Motherboard not POSTing - wierd issue w/ CPU core?

Voronwë · Post by **Voronwë** » August 23, 2005, 3:22 pm

Hey ya'll. I'm also posting this on Hardforum, but like the input here too.

I am building my machine with an ASUS A8-N SLI mobo. My CPU is an AMD64 3200+ venice core.

So i've got it built, and flip the switch....no POST....no nothing. no beeps, nothing. The standy power LED does light green when the PSU switch is flipped on. Nothing happens when you push the front case power button.

I've done all the backwards breakdown of things with only the memory, video card, and CPU hooked to the mobo. obviously, i have to keep going. and try without memory and CPU obviously but i was tired last night.

So i was reading up on the board today and saw this post on newegg:

Does not support Venice chips
Received motherboard with an older BIOS that does not support Venice chips. As a result, machine would not even get to POST.

Does that sound reasonable?

if it is possible, i guess i have to flash the BIOS with the CPU out?

any thoughts? thanks.

Psyloche · Post by **Psyloche** » August 23, 2005, 3:42 pm

I've heard people having issues with motherboards using older BIOS Revs. I actually have this motherboard and didn't have an issue putting in my 3700+ but its a different core so I don't know. Only thing is I didn't know you could get stuff to POST without a CPU in it to flash the BIOS.

Marbus · Post by **Marbus** » August 23, 2005, 4:21 pm

Usually it will post it just won't recognize what the CPU is correctly. I had a similiar problem with that cheap $20 shuttle MB I got a few years ago but it booted just everything was set wrong.

This may sound stupid but when did you late built a PC? If it's been a while, actually a long time I guess, your previous build may have only needed to connect the power to the MB for the power switch to work. In an ATX case you have to connect the "power sw" connector to the MB for the switch to work, you also have to make sure it's the right direction as well. It's one of the small connectors usually bundeled with the Speaker, HD LED, Reset switch etc... I don't mean to be condencending it's just that you didn't mention it in your note.

I built the exact same system for a friend a couple of months ago and it fired up first time so hopefully you would have a newer bios than that if you got it from newegg.

Marb

Voronwë · Post by **Voronwë** » August 23, 2005, 4:44 pm

yeah i actually have considered that i had the polarity reveresed on the front case button thing (with the HDD LEDs, etc.). I am going to try that when i get home.

i like your approach Marb!!

It has been awhile since i've built a machine, but it didn't seem that different. Except, the other ones turned on

Kluden · Post by **Kluden** » August 23, 2005, 4:46 pm

What does ASUS' site say about what cpu's are compatible with the revision board you have?

There is a make number somewhere on the board, may be a sticker, that has a long string of numbers. They may even use the UPC code to do production dates on. Check that against what BIOS the board was shipped with to find out if the CPU revision you have is supported.

As for it not posting, well, how far does it get? Can you get into the BIOS settings screen? if you get "no nothing" when you start it up, I would say it is impossible to flash the BIOS too. LIke you said, go back through and make sure all your connections are fine, also make sure you have nothing laying on the board that would short something out...ie...make sure it is sitting in the case properlyl, and that you don't have thermal compound touching anything on the board. Also make sure your heatsink is not shorting anything out as well. Some heatsinks do not fit on boards properly.

Voronwë · Post by **Voronwë** » August 23, 2005, 5:05 pm

nothing - i mean nothing happens. no beeps, nothing.

i'll check the MB revision etc when i get home. thanks for the input sir.

Tenuvil · Post by **Tenuvil** » August 23, 2005, 5:46 pm

I'm 95% positive the power sw connector is either on the wrong motherboard header or not properly attached.

The system would at least power up if it was a BIOS incompatibility issue. Sadly though, you cannot flash the BIOS without the CPU installed.

Voronwë · Post by **Voronwë** » August 23, 2005, 5:47 pm

that sounds reasonable. i hope it is something that dumb, and not a 'real' problem.

thanks!

Zeep · Post by **Zeep** » August 23, 2005, 6:02 pm

Tenuvil is probably right.

