So, here I am, up in the middle of the night, trying to get a computer to work after spending the whole day fighting with it.
The system
Core i7 4770k, asus z87 sabertooth mobo, corsair gs600 psu, 16 (2x8gb ddr3 1600mhz) corsair vengeance RAM, radeon HD 5850, seagate 1TB hard disk.
The trouble
Won't boot. If I have everything connected, the fans work for a split second, and then it turns off. Motherboard green light stays on. If I unplug the ATX12v cord, all fans and lights run indefinitely, but the computer obviously doesn't boot.
The story
I got this mobo+processor as a replacement for a 3-and-a-half-year-old mobo that was slowly dying on me (first the usb ports, then the onboard sound, then the onboard LAN).
The first time I assembled the whole kit, it strangely wouldn't start. I saw the memory light on in the motherboard, and after a little experimenting, by leaving only one of my four old sticks of ram (4x2gb), I managed to get to the Bios screen.
Not wanting to mess around with the configurations just yet, I simply chose the "optimal" preset and confirmed it. The machine then rebooted, and I heard a loud "click" from the UPS the system was connected to. After that, it simply turned off and started to smell... You all know it, the horrible smell of burns electronics. It was coming off the top of the board, around where the atx12v connector was. I contacted the mobo's seller, who agreed to replace the mobo for me. Not wanting to risk another failure of the sort, I got a new PSU and new RAM (even though the old ones still work just fine on the old mobo, which I reassembled after the disaster).
So, earlier today, the new components (replaced mobo, new PSU, new ram) arrived and I went on to build the new PC. And the result is as described above (no boot, mobo runs if atx12v is off).
The question
Now I'm sitting here wondering if I was double-lucky to get a second defective motherboard, or if whatever happened in the first problem managed to fry the CPU as well as the first mobo (though there are no visible signs of problems and no smell coming from the cpu), or if there's something else going on. I'll probably take it to be professionally tested later this week if I can't work things out (at least test a different processor in the mobo to see if it works, tho brand new lga1150 cpus might be hard to come by in repair stores).
But still... What do you guys think? Is there anything else I can do from where I stand? What could be wrong this time, and what could have gone wrong that first time? I'm pretty sure the installation is fine (really, installing the parts is a pretty foolproof process nowadays). I suspect it really was a defective mobo, since it wouldn't boot with the 4 ram sticks, which worked, and still work, perdectly fine.
The system
Core i7 4770k, asus z87 sabertooth mobo, corsair gs600 psu, 16 (2x8gb ddr3 1600mhz) corsair vengeance RAM, radeon HD 5850, seagate 1TB hard disk.
The trouble
Won't boot. If I have everything connected, the fans work for a split second, and then it turns off. Motherboard green light stays on. If I unplug the ATX12v cord, all fans and lights run indefinitely, but the computer obviously doesn't boot.
The story
I got this mobo+processor as a replacement for a 3-and-a-half-year-old mobo that was slowly dying on me (first the usb ports, then the onboard sound, then the onboard LAN).
The first time I assembled the whole kit, it strangely wouldn't start. I saw the memory light on in the motherboard, and after a little experimenting, by leaving only one of my four old sticks of ram (4x2gb), I managed to get to the Bios screen.
Not wanting to mess around with the configurations just yet, I simply chose the "optimal" preset and confirmed it. The machine then rebooted, and I heard a loud "click" from the UPS the system was connected to. After that, it simply turned off and started to smell... You all know it, the horrible smell of burns electronics. It was coming off the top of the board, around where the atx12v connector was. I contacted the mobo's seller, who agreed to replace the mobo for me. Not wanting to risk another failure of the sort, I got a new PSU and new RAM (even though the old ones still work just fine on the old mobo, which I reassembled after the disaster).
So, earlier today, the new components (replaced mobo, new PSU, new ram) arrived and I went on to build the new PC. And the result is as described above (no boot, mobo runs if atx12v is off).
The question
Now I'm sitting here wondering if I was double-lucky to get a second defective motherboard, or if whatever happened in the first problem managed to fry the CPU as well as the first mobo (though there are no visible signs of problems and no smell coming from the cpu), or if there's something else going on. I'll probably take it to be professionally tested later this week if I can't work things out (at least test a different processor in the mobo to see if it works, tho brand new lga1150 cpus might be hard to come by in repair stores).
But still... What do you guys think? Is there anything else I can do from where I stand? What could be wrong this time, and what could have gone wrong that first time? I'm pretty sure the installation is fine (really, installing the parts is a pretty foolproof process nowadays). I suspect it really was a defective mobo, since it wouldn't boot with the 4 ram sticks, which worked, and still work, perdectly fine.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram