Friend's Build -- Won't Seem to POST

[bmicd]

He's got a bit of a dilemma on his hands. About almost a month ago now he's had these parts and constructed them twice with no luck on the boot. We initially narrowed the problem down to the motherboard and tried RMAing it, but the second board that arrived had the same results. He took it to one of his friend's houses and tried to swap out various components to see what the problem was. He told me the only thing they didn't try to swap out was the CPU, and we're now narrowing the problem down either a dead CPU or another bad motherboard.

I don't have the exact build since it isn't mine, but here's a summary of it.

Gigabyte non-SLI motherboard with an 1156 chipset
2.8ghz i5 CPU
4gb DDR3 RAM
PNY GTX 260 video card
750W PSU with a single 12v rail
Some DVD/CD drive
Some hard drive with ? GB

 

[alex8807]

I'm having the same issue: either the motherboard or the CPU. My motherboard seems to receive power and give power to other components. I'm not sure if that's evidence enough to say it's the processor, but that was my best guess in my situation so I'm sending my CPU back and hoping it fixes my issue.

 

[banthracis]

Make sure everything is indeed wired correctly. Go over mobo manual, look over the sticky and do a breadboard build.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-perform-steps-posting-boot-video-problems

 

[jsc]

I'm having the same issue: either the motherboard or the CPU. My motherboard seems to receive power and give power to other components. I'm not sure if that's evidence enough to say it's the processor, but that was my best guess in my situation so I'm sending my CPU back and hoping it fixes my issue.

CPU's are very rarely defective. The usual suspects are the PSU and the motherboard - even when the "motherboard seems to receive power and give power to other components".

Let me guess; the fans work and the motherboard LED is lit.

Does not mean much. Working fans indicate some small amount of 12 volt power is available. All the motherboard LED tells you is that the PSU is plugged in and turned on. It is no indication that the main power circuits of the PSU are working.

Work through the thread that banthracis linked to.

 

[bmicd]

I'll relay the message to him and report back with the verdict.

 

[alex8807]

CPU's are very rarely defective. The usual suspects are the PSU and the motherboard - even when the "motherboard seems to receive power and give power to other components".

Let me guess; the fans work and the motherboard LED is lit.

Does not mean much. Working fans indicate some small amount of 12 volt power is available. All the motherboard LED tells you is that the PSU is plugged in and turned on. It is no indication that the main power circuits of the PSU are working.

Work through the thread that banthracis linked to.

I worked through that thread as far as I could. I don't have another motherboard laying around or another AM3 processor so I just have to make guesses.