It may be you got unlucky and got an old bios though.

From Asus website:

A8N-SLI The following table shows the support for CPU / Motherboard

CPU Since PCB Since BIOS

Athlon 64 3000+ (CG version) (Socket939) ALL ALL

Athlon 64 3000+ (rev.D) (Socket939) ALL ALL

Athlon 64 3000+ (rev.E3) (Socket939) ALL 1005

Athlon 64 3000+ (rev.E6) (Socket939) ALL 1010

Athlon 64 3200+ (CG version) (Socket939) ALL ALL

Athlon 64 3200+ (rev.D) (Socket939) ALL ALL

Athlon 64 3200+ (rev.E3) (Socket939) ALL 1005

Athlon 64 3200+ (rev.E6) (Socket939) ALL 1010

So your venice core (rev E processor) is only supported at certain bios revisions. Hook up your speakers to the onboard audio out and see if the asus voice reporter tells you anything.

Here is a link that may be helpful:

http://forums.amd.com/index.php?showtopic=31392

ps rangers suck

Zeep

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » August 23, 2005, 6:48 pm

Also might want to do the jumper thing that clears CMOS settings. I had to do that once when nothing was happening when I turned the computer on.

ps zeep sucks

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » August 23, 2005, 6:53 pm

You may just have a bad MB. It's possible!

PS was that MB going to rot or did you use DKP for it?

Ebumar · Post by **Ebumar** » August 23, 2005, 7:00 pm

Same thing happened to me, voron. I ended up taking the Motherboard back and getting a gigabyte instead.

valryte · Post by **valryte** » August 23, 2005, 7:59 pm

I have the same motherboard and CPU. Make sure you connect all 3 power connectors to it. There is the main one, then a square 4 prong one that goes above the CPU, then there is another rectangular 4 prong connecter (looks like a HD power connector) that goes right above the first PCIx slot. The only one that you won't connect is an AUX one if you have one. The factory BIOS that you have will probably be 1005, which works with this CPU. You'll want to update it to 1007 after you get things running. Let me know when you get it POSTing and I can save you the trouble and tell you what to install as far as drivers and other things. You will also need to change some of the BIOS settings. Many of their Automatic settings don't work well. Ex. disable PEG Link (it's some GPU overclocker that Asus came up with, everyone has complained about it). There are others, but I'll wait until you get it POSTing.

BTW, did you get the Deluxe or the Premium?

Voronwë · Post by **Voronwë** » August 23, 2005, 11:00 pm

it was totally that i had the case power switch polarity reversed as far as which pins i had it plugged into (ie upside down).

LOL. so it works now.

i got the Premium Valryte.

i need to know, did some of you clowns post on my HardForums thread? a couple posts had a "veeshan" flair

thanks for the info on the BIOS version, and any driver advice you have will certainly be appreciated. thanks man!

valryte · Post by **valryte** » August 24, 2005, 11:34 am

Ok now that you got that going...forgive me if I'm not 100% exact on some of this, I'm doing most of it from memory.

Lets remove some of the auto settings. Set the following:

HTT X4
FSB 201 (yes, 201, not 200, there's a reason for this)
CPU Multi X9
CPU Voltage 1.4
MEM Voltage 2.6 (MIGHT need 2.65)
PCI Clock 33.33 MHZ

Disable PEG Link
Do not ever turn on Cool n Quiet, should be disabled

As for the memory timings, you'll want to run CPUz and use the values for CAS Latency, RAS to CAS Delay, RAS Precharge, Cycle Time and CPC (Command per clock). Hopefully you got 2 DIMMS only, in which case you can run CPC at 1T, otherwise you have to run at 2T. BTW, what memory did you get?

From the BIOS, just enable the Marvel NIC.

