Dual SATA2 No Boot Again

[RollingThunder]

Little problem…………

Turned it on in the morning and no boot. Won’t get into BIOS like before. Reset BIOS and still no boot. Fans power up ok and molex checks 5v so I checked board voltages with DMM:

VDT: 2.180

VDIMM: 2.588 ?

VLDT: .608 !

VCORE: 1.102 !

Was running 12X 2651 MHz 1.375 vcore and RAMs 220 MHz 1:1 2T.

Vdimm dropped a little from 2.870 but that should be enough to run stock.

VLDT way down along with low vcore now. Probably not enough voltage to boot with that vcore. What would suddenly cause the VLDT to drop so much and the vcore?

The only voltage that stayed consistent is the VDT, that didn't change. I have the Rebel Vcore mod but hesitate to plug it in to get .125 more vcore to attempt to boot until I know what the problem is.

Can’t turn it off with buttons in front or reset, have to pull the plug out. Was running fine night before, just turned it off and no boot in morning. Any suggestions?

Board shot?

 

[greyharte]

hmmmm ... sounding a little like what im goin thru on mine ... begining to wonder about my board too ... at least i can still turn on my computer tho ...

 

[Asr940]

Did you check the input voltages directly from the PSU?

Also, Take a look at the caps. See if any are swelling or look unusual. (just a possibility, think mine are about to go on the dual sata).

 

[RollingThunder]

Did you check the input voltages directly from the PSU?

Also, Take a look at the caps. See if any are swelling or look unusual. (just a possibility, think mine are about to go on the dual sata).

Asr,

Not sure where to check the input voltages from the PSU for this. I have a litle Molex that OCHungry added for me to check VDT, VLDT and vdimm plus I was shown where to check actual vcore output on MB with DMM (photo). Is this what you mean? This is where it reads ~ 1.10v, not enough.

Caps look ok, I looked at them first.

 

[ochungry]

RT, it looks like the board is not giving enough power to cpu and other components to turn them on. unplug the 20 pins power supply, wait 5 minutes, plug it in, turn on poer and let it run 5 minutes and then use reset power. remove the auxiliary legacy power (the one you use as back up power).
if still no luck, remove all hardware and just run w/ one HDD, and vid card ( no floppy, cd drive, etc).

At the end you might want to change back to the single core cpu (A64 3500 instead of opteron) to see if cpu is not the culprit

 

[RollingThunder]

RT, it looks like the board is not giving enough power to cpu and other components to turn them on. unplug the 20 pins power supply, wait 5 minutes, plug it in, turn on poer and let it run 5 minutes and then use reset power. remove the auxiliary legacy power (the one you use as back up power).
if still no luck, remove all hardware and just run w/ one HDD, and vid card ( no floppy, cd drive, etc).

At the end you might want to change back to the single core cpu (A64 3500 instead of opteron) to see if cpu is not the culprit

OC, Guys,

I managed to figure out a 12v check on the yellow wire side of the molex plugs that asr suggested above. Right in front of me........ They all read 11.99v.

Ran it stripped down to one HD and vid card, same thing.

What should that molex read with a DMM for the vcore mod? I'm not using it but it's there to check. Would that give any clue?

What's odd is that the vdimm mod adjustment won't go any higher with power on than 2.589 turning a full turn. But I can turn up the VLDT mod. That will go up. I returned them both to where they were. Are the vcore, vdimm and VLDT voltages tied in with each other? They are the ones showing low.

What concerns me most is the vcore check on the board with power on: 1.102v. Not much can be done with that if the board won't send enough volts to CPU. ICs and caps all look ok.

I'll have to wait to switch out CPUs, don't have time right now and not in the right frame of mind.......

 

[ochungry]

OC, Guys,

I managed to figure out a 12v check on the yellow wire side of the molex plugs that asr suggested above. Right in front of me........ They all read 11.99v.

Ran it stripped down to one HD and vid card, same thing.

What should that molex read with a DMM for the vcore mod? I'm not using it but it's there to check. Would that give any clue?

What's odd is that the vdimm mod adjustment won't go any higher with power on than 2.589 turning a full turn. But I can turn up the VLDT mod. That will go up. I returned them both to where they were. Are the vcore, vdimm and VLDT voltages tied in with each other? They are the ones showing low.

