Disaster Strikes

[grand_witch]

I have just finished building the following machine:

3500 Winchester
DFI SLI-D
Asus Star Ice
Corsair 3200 Twinx
200gb SATA Seagate Barracuda
XFX 6800GT
Tagan 480W PSU

Guess what when I start it no video output!!!! All the diagnostic LEDS on the motherboard come on and there are no POST beeps. Any ideas? I have tried everything I can think of. The only problem is I have no additonal components at the moment to test it with e.g. second monitor etc.

[Steve]

I thought I'd killed my ASUS SLI board after a waterleak during kit reshuffling. Turns out I'd knocked out the +12V connector, which resulted in a failed boot and no beeps. It's worth checking!

[grand_witch]

Should you be able to boot the machine wihtout and Memory ?

[Spunkey]

you cant boot without memory. Does the manual say what all LEDs on equates to?

Check the board isnt shorting on the case, thats the best place to start.

[grand_witch]

I am able to start the power and the leds come on even if I have no memory in the slots

[grand_witch]

Originally Posted by Spunkey

you cant boot without memory. Does the manual say what all LEDs on equates to?

Check the board isnt shorting on the case, thats the best place to start.

What is it best to do if it is? What effect would this have?

[Olly1234]

If you boot with no memory your board should beep at you with a certain number of beeps to say it's missing it's ram, if it does this then at least you know it's posting?

[grand_witch]

Originally Posted by Olly1234

If you boot with no memory your board should beep at you with a certain number of beeps to say it's missing it's ram, if it does this then at least you know it's posting?

I will try that again

[Olly1234]

Not too sure about DFI but I know my Asus Sli machine has an SLi selector card to select Dual or single Vid cards so i'd imagine it does too, did you check position of this as on the Asus the manual says it comes set to single but in reality it was set to Dual could posibly explain no video

[grand_witch]

I am going to check that tonight. The manual they shipped with my board did not have the jumper settings for this in. I have had to find a more in depth manual with the correct settings on the web today.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far, keep it comming.

[Spunkey]

Originally Posted by grand_witch

What is it best to do if it is? What effect would this have?

At best its causing a short between two traces which is why your machine wont boot, at worst its fried something because its putting too much voltage through something.

Best thing to do is unscrew the mobo from the case, and check there is nothing underneath it - you shouldnt have to unplug anything or take the mobo out of the case, just run your hand under it.
Make sure the spacers are all in the right places, and then reseat the mobo again.

[grand_witch]

I am a bit confused does anyone know if it is bad that all four diagnostic LEDS have come on? The manual not very clear on this.

[Fresco]

OK. I have this motherboard and I'm embarrased to say i spent a good four hours with the same problem.

All four leds ON means that the system cannot detect anything (checks CPU first). After each successful check the next light goes off. CPU first, then memory then disk I think. The final light goes off after a successful post.

Mine was not detecting the CPU because I did not have both power connectors in place. I had plugged in the 24pin one(20+4pin side by side on my OCZ modstream). But there is another connector directly next to it (to the right) which is for an additional 4 pin power connector (square shaped) that I think powers the CPU.

Silly mistake to make. You sure you have this connected?

[Spunkey]

I've just downloaded the manual for your mobo from DFIs site (just do a google - shouldnt be hard to find)

Originally Posted by DFI SLI-D Manual

4 LEDs on = System Startup
3 LEDs on = CPU Detected
2 LEDs on = DRAM Detected
1 LED on = VGA Detected
0 LEDs on = System boot-up

[grand_witch]

I don't think I have plugged the 4pin above the A24 pin in I will do that tonight.

[Steve]

You mean on the same connector as the PSUs ATX cable? DON'T!

If you have a 20pin cable you can plug it into the 24pin socket on the mobo fine... no problem - the extra four pins are NOT +12V like the 4 pin connector you'll have on the PSU.

edit: Sorry i missed one of your posts, and understand you do have an extra separate connector, and that your PSU has an addon bit to create a 24pin ATX connector.