Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H - no boot, phase led lights

[snafu7x7]

Full specs for the machine are below. This is an HTPC that we've had for about 2 years that has worked flawlessly until now. We just moved this weekend and now it won't power up at all. I was VERY careful moving the unit and the move was only a block away so I can assure you the machine was not beat around or even jostled much. I've been trying to troubleshoot this but one of my problems right now is that they haven't come to hook up our broadband yet so we have no internet access and I'm stuck using only my phone which is tough for viewing schematics and manuals, etc. Its also in a small cube case which makes seeing anything difficult...the case has an upper and lower part though and I can remove the upper part (with cables/powersupply, etc) which will give me better access to the board underneath, I halfway did this last night but ran out of time so I will do that fully tonight based off your suggestions

Here are the symptoms:

1)When I power it on, it appears to power up for about 3 secs then shuts down completely. It never gets past this 3 sec mark. Its got 4 fans (3 rear, one front) plus the CPU fan. These all spin up when power comes on
2)There are 4 Phase LED lights on this board, when power comes on they light up green-green-yellow-red. I can find no solid documentation on what exactly this means beyond the manual which simply states "The number of lighted LEDs indicates the CPU loading. The higher the CPU loading, the more the number of lighted LEDs". Can anyone offer more insight on this, can they actually be used to diagnose anything or are they just the equivalent of the 'check engine' idiot light?
3)I 'believe' the board has a speaker installed on it (though I haven't been able to find it, again its hard to see the whole board in detail). But I base this on past experience booting the machine up it would issue a single short beep at the very beginning of its startup (and I assume that would have to be coming from a speaker on the board right? not thru the soundcard?)
4)I've tried some of the simple troubleshooting techniques I've found on these forums but no luck yet. I tried popping out the RAM, no luck, I tried removing the TV tuner card and the attached sound card but no luck. I 'believe' the GeForce 9400 is that big chip right smack in the middle of the board right? I haven't tried removing that because I couldn't get to it. I am reticent to reset the CMOS because I don't want to have to set that all up again and I don't really know how to. It seems to me that its much more likely a component that has failed or a power supply issue.

I've combed these boards looking for advice and the main thing that concerns me is that there seems to be a lot of 'try this' type advice often without a solid basis in troubleshooting the exact problem. I'm not trying to be a dick here, there are clearly some knowledgeable folks on here as well who are a great help, I just want to be very deliberate in how I approach this because I think that has the highest chance of success. There's a good article on here for step-by-step troubleshooting that I intend to follow (http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-perform-steps-posting-boot-video-problems), please if you have any other suggestions, lend me a hand, thank you

Antec Earthwatts 430W 80+ High Efficiency Low Noise Power Supply
Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H m-ATX nVidia 9400 Motherboard
Intel 3.0Ghz E8400 Core 2 Duo CPU / 1333 fsb / 6mb L2 Cache / VT
4gb DDR2-800 Memory (2048x2)
Q2 Seagate 1TB SATA-II Pipeline DVR Hard Drives
LG Blu-Ray Player - DVD-RW / ArcSoft TotalMedia
Integrated nVidia 9400 Graphics / Hybrid SLI / D-Sub / DVI / HDMI / 1080P
Hauppauge 2250 Dual ATSC / NTSC TV Tuner
52 in 1 Memory Card Reader
Integrated Intel Gigabit Network Interface
Intel 7.1 Channel Dolby Home Theater Surround Sound
Microsoft Vista Home Premium Operating System

 

[spooky2th]

My rule of thumb in situations like this is to check the power supply first and then go from there.

 

[jsc]

My standard troubleshooting reply:

Work systematically through our standard checklist and troubleshooting thread:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-read-posting-boot-problems
I mean work through, not just read over it. We spent a lot of time on this. It should find most of the problems.

If not, continue.
The following is an expansion of my troubleshooting tips in the breadboarding link in the "Cannot boot" thread.

I have tested the following beep patterns on Gigabyte, eVGA, and ECS motherboards. Other BIOS' may be different, but they all use a single short beep for a successful POST.

Breadboard - that will help isolate any kind of case problem you might have.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/262730-31-breadboarding

Breadboard with just motherboard, CPU & HSF, case speaker, and PSU.

Make sure you plug the CPU power cable in. The system will not boot without it.

I always breadboard a new build. It takes only a few minutes, and you know you are putting good parts in the case once you are finished.

You can turn on the PC by momentarily shorting the two pins that the case power switch goes to. You should hear a series of long, single beeps indicating memory problems. Silence indicates a problem with (in most likely order) the PSU, motherboard, or CPU. Remember, at this time, you do not have a graphics card installed so the load on your PSU will be reduced.

If no beeps:
Running fans and drives and motherboard LED's do not necessarily indicate a good PSU. In the absence of a single short beep, they also do not indicate that the system is booting.

