K8N no boot....

[stevo1210]

Re: K8N no boot....

Both optical drives wont work and are probably dead.

I take that back now because I tested the optical drives yesterday in another PC and they still work.

[stevo1210]

Re: K8N no boot....

The motherboard on the other hand has a bad 1000uf 6.3V Ltec cap right next to the Northbridge/ Southbridge combo chipset.

I just checked the bad cap on the board again. It's actually a 820uf 6.3V cap and not a 1000uf 6.3V cap.
Only problem is that I just stocked up with 1000uf 6.3v Sanyo caps to do a recap.
Will 1000uf caps be OK?? or do I have to make an order for 820uf caps instead??

Thanks.

[shadow]

Re: K8N no boot....

I would say that it would be fine. Hell on my board I went from 3300uF to 2200uF and it runs just fine.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: K8N no boot....

820uF -> 1000uF should be just fine.

[starfury1]

Re: K8N no boot....

I'll third that...fine
remember the uf rating is "nominal" and at that value could be say 200uF difference from marked in reality

I have 1200 uf ruby's that measure 1500 uf on the meter....its a ball park figure the cap rating on the can
So in the immortal words of Douglas Adams HHGTTG "Dont Panic"

Cheers mate, All

[stevo1210]

Re: K8N no boot....

The 200w Fortron can be a bit too low on 12v rails, so try a different psu.

I got a different higher wattage PSU to test this motherboard today and I still have absoultely nothing. The new PSU is a Dell/ Delta 350W PSU.
I have no beeps on bootup and all I see are the fans spinning and also the green LED.
What else could I check to find the issue that's causing this board to not boot?

Thanks.

[zandrax]

Re: K8N no boot....

I have no beeps on bootup and all I see are the fans spinning and also the green LED.
What else could I check to find the issue that's causing this board to not boot?

Hmmm ...
It seems the bios can't complete the boot sequence: try unplugging the ram module, the bios should notice it and beep a lot. If beeps, the bios can reach the memory test and fails at it or after it: try plugging a different module.

OTOH you can look for a Post card: it reads the memory at 80h and displays any boot stage on an lcd screen, you can track down the failing boot sequence.

Zandrax

[stevo1210]

Re: K8N no boot....

I left the board running for about 15 minutes with no boot whatsoever and after the 15 minutes, I touched the chipset and it got so hot that my fingers burnt.
Is that how hot this chipset is supposed to be?? or do I have a shorted out chipset??

Thanks.

[zandrax]

Re: K8N no boot....

I left the board running for about 15 minutes with no boot whatsoever and after the 15 minutes, I touched the chipset and it got so hot that my fingers burnt.
Is that how hot this chipset is supposed to be?? or do I have a shorted out chipset??

Thanks.

Not sure, but nForce 3 and 4 have the fame of being more than warm while operating, but I think its temp shouldn't overcome 60 °C otherwise it can get damaged. Some motherboard manifacturers employed heatpipes (e.g. MSI for the K8N families), I think Asus didn't.

However, fans do spin and the green led does light, so this is a "no post" issue. You removed the ram and got nothing (no beep, no error messages, nothing at all); try removing the graphic card, the bios must notice its absence with some beeps (the most common sequence is one long and three short ones).
If you get nothing again, then you are facing a motherboard, cpu or psu issue: you think the psu is reliable, so the culprit can be the cpu or the mobo. If you can get another socket 754 mobo, you could test the cpu.
Sorry I can't help you more than this.

Zandrax

[stevo1210]

Re: K8N no boot....

If you get nothing again, then you are facing a motherboard, cpu or psu issue: you think the psu is reliable, so the culprit can be the cpu or the mobo.

I think I have to retest this motherboard again this weekend.... I just remembered that my Dell PSU that I used to test this board and CPU was one that kept doing strange bootloops and shutdowns on my brothers PC which I put together about a week ago.

The original PSU was a Raidmax and had 2 bad caps in it.... in fact one cap blew its can off!.
The cap that blew its can off is a 10V JEE cap which I can't see the capacitance. Another cap that went bad inside the PSU was a Rulycon 1000uf 6.3V.

About this problem with the original PSU.... well I decided to drag this PSU all the way from the USA back here to Australia to do some testing with the voltages.

If anyone is wondering.... yes.... the motherboard +CPU +RAM+ PSU +case (basically the whole system) all came from the USA and had to be transported here in my carry-on luggage ...... that was a real pain to carry all that stuff on a plane.

Anyway.... The 12V line came in at 11.9V, 5V at 4.9V, 3.3V at 3.25V and the +5V SB was 4.9V. These voltages are measured under the load of a few HDDs.
Is it safe to rule out that the PSU killed any components in the system??

Thanks.

[zandrax]

Re: K8N no boot....

Anyway.... The 12V line came in at 11.9V, 5V at 4.9V, 3.3V at 3.25V and the +5V SB was 4.9V. These voltages are measured under the load of a few HDDs.
Is it safe to rule out that the PSU killed any components in the system??

I think excessive ripple and/or both under- and overvoltage can damage chips: a simple DMU can't detect ripple (the reading is an average value) and those values, while low, are still within standards. So I can't state anything.

No idea about the Raidmax too: it's a Thermaltake-like brand, its products are made by different manifacturers and they varies a lot about build quality. It seems that Topower based ones are more reliable than others such as Channel Well's Thermaltakes are the better among TT psus. You should post the model name.

Zandrax

[stevo1210]

Re: K8N no boot....

I've started to notice a few things with this motherboard.

1. When I plug my optical drive into the motherboard it wont eject or read discs etc. But if I connect the molex power connector and no IDE cable, it will eject etc.

