P7p55d wont post please help

[shrek1345]

Hi all , any time i've had a pc problem i've always used this site, and found it to be the most helpfull on the net for troubleshooting and reviews, so i'm really hoping you guys can help me with a problem i'm having.

I'll start with my system specs:

asus p7p55d skt 1156 (xtreme version)
intel core i5 760 2.8ghz
zalman CNPS9500A LED cpu cooler
2x 2gb corsair xsm3 1600MHz 9-9-9-24
xfx hd 5770 xxx
2x raptorX in raid 0 (win 7 ultimate 64bit)
1x wd green 1tb
cit gold 750u

my problem is that the system was working perfectly with no prior issues whatsoever, untill I left it for a few hours the other day.
All that was running was diskeeper.
I came back and the system was turned off.

now the problem i'm having is when I turn it on it just hangs instantly, no post, the fans (gpu especially) are running at 100% the p7p55d memtest red led is brightly lit and the cpu led is dimly lit. If I press and hold the memtest button it just goes from solid to constantly blinking and the cpu led stays dimly lit. the green power light at the bottom of the board is always on. No matter what I do nothing changes.

In my troubleshooting efforts, I have reseated the cpu and checked for damage to pins or contacts, I have reapplyed cpu paste and repositioned the cooler, I have reseated the ram (in the blue slots and made sure they were properly seated) and tried them one at a time, I have tried the motherboard on its own working up adding thing one at a time with no changes in the led situation whatsoever other than randomly one time the cpu light was brightly lit. I have removed the cmos battery numerous times, and i have tried everything I can think of still with no change

now the problem is going to be ram, cpu, motherboard or psu.
I need to try and find the culprit before i spend any money because unfortunatelly it is tight at the minute.
one thing i do know is the psu is pretty crap.

any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

thankyou.

 

[mosox]

Can you borrow a PSU?

 

[jsc]

You have an excessively mediocre power supply. The 'net says it has two 20 amp 12 volt rails. That is great for a 550 watt PSU. A good 750 watt PSU should produce around 60 amps.

Try to borrow a better power supply. If you cannot or the system still does not work, you will need to do some troubleshooting.

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.

 

[shrek1345]

Can you borrow a PSU?

I'm thinking of buying an xfx 650w xxx I found at a reasonable price.

I'm leaning more towards psu to be honest, it's just strange how it was all running well, then just gave up.

I have figured out that as I mentioned above the the psu error light on the motherboard is dimly lit,
if i waggle the wire cluster just before they enter the psu whilst the pc is off, the led will randomly light up brightly when turned back on, although no other change in anything else

 

[shrek1345]

jsc

wow that is an aswome troubleshooting thread/guide, thanks for pointing me in the right direction, I'm going to go through it with my system over the weekend, I do feel fairly confident it is the psu from what i've read, and i want a better one for my system anyway so i think i'm going to get one.
an xfx 650w xxx should be good enough do you think?
will it give me enough power for my intended upgrade of a Maximus III Formula and another 5770 for crossfire down the line.
need to get it all running properly first though.

thankyou for the advice

 

[shrek1345]

hi again, i'm stuck with no changes to anything.

i have been as thorough as i can with that excellent guide but no change and no way to test anything.

I bought a 600w zalman power supply with no change

the board powers up all fans spin 100% the memtest led stays red and the cpu led stays very dimly lit,
press and hold the memtest button and the memtest led flashes, no other change.

however if wiggle the cpu in its socket the cpu led goes bright with no other change.

this is with the board out of its case with just alternating ram cpu+cooler board and gpu.

resetting bios has no effect, no speaker beeps/post

any further help would be greatly appreciated.

thanks

You have an excessively mediocre power supply. The 'net says it has two 20 amp 12 volt rails. That is great for a 550 watt PSU. A good 750 watt PSU should produce around 60 amps.

Try to borrow a better power supply. If you cannot or the system still does not work, you will need to do some troubleshooting.

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.