What do you think? Borked A7V?

[Player0]

I finally got around to trying to boot the A7V333 system I built last week. So I plugged everything in, hit the powerswitch. Got fans spinning up, but no video. So, figgured I'd clear CMOS. Unpluged the power, let the motherboard drain for a bit, hooked it back all up. Geez, now I don't even get fans spinning.

So, stripped it out of the case. Only got CPU, RAM and the speaker hooked up. Try to power it up, no fan spins. No beepings. Tried clearing cmos a few more times, changed ram, changed cpu, changed power. Double checked all the jumpers. Try to turn it on. No fans spinning.

So I yanked the CMOS battery out, left the CMOS Clear jumpers shorted, will give it a go in the morning. Is it me or does the board sound dead? Geez. What a pain.

[NorthernYankee]

Sounds like a dead board to me...Man you are having bad luck lately.

--NY

[Player0]

Yeah, it would seem so. Of course, you only hear about the systems that don't work. Most of them do hehe. Back to the factory this one goes, if PcProgress is nice enough to RMA it. Geez, I only tried to power this one on.

The system I built for my gf, Soyo P3 board. Via 694 chipset. That one stopped posting after I cleared CMOS too. Although the fans would spin still. I almost RMAd that one, but I read on the Soyo forums that the clear-CMOS no-restart was a known bug of the BIOS. After struggling with the board a few more hours, I got it to boot. I quickly flashed to the new BIOS, and that board works great now.

But, I dont think I will get lucky this time. Ive seen alot of boards just die like this. Most of them will at least spin the fans, just wont video post. This mother,...its like Im not even hitting the power switch! Like the onboard power LED. After you unplug the ATX cord, the light will stay on for a few seconds. But if you hit the powerswitch during that time, the boards power instantly drains and the LED goes right off. BUT, on this board, the light will stay on and isn't affected by the powerswitch at all. Very strange.

Its like the board doesnt even recognize that the powerswitch exists. Im sure im using the right pins for that...but I honestly dont know what else to try. Ill just have to send it back.

[EMC2]

If it's a bad board, that suxor :(

One thing you might want to do as a just in case - pull the RAM (it will still start to boot, but give you the "no memory" beeps).

Also, don't know if you're w/c it or if air cooling and your CPU fan doesn't have an RPM sensor - but - in case you aren't aware the ASUS boards will not start up if they don't have input to the CPU fan header for RPM (part of their COP thermal protection setup).

[Player0]

I've tried without RAM and CPU and every combination inbetween. Yes, no cpu, only because the manual sais the motherboard is supposed to talk to me and tell me that there is no cpu. Dont know if that really works, but it was worth a shot.

Yeah, I had my cpu fan in on the cpu fan header, and it has RPM sensing. The board doesnt even try to start up though, it won't spin the fans even a little. I imagine it cant sense the RPMs if it doesnt try to turn the fans ;)

I even tried a Duron, see if it may have been COP causing problems or something. Nope. Nada.

Board makes for a really expensive green LED light :)

[AMD Man]

That's a BuMmER Player! Cause I have had great luck with this board. Pretty solid overclocker soo far, I just hate all of the jumpers!!!!

[dicki]

i know this sounds dumb but have you tried a different case power switch (or as a temp measure plug the reset switch into the power switch header on the mobo)

i had a case once where the wire had fallen off the power switch in the case. similer symptoms to yours...

dicki

[Player0]

Dicki, I normally just use a screwdriver and short the pins :) I also have an old switch and connector I tore out of an old case, which works good too, if im not lazy enough to connect it.

Anyone know how many watts a Delta 60mm fan is? I just realized I had this on my CPU cooler by accident, Asus has a 4 watt limit on their headers...maybe this fan is more than 4 watts?

AMD, yeah this board is supposed to be very good, lots of toys on it too. Enough jumpers to make anyone sick though lol. Especially when troubleshooting.

[AMD Man]

Player, did you see the overvolt jumper right above the cpu socket? it you enable it you will see about 2.3v for your cpu, to get lower you will have to start playin with the VID1-4 jumpers.

Also there are Two jumpers right next to the AGP slot, if put jumpers on both closet to cpu then you will see 2.8v for your dimms:D

[Player0]

I left all the overclocking/voltage jumpers on their default settings. This machine isn't to be overclocked. I wasnt seeing any voltages anywhere anyway :)

I already issued a cross shipment RMA to PC Progress. Hopefully ill have better luck with the new board :)

[EMC2]

Regarding the fan Q - most will have their current or power requirements on the fan label ;)

That said - here are the requirements for the 3 most common Delta 60mm fans:

50CFM (the screamer) - 1.2A
38CFM - 0.39A
30CFM - 0.30A

You can get full specs on any Delta fan at their web page ;)

[Player0]

This Delta fan has a black label, no information on it, which is why I asked. It came with the CAKII I purchased. Turns out its the 38CFM model. 4.7 watts. Asus sais 4.2 watts is the limit for fan headers. Half a watt. Hmm. Maybe that killed it, although, Im really skeptical about that. Still, definately going to plug this in to a 4pin to 3pin converter from now on. I hope I can disable the fan rotor signal in bios, I dont have another fan to hook to the header.

[EMC2]

Player, you can do one of 2 things -

Pick up an adapter cable that splits the power and the RPM sensor lead so you can power it from a 4-pin drive connector and still hook up the RPM sensor to the CPU fan header

or

If you have another low power fan with an RPM sensor on it, say a NB fan, hook it up to the CPU fan header (ooops - noticed you don't have another fan... scratch this option, lol)

One source for the adapter cable is here (http://2cooltek.safeshopper.com/58/300.htm?941).

[Player0]

I'll just disable RPM sensing from BIOS hehe :) Much easier, and I dont have to make up any special cables.