Bummed out - NO POST, NO BEEPS

[Guest]

I got a brand new Gigabyte GA-EP45T-DS3R. An Intel Q6600 G0 SLACER. A nice ZEROtherm CPU cooler. An Antec 750w PSU. 8GB of Corsair RAM (1333, 4x2GB). HIS ATi 4870 512MB. Raptors.

Assembled it ... put it all in the case ... plugged in the PSU to the wall... then turned the back switch on that is on the PSU ... and immediately everything came on with no beep error codes, no display, no POST. very disappointed. so, i take the memory out just to see if i'll get a memory error beep code nothing. another interesting thing is that when it is on, i can't turn it off by holding down the power button for 15 seconds. i've triple checked the power switch, reset switch, and speaker jumper.

this is really bumming me out.

i ended up benching the mobo and the PSU and still same thing. even with no CPU in there, the cpu "phase LED" has two red, two yellow, and two green. i wish those were better documented in their manual.

this is so frustrating. i've been in the industry for 15 years and putting together rigs for 13. I was extremely careful mounting the large 120mm zerotherm heatsink (habit from the old athlon days where they'd chip).

the thing that bothers me the most is that there are no beep codes no matter what, but power goes through the board. i bought both the mobo and PSU from Fry's so i plan on going there thursday morning (7/24/09) and raising hell if they don't test it for me for free.

any suggestions? am i on the right track?

 

[Sarky]

I got a brand new Gigabyte GA-EP45T-DS3R. An Intel Q6600 G0 SLACER. A nice ZEROtherm CPU cooler. An Antec 750w PSU. 8GB of Corsair RAM (1333, 4x2GB). HIS ATi 4870 512MB. Raptors.

Assembled it ... put it all in the case ... plugged in the PSU to the wall... then turned the back switch on that is on the PSU ... and immediately everything came on with no beep error codes, no display, no POST. very disappointed. so, i take the memory out just to see if i'll get a memory error beep code nothing. another interesting thing is that when it is on, i can't turn it off by holding down the power button for 15 seconds. i've triple checked the power switch, reset switch, and speaker jumper.

this is really bumming me out.

i ended up benching the mobo and the PSU and still same thing. even with no CPU in there, the cpu "phase LED" has two red, two yellow, and two green. i wish those were better documented in their manual.

this is so frustrating. i've been in the industry for 15 years and putting together rigs for 13. I was extremely careful mounting the large 120mm zerotherm heatsink (habit from the old athlon days where they'd chip).

the thing that bothers me the most is that there are no beep codes no matter what, but power goes through the board. i bought both the mobo and PSU from Fry's so i plan on going there thursday morning (7/24/09) and raising hell if they don't test it for me for free.

any suggestions? am i on the right track?

There are 2 ATX Power Connectors on this motherboard (2x4 12V and 2x12 Main Power Connector) Make sure you supply power to both of them.

 

[Guest]

Yes, I did, thank you.

 

[Guest]

any other suggestions?

 

[jsc]

If you have breadboarded a system with only PSU, motherboard, and CPU and you turn it on and get silence, one of the those three components is bad. And it is not likely to be the CPU.

I like Gigabyte motherboards, but you are right. The phase lmaps are not well documented.

 

[bilbat]

i've triple checked the power switch

I'm betting you checked it three times to ensure it was plugged in to the header correctly. Did you check it for continuity? It's unlikely (I've only ever seen one), but for the life of me, your symptoms sound like your power switch is shorted, i.e., always 'closed'; might be another thing to take a look at. You might try leaving the header off, and just momentarily short the 'power switch' pins with a screwdriver blade or some such...

 

[Guest]

UPDATE:

I took the motherboard, PSU, CPU, and RAM to Fry's to help me diagnose it since I bought the mobo and PSU from them.

I told them that I thought it was the mobo since no beep error codes are coming out as well as it immediately turning on when the PSU was switched on which it shouldn't do. It should only turn on when I use the power switch.

They hooked it up to a known good PSU, CPU, and RAM and replicated the same behavior so it was the mobo. I got a full refund.

Note to self: Never buy an open-box mobo from Fry's... but I just couldn't pass up the price at the time. Oh well...

Time to go on newegg and get a kickass OC'ing mobo!

 

[jitpublisher]

UPDATE:

I took the motherboard, PSU, CPU, and RAM to Fry's to help me diagnose it since I bought the mobo and PSU from them.

I told them that I thought it was the mobo since no beep error codes are coming out as well as it immediately turning on when the PSU was switched on which it shouldn't do. It should only turn on when I use the power switch.

They hooked it up to a known good PSU, CPU, and RAM and replicated the same behavior so it was the mobo. I got a full refund.

Note to self: Never buy an open-box mobo from Fry's... but I just couldn't pass up the price at the time. Oh well...

Time to go on newegg and get a kickass OC'ing mobo!

I love Frys, I buy all my stuff there, but seriously now
You should have said that in the first place.......yes indeed, you should never, ever buy open box electronics from Frys.
You are literally begging for problems my friend. Sure they will replace it alright, or give you a cheerful refund, but they will not compensate you for the wasted time and headaches!

 

[bilbat]

You guys are always making me jealous! I live near Milwaukee - we have Radio Shack (like I'm going to but something besides LEDs and solder there), and a local computer chain that sells last year's parts (and not many at that) for triple what NewEgg charges this year. Who the hell do I have to blackmail to get a Fry's? I've never heard a bad thing said about them - wahhh

 

[jitpublisher]

You guys are always making me jealous! I live near Milwaukee - we have Radio Shack (like I'm going to but something besides LEDs and solder there), and a local computer chain that sells last year's parts (and not many at that) for triple what NewEgg charges this year. Who the hell do I have to blackmail to get a Fry's? I've never heard a bad thing said about them - wahhh

Frys are great because they have such a huge selection of everything. The absolute best you will find anywhere in a retail store. Cameras, televisions, stereo equipment, DVD's, motherboards, CPU's, cases, video cards, memory, you name and they have it, lots of it.
But when you go to Frys, you must KNOW what you want. Do not ask for help, there are very few people who work there that can actually give you sound advice. They do have a lot of returned items, because they have such a liberal return policy. But they are plainly marked, and priced as returns. Some things might be okay, some like a motherboard, I would be really skeptical of buying.
I used to live in Orange County, CA, and there were like 3 of them within a half hour of my house. I live in Washington now, but there is one in Wilsonville, OR which is about an hour drive from my house.
They have 1 store in Downers Grove, but that may be a little too far away, maybe a couple of hours for you?

 

[inspector71]

We have Comp USA Which Tiger direct took over and now they have decent price's these days. Might go there later today and check out some mother boards buying a new one next week for my new build.

 

[bilbat]

That bring up a point that I'd like to make 'searchable'; often people ask me about refurbished (especailly) versus returned (there's my search terms...); returned items - depending on the vendor (and the number who check things out is somewhere between slim to none), they probably just see that it's not broken in half, and then throw it on a shelf; refurbs, on the other hand, have been repaired and tested by the manufacturer, who has experience with the product, knows what things are likely to fail, and may even 'make an upgrade' through the repair. The primary thing is it's been tested - on the main assembly line, it likely comes out of wave solder and degrease, a robot slips it in the bag, it goes in the box - and you are the first test it gets. They rely on statistical sampling to guarantee quality, which usually means that some minimal number of defectives are considered 'tolerable'