I have power but no POST I've run out of options

Motherboard has power but no POST no beeps, I've run out of options

Hello,

I've run into a major problem and I need a second opinion and some guidance and help because I've run all the tests that I know and now I need some fresh ideas and maybe somebody might think of something that I've missed or overlooked.

I recently purchased a new motherboard and processor to replace my dead motherboard and processor. Well everything arrived today and everything is installed and run through a check list before I actually booted the PC and on comes the power which is a good sign. But... no POST...?

Okay, I've comes across this before with a new motherboard I shall clear the CMOS and then boot again. Turned on the power and again no POST, now I'm starting to worry, is it the processor, the board or the memory which is at fault. So I have run a series of tests to determine what the cause of the problem is, below is the spec and below that is a series of tests I've carried out myself.

M/B: ASUS Crosshair Formula/Thunderbolt
CPU: AMD FX 6100
CPU Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer 13
RAM: Corsair XMS3 1600MHz 8GB pack
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 500GB STAT3
HDD2: Seagate Barracuda 500GB STAT3
HDD3: Segate Barracuda 1TB SATA3
GFX1: Sapphire HD 6870 Toxic Edition OC
GFX2: Sapphire HD 6870 Toxic Edition OC
Souncard: Thunderbolt (Creative X-Fi SB)

Tests carried out:

1.0 Cleared CMOS (by pressing the CLRCMOS button at the rear of the M/B) and then rebooted the system.
1.1 Restarted, still no POST, no display and no beep.

2.0 Unplugged PSU including all power cables just leaving 24-Pin and 8-Pin cables moved jumper from default 1-2 to 2-3 on CLRTC_SW left for 10 seconds and then put the jumper back to default 1-2, plug in all pwr cables again and restarted system.
2.1 Restarted, still no POST, no display and no beep.

3.0 Removed memory modules just leaving single memory module and restarted the system again.
3.1 Restarted, still not POST, no display and no beep.

4.0 Removed the second GFX card just leaving single GFX card in PCIE_X16_1 restarted the system again.
4.1 Restarted, still not POST, no display and no beep.

5.0 Removed the battery and left it for 10 seconds and then replaced the battery, and rebooted the system again.
5.1Restarted, still no POST, no display and no beep.

6.0 Replaced the Battery with a new one and then rebooted the system again...
6.1 Restarted, still no POST, no display and no beep.

7.0 Removed the processor, checked over the processor with a magnifying glass with a powerful LED light to check for imperfections, and there aren't any. Put the CPU back and reattached the CPU cooler and then.
7.1 Restarted, still no POST, no display and no beep.

8.0 Removed all GFX Memory modules, HDD, Soundcard cleared CMOS and restarted the system and again....
8.1 Restarted, still no POST or beep.

9.0 Changed orientation of System Panel Connector speaker.
9.1 Restarted, still no POST, no display and no beep.

The only thing I haven't changed at the moment is the speaker, but I don't think there's anything wrong with it. it was working perfectly fine before I changed the hardware.

Being an avid ASUS user for many years now and never really had any problems with them and I've been using them now for 12 years, I used to use Gigabyte but their board are paranoid when it comes to memory modules and can be very fussy with RAM.

I'm used to ASUS Q LED which tells you about components and if there are any problems with them. Now if there was an issue with any of the components during the booting process the the LED would continue to flash to indicate there was a problem with any of the below. The fact of the matter they haven't there has been no indication that there is a problem and this is were I'm really stuck because, if none of the LED's can determine that something is at fault then the Motherboard is up s**t creak without a paddle, so to speak that is. There is also removing all just leaving CPU and restart and see what LED's come on below... if the VGA DRAM is removed then these should blink...?

[] BOOT_DEVICE_LED
[] VGA_LED
[] DRAM_LED
[] CPU_LED

Any help would be gratefully appreciated because I've gone through everything I can think of and I cannot find the fault. My gut feeling it's either the motherboard or it's the CPU that's stuffed.

Looking forward to your input and help would be appreciated.

Remove all the ram from the system and attempt to boot, if the board doesn't beep or go nuts, it's likely the board.

Maguscreed said:

Remove all the ram from the system and attempt to boot, if the board doesn't beep or go nuts, it's likely the board.

Click to expand...

I haven't done that yet, i shall try in the morning, but my gut feeling is the M/B is stuffed.

As they say in the Bronks... you be f****d

Disconnect all the devices from the motheboard.

Connect powersupply to motherboard.

Connect keyboard and display monitor to motherboard.

Try switching on without memory module and see whether you are gettig the POST beeps?

Can you enter the BIOS?

Now add only one memory module and reboot. Try changing the memory cards in different slots. Check whether the motherboard is getting power supply. Check whether the powersupply fan has started rotating and also the CPU fan?

