PC won't POST, boot, nada....

[oolon]

I mean in that if I can't get it to post etc etc....

Great catch 22 that one isn't it. You borrow a processor the board does support and use that to flash it or you get someone to flash it for you (like scan).

[M0nkeyb0Y]

Great catch 22 that one isn't it. You borrow a processor the board does support and use that to flash it or you get someone to flash it for you (like scan).

oh bugger

[this_is_gav]

I had this a couple of weeks ago (including with a DFI board).

My Gigabyte UD5 would spin up for 2 seconds then spin down for 2, then spin up for 2, etc. The board had already been replaced 14 months back displaying similar problems, but I needed one quick, so I bought a DFI DK X58-T3eH6. Plugged it in, and it powered up but never posted. The diag LEDs never changed from the 8B (I think it is) they start at.

I brought a temporary PSU back from work to test things and sure enough, it booted. Turns out both the Gigabyte UD5 and the DFI DK are drawing power above the spec and my Seasonic X900 was rightly telling them where to do. I bought an Enermax Revolution and both boards have been fine since, and the X900 PSU works fine in my Q6600 system at work. The DFIs are known to be very picky about the PSU which are compatible - even DFI support say they have problems with Seasonic PSUs. The fact that the best PSUs going (the Seasonic X-series) often don't work with them says quite a lot in my opinion.

I can't claim either motherboard or the PSU on the warranty with Scan as neither are broken, so I'm left with a £170 motherboard and a £120 PSU which I can't use.

Basically, my advice is to try another (high-end) PSU.

[M0nkeyb0Y]

actually this_is_gav has got me thinking:

How would a mainboard behave if it was powered up with an incompatible or no CPU - would it do nothing as mine is? I would expect it to give an error code/beep...

[M0nkeyb0Y]

How would a mainboard behave if it was powered up with an incompatible or no CPU - would it do nothing as mine is? I would expect it to give an error code/beep...

anyone know?

[Ulti]

I believe it varies, I've heard people say that you won't even get to BIOS whereas others say the pc will run fine but it will be an unrecognised processor and will run at a lower speed/multiplier or something until you flash it. I've never heard that you can't boot though, if you bought it from Scan you could try sending them a query detailing the steps you took and they are usually quite knowledgeable! Kills 2 birds with one stone too as you could get a RMA quicker if they find out it's faulty.

[this_is_gav]

The LEDs would indicate that it was actually trying to POST.

[M0nkeyb0Y]

The LEDs would indicate that it was actually trying to POST.

hmmm they just flash 88 for a split second... will contact Scan.

[peterb]

actually this_is_gav has got me thinking:

How would a mainboard behave if it was powered up with an incompatible or no CPU - would it do nothing as mine is? I would expect it to give an error code/beep...

If there was no processor - you would get nothing (nothing to do anything!) If it wqas an incompatable processor, as another poster suggested, results would vary. If the BIOS tried to execute an instruction that the processor didn't recognise, the system would fail.