Legit Reviews

Okay, to start I'm fairly new to building a computer, but I recently bought an Asus Crosshair motherboard, and all the other components necessary for a computer, haha, I'm sure they're all compatible as well. But the first Crosshair I got I ordered from NewEgg and once when all was put together once I plugged it in the only thing that would happen was the LED lights would light up, and nothing else, no fans would turn on, nothing. I had a friend take it all apart and rebuild it twice and it did the same thing, so I took it into a Computer help store and they said it was a dead motherboard, so I returned it and bought a new Crosshair through TigerDirect, took it into the Computer help store and just had them build it all back together again.
I got a call the next day saying the motherboard was doing the exact same thing, LED lights, nothing else, he even tried switching out all of the other components with store components but it did nothing, does anybody have any idea on what it could be?

There's several things that could be wrong.
Make sure there's a fan plugged into the CPU fan header on the motherboard, if no fan is detected the board may not allow it to power up.

When you say LED's, there should be only 3 things lit when the PSU is on.
A green power indicator LED located between 2 of the PCI slots, the Red Power Switch and Green Reset Switch that are located at the bottom of the board next to the case connectors(ie: HDD LED, Power LED, Power Switch....etc)

If all the pretty blue LEDs are lit, turn them off! The switch is located at the I/O shield!

Check your LCD poster located on the I/O panel, see if it has any codes listed, if so use your manual and figure out what the code refers too!

Hm, thanks alot, I'll check these things next time I get a chance then post what the results are, and if I figure it out.

What kind of case do you have? If the board is grounding in any way it could do what you are describing. Build the computer and try to run it on the motherboard box. If it works you have grounding issues.

I had a DOA board do exactly what you are describing too. I have a hard time thinking you could get two bad ones but I'm sure it could happen.

Make sure the PSU you are using is fine. A dead PSU could do the same thing you are describing. I've had a bad PSU that would light up the LEDs on the motherboard and spin the fans for 1 sec but nothing else.

My first thought was that it could be a bad power source, but I took it to a guy who hooked it up to a different power source and it did the same thing, however I'll try building it outside of the case also, see if that affects it, thanks. I'm going to work on it tomorrow, I'll post here if I have any positive or negative results, or nothing new at all.

So I went down to the store that had my computer today, and I asked to look at it so we plugged it in and he showed me how just the LED's would turn on, and nothing else, so the first thing I tried was pushing the LED light button on the I/O switch, and wouldn't you know it all the LEDs turned off and the three little lights that were supposed to be on turned on and the computer started up just fine, haha. Thanks camaroguy, the guy at the store was quite dumbfounded at how easy of a fix it was, haha . So it should be all good and ready to go tomorrow, granted the installing of the drivers and Windows goes alright.

casualtyflag wrote:So I went down to the store that had my computer today, and I asked to look at it so we plugged it in and he showed me how just the LED's would turn on, and nothing else, so the first thing I tried was pushing the LED light button on the I/O switch, and wouldn't you know it all the LEDs turned off and the three little lights that were supposed to be on turned on and the computer started up just fine, haha. Thanks camaroguy, the guy at the store was quite dumbfounded at how easy of a fix it was, haha . So it should be all good and ready to go tomorrow, granted the installing of the drivers and Windows goes alright.

Wow, I really kind of feel bad.....I should have made it more clear that the board will not power up with the LED light switch in the on position!
I'm glad to hear you got it up and running and You're Welcome!

What does this LED switch do? Is it to "pimp your ride" while the computer is off? Is it used for diagnostics?

Wow, I really kind of feel bad.....I should have made it more clear that the board will not power up with the LED light switch in the on position!
I'm glad to hear you got it up and running and You're Welcome!

Haha, well if you hadn't responded at all who knows how long it could have taken me to figure out to push that button and try powering it up again, so thanks again.

And Major the Asus Crosshair has like 20 little blue LEDs all over the board, they put it on there and advertised it as to light up your I/O shield so you don't have to fumble around in the dark to plug things in, haha. Why it doesn't power up when they're turned on is beyond me.

Man that's retarded. Glad you got it working.

The LED's are actually strategically placed on the Mobo to illuminate the different connectors so you can make hardware changes to the board in a room with low light or no light at all.

I am not exactly sure what the reasoning is behind not allowing the board to powerup with the lights on!?!

Here is the Crosshair page from ASUS.

Why somebody would be working on a computer in a room with low light or no light at all is beyond me, haha, but it's a nifty idea I guess.

ASUS wrote:The upshot is that many users now rely on their intuition to promptly set up devices in the dark.

Oh really?

Zertz wrote:

ASUS wrote:The upshot is that many users now rely on their intuition to promptly set up devices in the dark.

Oh really?

Maybe YODA wannabes? May the force be with them, I'll keep using my flashlight!

ASUS wrote:
The upshot is that many users now rely on their intuition to promptly set up devices in the dark.

Sometimes it makes you wounder what some people are smoking hu?

Glad you got it working.