Did I blow something up? Brand new mobo/cpu wont even post

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MX-5 Dave

Gawd
Joined
Jan 14, 2007
Messages
568
I have this in my build thread, but I am desperate and need help fast :(

So it wouldnt overclock, not even 1mhz.

Tried the MSI OC Genie, nope. BSOD before it even gets to loading windows.

Get it back to defaults Boots ok

Reboot, go into bios (uefi) Set mem to 1.63v and 1600 (it was at like 1.2v and 1066)

Boots ok

Reboot to bios

Try to up CPU multiplier to 40

Nope wont boot

Try upping CPU PLL to 1.4000
CHange ram to unlinked turn ztreme memory thing on. Leave at 1600



Wont even post. Starts to power up, then shuts off, starts to power up, shuts off. Its stuck in some sort of loop




SO

I use the clear cmos button on the back panel

Nope, same thing

I use cmos jumper clear

NOPE

I remove the vid card to get to the mobo battery, remove it, reinstall it

NOPE

I remove all but 2 sticks of the ram (had 4)

NOPE



I cant seem to make the CMOS clear, either that, or something blew up.





Itsd an MSI P67A-GD65 with a 2500k and Patriot DDR3 1600 sticks (4X4gb)




When I first put it all together everything was fine. ROck solid and smooth.

Now it wont even post, its like stuck in some sort of rebooting loop.
 
Try disconnecting the power supply from the MB, plug it back in, then try power. If that doesn't work you might have toasted the board although I can't imagine how.
 
disconnected the ps from the mobo (both the main and 8 pin)
Removed cmos battery
switched cmos jumper

let it sit for like 2 min.


No change :(


I now have the video card out as well, to see if the board will at least start up and stay on for more than 3-4 sec and it isnt.
 
unplug it press the power button to run out the power, take out the battery and clear the cmos.
 
well the mobo and psu are out of the case now sitting on the box on my desk. I have the thing unplugged, battery out, and cmos jumper jumped to clear, all cables unplugged, vid cad out, no ram.

Gonna hold the power button on the mobo down for 30 sec, then put it all back together and see if it boots.
 
nope no change.

its dead :(

Nothing I do makes it even post.


How do I diag if its the mobo or the CPU?


Will the board post with no CPU in it? Guess I may as well try at this point.


Never going to oc again. My last 3 mobo/cpu combos would not overclock even 1mhz and be stable, now this blows up on the first try??


f that. I should have bought a normal 2500 or even a 2600 non K and not threw my money away on a 2500k.

Hopefully its the CPU that is blown I wont make the mistake again.
 
sorry if I am coming off as super pissed. I sort of am, more just incredibly frustrated and feeling pretty deflated right now.


Took a deep breath, popped open a beer and am going to see if the board will post with no CPU...
 
I'm pretty sure it won't POST without the CPU. You should get some kind of error code from the motherboard (beep code or on screen) if you boot without a CPU or if your CPU is dead, and if you don't get that kind of error, it probably means there's a problem with your motherboard.
 
Well nothing with no CPU. The lights come on for a sec the fan I plugged into the cpu fan header spins up, then everything goes off, and it cycles just like it has been.

Put the CPU back in, tried 2 other known good sticks of memory and a different video card, and the stock intell hsf (was using a coolermaster V8)

Same thing, just cycles starts to boot, fans spin up, then everything back off, then on, then off, cycling. Never shows the post screen, never on for more than 2-3 sec before cycling off again.





Any guesses which I should buy first?

New CPU or new MOBO?


I really dont want to buy both to just return the part that wasnt broke if I dont have to.
 
Radical said:
I'm pretty sure it won't POST without the CPU. You should get some kind of error code from the motherboard (beep code or on screen) if you boot without a CPU or if your CPU is dead, and if you don't get that kind of error, it probably means there's a problem with your motherboard.
Click to expand...

Yeah no beeps or anything.

Im gonna try unplugging everything and taking the battery out overnight.

It really seems like the CMOS just wont reset for some reason.
 
I would go with mobo first, because it sounds like it's dead.

EDIT: To be on the safe side, maybe buy it from a brick & mortar store so you can return it easily if you need to?
 
Any guesses what the hell happened?

Would anything that I did in the bios (well, uefi) as far as cpu PLL voltage or DRAM voltage POSSIBLY been able to damage it? I cant see how, but maybe?
 