What concerns me most is the vcore check on the board with power on: 1.102v. Not much can be done with that if the board won't send enough volts to CPU. ICs and caps all look ok.

I'll have to wait to switch out CPUs, don't have time right now and not in the right frame of mind.......

RT, I believe the vdimm defaults to normal setting and that's why the vdimm mod not working. the vdimm mod works when vdimm is set to high in bios.
I believe the vldt is tied to bios rom and is not turned on because cpu is not on to turn other IC's on thru bios check during boot. you are not getting a complete bios boot it seams. what about taking the board out and grounding it. take the battery out when you ground the board to drain the charge. might want to install a new battery also.

 

[RollingThunder]

RT, I believe the vdimm defaults to normal setting and that's why the vdimm mod not working. the vdimm mod works when vdimm is set to high in bios.
I believe the vldt is tied to bios rom and is not turned on because cpu is not on to turn other IC's on thru bios check during boot. you are not getting a complete bios boot it seams. what about taking the board out and grounding it. take the battery out when you ground the board to drain the charge. might want to install a new battery also.

Ah! Understood. So I know the BIOS has been reset. I'm not sure what "grounding" the board means when I take it out. With power to it?

 

[ochungry]

Ah! Understood. So I know the BIOS has been reset. I'm not sure what "grounding" the board means when I take it out. With power to it?

No power. The board may be holding static electric charge somewhere in some components that are not suppose to. By touching it w/ one hand and the other hand touching a metal (window) it will discharge the unwanted electricity. It's not a good thing to do because the board may get damaged (1-2% chance). but since you have the battery out and you have a semi dead board, you have no other choice. It's best to touch the board w/ a wire that one end is grounded(attached to waterheater copper pipe, window sill, any metal rod penetrated into ground ~12").
Have you cleared CMOS yet (the jumper method)?
Also I noticed that the mounting legs that came w/ the Cooler Master case are short (shorter than former antec case). Is it possible that one of those capacitor's soldered leg penetrating back of the motherboard and thus touching the case? you can start bending the one's that stick out too long, just in case.
Remember you had same problem w/ the board before. Try to remember what made it to work. could it be some more AS5 melting down into the cpu's pin holes.

 

[RollingThunder]

No power. The board may be holding static electric charge somewhere in some components that are not suppose to. By touching it w/ one hand and the other hand touching a metal (window) it will discharge the unwanted electricity. It's not a good thing to do because the board may get damaged (1-2% chance). but since you have the battery out and you have a semi dead board, you have no other choice. It's best to touch the board w/ a wire that one end is grounded(attached to waterheater copper pipe, window sill, any metal rod penetrated into ground ~12").
Have you cleared CMOS yet (the jumper method)?
Also I noticed that the mounting legs that came w/ the Cooler Master case are short (shorter than former antec case). Is it possible that one of those capacitor's soldered leg penetrating back of the motherboard and thus touching the case? you can start bending the one's that stick out too long, just in case.
Remember you had same problem w/ the board before. Try to remember what made it to work. could it be some more AS5 melting down into the cpu's pin holes.

Ok, understood. Yes, this problem is very similar to the last no-boot when I cleaned and washed the CPU of AS5. I used too much. I did reset BIOS with the jumper.

I don't think it's an AS5 issue this time because the factory cooler that came with it had a nice small square of AS5 on it from AMD where it should be and I left it like it was and installed it. I have a set of taller mounting spacers, I may put them in this time. I'll take the RAMs and CPU out before I do this.

 

[Asr940]

Good luck with that. What I had ment was the input directly too the board (from psu, it would be at the base of the female 20 pin molex connection).

If you have a static charge though, shouldn't it ground out through the case OCH?

 

[ochungry]

If you have a static charge though, shouldn't it ground out through the case OCH?

Yes, but not always. the case is painted and maybe the PSU itself has done something funny (reversing a ground line-like car batterie do). I had a printer that was always shorting the case and causing crash and no boot. Also the ethernet was shorting thru. phone plug.
RT, another thing you might want to do is checking the I/O backplate to see if all the backplate cutout strips (the metal pieces extruded out of the plate) are bent far enough to touch motherboard's I/O plug-in's. They serve as grounding each i/o metal casing. Specially check the usb where the auxiliary power is hooked up, to see if the usb casing has a good contact w/ the backplate.

