So I sold my Antec Titan550 to a friend at work, and promptly went out and bought an Antec Solo to replace it.

I took my time transferring the contents from one case to the other. I gave the components a light cleaning with some compressed air. The system went back together exactly how it was originally.

Now the system won't post. I've got the Asus A8N SLI Premium motherboard. I reset the BIOS, then powered on. Still nothing. This board is supposed to have the speech reporter to say if something is wrong, but I'm getting no sound at all.

All the fans turn on, hard drives and DVD drives power up normally. But the screen is blank.

When I moved the system across cases, I didn't remove the HSF or RAM, and that's where I would normally suspect problems. So where should I start now? Unfortunately, I don't have any other 939 CPUs laying around, nor any other 939 motherboards.

Is it possible I killed the board with static electricity? Though I was gentle, I was using the Ninja to hold the motherboard, so I supposed I could have cracked the CPU... but I really was delicate, and certainly don't remember hearing any strange noises.

Any thoughts? Where's the best place to go to start troubleshooting?

Thanks!
Matt

I'd guess your ram or video is slightly unseated. Reseat both! If the problem persits, disconnect everything except:
cpu
one stick of ram
video

Does it post?

Check that the 4pin and 20(24)pin connectors are properly attached to your motherboard.

No luck!



Check... no luck!

Any other ideas? I just have an awful feeling that I ruined the CPU mobo, either with static electricity or physically.



Matt

Matt, try removing the mobo from the case and trying again with it on an inside out anti-static bag.

I would also remove and re-seat the CPU, don't worry about new goop/TIM as all you need to do is prove a point.

Not that it helps... but when I moved in with my gf I thought I'd be nice and swap her sons 16MB RAM for twin sticks of 32MB I had... board never worked again and cost me lots to upgrade I don't do 'nice' any more .....


Good Luck and keep us up to date


Pete

Okay, just finished with that experiment.

I still think it's either the motherboard or the CPU, and now I'm leaning towards the CPU.

When I went to remove the Ninja, I found that the Arctic Silver had practically cemented heatsink to the CPU. In fact, after unlatching the two retention brackets on one side of the Ninja, I found that the CPU was actually being pulled out of the socket!

I didn't know what to do, so as slowly and carefully as I could, I pulled the CPU out of it's socket.

A few pins were bent, so I painstakingly straighted the pins as best I could. I also cleaned off all the TIM. I put it back in the socket, and powered up. Still nothing.

However, if I power up the motherboard with no CPU at all, the "Asus voice" comes on and repeatedly says "No CPU installed".

I tried this several times, taking the CPU out and putting it back in, and turning the system on... same result, no POST.

Funny thing is, the CPU still gets warm... so at least part of it is working (maybe?).

So I'm pretty sure that either the ZIF socket on the motherboard is ruined, or the CPU itself is ruined.

Any more ideas? I'm thinking that I'm going to take the board down to the local shop and see if they'll drop a 939 chip in real quick to determine if it's the board or the CPU... or I guess I could take the CPU down and use one of their boards. You get the idea.

Thanks again guys,
Matt

I had a similar experience.....turned out the MB was shorting to the stand-offs on the new case. I fixed the problem with a few pieces of tape.

good luck....

How did you determine that there was a short?

I think I have similar problem.

I just got a new motherboard. First, I did a minimal hookup outside the case. I then installed it in the case, with the same minimal connections.

Now this motherboard is dead! It wouldn't post, so I took it back out of the case... won't post.

So it appears that this case has a grounding problem.

Can you elaborate a bit more on what you did not only to determine that there was a short, but also what you did exactly with the tape?

Thank you,
Matt

Update: since starting this thread, I've been through quite a bit with my A8N-SLI Premium(s).

I RMA'ed my original one to Asus. Not wanting to wait for it, I went ahead and ordered a second from newegg. The one from newegg came in. I put it in the case, powered up... and it didn't work. So I RMA'ed that one as well (through newegg).

I received both at approximately the same time. First I tried the RMA from Asus. According to the RMA invoice, they sent back the exact same board; all they did was a BIOS upgrade. Still, I couldn't get it to POST.

The RMA'ed board from newegg did work. I rebuilt my system with it, and it ran perfectly fine for about a month.

Just recently, I ordered an Antec P180B. The purpose was to consolidate my file server and main computer (the Solo case will become home for my girlfriend's computer).

I rebuilt the system in the P180, and when I powered it on... it wouldn't POST! This makes the third or fourth A8N SLI Premium that won't POST (or I have mistakenly killed).

I've built countless computers, and never had problems like this with any motherboard. It just seems too unlikely that I've received that many defective motherboards.

For what it's worth, I tried both a different power supply and video card on the most-recently-become-defective board.

I'm starting to think I have some bigger problem, but I don't know what that would be. If Asus really did just do a BIOS upgrade on my original board, surely it worked for them. But I couldn't get it to POST (and that's being outside of the case, sitting on an anti-static bag, with the bare minimum connected).

Anyone have any ideas where I could be going wrong or what else I could try?

Wasn't it the A8N SLI Premium that had the incompatibility with the Antec NeoHE PSU? Were there ever any reports of incompatibilities with the Fortron Source FSP400-60THN-R "Bluestorm" 400W PSU (i.e. what I have)?

you do know that the outside of anti-static bags are conductive, right? so you could cause damage by running the system while sitting on such a bag. if you have been using the bag inside-out then nevermind


have you been using the same cpu, ram, and psu on all these dead boards? always good to mix it up if possible. i had a psu that would not post on my system, but worked fine on every other similar system. weird stuff happens sometimes. hope you figure it out.