OK, so I've been building a PC for a friend, I've built over twenty PC's so I'm fairly well versed in what to do and what not to do, although I'm always willing to learn more!
So the specs are as follows : GA-Z97P-D3, no RAM as yet but Corsair CMX8GX3M2A1600C11 XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) is ordered and awaiting delivery. In the mean time I've robbed my own RAM which is Corsair CMX16GX3M2A1600C11 XMS3 16GB (2x8GB), 120GB Kingston SSD, SATA DVD+R, Intel Pentium G3258 + Stock HSF (which only just arrived today hence isn't on the pics), Corsair Modular 600W PSU, HDMI straight from motherboard into Toshiba TV.
I thought today (whilst waiting for the actual RAM to arrive) that I would make a start and install an O.S, get the PC all ready for my friend, then when the RAM arrives it's a two second job to drop that in and he's ready to go. BIG MISTAKE!!
Switching the PC on and the fans spin up, no noticable LED's on the motherboard which I thought was unusual, then I noticed a lack of any POST beeps, seemingly at this point the PC powers itself down and powers on again (almost like it's trying to resume itself after a bad overclock) but nothing actually happens.
I thought there was something I missed so one at a time I started unplugging all unnecessary components, front USB, front sound, SATA1, SATA2, taking one of the RAM sticks out, altering the slot that the remaining RAM stick was in, double checking all the connectors left, unplugging the PSU and testing it with my Antec PSU tester (which was fine) and then having a think.
After checking supported CPUs' from Gigabytes site I think I could of found the problem? F5 BIOS update is needed to support this processor and I assume I've got F3 BIOS installed? I did try and decipher Gigabytes serial number codes to try and find out when my board was manufactured but got stuck doing this and gave up. Just for reference the first four after SN are 1433.
So, I've raised a support ticket with Gigabyte to try and confirm what I think is true, obviously this will take sometime so I thought I'd post the question here and replies may be quicker?
I'm left with two choices, neither are to my liking.. (A) Buy a Celeron 1850 + update the BIOS to F5 and then sell Celeron and install the G3258 or (B) RMA the motherboard. Of course my G2020 isn't compatible so I cannot use that, nor do I know of anyone with a suitable CPU in the locality
Should I decide upon option A, what are the chances that the board itself is actually bad and then I would of wasted the time and money getting the Celeron? As is always the way, time is crucial on this as my friend needs it done quickly and now I feel embarrassed and that I should of looked a little better when telling him what to buy (i.e. a F3 compatible processor!)
Any help or suggestions would greatly be appreciated, thanks in advance.