An undefined booting problem... for the computer gurus on Tomshardware

[ingenieurinformaticien]

Hi techno wizards and generous souls,

I'm never posted anything on this forum (or any forum). I've always found all the answers I needed with my forum surfing. But now I'm stuck and I am posting and hoping for some great answers from the very best technicians of Tomshardware. Excuse me if my syntax sounds weird sometimes, English ain’t my first langage.

I’ve build my first computer. But IT WON’T BOOT CORRECTLY and I have shut down my computer (by pressing the power button for a few seconds) so many times theses last days, that I am nervous about destroying my brand new material. About my middle range pc:

- Asus P8Z68-V LX Motherboard
- Antec Twelve Hundred V3 Full Tower Case
- OCZ Modxstream-Pro 700W Power supply
- Intel I3 2nd generation CPU
- Kingston 1333 DDR3 1X4gb RAM
- Seagate 1TB Barracuda 7200.12 Hard Drive
NB: I have two optical drive, but I can’t use right now. The connectors are old and I need an adapter (that I’ll buy soon) in order to use them.

Needless to say that I followed the recommendations on the ‘’261145-31-perform-steps-posting-post-boot-video-problems’’ post and what was written on the Asus technical support website. I’ve also read very closely my Asus motherboard user guide, but didn’t find anything to help me fix my problem.

When I put the switch on, the onboard LED is lighting (telling me the mb is correctly alimented by the ATX 24 pins power connector) (NB I’m not (yet) a computer guru, so correct me if I talking bullshit). The PSU starts, the CPU fan too (and the CPU as well; the 8 pins connector near the CPU is plugged). The CPU fan is connected in the CPU fan channel (I put thermal paste and checked two times if the processor was misplaced or damaged). The HDD is plugged in the SATA 3 slot and alimented by the PSU.

I’ve read in the mb user guide that a single barrette of ram should be place on one of the two blues slots (A2 or B2), but I’ve tried them 4 and it’s always the same problem. So... WHEN I START THE ENGINE, the MemOK! (DRAM) red light (telling us problem related to memory) lights up for a moment, then the computer reboots and the LED lights continuously. The system is on, but there no image up my screen (a 19’’ LCD Sharp TV, VGA connected if it can help. Note that I have a IGU in my CPU and the Z68 chipset enables me to use it). So I press on that MemOK! button that is suppose to auto-tune with the RAM and recognize it (yes, this exact model is compatible to the Asus motherboard, according to the user guide). Then, the red LED reaction is bizarre. It flashes about two times, after that, the computer reboots, then one single flash, then reboots, then medium long flashes can be seen for about 20s, then quick flashes for about 10s (this is very approximate), finally a continuous red light glows until I shut the power off manually, mad.

I’ve tried without the HDD connected, I’ve tried cleaning the RAM, the slots, turning the TPU switch on, clearing the RTC RAM with the 3 pins jumper. I even unscrewed the motherboard to put the spacers under the screws. You see, I don’t mind to unscrew e-ve-ry-thing, but I just want my 750$ worth of equipment to give me something else than deception. If someone could help me for this… I’ll try to call the support meanwhile.

P.S. Oh and I don’t have any sound feedback because I don’t see, and don’t think it was provided, the internal speakers. I always grounded myself before touching the part. Thaank you again.

Louis

 

[blazorthon]

Well I have no idea what's going on, my last Asus board was in a P4 machine that didn't have MEM OK and have no clue as to what each sequence represents. Have you contacted Asus support? if not then try it. They will probably be more helpful then me. If nothing comes of it then you might need to RMA your board because it might be defective. You could also contact your RAM's manufacturer because they might be able to help too.

 

[ingenieurinformaticien]

Yeah, I just send Asus support a very similar version of this mail. It'll take 48h or less (let's hope). I'll post the complete mail when I'll receive it. Defective? That would be a *** load of problems. About the RAM... I'll try my piece of RAM at my friend house tomorrow or the day after, to check if it works properly. But you know, it might just not work on this specific motherboard, I don't know...