I was thinking about that...it seems most likely that you just got unlucky and got a bad example of that board and upping the PLL or memory voltage took it too far. But your guess is as good as mine.
 
Also just for the hell of it, have you checked to see if your PSU will power on?
 
Radical said:
Also just for the hell of it, have you checked to see if your PSU will power on?
Click to expand...

yeah it powers up just fine. I have one of those jumper connectors, I plugged it in with the PSU hooked to nothing else and it turns on and stays on just fine.
 
Does MSI have some kind of crash free BIOS system? Although if it won't post at all I guess that wouldn't help too much. I'm not sure what the default CPU PLL voltage is, but 1.4 sounds wrong for Sandy Bridge - still though, I wouldn't think that would be enough to kill it by itself. Most likely a motherboard issue - like you said, seems like it isn't clearing CMOS. I'd be surprised if what you set killed it outright - either a BIOS problem or just a bad board altogether.

Edit: A quick Google shows the CPU PLL is default of 1.8V? If you set 1.4 and the default is 1.8 then that is probably your problem, and you just need to get the CMOS cleared. Or did you mean Vcore?
 
Well tomorrow morning I am gonna head to Frys and pick up a new mobo and come back home to see if that fixes it. Unfortunately although this mobo is brand new, I have had it longer than the 15 day return period so I cant even exchange it. So Ill RMA it then put it up for sale I guess.

The 1.400 PLL was the lowest option I could select in the menu. Which seemed weird to me as well, but I figured that if it was the lowest, it should be at least relatively safe. And I had seen other people mention having 1.4 and higher on the PLL on some way OCd systems.

For the record, the highest setting I tried, was only a 40x multiplier. So its not like I went crazy with it. And the mobo's automatic overclocking didnt even work, it crashed when it tried too. That was the first thing I tried.

If the mobo doesnt fix the problem, I am going to get a 2600, non K. I am done with overclocking. I dont know if what I did caused this, I cant see how and it sounds like you guys dont think so either, but regardless, it was fine till then, and I just dont need these headaches.



Should I go with another MSI board or go to the ASUS boards? They have both in stock...
 
Check my PM

Also, please don't adjust anything next time except the multiplier. All the cpu's can do x40 without any problem.

And default voltage for DDR memory is 1.5v not 1.2v, btw.
And make sure the replacement board is a B3, not B2 stepping (should be marked clearly on the box).
 
You really think using a jumper in a psu 24 pin is going to tell you anything about the PSU other than if it actually turns on. You are running almost no watts of power threw it, whereas when you boot with the cpu, and video card and everything else, you are doing about 400-500w of power.

It's either a bad power supply or a bad motherboard if you tried new memory. And I really hope you didn't start overclocking the board before you even installed windows on it...............
 
Ok let me clarify a couple things, to get a clearer picture out there :)


1. I tried doing nothing but increasing the multiplier to 40. It BSOD'd during the process of loading, before it even got to the desktop.

2. I upped the voltage on the memory to 1.65 because that is what the memory calls for. It was running the memory at 1066 with 1.2v with the board on "auto" So I raised it to the 1.65v that the memory calls for, and set it to 1600. Its Patriot sector 5 DDR3 1600 in case anyone is wondering, 4 4gig sticks. yes I tried it with 2 sticks, and I tried it with 2 sticks of Corsair that I had in my other board. No change.

3. I am not trying to boot massive amounts of things. The only thing plugged into the PSU is the mobo itself. I even tried taking the video card out, just to see if it would behave any differently. The time it takes to cycle did not change.

4. Yes, I had windows on it. It was up and running, fresh install solid and stable for about an hour before I tried ANY overclocking. And my first shot was a 40X multiplier with no other changes. It BSOD'd on that shortly after post, while loading windows. Thats the first time I have seen a BSOD before windows was even fully booted.









Hopefully that helps?


The statement that "all CPUs will do 40X" has me thinking, maybe the fact that it would in fact not do 40X is evidence that the mobo was junk from the beginning? Would you guys agree there?



Of course my crap luck, I go to Frys this morning to pick up a replacement board, and they have no decent P67 boards in stock. They said they have Sabertooths and more of this MSI board coming in on Saturday though.

I asked them if I brought them my mobo/cpu/ram if they could test them, but they want $70 to do it. Forget that. Everyone seems to agree that its almost certainly the mobo, including the tech at Frys, so that will be my first shot at it.
 
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If it worked for a hour, then stopped. Id say the PSU is bad. Although I'm assuming during that hour it was "stable" you were running intel burn test and logging the temps to make sure it was really stable.
 