2. Upon bootup I can hear my floppy drive go "click" and that's it.

3. My CPU for some reason is stone cold even after leaving the board on for a long period of time. Are AMD CPUs seriously this cold?? or do I have a strange feeling that my CPU is faulty??

Thanks.

[zandrax]

Re: K8N no boot....

I've started to notice a few things with this motherboard.

1. When I plug my optical drive into the motherboard it wont eject or read discs etc. But if I connect the molex power connector and no IDE cable, it will eject etc.

Check the cable, it could be reversed: the mobo usually takes a long time to boot and doesn't list the drive among periphericals.

2. Upon bootup I can hear my floppy drive go "click" and that's it.

Not harmful: the bios checks the floppy unit at boot; you can change this behaviour by disabling the floppy check or, in recent bioses, enabling the Fast boot, Quick boot or similar options.

3. My CPU for some reason is stone cold even after leaving the board on for a long period of time. Are AMD CPUs seriously this cold?? or do I have a strange feeling that my CPU is faulty??

I don't think so: Athlon 64 cpus should be warm, around 35°C (95 F) in idle; the heatsink doesn't burn your hand when you touch it, but it should be warmer than air inside the case.
The cpu isn't faulty because you'd get a lot of error, hungups, freezes or a simple block on boot; check the heatsink, perhaps there isn't enough thermal paste or the contact between cpu and heatsink is loose.

Zandrax

[stevo1210]

Re: K8N no boot....

Actually i've gotten no where so far. I cant get the system to POST.... I get a blank screen and that's it upon bootup.... no beeps.... nothing.
I've checked the CPU and neither the heatsink or CPU get warm whatsoever, that's why I'm suspecting a dead CPU but I cant confirm it yet.
I get no beeps on bootup even if I remove the RAM, graphics card or CPU. I only get a green LED on the motherboard and the fans spins and that's about it. The motherboard still responds to the power button.... meaning that If I hold the power button it will turn off.
I've also checked the CD ROM cable and the cable is indeed the right way around because there's a notch on the IDE cable that prevents me from turning it the other way. I've tried three different drives with the same effect.... if the IDE cable is plugged in.... they act dead.
The PSU I used this time is a known working one, a Delta NPS-250KB that currently powers my Intel P4 server that has full of HDDs and optical drives.

Thanks.

[zandrax]

Re: K8N no boot....

Actually i've gotten no where so far. I cant get the system to POST.... I get a blank screen and that's it upon bootup.... no beeps.... nothing.
I've checked the CPU and neither the heatsink or CPU get warm whatsoever, that's why I'm suspecting a dead CPU but I cant confirm it yet.
I get no beeps on bootup even if I remove the RAM, graphics card or CPU. I only get a green LED on the motherboard and the fans spins and that's about it. The motherboard still responds to the power button.... meaning that If I hold the power button it will turn off.

You didn't state your pc was unable to boot.
Something prevents the mainboard to boot, but the hardware monitors still works.
What does happen if you remove the cpu? The board should beep claiming its absence.

I've also checked the CD ROM cable and the cable is indeed the right way around because there's a notch on the IDE cable that prevents me from turning it the other way. I've tried three different drives with the same effect.... if the IDE cable is plugged in.... they act dead.
The PSU I used this time is a known working one, a Delta NPS-250KB that currently powers my Intel P4 server that has full of HDDs and optical drives.

Thanks.

Stevo, this psu is the one you recapped, which whines and hangs when temps rise? Can you simply try another unit, perhaps a more recent one?
Check the cable on the mainboard side; another explaination is the chipset hangs (don't ask why, never happened to me) and blocks the drive.

Zandrax

[stevo1210]

Re: K8N no boot....

What does happen if you remove the cpu? The board should beep claiming its absence.

I tried that as well. I removed the CPU and the motherboard didn't beep at all.

stevo, this psu is the one you recapped, which whines and hangs when temps rise? Can you simply try another unit, perhaps a more recent one?

Actually I have a few of those Delta units here. I bought them in a big bulk box from a computer store that wanted to trash them.
There was only one in there that I had to recap because it got squashed against something. The one I used to test this motherboard is a decent one that hasn't been recapped at all and is in pristine condition.... it looks just like new IMHO.
The one that I recapped that whines and shuts off randomly is in my spares box and I calssify that one as being "written off" and awaiting a stripping.
But I'm going to take your advice and get a stronger PSU to test this system.... maybe my Thermaltake 430W should be able to do this??.... after all it is currently powering my Pentium D gaming rig....

Thanks.

[zandrax]

Re: K8N no boot....

I tried that as well. I removed the CPU and the motherboard didn't beep at all.

Bad sign: the motherboard should complain the lack. Try erasing the cmos with the jumper.
If it douesn't work, chances are the mobo is faulty; the last test is booting it with a different psu, but I wouldn't hope at tis point. Sorry to write that.

Zandrax

[kc8adu]

Re: K8N no boot....

measure vcore and vdimm.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: K8N no boot....

No POST and no bleeps=Likely a damaged processor.

That's what happened to me 5 years ago when I wasn't gentle enough when reclipping the heatsink.

This can be caused by pushing down real hard when remounting a cooler, especially if you installed a wide cooling block.

[stevo1210]

Re: K8N no boot....

Stevo has completely given up on this motherboard and CPU. Stevo has now decided that he will trash this motherboard and CPU. I have also decided to strip some of the ruby MBZ off this motherboard.

The AMD heatsink might make some good noises if I drop it a few times.

Anyway, thanks for the help guys.