Did I just fry this motherboard?

[LoTek_X]

Dicecca112
If that's true then it's got to be the motherboard. I started with only five components (Motherboard, CPU, RAM, PSU plus the Case) so that if one of them was bad I'd be able to tell which one it was. It can't be the RAM or the CPU because the system would at least power on. It can't be the switch because the fan starts to spin so it has to be getting the "power on " signal. That leaves me with the PSU & the motherboard, if the PSU is OK then it has to be the motherboard.
I don't think the PSU is bad, I just thought it might have a protection circuit to keep it from being power up with too little of a load (I really did read that too little of a a power load can cause problems with a PSU while I was doing the research on this rig).
I'm so glad we got everything (well almost) at newegg. They don't even pretend to have a tech support department, but their customer service is great. We'll be able to get an RMA without any problems.
Next stop newegg

LoTek_X

[DMB2000uk]

You are right in that they don't like being on with no load, but the load they need to be safe is very little. And the motherboard with things plug into it should draw that load fine.

Dan

[LoTek_X]

DMB2000UK,
Thanks for the confirmation. Tony got a RMA from newegg (I love newegg) so we'll be taking it apart later today, and shipping it off to them. Let's hope the second mobo is better than the first. I don't know if I'll be working on it for a while, because Tony wanted to actually put it together (I've just been supervising) and he's going on vacation in about a week. It'll give me time to read all the manuals so I don't make any mistakes that actually WILL fry something expensive. In any case I'll still be dropping by now and again to see what going on around here. Besides I'll be working on some of my "antiques" and I can always use advice and information when working with those.
LoTek_X

[duplo83]

I had a similar problem with the very first computer I assembled. I would turn it on, watch the fans spin for about 2-3 seconds, then it would shut off. It actually turned out to be a short between my motherboard and case. I tightened one of the motherboard screws down too tight causing the board to bend ever so slightly, coming in contact with one of the raised mounds on the motherboard tray. After relaxing that screw a bit and making sure they were all the correct tightness, it started up just fine. It taught me the importance of using all of the nice, solid risers that come with the case. From my experiences it was a pretty rare, stupid problem. Also probably due in part to the cheap case I had.

Anyway, just throwing another possibility out there.

Good luck!

[LoTek_X]

duplo83,
We just tightened the screws until they were solidly against the board. We used the stand-offs provided with the case all the way around. The case being "cheap" definitely isn't a problem- you'd have to look far and wide to find a case more expensive that the ones made by Lian-Li (after my friend told me to look into which Lian-Li case he should get I ended up getting one for the rig I built myself- it's really beautiful, but it cost as much as my motherboard!) In any case It's too late now, we shipped it back to newegg a couple of hours ago.
Thanks for your input, and if we have a similar problem with the second board I'll look into problems with the case. I have to admit that I don't like the power switch on the A70A, it tends to catch when you press it, I'm going to suggest that my friend replace it with a high quality after-market switch.
LoTek_X

[Merlin]

I recently had a similar problem on two seperate builds...On one of them the MOBO ended up being bad. Ont he other one I had simply been in too much of a rush. Someone else said this before but I will restate. Go back and pull everything out , I mean everything... make the Mother board look just like it did out of the box and reset the CMOS following the boards manual as to how. I would also go to the boards manufactorer site and read in detail all the boards specs with special attention to any ** or such that may mention CPU type and or RAM compatability. Lastly try to power it up and boot with only one of the many HDD you have. It is possible that BIOS does not know what to do with all those drives...New chipsets on new boards often do not have the ability to support all that " complicated" configuration. Try it just bare bones with one HDD after you put it all back together very carefully from the beginning. It sounds to me like the POST process begins but hits a snag and stops. The snag is most likely either RAM or the numerous hard drives.

I saw in a post that I didnt see before that you didnt have an HDD installed?? that could cause a problem ,a higher end MOBO may see no HDD and stall the post

I must ask if money was no object why not go with an Intel quad extreme??

[LoTek_X]

Merlin,
I was just trying to get some indication (a "beep") that the board was starting the boot process before I went any further. It was just mobo, CPU, RAM (1 stick), PSU, and case (mainly for the switch and speaker). It wouldn't even power on, the CPU fan would spin for a couple of seconds and then stop. So I had no power getting to the board.
Once I get a replacement board I'll start all over. I researched this combo very carefully, the CPU is on the CPU support list on the Gigabyte website (the board & chipset both were made specifically to support the Phenom processor.) The memory is also on the Gigabyte list, so compatibility should not be an issue.
The choice of processor was actually made by my friend, but I have to agree with him, the Phenom is four processors on one die, whereas the Intel quads are two dual cores kinda lashed together. The 9600 isn't as fast as the fastest Intel quads, but they're getting faster all the time, and my friend plans on upgrading the processor in the future with a faster AM2+ socket Phenom when they've made significant speed increases. Since the AM2+ is a sorta new socket we both expect that they'll support it for at least a year or two (AMD dosen't change architecture as fast as Intel tends to do.) And at only $250 for the 9600, he doesn't mind just pulling it and sticking it in a drawer somewhere.
The system is all based on the AMD "Spider" platform- the CPU, motherboard chipset, GPU & graphics chipset are all designed to work together. That's the theory anyway, whether I'll be able to get all this "bleeding edge" hardware to play nice will be another story.
Anyway newegg has received the board, and should be sending out the replacement soon. We'll see if I have any better luck with the second board than I did with the first. There have been a lot of problems reported with this board, but from my research it seems to be the pick of the litter of all the AMD 790FX chipset boards, they ALL have had problems, you have to kinda expect that when you're dealing with a new board, using a new chipset, and supporting a completely new processor architecture- I mean these are the first AMD quad chips produced, problems are to be expected.
Thanks for your input, I'll keep you posted on my progress.
LoTek_X