For clearing the CMOS, after removal of battery, there will be a jumper to short to clear CMOS. Please check it.

After these settings, once you get the POST and BIOS screen, add one peripheral after another. Do not add more than one peripheral at the same time.

I tend to agree with you that it is the motherboard. The above suggestions are good valid troubleshooting points. My only other suggestion, some of which I am sure you have done, is recheck the connections to make sure they are fully seated and in the correct orientation, like stated above, remove everything except what is necessary for the computer to boot. It should post without any hard drive connected. Failing all of that, I would try another PSU if you have or could borrow one. If still no post, It is most likely the board or CPU.

Wait a moment...everyone is suspecting the motherboard. The power supply could be the real culprit, especially since it delivers 3 different voltages (3.3V, 5V and 12V).

If just one or two of these 3 rails actually work, it could seem like the motherboard is getting power but some components would remain without power, thus causing the failure to POST.

I would definitely want to make sure the PSU is working fine before writing off anything else.

i had trouble like that before and it turned out the backplate on the heatsink was sorting out the motherboard .
not sure if it's the same for you but you may want to check it and see. the one that i got didn't have a gasket
and was hitting the back of the motherboards .

scrooge

Corazon said:

Wait a moment...everyone is suspecting the motherboard. The power supply could be the real culprit, especially since it delivers 3 different voltages (3.3V, 5V and 12V).

If just one or two of these 3 rails actually work, it could seem like the motherboard is getting power but some components would remain without power, thus causing the failure to POST.

I would definitely want to make sure the PSU is working fine before writing off anything else.

Click to expand...

I agree and this is something which I have considered, my current PSU is Enermax Evolution 850W which is only 3 years old and with an UPS rating of 950VA and it's a powerful PSU and it should be more than enough power. Although granted I do agree, the likely culprit here could be the PSU.


Enermax Revolution ERV850EWT 850W Silver Modular PSU Power Supply
System Type: 1 physical CPU
Motherboard: High End - Desktop
CPU Socket: Socket AM3+
CPU: AMD FX-6100 3300 MHz Zambezi
CPU Utilization (TDP): 90% TDP

RAM: 4 Sticks DDR3 SDRAM
Video Card 1: AMD Radeon HD 6870
Video Card 2: AMD Radeon HD 6870
Video Type: Crossfire
PPU: AGEIA PhysX PPU

Regular SATA: 3 HDDs
DVD-RW/DVD+RW Drive: 2 Drives
PCI-e x16 Card: 1 Card
USB: 4 Devices
Fans
Regular: 1 Fan 250mm;
LED: 2 Fans 250mm;
High Performance: 4 Fans 120mm;
Keyboard and mouse: Yes
System Load: 90 %

Minimum PSU Wattage: 616 Watts
Recommended Wattage: 666 Watts

Recommended Amperage:
+3.3V +5V +12V
11.4 A 14.6 A 46.2 A

Recommended UPS rating: 1200 VA

I agree about the PSU. That's why I mentioned it in my post above. Over time PSU's can degrade somewhat.

Your motherboard (ASUS Crosshair Formula/Thunderbolt) has a number of onboard LED's (see manual Sect 2.2.6)

It has a set of LED's that indicate the voltage conditions of CPU, memory, northbridge and southbridge. The manual says there are 3 states to each LED: Crazy, High, Normal. (Something got lost in the translation from the Chinese).

There is a GO LED for the RAM, a Q-LED, & more.

Have you checked the status of all these LED's? You said you checked the status of the Q-LED, but what about the others?

You said: "...Cleared CMOS (by pressing the CLRCMOS button at the rear of the M/B) and then rebooted the system."
The manual does not indicate that this button exists.

Try removing the CMOS battery & then shorting the pins. Shorting the pins with the battery installed usually does nothing. I think the manual is missing this step.

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM3Plus/Crosshair_V_FormulaThunderBolt/#download

One more check - if you haven't done already. Take off the motherboard from the base plate and remount taking care the standoffs do not short the copper tracks anywhere. Better still if you could use some insulating washers between the standoffs and the MB. If nothing else, use thick paper/card with a center hole punched to pass the screws where the PCB tracks are dangerously close to the fixing holes.

Unless I missed it, have you even tried a different power supply yet? If not and you're haing the same problems after replacing everything else, that would be the next thing to try before going any further.

essenbe said:

I agree about the PSU. That's why I mentioned it in my post above. Over time PSU's can degrade somewhat.

Click to expand...

Good Afternoon all...


First of all I would like to personally thank you all for all your help and support as you've just been wonderful and I appreciate your support you deserve a pat on the back for your support. No I really mean this... although, I do have an answer to all my troubles and believe me it's such a lame excuse but its a viable one.