At this point, you can sort of check the PSU. Try to borrow a known good PSU of around 550 - 600 watts. That will power just about any system with a single GPU. If you cannot do that, use a DMM to measure the voltages. Measure between the colored wires and either chassis ground or the black wires. Yellow wires should be 12 volts. Red wires: +5 volts, orange wires: +3.3 volts, blue wire : -12 volts, violet wire: 5 volts always on. Tolerances are +/- 5% except for the -12 volts which is +/- 10%.

The gray wire is really important. It should go from 0 to +5 volts when you turn the PSU on with the case switch. CPU needs this signal to boot.

You can turn on the PSU by completely disconnecting the PSU and using a paperclip or jumper wire to short the green wire to one of the neighboring black wires.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FWXgQSokF4&feature=youtube_gdata

A way that might be easier is to use the main power plug. Working from the back of the plug where the wires come out, use a bare paperclip to short between the green wire and one of the neighboring black wires. That will do the same thing with an installed PSU. It is also an easy way to bypass a questionable case power switch.

This checks the PSU under no load conditions, so it is not completely reliable. But if it can not pass this, it is dead. Then repeat the checks with the PSU plugged into the computer to put a load on the PSU.

If the system beeps:
If it looks like the PSU is good, install a memory stick. Boot. Beep pattern should change to one long and several short beeps indicating a missing graphics card.

Silence, long single beeps, or series of short beeps indicate a problem with the memory. If you get short beeps verify that the memory is in the appropriate motherboard slots.

Insert the video card and connect any necessary PCIe power connectors. Boot. At this point, the system should POST successfully (a single short beep). Notice that you do not need keyboard, mouse, monitor, or drives to successfully POST.
At this point, if the system doesn't work, it's either the video card or an inadequate PSU. Or rarely - the motherboard's PCIe interface.

Now start connecting the rest of the devices starting with the monitor, then keyboard and mouse, then the rest of the devices, testing after each step. It's possible that you can pass the POST with a defective video card. The POST routines can only check the video interface. It cannot check the internal parts of the video card.

 

[snafu7x7]

Ok so major update to report. I got home and took the case fully apart, tried disconnecting the ram again no difference. Then I decided to test the voltage of the power supply so I popped off the atx 12v lead to measure the voltage. Much to my surprise when I powered it on it seemed to go into its normal boot sequence (fans & hd spinning up etc)...obviously no display on the monitor but it didn't shut off after 3 secs. Reconnecting the cable causes the problem to reocur. Incidentally the voltage on both the yellow and the yellow/black striped wires was 12v. What do u think is going on here? Is it the PS or something else...the board displays the same led light sequence regardless

Help!

Thanks

 

[snafu7x7]

Tested the PSU using the paperclip trick and the voltage seems normal:

Yellow 12.12
Red 5.07
Orange 3.35
Violet 5.05
Gray 5.07
Blue -11.35

I've also popped everything out that isn't soldered to the board (except the cpu) and disconnected cables to fans, hds etc. all to no avail...I've followed all the guides in detail even though most of them are geared towards new builds but still nothing..I don't see a speaker on the board so that's the only thing left I can think to try...very frustrating

 

[spooky2th]

Short of trying another PSU, I bet your MB is bad.

 

[snafu7x7]

Best answer selected by snafu7x7.

 

[snafu7x7]

Short of trying another PSU, I bet your MB is bad.

it turned out to be the MB, I wish there were an easier way to determine that other than the "have you tried pulling out [insert random component here] yet?" method which is really just trial and error. Anyway, here's to hoping that if someone else has the same problem they stumble upon this thread and know what to do, thanks for the help

 

[mikeey02]

hi guys i belive i am that someone else,
i to have a similar promblem it all started by not being able to install windows then started to do same as urs have breadboarded it and same problem if i take out the 4pin atx wire then it no longer shuts off but does not beep as soon as i put it bk in it shuts off after 3 secs i also get 3 then 8 beeps however i am unsure of the beep pattern as it shuts off after 3 then does another 8 as soon as i put the ram bk in i get no beeps, i am lost. psu is fine and that checked out. is it my cpu or and bad mobo like spooky says


giabyte p35 ds4
intel dual core e8650
asus 9800gt
cors 550 psu

i do this for a living but am feeling beaten by this one please help

 

[nikorr]

hi guys i belive i am that someone else,
i to have a similar promblem it all started by not being able to install windows then started to do same as urs have breadboarded it and same problem if i take out the 4pin atx wire then it no longer shuts off but does not beep as soon as i put it bk in it shuts off after 3 secs i also get 3 then 8 beeps however i am unsure of the beep pattern as it shuts off after 3 then does another 8 as soon as i put the ram bk in i get no beeps, i am lost. psu is fine and that checked out. is it my cpu or and bad mobo like spooky says


giabyte p35 ds4
intel dual core e8650
asus 9800gt
cors 550 psu

i do this for a living but am feeling beaten by this one please help

Open a new question thread on your problem, that is the best way to get helped : )

 

[nikorr]

This topic has been closed by Nikorr