New GA X79S-UP5 wont post

[isochrony]

Greetings all!

It's been a while since I built a machine, so I'm relearning. Here's what I'm trying to get to run:
GA-X79S-UP5, Noctua air cooler over an I7-3930K w/paste plugged into CPU_Fan, Gskill F3-12800CL10Q-32GBZL (or F3-17000CL11Q2-64GBZLD, I've tried both), all powered by a CoolerMaster Gold 800W Silent Pro supply. I've got the board set up on nylon standoffs on a cardboard box, so no shorting. I do have the front panel PW pins jumpered and the case speaker connected. All the board power connectors are plugged in properly.

When I power up, the CPU fan spins up, the speaker gives three brief clicks, not tones, just clicks like a spike went through, and then the PSU fan stops. I've done the following:

Checked the power supply voltages and they look good. Short pins 15&16 and the PSU fan will spin forever.
Got a 500W PSU from the local shop to replace the Coolermaster just in case the 800W was marginal somehow
Checked CPU socket pins with magnifier and flashlight - they all appear regular and functional.
Cleared RTC
Pulled battery for a minute and reinstalled
Tried two different CPUs (same part#) and ram (see above).
Tried plugging in a known good keyboard
Added a suspected good video card (tried two different ones: EGA GTX680 and a Galaxy GT640

Everything I've tried gives me the same results as noted above.

And to make matters worse, I have a similar setup with an Asus Sabertooth X79 (though that one won't reload BIOS, so it's going back anyway): no post.

Before I pull out my last remaining hairs (they're in my nose 'cause there's none left on my scalp at this point ):

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks in advance for any insight - I've wasted enough of my life on this already...

 

[alexoiu]

H, Hard to say.
For the Gigabyte, leave only the CPU and CPU fan installed and start it. See if you get the error beeps signalling no RAMs. Make sure that the 8-pin (and not the PCie 6+2 pin) power connector is in place.
Test also with the stock Intel fan.
For the ASUS, what do you mean by won't reload BIOS?

 

[isochrony]

On the Gigabyte, pulling all the ram leads to the same result - 3 clicks and then CPU fan and power supply shut down. I've tried both my CPUs - same issue.

I have verified the proper power connection - the PCIe connector won't fit in the MB socket.

My CPU didn't come with a stock fan (newegg). The Noctua has two fans - I've tried both in CPU_FAN and SYS_FAN2 with the same no-post result. Why would a fan make a difference if the fan actually spins up?

Yes, the asus won't reload bios. I can't get it to load bios via the memory stick method - it just sit there with the light on when the light is supposed to blink. If I could get it to post and actually boot, I suppose I could load the bios via other means. But it's got a similar problem. It just blinks the CPU light, the dram light, the cpu light again, then shuts down like the the Gigabyte does.

Other thoughts? This is starting to look like a pair of bad CPUs.

 

[alexoiu]

Not sure about the Gigabyte one. It might be a motherboard issue.
Now, with the ASUS one.
Have you used a FAT formatted USB stick, the BIOS converter and the Flashback USB port (the one near the flashback button)?

 

[isochrony]

For the asus, yes to all your questions. When I put in the stick and press the button, the light turns on and stays on for as long as I care to leave the stick in. It's supposed to blink and eventually turn itself off when the load is done; I think the BIOS is borked. Of course, this is the third board from asus that won't boot (as described) and as well as being an RMA exchange, it has this additional "feature" of not loading BIOS from USB. Arg!

 

[alexoiu]

What's the board's BIOS version (on the board there's a thin sticker near the 24-pin connector - the last 4 digits stand for the BIOS version)?

 

[isochrony]

The gigagbyte is rev 1.0, and the sticker on the power connector ends in 0102.
The asus is rev 1.02 and there are two nearby stickers. One ends in 6D80, the other in 2002.

 

[alexoiu]

The ASUS has the 2002 BIOS version, so no reason to update the BIOS. The CPU is supported.
It might be something wrong in your installation. Can you attach a case speaker to the motherboard (ASUS or Gigabyte)?

 

[isochrony]

Speaker attached in both builds. Gigabyte clicks 3x, as mentioned. Asus, no sound at all; no clicks, no nothing.

 

[alexoiu]

Yes, sorry I've missed the info. I don't know what's wrong. Can you post a picture or a link with the board, only CPU and CPU fan connected, 24 and 8-pin connections and the case speaker?
If you're sure that you've connected them properly and that the case speakers do work, then it might be a CPU issue.
You can try testing the components at a local PC shop (if not too expensive).

 

[isochrony]

Try here:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10102626785328080.3556052.13962092&type=1&l=6f0393bd97

I had thought of that, but I'm not sure my local shop has a 2011 socket testbed. Will have to look into it.

Case speaker on lower left, 20pin power lower center, 4+4 power right side, cpu fan connected upper center then heads off to upper left. Had to take to cooler off to get all this in one shot. Not that the power stays on long enough to melt the chip even if I fired it up with the cooler off, sigh. I'm pretty convinced all the connections are good for either build. The case speaker on the new builds is my current case speaker; known good.

I'm fairly sure everything is connected correctly. I built my own EATX system a ways back (Asus P4C800-E Deluxe).

 

[alexoiu]

Well, believe me or not, I don't have a facebook account (it's like I don't exist), so I can't see the link. When you said 20-pin you meant 24, right?
No other ideas. Maybe others will bring better ideas. However, when solving the issue, please post back.

 

[isochrony]

<snicker> Oh well, I thought everyone could see that, even if they didn't have a FB account. Not much different than the pro-taken pics on this or Gigabytes site. ;-)

Yes, I meant 24 pin; my age and failing memory trip me up occasionally. ;-) ;-)

Will post back once I get to answer. I can't quite belief these CPUs are so sensitive that normal handling would kill them. I pretty careful about static.

 

[yshuwen521]

you can try only install 2 memory moules to check.
or try to installed your graphics card on another PCIE slot
or it may be related to graphics card.
is your graphics cad with UEFI GOP bios?
Do you have older graphics card to plug to check?
.

 

[isochrony]

I have no graphics card installed; just CPU. I have tried with 2 and 4 sticks of ram, with keyboard, with graphics card (two different ones), and various combinations of all: no joy; still refuses to post. I checked the vendor processor list and mine, with proper stepping level, is on the list and should be supported with the BIOS version I supposedly have on the boards. I'm trying to find someone locally that can test my processor. Any other ideas welcome.

 

[BerylLee]

If those devices on other motherboards working fine but on X79S-UP5.
You need rma check i think.

 

[isochrony]

That's my problem: I don't have another device that's working to test anything in and no one locally has a socket 2011 system they'll admit to owning. I just got a third CPU, fan, and set of ram and have the same result. I have to be doing *something* wrong, but I sure can't figure out what it is.

 

[isochrony]

Finally found it! I wrote above "I do have the front panel PW pins jumpered"... which I did after working through ASUS tech support while I was working on the ASUS board I was trying to debug. And that was the problem.

Pull the jumper off, boot, and away it goes. Now to see just what will and won't work. So far, one CPU is good and one set of RAM. Set 2 of RAM won't run at rated speed for some reason but that's for another night to solve. At least I'm past the black screen!

Thanks all!