Another interesting problem.

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=314906

Picking up where that one left off.

I don't think I cooked my board. After doing a LOT of research on the DFI-Street forums, I've found that this particular board has a rather large cold/warm boot issue (yes, I know it has been partially/completely fixed in the 6/19 BIOS, but that's not really the issue I'm addressing). I thought that might have been my problem, but now I'm not so sure.

I put my lug-mounted HS on (an old CAK-38) and booted. It looked like it was going to do something . . . till it shut down. That's strange, but I've seen similar things happen before. Different boards have different protection schemes for CPU overheating. The next thing I did, was plug the fan into the motherboard header (I know that Asus boards monitor that on bootup, and if they don't detect anything running on it, they shut down), still nothing.

Read the manual a bit, and found that this board has a CPU overheat on boot feature. It monitors the CPU temperature on boot and will shut down if it gets too warm. Well, that's what it was doing. So I applied a little more pressure to the sink, and that seemed to work, 'cause it wouldn't shut down. However, it will won't even boot after that.

Did some more research, and found that quite a few people have been getting boards that just won't boot, no matter what, out of the box. There have also been some reports of warped boards around the socket area. I had a look, and mine is definately warped around the socket. That might be from my attempt at installing the SLK, but I don't think so. I've never seen a board retain a bend or a warp if they've been bent installing something (like RAM).

I'm pretty much completely stumped, and I'm about to get an RMA number from NCIX, and look up shipping costs. I'm almost sorry that I chose this board, but not quite. While lots of people are having problems, there are also many that are more than happy with their boards, and lots of people who don't have any issues at all.

If there's anything else I'm missing, or can do to try to get it to boot, please let me know

edit: I'd also like to add that I get NO beep codes. None whatsoever. Is this normal for this board? I know that the LP(A/B) have diagnostic LEDs on them (much like my Epox), but to make it so it doesn't beep at all is a little strange.

Award now Phoenix...

bioses are no longer giving any beep code but a long beep that can indicate a memory problem and I think a possible video problem. In other words the bios maker and not board maker is removing the beep codes.

Sounds as if you may have injured the board by trying to mount the SP-97 without the Neo-backplate. And then how hard did you push down on the CAK-38? You could have chipped the cpu core. I am not sure but what you may have a bunch of compounded errors that serve to invalidate your boot process.

Perhaps you will sort it all out thru RMA and the correct mounting plate. Hope you get it sorted.

Sincerely, RGone...

Wow! It's RGone from DFI-Street!

Got a linky for the removal of beep codes? It's not that I don't believe you, but it does seem a little strange that BIOS makers would remove such a useful (even if it is legacy) tool.

I don't honestly think I injured the board, but I may have. I didn't chip the core on the CPU, either. My guess it that it just wasn't making proper contact with the CPU die. The friend I borrowed it from had tried to lap the HS at one point with too coarse of a sandpaper, so it may have only been making partial contact, which is unfortunate. I'm not exactly sure how robust his lapping methods were, either.

Thanks for the reply!