GPU's that are both DOA.

Is there anyone in the Horsham/west sussex/Gatwick area that has an old spare GPU lying around who would be kind enough to loan it to me to try out just to confirm whether the Mobo PCIe slots work at all?


edit - or maybe I could buy something like this? https://www.overclockers.co.uk/pali...file-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-019-pl.html

Do you think it matters whether it's pci 2 or 3 for diagnosing where the problem lies?
 
Last edited:
Associate
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
137
Location
A Semi-detached Suburban
Sorry...I am many miles away.

Just a thought.... to check out whether Pcie lanes are alive..you could try any pcie card, not just a graphics one, although that is unlikely to fill and use all 16 lanes.

As for whether being Pcie 2.0 or 3.0 matters....I am not knowledgeable enough to that answer :(

Because I want to see this build succeed...I myself have invested some time googling, pondering over manuals, etc, but have found no possible answers yet. :(
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
21 Jan 2016
Posts
2,915
Haha thanks dude.

A friend of mine has an old rig (in fact my "most recent" 14 year old build!) which is barely used. Anyway he's going to bring the gfx card round maybe tomorrow with a bit of luck.

I'll have to drain the system and make a temporary bypass from res to 140mm rad, then refill... Which is a pain. But at least that will give a bit more info.

I'm really hoping it's a motherboard fault to be honest. That is the simpler explanation and the cheapest to resolve if the manufacturers don't come through for me.

I've actually gone and got the hots for the maximumus VIII formula, so if it does look like a motherboard issue I'm either going to try and get credit towards the maximus or just get the maximus, have the Sabertooth replaced and then sell it.

But knowing my luck the damn thing will boot up with the old gfx card and confuse me further.
 
Associate
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
137
Location
A Semi-detached Suburban
Question....
With the gpu's fitted but booted using the igpu as active graphics....what can you see in the tool tab of bios as per the manual 3.9.5 ( graphics card info)?

Just wondering if bios actually even recognises anything.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
21 Jan 2016
Posts
2,915
Yeah they show up there and it says they are both at 8x (which is what it should be). If you go further and boot into Windows in that config, then they also report in device manager correctly as 980tis but with an error code 43 - Windows has stopped this device because it reported problems.
 
Associate
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
137
Location
A Semi-detached Suburban
What version of windows are you using??

Is it a fresh instal?

All references I can find to error code 43 - Windows has stopped this device because it reported problems, seem to point to a driver issue..... :(
I still dont know why this means it doesn't work in post mode and allow you to enter bios.
By the way, are you using an uefi bios...or legacy one?
 
Last edited:
Associate
Joined
3 Aug 2014
Posts
2,470
Location
Slamannan Falkirk
yea wish I had been closer to you would have been good to see this close up and could have used my spare card but as in your other thread... im a bit far away...

hopefully once your mate comes round with the card it will shed some light on this.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
21 Jan 2016
Posts
2,915
What version of windows are you using??

Is it a fresh instal?

All references I can find to error code 43 - Windows has stopped this device because it reported problems, seem to point to a driver issue..... :(
I still dont know why this means it doesn't work in post mode and allow you to enter bios.
By the way, are you using an uefi bios...or legacy one?

Windows 10, clean install, and I've uninstalled the drivers for the cards, cleaned the registry, disabled Windows updating and installed latest nvidia drivers via GeForce experience.

UEFI bios (which is lovely compared to what I remember from all those years ago!

EVGA are so far the only ones who have even replied to me yet (between them, Asus and retailer), but it seems they don't have any ideas on how to fix it. They have offered to RMA the two cards but I'm just not convinced yet that I could have two faulty GPUs! I have to say though, two thumbs up for EVGA support so far.
 
Soldato
Joined
4 Jun 2007
Posts
2,652
Location
Watford, UK
Love the build....and feel your pain. My man-cave is in Watford and I have a spare watercooled GTX580 if that's any good to you for testing purposes. I've also got a spare motherboard, cpu (including air-cooling) memory combo sitting around. It's only a Core2 Duo and only has a single PCI-E....but if it helps test GFX cards one by one you're welcome to the use of it.
 
Associate
Joined
22 Nov 2015
Posts
997
Location
Wales
That's gutting mate, nothing worse than finishing a stunning build and then running into hardware issues :( Have you tried a flashing a few different BIOS version to see if anything changes? Had a few issues with my ASUS board, updating to the newest version broke it completely but going back one version it works perfectly. Apart from that I'm out of ideas, so all I can do is wish you luck and hope Asus wake up and sort it out for you :)
 
Associate
Joined
3 Aug 2014
Posts
2,470
Location
Slamannan Falkirk
UEFI bios (which is lovely compared to what I remember from all those years ago!

EVGA are so far the only ones who have even replied to me yet (between them, Asus and retailer), but it seems they don't have any ideas on how to fix it. They have offered to RMA the two cards but I'm just not convinced yet that I could have two faulty GPUs! I have to say though, two thumbs up for EVGA support so far.

the UEFI bios on the newer boards is lovely compared to the older stuff.

Ive always heard good things said about the EVGA customer support.

Ive heard a few nightmares regarding Asus one of the reasons I went with Gigabyte as they have a UK based center
 
Back
Top Bottom