New motherboard, suspected DOA

[8bit]

Hi all,

I just rebuilt my PC around a new motherboard, a Foxconn WinFast NF4SK8AA-8EKRS (s939, NForce4 SLI) and I think the board may be goosed. When I power it up everything seems to light up or spin up OK. It gets to the WinFast logo screen but it freezes there and won't respond to the keys to go into the BIOS screen or the boot menu. After a few seconds like that the CPU fan stops and it's LEDs go out. Nothing happens after that.

All the other components are known to work as they all just came out of my previous board last night, the only exception is the graphics card, it arrived damaged so i put an old Matrox thing in for now. I did a CMOS clear after the first couple of times I tried to start the newly built machine but that didn't help. I've tried setting the PSU to single and dual rail setting, tried disconnecting the strange molex power connector on the board (no idea what it's for, got a 24pin and a 4pin on it already) and have tried using a PS/2 keyboard and mouse instead, all to no avail.

Any ideas what to try next, short of RMA'ing the board?

Cheers
8bit

[Colossous]

Do you have a spare psu to try ? I usually start there.

[8bit]

No spare PSU but I doubt that's it, the PSU was working perfectly with my old motherboard...

[Colossous]

What psu do you have ? You could try just the cpu - mobo - graphics card and 1 stick of ram to see if it will boot and if it does then add the other items one by one to see if it stops booting along the line ?

[8bit]

What psu do you have ? You could try just the cpu - mobo - graphics card and 1 stick of ram to see if it will boot and if it does then add the other items one by one to see if it stops booting along the line ?

well to be honest i'd have thought the current setup was drawing less power - i had a radeon X800XL (AGP) on the old board (Asus A8V Deluxe), the only differences now are the new motherboard and an ancient Matrox PCI graphics card, can't imagine those changes increase the power drain. I'll give it a shot tho...

[atmadden]

I had this exact same problem and it turned out to being the memory being incompatible with the board I used. Try another stick of memory if you have any.

[s3ds]

stuck with bad ram - OCZ Forum

not quite the same memory but may give you some idea's

[8bit]

stuck with bad ram - OCZ Forum

not quite the same memory but may give you some idea's

Grrr, that would be just my luck that OCZ RAM doesn't work on this board, I only bought the RAM about 2 months ago The RAM runs fine in my old Asus A8V deluxe. The only reason I got the Foxconn motherboard was because it was about the only full-size ATX board I could find with s939 socket. I'll get testing after work tonight, still have the old RAM somewhere.

Thanks for that, good find, any further ideas still welcome until I've got the problem nailed tho.

[Dreaming]

well to be honest i'd have thought the current setup was drawing less power - i had a radeon X800XL (AGP) on the old board (Asus A8V Deluxe), the only differences now are the new motherboard and an ancient Matrox PCI graphics card, can't imagine those changes increase the power drain. I'll give it a shot tho...

If you do try the one at a time job you might be able to get ram issues by getting it to boot and changing ram voltage

[themaidenmaniac]

I have this board. I have a strong suscpicion that gfx card issue. I had this problem when i first got the baord, cant remember how i got around it though! I definitely recommend trying a different gfx card first. I'm now running a 300le in mine. One thing i do know, i am not using that stupidly poistioned pci express power connector (half way accross the other side of the board? lol). Good luck with it! I'll try and think of more things if you need them

[8bit]

I'm only using an old Matrox PCI card just now because my 8800GTX turned up damaged but I know the Matrox works cos it was fine in my other machine. I have an even older Rage 128 Ultra PCI card but I have no other PCI Express card to try just now.

themaidenmaniac, what do you mean by "stupidly poistioned pci express power connector"? Do you mean the 4-pin, molex one just above the first PCIe 16x graphics connector? I tried disconnecting that and it made no difference. I don't understand why it's there, the motherboard has the usual 24-pin and 4-pin connectors and my PCIe graphics card will have it's own power connectors so I can't understand why there's a Molex connector there as well... Do I really need it connected?

[s3ds]

quote from Welcome to AnandTech.com [ Article: nForce4 SLI Motherboards: Premium Performance at a Bargain Price]

Foxconn designed an excellent board layout with all major connections easily reached. The board is lacking most clearance issues and was very easy to install in a mid-size ATX case. Foxconn did a very good job with the color coordination of the various peripheral slots and connectors. The 4-pin molex connector located next to the first PCI-E x16 slot is required when utilizing two video cards in SLI operation.

[iranu]

I had a very similar problem with my DFI. Turned out I hadn't connected the molex and the floppy power connectors to the board even though I wasn't running in SLi. I would suspect the ram.

With these problems it's always best to go back to minimal install. I presume that you did a complete format on C: and reinstalled windows.

[8bit]

I had a very similar problem with my DFI. Turned out I hadn't connected the molex and the floppy power connectors to the board even though I wasn't running in SLi. I would suspect the ram.

With these problems it's always best to go back to minimal install. I presume that you did a complete format on C: and reinstalled windows.

Umm, I can't do any install of Windows if I can't even get the machine to POST, let alone boot - please read my original post!

[DecomposingStar]

I'm just gunna tell you now, Foxconn suck. Try get your cash back for it.

[8bit]

I'm just gunna tell you now, Foxconn suck. Try get your cash back for it.

Yes, thanks for that. If you'd read my earlier posts you'd have seen that I said:

The only reason I got the Foxconn motherboard was because it was about the only full-size ATX board I could find with s939 socket.

I bought the board because I wanted to upgrade my graphics card but can't afford to replace my CPU and RAM as well just now and because I have a socket 939 CPU and DDR memory my choice was a bit limited. In fact it was pretty much limited to this board or nothing at all (unless I wanted a micro ATX board which isn't really an option as I have more PCI cards than most mATX boards have slots for).