Would the PC act this way if there was something wrong with the CPU? I
re-seated it and it looks fine. I have never had a bad CPU in 8 years
of doing this. I can try a different CPU if you think it would be
worth it. I have a 6800 in there now -- it should work right? I have a
9650 I can try. The 6800 was from an older PC and may have even sat
outside in my garage in the cold. I can't imagine that would make a
difference though.
I just realized something really dumb. The very first time I booted, I
may not have had the 3-way crossbeam connector -- the one that sits on
top of the three cards -- inserted. Could that have fried the
motherboard though? And the only times I have fried motherboards is
when they went completely dead, no CPU fans or anything. (Or, they
were DOA.) I have not had a dead motherboard that seemed to work but
would not go to post.
I'm grasping at straws here a bit because it is getting really
annoying...
I would not suspect the CPU. I probably wouldn't even have
removed it from the socket myself, except at the step where
I was changing motherboards. The thing is, sockets seem to be
very reliable, and I cannot remember too many instances of
where a clean socket, caused problems.
The SLI bridge thing, is not an essential component. For
example, if you were building a computer to drive six
monitors, using three video cards, you wouldn't have
needed the bridge. So I don't think that is what did it.
That cabling carries data, and the data would only be
essential at the point you switched to SLI mode. And if
it was missing, the software would likely return to non-SLI
mode or whatever. The bridge shouldn't be critical, in the
sense of damaging something.
Power is an obvious weak spot in computers, and many
problems have been traced back to a power supply issue.
There are also certainly enough premature motherboard
failures (within the warranty period), for that to be
a possibility.
To get a speaker, you could always remove a speaker
from another computer case. It would have a two wire
cable, and a 1x4 connector on the end. Or if you're
really desperate, go to a computer recycler in your
area, and buy a complete case, and strip the speaker
out of that. There should be a 1x4 connector on the
end. Depending on the pin spacing needed, sometimes you
have to move one of the pins, into another of the
available holes, to get the span right. (Not all motherboards
use the same spacing for PANEL header functions.)
Another debugging device, is a PCI Port 80 debug card.
These give you a two digit hexadecimal display. If the
display stays at 0x00 or 0xFF, then that might indicate
that the CPU is not able to execute BIOS code for some
reason. But if any other codes are displayed, one of
the problems is looking up the codes. The codes shown
using this method are "progress codes" and not "error codes".
They basically indicate what part of the POST code is
currently running. To work, the debug card goes in the
PCI slot nearest the processor. The BIOS code writes
to I/O Port 80 at regular intervals, during the various
stages of POST.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815158065
Some of the Nvidia contract manufactured motherboards,
actually have the two digit hex display built into the
motherboard. Asus doesn't go for stuff like that.
EVGA is an example of a company that sells Nvidia contract
motherboards, so you can find examples of boards there
that have the Port 80 display available to the user.
Have you been connecting the PCI Express Aux power connectors,
to the ends of each card ? Did you have to think about
which power cable to use on which card, due to the
30A limit on each 12V rail of your supply ? In any case,
if you're only using one video card at the moment,
that shouldn't be a problem. You could run one video
card off the same 12V rail cables, without a problem,
and it should start.
I haven't seen anything in what you've described so far,
that looks like user error.
Is the processor power cable plugged in at the moment ?
You have an EATX12V power connector, a 2x4. You can connect
a 2x2 connector from the power supply to that. With two
yellow and two black wires. The motherboard may have
come with a label, to cover the other two holes.
Be careful, if you decide to connect a 2x4 connector,
since there are several variations on the 2x4 connector.
I think someone even tried to plug a PCI Express
connector into that hole once. So verify what you've done
there, and switch to a 2x2 with two yellow and two black
wires as a test.
If you run out of ideas, perhaps a local shop can test
the motherboard for you. (They'll stick in their own
CPU and video card say, as a test.)
Paul