Maybe they're both bad...PSU died and took the mobo with it. In that case the only safe things to do would be to replace both at the same time, or PSU first.
 
It wasnt that it "stopped" like as in was running then died. I shut it down, made a couple changes in the UEFI and it wouldnt come back up.

If its a bad PSU a new mobo wont boot either right? I guess Ill stop on the way home today and pick up a PSU and see if it boots.



Actually, I have my old mobo/cpu sitting there, Ill see if that posts. If that posts on this PSU then that eliminates the PSU. If it doesnt, well at least I know the same thing I know now. Which isnt much beyond "probably the mobo" If it doesnt, Ill swing into Frys and grab a new PSU, thats a fast easy way of testing that theory, and if it isnt the PSU, thats easy enough to return.


I gotta think the chances that it was the PSU are slim, its a maybe 18month old 850watt Corsair that has been flawless till now.

Although maybe that would explain the inability to OC? The C2D E8500 I was running was OCd for maybe 6 months then wouldnt take ANY OC at all, just all the sudden. HOWEVER, there was no problem when I added 5 more fans, 3 more HDs, 2 CCFLs and a water pump... I gotta think if the PSU was bad there should have been SOME indication prior to now.
 
Isn't the RAM on a Sandy Bridge board supposed to be no higher than 1.5? Have you tried setting the voltage for the RAM at 1.5?
 
I guess if the PSU is bad, a new mobo could still boot fine. The PSU might power on correctly, but the power it supplies might be far out of spec, or could come out of spec under load. You would need to check the rails under load, but I'm not sure how you could simulate the load of a PC if the PSU isn't actually hooked up to a running PC.
 
G_Sup said:
Isn't the RAM on a Sandy Bridge board supposed to be no higher than 1.5? Have you tried setting the voltage for the RAM at 1.5?
Click to expand...

1.65v is fine.

I ordered a P67A-GD65 (B3) from newegg that would continuously power off and power on. I couldn't fix it so I went and got a P8P67 from Fry's which worked perfectly. The MSI went back for a refund.
 
Valshistixol said:
1.65v is fine.

I ordered a P67A-GD65 (B3) from newegg that would continuously power off and power on. I couldn't fix it so I went and got a P8P67 from Fry's which worked perfectly. The MSI went back for a refund.
Click to expand...

That is exactly the board I have, and sounds like the exact same problem.


I am just going to order either a gigabyte or an ASUS.
 
Radical said:
I guess if the PSU is bad, a new mobo could still boot fine. The PSU might power on correctly, but the power it supplies might be far out of spec, or could come out of spec under load. You would need to check the rails under load, but I'm not sure how you could simulate the load of a PC if the PSU isn't actually hooked up to a running PC.
Click to expand...



Im gonna swap it into my secondary PC tonight and see what happens. That will tell me if the PSU is at least functional enough to run a computer.
 
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MX-5 Dave said:
That is exactly the board I have, and sounds like the exact same problem.


I am just going to order either a gigabyte or an ASUS.
Click to expand...

I briefly used an MSI p67a gd65, but switched to a Gigabyte p67a ud4. I did not have the problems that you were having, but one time the thing locked up with no load, and it would boot up but not make it into windows, but sit at a black screen. Resetting the cmos fixed that though. I could not turn off the llc in the bios. It would overvolt at load and make it higher than the idle voltage.
 
Well the PSU is now powering the secondary PC (the one I am on right now) just fine.

I know that isnt a huge load test, but its powering a C2D E7400, my wireless NIC and 2-3 fans just fine. So I can eliminate the PSU from what is preventing the other MOBO from even posting. Not a 100% way of testing if its working 100% properly under full load, but it is working enough to post a board and get into windows. I also loaded up WoW for a bit to try to stress it a little bit more (I turned the graphics up to stress it as much as I could, which isnt a ton, but it was enough to slow the game way down, which would at least pull pull draw from the video card.

So I at least know the PSU, while maybe not potent enough to overclock, is not the problem that is causing the power cycling.

Better than nothing anyway.

Im gonna swing in to Frys today and pick up an ASUS mobo. F it they have it in stock and I can spend the weekend getting my comp squared away and find out for sure if the PSU can handle things.

If I decide the ASUS board isnt for me for whatever reason, it would be within the first day or so, Ill just order the Gigabyte and return the ASUS when it gets here.
 
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