Is my motherboard dead?

[Tprior87]

Okay, so let me start off by saying this motherboard was gifted to me by a friend. It still worked on his computer, it was wrapped back in it's original box and given to me. I also got a video card and ram, that worked in front of me. I mounted the motherboard correctly to my case while using brand new, out of the box, TX650 PSU. I tried to install windows 7 but I can never get to the bio menu without hearing these weird awkward beeps that I can not associate with any known problem. I tried installing windows 7 with just the motherboard with on board graphics, then with the GPU my friend had given me and neither worked. When I power'd the pc on without ram I actually got normal error codes, but I couldn't confirm what they meant (I looked through dozens of pages through google). From my understanding these beeps are suppose to be like morose code to single errors to the user. I assumed, since the computer seemed to have normal beeps than the original akward noise, it was the ram. I had purchased new ram and put it into my motherboard. It seems this noise it back. I have recorded the noise with and without ram inserted. I really hope someone can make heads and tales of this because I am at a loss. =/

With Ram video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na4dNjeK6g8
Without Ram video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJs4oB9ugLQ

I never got anything running or any operating systems installed. When the parts are in, this is the result.

Main Hardware Information:

CPU: AMD Phenom II black edition multicore processor (X4 processor) 3.4 ghz true quad core design, 8.0 mb total cache. (Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727)

RAM (Originally used: pc3 16000 platinum edition (4x 1gb sticks) Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227302)
        (Newly purchased: Vengeance (2x 2gb sticks) Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145343)
 
Motherboard: Gigabyte 880GA-UD3H Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128444

Video Card: Radeon HD 4870 1gb GDDR5 vapor-x Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102825

PSU: Corsair TX 650 Watts. Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005

[MisterEd]

I assume you have installed the CPU correctly

Have you made all the required power connections?

Main Power: 1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector AND 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector

Video Card Power: two 2x3-pin connectors, OR one 2x3-pin and one 2x4-pin

The AMD Phenom CPU memory controllers are only rated for DDR3-1333 but AMD says anything higher is at your own risk.  By default your motherboard should be reducing anything higher to this speed. You can go higher if you set the speeds manually in CMOS. In case the CMOS was set to some settings that are givings problems now you might try clearing the BIOS to default settings.

If you are using two sticks of RAM you either have to have them in Slots (1 and 2), OR (3 and 4).

If you are using anything higher than DDR3-1866 like you had with your first set of RAM you have to put them in Slots (3 and 4).

Have you tried one stick of RAM at a time?

A Google search showed several people have had bad RAM or bad RAM sockets cause three long beeps.

BTW, from page 108 in the GA-880GA-UD3H User's Manual:

Q: What do the beeps emitted during the POST mean?
A: The following Award BIOS beep code descriptions may help you identify possible computer problems. (For reference only.)
1 short: System boots successfully
2 short: CMOS setting error
1 long, 1 short: Memory or motherboard error
1 long, 2 short: Monitor or graphics card error
1 long, 3 short: Keyboard error
1 long, 9 short: BIOS ROM error
Continuous long beeps: Graphics card not inserted properly
Continuous short beeps: Power error

[Tprior87]

I assume you have installed the CPU correctly

Have you made all the required power connections?

Main Power: 1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector AND 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector

Video Card Power: two 2x3-pin connectors, OR one 2x3-pin and one 2x4-pin

The AMD Phenom CPU memory controllers are only rated for DDR3-1333 but AMD says anything higher is at your own risk.  By default your motherboard should be reducing anything higher to this speed. You can go higher if you set the speeds manually in CMOS. In case the CMOS was set to some settings that are givings problems now you might try clearing the BIOS to default settings.

If you are using two sticks of RAM you either have to have them in Slots (1 and 2), OR (3 and 4).

If you are using anything higher than DDR3-1866 like you had with your first set of RAM you have to put them in Slots (3 and 4).

Have you tried one stick of RAM at a time?

A Google search showed several people have had bad RAM or bad RAM sockets cause three long beeps.

BTW, from page 108 in the GA-880GA-UD3H User's Manual:

Q: What do the beeps emitted during the POST mean?
A: The following Award BIOS beep code descriptions may help you identify possible computer problems. (For reference only.)
1 short: System boots successfully
2 short: CMOS setting error
1 long, 1 short: Memory or motherboard error
1 long, 2 short: Monitor or graphics card error
1 long, 3 short: Keyboard error
1 long, 9 short: BIOS ROM error
Continuous long beeps: Graphics card not inserted properly
Continuous short beeps: Power error

I just wanted to start off by saying thank you for your reply. My friend did have me test a few things the other night. This included:
1) Trying each stick of ram in each slot, individually (using the original 4x1gb sticks.) then with the new 2x 2gb sticks. Every time any stick of ram was inserted in the motherboard, is made the sound you hear in the first video. I can't assume it's the beeps because it sounded nothing like any error code I've ever heard.

2) Made sure the cpu was in correctly and the heat sink was secured.

3) Tried inserting the ram with and without the graphics card, anytime the ram is in I hear that short "screech" then a long one. (Referring to awkward noise without ram)

4) He had me do some sort of reboot on the motherboard. I took the battery out of the motherboard, while the power was unplugged, and held the power down for about 10 seconds. When I turned the board back on, with the ram inserted and battery back in, no sounds were made for a while and I actually thought I was going to be able to start my windows install disk. Unfortanatly, that wasn't the case. It just went back to the noise from video 1.

5) The last test we did included just the power source and motherboard on a cardboard box. I used an old jumper from an ide hard drive to start the motherboard up, while plugged into the screen, I never got any display. (Note: the battery was removed from the motherboard during this test.)

Also note, without the ram is the only time I hear any of the legitimate beeps and none of them compare to what I hear coming from the pc. The first set of beeps is always two long and one short, then the rest are 3 beeps groups together, consecutively until the pc shuts down. I hope this information will help you help me, because I am confused to no end. =/  


Post Edit:

And I did make sure the 24 pin + 8pin cpu were correctly in. Although, at one point i accidentally had the PCI where the 8 pin connecter should have been. Upon correction, when I added the video card to see if it'd give me a display the 24 and 8 pin were in the correct areas, as well as the two pci wires in the card.

[timmib]

Greetings tprior87,

The one thing I noticed is that neither of the memory sticks you referenced are listed in the tested memory from the Gigabyte site.  Without going into a long analysis of the characteristics of the sticks you have and the mb requirements my inclination is that the memory sticks are wrong.

Here is the specs for kingston memory for this board:
http://www.kingston.com/dataSheets/KVR1333D3N9H_4G.pdf
You could compare these to the spec's of the memory you have.
(I used this only because I've been using Kingston for a long time and do not vary from their recommendations without research, fwiw)

You will note that. as mistered pointed out, this mb and cpu combo is not particularly happy with anything over 1333.  Still a faster memory which is in *compliance* with the Gigabyte specs should boot.

Short of it is that I think you need to find more compliant memory than what you have.

Be well,

Kim

[klh591]

In my experience with Gigabyte AMD motherboards ( over 60 full computers put together and tested for friends and family ).

The SECOND sound usually means that there is no memory present or the CPU chip has a pin problem (usually bent pin).

The FIRST sound usually means something is is not inserted tightly such as  a stick of memory is not in its slot correctly;
either not tight OR reversed, CPU not correct, or video card not tight.

Another thing to watch for on the 880GA is the onboard video.  If you are going to use a separate video card have you
checked the BIOS to set it to turn OFF the onboard video and turn ON the setting to look for separate video card.