GA-P55A-UD4 setup issue

[PeterK]

Hi,

First time poster here, and have a problem that can hopefully be spotted by one of the experts here. Have bought all the parts for my new PC, and put them together last weekend. Components are:

GA-P55A-UD4
i7-860 2.8Ghz
Crucial 8GB (2X4GB) DDR3 240 DIMM ECC (http://www.dabs.com/products/crucial-8gb--2x4gb--ddr3-240-dimm-ecc-632D.html)
Antec CP-850 PSU (to go with the P183 case)
Sapphire 5870 Vapor-X
various hard drives, etc

When I first set it up, I turned it on, and the machine kept starting up for a few seconds, powering down, then starting up again. Turned out I'd put the memory in slots 1 and 2 rather than 1 and 3, so I corrected that and tried again. Now, when I start it up, the machine stays powered up, but I have no display at all. Can't see anything onscreen. And my case doesn't appear to have a speaker, so I can't listen for any beeps to help point me in the right direction. The Phase LEDs are all lit up from green to red.

I've tried the following:

- Reseating all cards, CPU, etc
- Unplugging all cards one at a time to see if anything can isolate it
- Copious amounts of swearing

After all of this, I have a couple of questions that someone may be able to answer:

- Are there any known issues with the BIOS that may prevent the display from working out of the box? e.g. would I need to slot my old video card in to get things going somehow, then swap them over?
- Is it possible that the memory somehow isn't compatible with the mobo? It's not on the approved memory list, but seems at first glance to be OK.
- Is there something obviously wrong with how I may have set up the components? I've plugged in both the 2x4 12V and the 2x10 + 2x2 mainboard power connectors, so there should be juice going to the components. All the fans spin up, so there's definitely something going on. CPU fan connector is plugged in (although it's a 3 pin one rather than 4), although I haven't got any other fans to connect to the motherboard fan connectors (no PCH fan).
- Or is it likely to be a duff video card?

Any advice at this stage appreciated, would love to get it up and running....

Cheers,

PK.

[oggmonster]

Running with 1 stick of RAM. Is there anyway you can test the graphics card on another machine? Have you tried running with the bare minimum - 1 stick of RAM, PSU, CPU and Graphics card. Just to see if you get a post screen?

[PeterK]

I got the same issue I had when I had the memory in slots 1 and 2 when I tried running with 1 stick only - kept powering up for a few seconds, then powering down and restarting. So went back to the two stick configuration...

Testing the graphics card on another box would be tricky but I'm bracing myself to do that this weekend, when I have several hours to unpick the wiring in my old PC and plug it in (assuming it fits, it's a long beast)...

[oggmonster]

Or try another smaller graphics card in your machine. Did you try running with the bare minimum with the motherboard etc outside the case, sat on a non conductive surface. This will eliminate the possibility of anything in your case shorting something out.

[PeterK]

Thanks for the advice, I'll give that a try. I'll get my old graphics card out of the old PC this weekend to see if it works properly, in which case it may be a GPU fault.

[oggmonster]

Awesome. Keep us posted 

[PeterK]

OK, so the mobo is sitting on a non-conductive surface outside of the case, and still getting the same problem. Have tried different combinations of power connectors to the mobo (2x2 12v and 2x14 12v for the CPU power connector, 2x10 and 2x12 12V to the motherboard power connector) and still no joy. For completeness, I've pulled out the mobo battery and done a cmos clear, waiting for a bit to see if that makes any difference.

One thing in the manual confuses me somewhat. "When using a power supply providing a 2x4 12V and a 2x12 power connector, remove the protective covers from the 12V power connector and the main power connector on the motherboard." I've got a 2x4 12V and a 2x12 12V connector plugged in at the moment, does this mean I need to remove something? I can't see protective covers anywhere, or anything that looks like it can be removed. Is my combination of connectors correct? Using i7-860, at default settings.

If all this fails, it'll be the dreaded step of removing my graphics card from the old PC, but I'm hoping to avoid that, as it's going to be painful...

Cheers,

PK.

[PeterK]

OK, same behaviour from the old graphics card, so I've either messed up the setup of the mobo somehow, or Ive got a compatibillty problem with the memory perhaps. If anyone has any ideas, would love to hear, otherwise I'll try RMAing the memory first and getting some replacement stuff in to see if it works.

Also, is it any use logging a support ticket? Did so a week ago (well, last Sunday) and it still apparently hasn't even been looked at by the Gigabyte tech team. Is this unusual?

Cheers,

PK.

[Colorancher]

Check the memory voltage. Mine was unstable until I increased it up to 1.64 (as high as I could without the red numbers).

[PeterK]

I'd love to check the voltage, but I can't even get to the BIOS - no screen display at all, so there's nothing I can change. Or am I able to boot the board with no memory in, change the settings, then try again?

PK.

[oggmonster]

Nope you can't boot without no memory unfortunatly. But sounds like its either dodgey memory of faulty board. You don't know anyone with a stick of DDR3 ram you can pinch, just to see if its mobo or RAM?

[PeterK]

As it so happens, I've RMAed the memory already, and some new stuff is coming my way. I did ask them to send some non-Crucial stuff just to see if it was a compatibility issue, but they ignored that note and resent the same stuff   So I guess if the new stuff fails as well, then I'll RMA the mobo and check that out.

More excitement planned for this weekend then! Will let you know how I get on.

Cheers,

PK.

[oggmonster]

Ok, keep us posted mate. It sucks when things don't go as to plan

[PeterK]

So the replacement memory (same model as the old stuff) arrived - no difference there, same behaviour as previously. So, grumpy, I went and bought a stick of 2GB memory, single stick, in the hope that that may work. No joy there either. So I'm starting to think memory isn't the problem. Perhaps the mobo is hosed? If anyone has any alternate suggestions, would love to hear them!

As for things not going to plan - thank goodness I only put a new machine together every 3 or 4 years. Every time, something goes not quite right with it, which leads the wife to ask each time whether I should just buy one premade. The correct answer is of course no to that, but it's hard to convince her when things like this happen each time...

Any advice appreciated!

PK.

[oggmonster]

If you've eliminated the possibility of it being anything else it's probably the motherboard, may have to raise a RMA