DFI Mobo wont POST

[LeftyAce]

Hi all,

I recently bought a DFI Lanparty Expert board as part of a new build. After plugging in minimal parts (to get settings figured out) I tried to turn the board on, and very little happens.

All the fans (chipset, cpu and gfx) spin up, and the four diagnostic LEDs stay lit (indicating that the board is looking for a processor). Ive reseated the processor (which is brand new, as is everything else).

The powersupply is an Antec True Power 2 550 Watt (as recommended by this forum). Processor is an AMD Athlon 64 4000 San Diego, Corsair Value Select ram, BFG GeForce 7800GT.

I realize this board is pickey when it comes to components, but is it possible that its too pickey to use amd processors?? Doesnt that defeat the purpose of a socket 939 board ??!!

I've posted on dfi-street and am still wading through post after post saying "check the power connectors".....so any troubleshooting tips for the cpu and/or mobo would be much appreciated.

So far I have tried a 12 hour cmos clear, different vid card, made sure ram and power connectors are all plugged into correct places.

Plese help! Thanks!

[rjfvillarosa]

Have you tried the "Out of Case" build?

[LeftyAce]

Thats all Im doing for now. Out of case, one stick ram, vid card, cpu. No hdd, floppy or anthing else to cause problems.

[rjfvillarosa]

I take it you have done the usual - tried another stick of ram, different video card?
Have you got access to a spare precessor?
Does that board have an onboard piezo speaker for the POST beep?
Have you got the harddrive plugged in? some boards won't start with no harddrive plugged in.

[LeftyAce]

Ive tried the other stick of ram that came in the package with the one I was using (both brand new; the only 184 pin ram I have access to) . Tried all the ram slots (even though the orange one furthest from the cpu is supposed to be the one to use).

Tried a known working vid card, also no luck.

No spare processor for socket 939, and no other motherboard with a 939 socket to test this cpu in. (all Ive got is a dell P4 and an old emachine celeron).

Have a piezo speaker, and made sure that the jumper was set so that it is on. The only error beeps listed in the manual are for no ram or no vid card. Im getting neither of those errors.

Tried with and without a hdd plugged in. Still thinks theres no processor.

[LeftyAce]

Well I finally got throuh to dfi tech spport an they said to rma it to newegg. I decided to try a replacement of the same board, so hopefully that will work as advertised. If not, I'm not going to spend too much time trying to get to the bios, I'll switch to Asus :-)

Thanks for the suggestions, sorry to take your time on a part that it turns out is beyond help :-)

Anyone recommend a good (semi-noob friendly) motherboard in case the replacement also doesnt work?

Thanks all,

n3wo

[jayb1234]

One of the ASUS A8N series with whatever features you need would be a good choice.

DFI makes good boards, but they can be real picky about components and a bear to get running right.

[Mr.Ferrari]

They also make very difficult begginer boards. They are more geared to overclockers and the such.

[LeftyAce]

Yeah, I thought I could handle it (and maybe I can with a functioning board :-) but if not, I'll look into an asus board.

Was thinking of maybe using the overclocking option at a later date to squeeze more performance out of stuff before I have to upgrade.

[MaxRat]

Originally Posted by Mr.Ferrari They also make very difficult begginer boards. They are more geared to overclockers and the such.

Boy..I'll say....

The "Expert" board isnt a beginner board....It's meant for those who...Have used a DFI before...Not for those who have built other pc's before...

DFI boards are there own breed... and they are picky...

If this IS your 1st DFI I would recommend a Ultra-D or a SLI-D or SLI-DR...

I can tell you the SLI-D and SLI-DR are easy to boot but DO require some work to get going good...

I have 3 SLI-DR's and they all 3 booted 1st time...1 with a Opteron 148 and the other 2 with 3700 San Diegos...

The pickiest DFI I have is the NF2 in my sig I still run on....

[LeftyAce]

Ok, so maybe Im over optimistic to think I can get the board to work even if theres nothing wrong with it? Should I wake up and hear what everyones been saying? hmmm. In that case, what about this asus

I understand they're noob friendly, etc. I'll still be able to overclock, right?

