RobFritts Posted February 16, 2006 you should update your bios could be a dual core issue Agreed... A few questions though... Would the board pass the CPU diagnostic test if it didn't recognize the dual core? (The LEDs indicate it sees the CPU fine and has issues with the RAM) Shouldn't there be a video output even if it doesn't recognize the CPU? Can I upgrade the BIOS if it doesn't recognize the CPU in the first place? I've read elsewhere that folks have had to boot to a single core chip in order to flash to the newer bios to recognize the CPU. That's not an option for me as I don't have an older (laugh) 939 pin AMD-64 to use. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lowboy Posted February 16, 2006 The board may be bad you never know but do know many tech can't build a dfi system.Have you tried out of case with all4 power connectors hooked to mobo,1stick of memory in orange slot farthest from cpu,GFX card in pcie slot nearest the cpu power hooked up,KB.NO hdds or other drives hooked up. And power on from mobo and see if posts if not how many leds lit.If no post power off and try memory in yellow slot nearest edge of board. May also try gfx in lower slot You may have tried all of this but hate to see someone send board back and have same problem after waiting for new board. Just trying to help.. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cdidhe Posted February 16, 2006 Flash bios, only use essential components such as video card, cpu, 1 stick of ram. Nothing extra.(no ide or pci this could be an issue) See where your at then.. :drool: edit * and i had the same problem with mine. my problem was an ide issue Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lowboy Posted February 16, 2006 The board will post without bios update but will see single core. If you can get it to post you will need the 623 bios for the dual core . But first problem is to get it to post. If you get to post load optimized defaults and disable splash screen. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RobFritts Posted February 16, 2006 The board may be bad you never know but do know many tech can't build a dfi system.Have you tried out of case with all4 power connectors hooked to mobo,1stick of memory in orange slot farthest from cpu,GFX card in pcie slot nearest the cpu power hooked up,KB.NO hdds or other drives hooked up. And power on from mobo and see if posts if not how many leds lit.If no post power off and try memory in yellow slot nearest edge of board. May also try gfx in lower slotYou may have tried all of this but hate to see someone send board back and have same problem after waiting for new board. Just trying to help.. Yah... My poor case. It's so pretty and well engineered and it has yet to have a component touch it other than my PSU which I slid in to test size. Damn mirror finish on my PSU is scratched now, but at least I know it fits with a bit of finess. I tried to follow the build guide that is stickied in the forums exactly as it was detailed. It specifically mentions a bare minimum boot-test on a table top prior to putting anything in the case or any drives, etc, just as you mentioned and that's as far as I got when I ran into the no-post/boot issue. I double and triple checked all 4 power connectors and all were seated well and according to my fluke multimeter, all put out the right voltage +/- .05 volts (OCZ rocks, by the way). I tried the GPU in each seperate PCI-E slot in combination with each seperate stick of RAM in each possible RAM slot and the same diagnostic result came about each time, indicating an issue with the RAM detection/testing. That alone led me to think the board was bad, but I wanted to check all those components out on other systems/testbeds prior to RMA'ing the board just in case. The computer store in town seemed to confirm my thoughts on it and that's where I'm at now (I drop it at UPS in the morning). I've gotten a lot of feedback from the shop actually pushing me towards ASUS or MSI or something, but I tend to be one of those folks that push through a hard problem just to see if it can be solved rather than give up because it's too hard, especially if I'm being told by others it's too hard, etc. I guess that's why I'm an engineer. :-) Thanks for the help. I'll be following the same build strategy when the new board gets here and we'll see what happens. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RobFritts Posted February 16, 2006 Flash bios, only use essential components such as video card, cpu, 1 stick of ram. Nothing extra.(no ide or pci this could be an issue) See where your at then.. :drool: edit * and i had the same problem with mine. my problem was an ide issue Understood. This is as far as I've gotten with mine, just the essential stuff. My case is unwrapped, but everything else is still in bubble wrap because I haven't needed to use it yet. I'm just working on the mimimum component post/boot and I'll start adding components from there after I get RAM run through memtest, optimal settings, new bios, etc. Seems like such a long road and I'm still at the starting gate... One step at a time I guess. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RobFritts Posted February 16, 2006 The board will post without bios update but will see single core. If you can get it to post you will need the 623 bios for the dual core . But first problem is to get it to post. If you get to post load optimized defaults and disable splash screen. I'm not clear on the optimized defaults, although I've seen them mentioned a lot of places. Is there an auto detect or something or are you referring to optimized settings based on the cpu/ram/board combo found in the settings/speed database or possibly something entirely different? I'm probably putting the horse in front of the carriage since I can't even post yet, but I figured I'd reasearch a bit before I get to that point so I know what I'm doing once I get that far. Thanks again for the help. Regards, Rob Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lowboy Posted February 16, 2006 When you press delete to go into bios main screen will have >load optimized defaults< it will load settings that will generally let you get up and going. Look at it like looser settings. You have tried the 8hr cmos clear also right.. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RobFritts Posted February 16, 2006 yep... I tried the 8hr clear overnight (was more like 10-12 hrs) with same result after all was said and done... I think that's all for me tonight. Gotta be up in 5 hours for work. Thanks for the help. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Burts Posted February 16, 2006 Wow, ive been reading a lot on these forums, rob has a lot of the same specs as I do, wonder if ill get all these probs if I upgrade my monther to the ultra d non-sli. So the stock bios has no support for dual cores then, and dont you have to have operating system installed to flash bios? If no operating system is needed do you do it off the floppy or that custom bios cd that is posted, bios 623?? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
red930 Posted February 16, 2006 @RobFritts Borrow a stick of RAM from a buddy to see if the board will post with it. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RobFritts Posted February 16, 2006 So much for going to bed... Kids are great, aren't they? :-) @Burts: Don't take my experience as indicative of the norm. By far, of all the threads I've read from folks following the build guides, the majority of them are successful. While I know a certain amount of electronics are truely DOA, I also know that I'm just as likely, if not more so, to have done something that hurt it as well. I haven't flashed a bios in forever, but as I recall you don't need to do it with an OS installed and I think it's either done on floppy or maybe CD now days. @ExRoadie: Good idea. I'll try to find a stick somewhere, but we're still pretty new to town and while I've got friends from work, I don't know anyone down here that is into PCs and would have one handy. Maybe the store I took it to? They were pretty cool. I'll talk to them tomorrow before I send it back. Thanks for the suggestion. Later all, Rob PS - Good night for real this time. :-) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