As for the drivers, you'll want to use the NVidia RAID controller. The Si one can only be used in a RAID configuration. ASUS removed the ability to use the Si in non raid some time ago for some reason. So you'll need to put the drivers on disk for the windows install, press F6. BTW, hope you got some new SATA drives with NCQ. I grabbed 2 Seagates and mirrored them. They fly

When you get Windows loaded, you'll want to update the NVidia chipset drivers first. ASUS recommends that you do this before updating the BIOS. I believe they are on version 77.77 or somewhere around there now. Do not install the NVidia firewall, network management, or their IDE S/W drivers. It should just be the Bus Management or something like that. Tell me the options you get if you are not sure. After you reboot, go ahead and update the BIOS. I believe the current one is around 1007. ASUS has a BIOS update program so you can do this in Windows. After this you can install the video drivers. As for the other drivers, just install them directly from the CD. I just explorered the CD and went straight to the Marvel drivers and the Audio drivers (if you are using the onboard audio). Once you do all this, you are pretty much done. You may want to download the latest ASUS Probe and NVidia nTune (I just use it to check the GPU temp) If you made the BIOS changes that I said, nTune should not report any error on startup. Oh, BTW, you will need to reset the BIOS settings after you update it. I believe the program will clear the settings. It may have an option to turn it off, let it clear it. If after you do this it's acting weird, just reset the BIOS and reconfigure with the settings I gave you. You may want to run Prime95 and 3DMark05 (there are other programs as well, but this should be ok for now) for several hours just to burn it in and make sure it's stable.

Once you are confident that everything is fine, you can OC it. I can help you out with that as well. Never enable that ASUS auto OCing or use nTune to OC it. Your system will turn to crap and just crash.

If you want to read up on OCing yourself, I recommend http://www.ocforums.com. They have stuff broken down all the way to MB manufacturers. For example http://www.ocforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=44

BTW, some people have had issues with this MB (I did), but others haven't. For example, 2 of my friends bought the same MB and CPU. Neither had a problem. I happened to get a bad MB so I sent it back for replacement. I should have it back by the end of the week, I hope. After I sent it back, I read that either my memory voltage was too low or the heat pipe wasn't making proper contact with the chipset. I heard of someone just taking it apart, removing the paste with alchohol and putting that arctic ceramic stuff himself. After he did that it stopped crashing.

Psyloche · Post by **Psyloche** » August 24, 2005, 11:45 am

Valryte, where'd you learn to tweak all these settings? I have a similar setup and wondered how I could mess with BIOS settings, but don't feel like breaking anything. My motherboard is the non-Deluxe/Premium version with a 3700+ San Diego, OCZ4001024ELDCPE-K RAM.

Voronwë · Post by **Voronwë** » August 24, 2005, 12:00 pm

awesome, that is very helpful info Valryte.

the memory i have is 2x512MB Corsair Valueselect DDR400.

Kluden · Post by **Kluden** » August 24, 2005, 12:06 pm

Well, I'm glad your problem was a simple one...but damn, aren't those things slotted so you don't put them in the wrong way?

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » August 24, 2005, 12:15 pm

They never were and I don't think they ever will be since no damage is caused by putting em in backwards.

I have a friend once who managed to put the power connector in a floppy drive backwards one. After the loud pop, He took the drive apart and one of the chips on the floppy drive controller had litterally exploded and there was some fried silicone in the casing of the drive. Was quite humorous.

Voronwë · Post by **Voronwë** » August 24, 2005, 12:36 pm

Kluden wrote:Well, I'm glad your problem was a simple one...but damn, aren't those things slotted so you don't put them in the wrong way?

actually they arent. and the black wires go to the positive pins. which for some reason in the middle of the night i had convinced myself that black wires in electrical stuff are the ground wires, not the hot wires. this is wrong, which is why we had a problem here.

i didnt read the instructions because instructions are for LOSERS.

but on the plug there is a little arrow that suggests that it should line up with the "+" under the pin on the mobo, but i didnt notice that arrow until i figured out the problem in the first place.

valryte · Post by **valryte** » August 24, 2005, 5:05 pm

Valryte, where'd you learn to tweak all these settings? I have a similar setup and wondered how I could mess with BIOS settings, but don't feel like breaking anything. My motherboard is the non-Deluxe/Premium version with a 3700+ San Diego, OCZ4001024ELDCPE-K RAM.