 

[blazorthon]

Did you buy this motherboard and RAM at Newegg.com? if you did and you gave it a bad review explaining why why you gave it a bad review the manufactures often respond with a contact phone number or something similar and you might be able to communicate with them faster that way.

 

[ingenieurinformaticien]

I bought the motherboard and most of my stuff on directcananda.ca, will it work with them? It looks like I really got to reach Asus for this kind of problem, right? Thanks for posting!

 

[blazorthon]

I don't know much about retailers besides newegg, especially about those outside of the USA so I don't know if they will help. You could try contacting them but I make no promises.

Asus might respond even if you leave a review for their components on Newegg regardless of whether or not you bought it at Newegg.

 

[ingenieurinformaticien]

O.K. I'll try the two options, because Asus phone number dosen't answer since three days... It's sad - but true - their customer service is deplorable. The ''chat'' is not even accessible. What a gang of ...

 

[blazorthon]

Getting a hold of companies is often difficult and time-consuming. Have you had any luck yet?

 

[ingenieurinformaticien]

Yeah, sorry for the delay... I did post my unsatisfaction on Newegg. I got a reply from Asus, but I am not sure of the correlation between my post and the e-mail they send me day after, because it was three days after I send them a mail.

Well the mail was not so helpful, they suggested I re-do some of the things I already done or ask for RMA, a pre-written script apparently.

It was very hard to get their lines, supposely because of a tornado or something like that. That's what the guy in the chat room told me. He strongly recommended me to invest in an internal speaker, which didn't come with my tower (!). That's what I needed to get the signals.

So I bought a Piezo buzzer, connected it to my computer and, with or without the RAM sticked in, 1 long beep and two shorts beeps, a graphical problem. It makes sense, because I can't reach the BIOS screen. Because my graphical unit is a IGU, the problem comes from the motherboard.

Well that's what I told them. I will send them the motherboard back and I hope they will change it. Thanks for your help blazorthon, i'll keep you in touch.

 

[blazorthon]

The IGP (it's IGP, Integrated Graphics Processor) is not on the motherboard for all Sandy Bridge systems, it's on the CPU. It's kinda like how AMD's Llano's IGP is on the CPU. This doesn't mean the motherboard isn't the problem (the video connectors or their connection to the Sandy Bridge IGP may be damaged) but it does mean your problem might not be the motherboard but could be the CPU.

I'm glad to help so your welcome, I'll be here if you need help later too.

 

[blazorthon]

"is not on the motherboard for all Sandy Bridge systems"

I meant that the IGP is never on the motherboard for Sandy Bridge systems. It is always on the CPU. Only older Intel systems or AMD's motherboards (excluding Llano and it's previous generations) have the integrated graphics on the motherboard.

 

[ingenieurinformaticien]

Yeah you might be right! I knew that, since a few years, the IGU has moved to the CPU, but I thought the connection on the motherboard was the cause od my problem. I didn't think the CPU could be the problem... Is there a simple way to be sure of that?

 

[blazorthon]

The simplest way would be to test your CPU on another motherboard, but I don't know if that's an easy option for you. You can inspect the motherboard's connectors and traces from the connectors to the CPU for damage but that's all I can think of.

Problems like this tend to be hard to diagnose and even more difficult without spare parts to troubleshoot with.

 

[ingenieurinformaticien]

Ok, I might ask to a friend to lend me test my CPU on his computer... or just wait for my motherboard to come back repaired, changed in the best case, unchanged in the worst. I'll tell you in a few days. Thank you again, the only generous soul to help me here.

 

[ingenieurinformaticien]

Ok I got it, and its a new one! I'll wait this week-end, have a big exam on friday.

 

[ingenieurinformaticien]

It is working! Thank you Sir, Blazorthon the veteran, you helped me to keep hope.

 

[ingenieurinformaticien]

Best answer selected by ingenieurinformaticien.

 

[blazorthon]

Glad to help.