Fujitsu D2533 (Rebadged Tyan Thunder S2915)

[allbread]

Currently installed:

Nvidia 275GTX PCI-E card
Tuniq 1000W PSU
2 x Opteron 2378 CPUs
8 * 4GB Registered Hitachi DDR2-667

The D2533 is essentially the Thunder S2915 repackaged in a workstation sold by Fujitsu. This is a used board I got as a working pull from a workstation that was being broken down at a company I used to work for.

I currently cannot get my D2533 board to POST.

(Referencing the Fujitsu A26361-D2533-Z210-1-7619, Edition 1 manual... I'm probably going to send this to Fujitsu support here in a bit but I thought I'd see if anyone had any bright ideas in the interim while I'm waiting on a response)

I have a 1000W PSU and have connected the PSU 24-pin (PW1) & 8-pin (PWR CPU) board power inputs as well as the Front Panel Header (FP) Reset, Power Button, HD LED and PWR LED inputs.

I have mounted an NVDIA 260 GPU PCI-E card in the PCI-3 slot on the board and have connected a monitor and keyboard.

When I power on the PSU switch the fans connected the PSU molex connectors run on their own without me activating the case "power on" switch; thus it would seem the PSU is powering them automatically without being controlled by the mainboard.

I cannot seem to get the mainboard to respond despite using the CMOS and BIOS RCV jumpers to reset the BIOS.

My next steps will be probably to test each CPU individually (along with each stick of DDR... can you say "pain in the ass")...

Is this indicative of a dead board or is there something else that I have forgotten?

Thanks!

 

[Lmeow]

Well how about a different PSU or possibly different case - the case may have the power switch on all the time, or something similar.

 

[o1die]

I would pull out the board battery for one minute and reinstall. But be sure your cmos jumper is in the right position. On my biostar, if the cmos jumper is out of position, the board won't start up. Reconnect everything securely, and reinstall the ram. I use a phonebook to mount the board on, in case of metal to metal contact somewhere where it shouldn't be. Also check your backplate for any overhang metal. I have to bend in one or two tangs and slide the ports under them when mounting the board. You don't need to use all the screw holes; only 5-6 are required; just be sure any leftover stand-offs aren't touching the board circuitry and remove them. If the power supply wiring won't reach the board, remove it from the case to do the bare post test. No optical or hardrives should be connected; maybe the keyboard so you can setup the bios at the first post screen.

 

[bilbat]

I have the procedure 'canned': (the 'strip-down' [:isamuelson:8])


Mind you, there are two ways to do this: you can do it either in or out of the case. The advantages and drawbacks:in the case is easier and faster, but will not find case-related problems, like shorts from extra, mispositioned standoffs, or ground plane problems; out of the case takes longer, and you may run into 'reach' problems - power supply cables and front panel power switch headers may not be long enough; for the power supply, it's usually just a matter of removing four screws to temorarily relocate it; for the power switch, you can just do this (carefully):

You only need to short the pins momentarily - that's all the power switch does...Out of the case also affords you an easy opportunity to 'flip' the board to check your heatsink/fan attachment setup, to be sure all the pins are fully seated, locked, and not cracked... If you do the out of the case, you need to lay the board on a non-conductive surface: the box the MOBO came in is ideal; but - the foam pad it came with, and the bag it was in are not - being 'antistat', they are somewhat conductive, and may induce problems...

Another item worth mention at this point is case speakers: if you haven't got one - get one!
http://www.cwc-group.com/casp.html
A lot of people operate under the misaprehension that the 'diagnostic beeps' should come through the speakers attached to their sound-card/chip - not so! Your three hundred dollar Altec-Lansings won't do you any good here - you have to have a case speaker attached to the front panel header, and, often by this point, it's the only diagnostic info you'll have to go on...

The standard 'strip-down':

Power down at PSU switch
remove everything except
CPUs and heatsink/fans (check carefully that the fan retaining pins are fully inserted, completely locked, and not cracked)
two sticks of RAM, in slots closest to CPU
video card and monitor connector (if more than one PCIe slot, again, in slot closest to CPU)
all power plugs - 20+4 or 24, 2x2 or 2x4 ATX power, graphics card power
case speaker and power switch connectors
keyboard (don't need a mouse at this point)
move jumper to RST_CMOS position
move jumper back
power up at PSU switch
power up by depressing case power switch (or shorting the 'power' pins...)
If you get video, enter BIOS with <DEL> (may need a <TAB> to get to POST screen, if 'splash' screen is enabled)
check settings
power down
reinsert other components, one at a time, testing each time after addition...

 

[allbread]

Thanks for all of the advice.

Lmeow: I am working on getting a second powersupply (going to pick one up at the local electronics mart tomorrow after work) however as the fans power when I switch the PSU on I don't *think* this is the problem. I can't say the same about the case however I think I may try bilbat's advice and manually short the power switch pins on the FP header (and take the case switch out of the equation).

o1die: This occurred to me just today - and I happen to have a couple spare CMOS batteries on hand. I've had the motherboard in storage for about a year so I guess it's possible the battery may have died in the interim...