My previous CPU, well for my gaming rig (I have a P4 laptop) was an AMD Thunderbird hehe. To give you an idea of how old it is, that CPU was like a 400+ pin CPU, we are now working with 900+ pin CPUs. Anyways, I've been reading OMGIAMRETARDEDCAUSEALOTISTWOWORDS all over the place to catch up on about 5 different forums. The one I recommended http://www.ocforums.com is really great because they cover a lot of ground. Some stickies that take you through every step. I'm not sure how far you can take a San diego core, but at least the memory you got is decent.

The only problem I see with your memory is that you have 512 sticks. If you go to 4 sticks, you'll lose some performance, but it all depends I guess. Definately if you want to play say BF2 1gig is not enough hehe. I sent my memory back to get 2 1 gig sticks from OCR.

A8N-SLI Thread - They talk about Older, Deluxe and Premium, so remember that Premium is on the 1007 bios.
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=364790

Memory - 2GB (2x1GB)
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=395335

Otherwise there are several topics in the memory section. If you read them, read all the way through to the last message as information changes and the earlier posts contain older information. Except probably in the case of the stickies where the author keeps his post updated.

There are some other forums, but I have to wait till I get my rig back up and running. When I do I'll post the links.

Psyloche · Post by **Psyloche** » August 25, 2005, 10:05 am

valryte wrote:The only problem I see with your memory is that you have 512 sticks. If you go to 4 sticks, you'll lose some performance, but it all depends I guess. Definately if you want to play say BF2 1gig is not enough hehe.

God I remember when I upgraded to 16MB of RAM and thought I was a god playing Doom 2. I guess its a good thing I don't have much desire to play BF2 yet, though from all reports I should.

Fairweather Pure · Post by **Fairweather Pure** » August 25, 2005, 10:45 am

The only problem I see with your memory is that you have 512 sticks. If you go to 4 sticks, you'll lose some performance, but it all depends I guess. Definately if you want to play say BF2 1gig is not enough hehe. I sent my memory back to get 2 1 gig sticks from OCR.

I play BF2 with max settings on 1920 x 1200 with 1G ram and have no problems at all.

Voronwë · Post by **Voronwë** » August 25, 2005, 12:45 pm

yeah, i've heard 1gb is fine. my standards arent outrageously high either.

i never had a card better than an mx400 for EQ.

Marbus · Post by **Marbus** » August 25, 2005, 12:54 pm

So does that mean you are going to play EQ or EQ2 Vor?

valryte · Post by **valryte** » August 25, 2005, 1:02 pm

I play BF2 with max settings on 1920 x 1200 with 1G ram and have no problems at all.

Did you ever play BF2 prior to 1.02 path? Cause before that the game had a memory leak. Which explains why everyone else I know was showing 900+ megs used when running BF2. I haven't played with 1.02, or even knew it was out since my computer has been down while I was waiting for my replacement MB.

Either way, I haven't had less than 1.5 GIGs for over 3 years and I won't start now.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » August 25, 2005, 1:42 pm

I've got 3GB in my main computer now. Previously I was operating with 1GB and BF2 freaked me out when it wouldn't run smoothly.

I don't notice much difference but I do have lots of things running at once that probably require a bit of memory combined like Newsleecher, DC++, Azereus Torrent App, Maxthon browser, etc with no performance hit. You don't have to worry about closing things when opening games like EQ.

I haven't used Photoshop CS2 for anything intense since upgrading but I did run out of memory with 1GB several times before the upgrade.

Voronwë · Post by **Voronwë** » August 25, 2005, 2:29 pm

Marbus wrote:So does that mean you are going to play EQ or EQ2 Vor?

no =p

i might...*might* play WoW just to chat with old friends, but the flipside is i might as well just do IRC since i'll never have time to get past level 5.

i did buy BF2, so looking forward to checking that out.