Now what? New Rig Won't Boot

[whovous]

The rig in the sig is fine. Here is my new build:

 

Ultra D

Opteron 165

OCZ GameXtream 600

XFX 7900 GT

Corsair XMS Twinmos 2048

Zalman 9500 (CPU) & 900 (GPU) w/ JingTing chipset cooler

Asus Vento case

 

I put it all together and turned it on. Everything lit and spun, but nothing appeared on the screen and three diagnostic LEDs lit. This suggests that the RAM is not detected by the motherboard.

 

When I got this RAM I MemTested it in my sig rig. It does not OC real well, but it produced zero errors at stock speeds and at 15-20% OC. The point is, it works, and it works in an Ultra D with an Opteron, as both rigs have these parts in common.

 

I tried using just one stick in various slots, but always got the same result - three LEDs, with either stick.

 

I tried a basic CMOS clear, without pulling the battery - same result.

 

I wanted to pull the battery, but the location of the Jing-Ting combined with the cramped space in the Vento stopped me from getting it out.

 

So, I took everything apart. I do not have the foam sheet here in this house, and neither do I have any other RAM or other spare parts here. All of those are in the other house, and I won't be there for days.

 

I cleared the CMOS, then I put the board together outside the case, on a microfiber towel on a wood tabletop. I connected all four power connectors to the board, and the PCI-E connector to the video card. I plugged in the power cord and turned on the PSU. Both amber LEDs lit. I hit the power button, and absolutely nothing happened. No lights, no fans, no nothing beyond the amber LEDs.

 

I removed the microfiber towel and put the board on the bare wood table. I rechecked all the connections and tried again. Same result - amber LEDs and nothing else.

 

Am I missing something? Did I break something? What else should I try here? I seem to have no power at all, except for those pesky amber LEDs. Assuming I get power, what do I do to get past the three red LEDs?

 

Thanks.

[lowboy]

Try the long cmos clear as posted here:http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showpost.p...04&postcount=24

Clear for as long as it takes. And then try with only 1stick ram in orange slot furthest from cpu.

[whovous]

I checked the connections again, and now have power to the board.

 

With the speaker on, I now get three LEDs plus a repeating single long beep. Still nothing on the monitor.

 

I've been trying the single orange stick idea as well. I must leave soon, so will try a long clear, then.

[whovous]

I tried a 3 hour clear followed by an overnight clear, and never got past three LEDs.

 

I will try other RAM when I get home, but it looks like RMA time to me.

[cybervicke]

A few ppl say that Corsair is very (in)compatible with DFI?

Try other mem sticks / stick and see if it works.

[whovous]

The Corsair sticks worked fine in my sig board. I will try others when I get this box home.

[whovous]

Finally made it home and put the Corsair sticks back into the sig machine. Other than taking a little longer to boot than usual, they are working just fine as I type this on that same sig machine.

 

Next, I will try the RAM from the sig machine in the new build. Geil ONE is great stuff. If it does not work, I think I have pretty much ruled out the RAM as the source of the problem, even with three red LEDs staring back at me.

[wevsspot]

If you would, before you settle in on an RMA just entertain me on something. Make you a copy of TMOD's BIOS flash CD. Perform a long CMOS clear on the problematic rig you're working with. After the CMOS clear put TMOD's BIOS CD in your drive and reboot the computer. See if your rig will boot from his CD.

 

If it does, flash your BIOS to version 0704-2bta or 0406-bt and reboot. Load optimized defaults and reboot once again. See if that does the trick.

 

Thanks.

[whovous]

I do not understand how that could possibly work. First, the machine needs to be willing to boot from a CD. Right now, it is not willing to boot from anything at all; in fact, it never even gets close to booting, and not a single word ever shows up on the monitor when I try to boot it.

 

I'd very much like to be wrong, and recognize there is much I do not know here. Still, I think I have to POST before I can boot, and that three LEDs mean I am not getting very far at all in the POST process.

 

If I am missing something, please fill me in.

 

One other thing: I have now tried three different kinds of known good RAM in the top orange slot, all with the same result - three red LEDs.

[red930]

Give it a 24 hour clear with this...

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showpost.p...04&postcount=24

 

Make sure you follow the instructions to the letter. The Insert Key is very important.

[wevsspot]

ExRoadie's advice is the most reasonable. The only reason I suggested trying a CD boot was a thread approx. two weeks ago from a member who had a similar problem. I hate to use the word miracle when referring to electronics, but his rig would not post. He tried everything, but he did get a boot screen when he booted from TMOD's CD. Happen chance? Probably, but at this point I didn't think you had anything to lose.

 

Good luck with whatever the final solution.

 

Wishing you the best.

[whovous]

OK, I will try the 24 hour cure, and try to find the time to create the TMOD CD as well, though the latter does seem to be taking us well into miracle territory.

 

I now have some slight suspicions of my new PSU (OCZ GameXtream 600) as well, but it has been a very long day and I am just too tired to either post the details or pursue more troubleshooting on my own. When I hook up a cheap PSU tester from Ultra, all the lights light up like they should, with the exception of the light for -5v. They could be a clue, but it could also mean the

-5v bulb does not work. More tomorrow night, probably.