I've just come off the phone with the suppliers, and spoke to a gentleman who answered all my questions, it was a pleasure to speak to somebody who was singing off the same hymn sheet, so to speak that is. Well it's transpired the cause of the problem is the BIOS needs updating. Although I initially thought of this in the first place it was the first thing I thought of before I started testing to see what the cause of the problem was, although, tiredness got the better of me and I forgot to add the following to the diagnostic tests.

10.0 Checked ASUS website for BIOS update, Crosshair V Formula 0813 BIOS 07/10/2011 was the release date which coincides with the release of the AMD Bulldozer 8 Core CPU.
10.1 Updated BIOS now -

If I was already an AMD user I'd be laughing because all I need to do is basically put in an AMD AM3 and the board will boot without any problems. update the BIOS which I have ready on a pen drive reboot and check the BIOS is up to date. Then power down and remove the CPU and then put the new one back in again and it will be working.

It's a bit naughty of ASUS to sell a motherboard which is AM3+ FX ready which it's clear to me that it's bl***y not because if it was then, myself and other people who have purchased this motherboard wouldn't be in this position in the first place. Am I p****d, dam right I am.

This is a completely new build, okay granted I'm using the same PSU because it's only 2 years old in perfect working order. it's not a cheep PSU either it was expensive. So the bottom line here is.

If you get anybody else that has purchased an ASUS Crosshair V Formula/Thunderbolt or the ASUS Crosshair V Formula and they are unable to boot their system, then they need to update the BIOS to Crosshair V Formula 0813 all you need to do if you are already an AMD user then just install you AM3 CPU and boot the system and then update the BIOS and then re-install the new CPU and then it should work.

I've been a customer of ASUS for over 12 years now and this is the first time I have ever come across this. You could say it's luck; although, In my view I think ASUS has hurt their reputation with this because I'm not the only person with the same problem. My suppliers have dealt with a few other people, and ASUS has advised them to advise their customers. "If they are already AMD AM3 users then they need to update the BIOS before installing the new AMD FX 6100 or 8100 AM3+ CPU because they have made changes to the CPU support within their new BIOS update."

I can understand you being peeved having gone through all the checking and rechecking. I wish I'd seen this thread earlier. The only time I had a board that would take a CPU upgrade it was to go from a Pentium II 350 to a Pentium III 600, and that did require getting a BIOS update from Asus first. Sometimes it's a pain working with a very late model motherboard and CPU especially since the board was probably manufactured before the CPU and while Asus was still working on the new BIOS.

essenbe said:

I agree about the PSU. That's why I mentioned it in my post above. Over time PSU's can degrade somewhat.

Click to expand...

While this is true my silverstone 1000 watt has many hours and nearly 5 years on it, and still can kick 1200 watts if needed.

Bink said:

If I was already an AMD user I'd be laughing because all I need to do is basically put in an AMD AM3 and the board will boot without any problems. update the BIOS which I have ready on a pen drive reboot and check the BIOS is up to date. Then power down and remove the CPU and then put the new one back in again and it will be working.

Click to expand...

I've actually seen this type of craziness with Gigabyte's GA-X58A-UD5/UD7 motherboards when they first came out.... The initial BIOS didn't support Intel's 980X CPU's and you couldn't update the BIOS unless you had a 920 lying around.

In short if you bought this motherboard and a 980X chip, you couldn't use it unless the BIOS was updated. Since you can't update a BIOS without a CPU, and the 980X was useless until the update, you needed a 920 CPU to update the BIOS. So your choices were to send the board back for the update, pay a servicing tech for the update, hope you got a board with a newer update, or find/buy? a 920 CPU

Anyway I’m glad to hear you got your issue sorted out.

Enjoy

This motherboard required a out of the box update new if you wanted the 1333 bus.
...that shows how old this thing is getting.

fortunately you could boot with the 1333 chip and memory it just underclocked it until you applied the bios update.

Maguscreed said:

This motherboard required a out of the box update new if you wanted the 1333 bus.
...that shows how old this thing is getting.

Click to expand...

The opposite could work here as well in that the board was released about the same time the new chips were released - My example of the Gigabyte's X58A UD5/UD7 and the release of the i7-980X CPU for instance.

I'm not saying your point is wrong, especially since I know nothing of AMD chips or motherboards, I'm just pointing out that the opposite could work as well.

Well amd's don't even work on a bus system the way you would understand it from using intel.
I have a old AMD fx60 rig playing media server in the other room.
That was a nightmare of a setup, paid nearly 1100 bucks for that chip new and had all kinds of pain getting it working on the first mobo I put i on. (dfi lanparty pro expert)

I suppose you should be glad you don't have this Asus motherboard:
Newegg.com - ASUS P8P67 (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

I don't know what's happened to Asus in recent Times. I have an old Asus P3 motherboard which has worked faithfully for 10 years.