ASUS P5N-E Mobo not posting

[Jon]

Hi all.

Bought a bunch of components from aria this weekend, put them together and encountered a couple of issues that have ultimately led to the system not booting or even posting from the mobo.

Quick run down, not the first PC I've put together by far, so I'm confident everything was done properly and with care. PC booted fine after being put together, was able to format HDD and install XP, ran for a night, encountered a lock up/total freeze and had to reset. Booted again but froze again almost straight away, on desktop with no active programs. I reinstalled windows for good measure but this didnt correct the issue and on booting windows had another lock up, after which the computer now will not even boot at all, beyond the power light coming on there is no activity not even mobo post to display (though cpu/gfx card fans all spinning fine). Tried reseating all components, to no avail. Did various other obvious checks.

Spec is;

ASUS P5N-E SLi NF650i Socket 775 Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E8200 2.66Ghz (retail fan)
OCZ 2GB PC2-8500 SLI-Ready Edition (2x1GB)
XFX GeForce 8600GTS 256MB PCI-E Retail
500Gb Hitachi SATA-2 P7K500 Hard Drive- 16MB
Case- Alpine EZ Cool Midi Black EC-7103, various additional fans (400W PSU)

Could this be a PSU issue? I was wary but reassured that 400W would suffice (I had intended to buy something with more juice at some point in the near future anyway). Otherwise I'm at a loss as to what to do next, I don't see why the mobo wouldn't post, and am assuming via that this is what the issue is with.

I know it's a bit broad but any ideas are welcome.

[mlb07165]

Personally I would've got 500w or more psu, but it's not only the power that can cause problems. If it's not a good branded psu like ocz or something then it is likely to cause problems, but then again I wouldn't have thought you would get these problems so soon.

What brand is the psu by the way. did it come with the case?

[alexnifty]

Cheapo PSU could be the issue. Got another PSU to test things with?

Have you set the memory timings and voltages manually? Your board might be undervolting the RAM.

[Jon]

Yeah I am using the PSU which came with the case, but that was literally just a stop gap while I got the system up and running, not ran any intensive software and literally just installed the OS- though at 400W I didnt think this would be a massive issue. While I can understand an underpowered PSU might affect me once booted, would it stop the motherboard from posting altogether as I am now experiencing?

As for setting anything manually, everything is vanilla, I've not touched anything or overclocked etc, just put the thing together and thrown windows on.

[marsey99]

nah, if you have a bios revision older than 0803 you wont post with that cpu, sry.

do you have an older 775 proc you could use to flash the bios?

[Totem]

was able to format HDD and install XP, ran for a night, encountered a lock up/total freeze and had to reset.

Did you even read his post:question:

[Jon]

I don't have another 775, though not sure what to make of this since the mobo did post and boot a couple of times already before it froze out on me and stopped posting altogether.


nah, if you have a bios revision older than 0803 you wont post with that cpu, sry.

do you have an older 775 proc you could use to flash the bios?

[alexnifty]

Yeah I am using the PSU which came with the case, but that was literally just a stop gap while I got the system up and running, not ran any intensive software and literally just installed the OS- though at 400W I didnt think this would be a massive issue. While I can understand an underpowered PSU might affect me once booted, would it stop the motherboard from posting altogether as I am now experiencing?

As for setting anything manually, everything is vanilla, I've not touched anything or overclocked etc, just put the thing together and thrown windows on.

Did you try doing a CMOS reset? Swapping the reset jumper [see your manual] over on your mobo, then powering it up should reset bios, hopefully this will post. Then shutdown, put the jumper back, power on, and then set the ram timings and voltages manually.

marsey99 might be right about the bios version, perhaps you managed to boot by some luck. Not too likely though.

[wonderlust]

To me it sounds like a psu issue, Mush had very similar situation with his new build.

booted fine on the psu, then slowly got worse. Dead Psu and dead Motherboard.

[alexnifty]

That happened on the first boot?

Jon, see if you can get your hands on a different PSU. Cross your fingers for your mobo's little life :(

[wonderlust]

yeah

http://forums.aria.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5518

[Jon]

Thanks I'll take a look, specifically at doing a CMOS reset. Does the aria technical/returns desk offer a service to look into these problems (at a cost or not etc?)

[marsey99]

i have had it happen before when a mobos worked fine with a cpu it doesnt support and then its later spatt its dummy because of it.

i have killed them too by flashing with an unsupported cpu :(

[Jon]

This seems to have worked a treat, I am now posting from the computer =D Thank you very much!


Did you try doing a CMOS reset? Swapping the reset jumper [see your manual] over on your mobo, then powering it up should reset bios, hopefully this will post. Then shutdown, put the jumper back, power on, and then set the ram timings and voltages manually.

marsey99 might be right about the bios version, perhaps you managed to boot by some luck. Not too likely though.

[alexnifty]

Thankyou, I accept paypal and forum Rep (http://forums.aria.co.uk/reputation.php?p=55105). :P

You should check your bios version is more recent than 0803 as Marsey suggested.