Just need to see if newegg will change my request and replace with a different mobo...

Any reasons not to switch to the asus?

Thanks,

n3wo

[MaxRat]

Thats a good board...

Yes you can overclock....but as I've stated before..."your overclock is only going to be as good as your experience with it..."

If this is something your learning on...then by all means get it...There are cheaper Asus boards that will do as well...especially if you dont need SLI...

The overclocking stickies are a very good place to start...even print them out so you can quick reference them when you need to... I know it's helped me a bunch instead of running back to the pc to look it up...good luck..

[LeftyAce]

Right. I'm new to building (and overclocking), so learner-friendly is more important than crazy overclocking. I do want to get sli, with an eye towards upgrading my video performance in a few months (more cost efficient to get a second card and almost double performance...)

Will of course read stickies and any other info I can get when it comes to ocing, but think I'll wait to get a stable system running first. 2.4 GHz athlon should be enough for me for now :-)

[MaxRat]

Well...


it's sounds like you got the right idea...1st thing is build the pc and make sure it's 100% stable before overclocking any...

I do recomend DFI boards but...I wouldnt recomend them for a 1st time builder OR a 1st time overclocker...The can be tuff...but once you fully understand them they are a breeze....

The one thing I like most about the DFI-Expert board is that there is plenty of room between the 2 PCI-E slots...so when you run SLI there is plenty of room for cooling and less interference with other things...

People that have this board and run SLI love it to death...but agree it was a full time job to get it going 100%... so there you have it....enjoy..

[glc]

No, SLI does NOT almost double performance. It is NOT cost efficient. It's a way to get the last bit of performance with high end cards - and sell more video cards. It's like RAID 0.

[LeftyAce]

??!! Whoa! Before I totally re-think what I think about using 2 gpus in paralell vs 1 by itself, why is it "not cost efficient"?? Do you have benchmarks? Other data? I admit my "almost 2 times" comment comes from an nvidia statement of 1.9X performance, but still, surely theres a benefit; why do so many buy into it?

(ps I bought the asus board. will arrive soon)

[Mr.Ferrari]

For example. No point in useing two 6800gt's when you can get a single 7900GT (im not sure if 2 of those are actuallly of equivalent, its a example) and then have to worry about powersupplies and special motherboards. Or having 2 X1600's instead of a single X190XT/X, if your going crossfire.

Sli or Crossfire is there for people who have a lil extra $$ to spend and want to top end performance.

[LeftyAce]

Ok, so it sounds like money is better spent on the next gen card than on a second copy of an older model. Unfortunately Ive already bought an sli capable motherboard and psu. Obviously more power is never a bad thing (From a psu standpoint). Anyone know what I can do with a free pci express slot??....oh wait, I could get a 56k modem for it....

Thanks guys, u saved me from using all available $$ to get a second card in a few months.

[blue60007]

A good PSU certainly won't hurt as you said...and the extra slot isn't a huge waste...in the future, more things like sound cards (and modems) will be coming in PCI-e variants...already, you can get USB/IDE/you name it controllers (to add extra ports and what not) are coming in PCI-e. You probably also have some PCI-E x1 or x4 slot(s) you can use for this too.

A price example of SLI:
A single 7900GT costs a little more than two 6600GT's - the 7900GT will beat the crap out of the 6600GT's any day.

I only see one 7800GT at Newegg (assuming that's what you have from your first post) and it's overpriced...so, it doesn't look like you could do SLI anyways.

[LeftyAce]

Yes, I bought the BFG 7800gt. And if you think its overpriced now, I payed 299 for it a week ago. (a day after I bought it, the 7900gt went to 297...:-(

Based on the rate at which cards get phased out, my idea of using sli as a staged upgrade system is probably flawed from the start. By the time I'm ready for the second card they're no longer stocked...

But, at least I haven't already bought a second card, based on the performance reality. Thanks as always for your wisdom. Now, what cool devices should I go find for the other pci-e port.....This could be fun :-)