Shouldn't the board still POST if the battery is dead? I thought dead battery would only affect changes made to the BIOS and the system clock...

I did take care when mounting the board on the case motherboard slide to use a grounded static sheet however I have noticed one of the corner's of the board is bent up (probably from someone carelessly yanking it from it's previous case)... the damage seems minor and isn't in proximity to any of the external circuitry (indeed it is only the far outside half of one of the corner mounting holes that is bent) however anything is possible.

bilbat: Thanks for the procedure and particularly the diagram for shorting the Power Switch header pins... this will be immensely helpful. Thanks also for the checklist although at the moment I pretty much only have the components listed on the "strip down" list (with the exception of some extra DDR2)... I haven't added any drives or other components.

I will strip out the DDR2, swap and the remove one of the Opterons from the primary (CPU0) socket... I'll try this first then follow your "out of case" procedure and check the standoffs and any possible external shorts.

One event that occurred (due partly to my own clumsiness and partly to the makeshift space I have to work with... both of which I am equally to blame so I don't know why I'm making any distinction... ) was that I managed to drop one of the 2378s while removing it from the retail box. Full disclosure, the last time I mounted a pair of Opterons on a motherboard was years ago for my old Thunder K8WE (Socket 940, a pair of 856s for the machine for which this new box is intended to replace should it ever get built) and back then the processors had delicate fragile pins... this being my assumption I was almost sure I was SOL but when I retrieved the processor I was shocked to find it lacking pins of any sort.

This is correct, right? I bought the processors used on eBay but it's been awhile...

The processor also landed top down so I don't think that anything a managed to touch the back although it did flip a couple times mid drop (and out of my hands as I lunged for it) so I guess, like the motherboard itself, anything is possible.

Everyone: Thanks again for all of the advice... I will post back here with the prognosis once I've run through all of your suggestions.

 

[bilbat]

Yup - that's correct - most everything has gone to LGA (land grid array) as the pins thing had gotten totally out of hand! Think there's around 2K lands on an i7 - land listing is thirty pages long!

 

[allbread]

After switching the CPUs (attempting to boot the board with a single CPU0), removing all but two sticks of DDR2 (2 x 4GB), replacing the CMOS battery, and manually shorting the PW pins on the front panel header (as directed by bilbat) the board still exhibits the same problem i.e. when powering on (via switch) the PSU the heatsink and PSU fans power up (independent of the case switch).

So does this look like a dead motherboard... is there anything else (no matter how obvious) that I might be forgetting?

 

[bilbat]

You are 'momentarily' shorting the power pins? It almost sounds like a board with a shorted power switch - i.e., button 'stuck in'...

 

[allbread]

Reviving an old thread... I ended up getting as second Tyan Thunder S2915 motherboard and it seems to post correctly with the motherboard/DDR/PSU combination I was using on the previous Fujitsu D2533. So in other words, it wasn't the components but rather the board itself. Granted this second motherboard is a more barebones version and doesn't have some of the features the D2533 had (SAS for instance) but at least it works.

One thing I did notice after getting the Thunder to POST (in comparison to the D2533)... the D2533 does not have an additional 8-pin PSU connector but instead has a "PC2004 PSU Connector" which I was totally ignoring.

My PSU does not have an adapter/head that fits this port - to be honest, I've never seen one of these ports before and I've built a couple workstations around the Thunder (K82 and K8WE) - granted, this is a rebadged Fujitsu version of the board so I am in somewhat unfamiliar territory.

Does anyone have and idea of what or how this port works - if I need an adapter where might I acquire one from?

(my google-fu fails my for PC2004 but if anyone can link me a reference that would be handy)

Thanks!

 

[Starflash78]

Hi!
I`ve sitll got the same problem! Do you have same information about the pc2004 connector? And I`m looking for the Pin assignment for the Frontpanel connector. Can you help me?

Thanks!

Reviving an old thread... I ended up getting as second Tyan Thunder S2915 motherboard and it seems to post correctly with the motherboard/DDR/PSU combination I was using on the previous Fujitsu D2533. So in other words, it wasn't the components but rather the board itself. Granted this second motherboard is a more barebones version and doesn't have some of the features the D2533 had (SAS for instance) but at least it works.

One thing I did notice after getting the Thunder to POST (in comparison to the D2533)... the D2533 does not have an additional 8-pin PSU connector but instead has a "PC2004 PSU Connector" which I was totally ignoring.

My PSU does not have an adapter/head that fits this port - to be honest, I've never seen one of these ports before and I've built a couple workstations around the Thunder (K82 and K8WE) - granted, this is a rebadged Fujitsu version of the board so I am in somewhat unfamiliar territory.

Does anyone have and idea of what or how this port works - if I need an adapter where might I acquire one from?

(my google-fu fails my for PC2004 but if anyone can link me a reference that would be handy)

Thanks!