 

[RollingThunder]

Took it all apart, inspected and cleaned for any excess AS5 problem I had last time. CPU and slot clean as a whistle. Removed the CMOS battery and had it checked, it's fine.

I switched CPUs with my old A64 3500, same results. Computer will not boot to the CPU or BIOS with either this one or the Opteron. Switched RAM slots, no difference.

I have a bad feeling about this one............

 

[Asr940]

That makes sense OC, and good luck RT, as a last resort, try flushing all power from the board. Might work.

 

[chevro1et]

Damn RT, it really seems that trouble seeks out your rig. Really sorry to hear that you are having major issues again

 

[RollingThunder]

That makes sense OC, and good luck RT, as a last resort, try flushing all power from the board. Might work.

Asr,

I think I did. Removed the 20 & 4 pin power connectors, RAMs, and I'm close enough I grounded it all by touching the board and water pipe into the house.

The NB, SB and video card HS warm up, not hot, just a little warm. The CPU HS is ice cold, room temp (68 F). OC suggested the vcore regulator might be bad because at the point it stops booting the vcore is only 1.1v with a DMM. Vdimm is ok at default 2.6v since I reset the CMOS and pulled the battery for a while couple days ago.

Both CPU vcore reads (Opteron and A64 3500) are 1.1v when it stops booting so it looks like the CPU isn't getting full voltage or tuning on since the heat sink is ice cold. All the fans work ok.

I can hear the HD cycle once then that's where it stops. I'm checking all the connecions, they all seen tight to the peripherals, etc. Monitor is only at the "Self Test" of course.

HD and power LEDs remain on and the system can only be turned off by pulling the plug. I'll fool around with a while longer but I'm geting ready to get another board, maybe the ASUS A8N-E SLI or A8N32-SLI.

 

[Asr940]

That probably would have worked if anything will. Actually, what I ment though is to disconnect the PSU and then power on. The cappacitors should empty as it trys to start the computer. Fans will probably spin for a moment. Then let it sit (pluged in, with PSU switch on) for several hours. I have had a similar problem to yours (boot, no display) after running at high stress for a long time and then rebooting, but I always figured it was my PSU. The above procedure always fixed it though.

 

[RollingThunder]

That probably would have worked if anything will. Actually, what I ment though is to disconnect the PSU and then power on. The cappacitors should empty as it trys to start the computer. Fans will probably spin for a moment. Then let it sit (pluged in, with PSU switch on) for several hours. I have had a similar problem to yours (boot, no display) after running at high stress for a long time and then rebooting, but I always figured it was my PSU. The above procedure always fixed it though.

Asr,

Ok, I may have misunderstand it all. I'm trying your suggestion now. I have noticed before and now that while running under stress (higher OC) that at times the computer is difficult to turn off and the CRT monitor sometimes has a tough time resetting itself unless I turn it off manually too. Been running in my sig for about a week or so just fine.


OC,

Checked all the SATA plugs and reconnected them. They all appear tight and solidly connected. At this point I'll stick in the other RAMs (the kingstons). May not mean anything but there isn't much else to try.

 

[RollingThunder]

That probably would have worked if anything will. Actually, what I ment though is to disconnect the PSU and then power on. The cappacitors should empty as it trys to start the computer. Fans will probably spin for a moment. Then let it sit (pluged in, with PSU switch on) for several hours. I have had a similar problem to yours (boot, no display) after running at high stress for a long time and then rebooting, but I always figured it was my PSU. The above procedure always fixed it though.

ASR,

SUCCESS, It booted!! Hooray and thank you!

 

[ochungry]

ASR,

SUCCESS, It booted!! Hooray and thank you!

OMG, RT booted again
I think by now you have won the pc boot award. If anyone has problem w/ their pc not booting all they have to do is google "RT" and will find tons of remedies that lead to finally booting.
I am so happy for you RT. I tell you that Asrock mobo is a though cooky.
Dont think that you are missing any performance by not buying the Asus "Nforce 4 chip", the ULi chip is a much better chip. It is true that the Asus's 8 phase power make a good stable board, but the Asrock "ULi1695" board gives better scores clock for clock in all test I have run and compared the 2. I think comes time if I dont use SLI I may just go back to the good ole Asrock board. Anyone experimenting w/ the 2 will know what I am talking about.
Anyways, Thanks to Asr940 for nailing it.