"MJ" said:
2 Hours later...
If i shake the case a bit, the CPU fan seems to stay on after a few pushes
on the power button.
I tried Corsair XMS ram and still the same.
I put in a GF6800 Ultra and I cannot get the CPU fan to stay on at all.
Tried a different PowerSupply (same thing)
Can the case be the culprit for all of this or is it Motherboard or CPU?
I don't have the patience tonight to try and boot it out of the case (I
actually tried it out of the case when I first put it together and it was
doing the same exact thing...)
Now when I seated the GPU 6800 but unpluged the power dongles to it,
something beeped but I think it was the GPU.... otherwise no other beeps
at all.
Got all of this from Newegg btw...
If the problem existed before you put it in the case, there is
no reason to assume that putting the product in the case
will improve matters. The purpose of testing outside the case,
is to avoid wasting time putting a defective setup into the case.
Move the setup outside the case again. You'll need to do that
anyway, for an RMA.
Unfortunately, the K8N differs from the K8N-E, in that the K8N
doesn't have the Voice Post option. If you had Voice Post, you
could listen to the output on the Lineout connector, and there
could be an error message waiting for you.
In any case, the first thing I would try, is just motherboard,
power supply, and a single case fan with fan header plug. To
make a power switch, all you need to do, is jam a screwdriver
tip momentarily against the two pins where a power switch
would normally go on the PANEL header. You don't need to wire
everything on the PANEL header - I test on my desktop, with
nothing wired to the PANEL connector, and just using the
screwdriver trick to start the board. Obviously, if you want
to listen for POST beeps, you'll need to connect the speaker
to the PANEl header as well.
Only a momentary contact is necessary to the two power pins on
the PANEL header, for the motherboard to start, and to turn
it off, contact from 1 to 4 seconds long should do it.
In the test above, the processor would be removed. First, switch
on the PSU. Observe the green LED on the surface of the motherboard.
It should light up. When you touch the two power switch pins on
the PANEL header on the motherboard, with your screwdriver tip,
the PSU should power up. The LED should glow a steady green the
whole time. The LED should _never_ blink. If the LED ever blinks,
it means the +5VSB from the power supply is unsteady for some
reason. It could be something on the motherboard is overloading
the power supply, or the power supply is defective. By trying
a couple of power supplies, you might get an idea whether it is
the motherboard or not.
If the board switches on OK, see if the case fan plugged into
the motherboard spins as well. That means, at least, the +12V
on the main 20 pin cable works. That doesn't test the 2x2 ATX12V
connector in the upper left hand corner of the board. That is
the connector that comes with a "P4 ready" power supply, and
that connector must be connected, in order for the processor to
get power via the Vcore power converter.
If everything is OK so far, now install the CPU plus fan/heatsink,
but no memory. (Install with power supply unplugged - always
unplug while changing any hardware in a computer - a conservative
safety practice intended to prevent accidental presence of +5VSB
on the board. Basically, _never_ change hardware while the green
LED on the motherboard is lit.) With the CPU fan plugged into
the CPU fan header, turn on the PSU, and again touch the two pins
on the PANEL header with the screwdriver tip. If the CPU can read
the BIOS flash chip, the code should soon discover that the memory
DIMMs are missing. You would need a computer case speaker connected
to the speaker pins on the PANEL header, to hear the beep pattern.
Again, observe the green LED on the motherboard. Once the PSU switch
is in the ON position, the LED should glow with a steady light - no
blinking or glitching.
At this point, I don't know if clearing the CMOS, via the CLRTC
jumper, would help or not. If the power is coming on for only a
very short time, then probably no BIOS code is getting to run.
See section 1.9 of the manual. Remember to unplug the
computer, because at least on some older Asus motherboards, damage
can result from using the CLRTC jumper while the green LED is
glowing.
If results are worse with the CPU plugged in, than without, I would
RMA the processor. If, whether the CPU is plugged in or not, the
board has roughly the same symptoms, it could be the motherboard
that has the problem. Or, it could even be that a defective CPU
has blown the motherboard somehow. Fault isolation like this,
requires a lot of spare components hanging around for you to try,
and I cannot guarantee at the best of times, that you'll be able
to positively identify just one defective part.
You should also visually inspect the motheboard, for anything which
is out of place, any visible signs of damage (like scratches,
indicating someone had the motherboard before you). Apparently,
some Asus motherboard do ship with components not properly
soldered to the motherboard, so have a look at the board first,
for something easy to identify as a problem.
Good luck,
Paul
