New Build - Boot Fails... Advice? - GA-H67MA-UD2H-B3

So I assembled the parts from Newegg yesterday, and, before adding the hard drive and putting the bar back on the case, decided to give it a quick test power-up.

The fans (case, PSU, CPU) spin up, I get the power LED, but within about a second, it dies. Maybe three seconds later, it tries again, and will cycle indefinitely. No video, no sign of POST.

I've checked carefully for loose screws and other potential shorts, reseated everything, pulled out everything that isn't required for boot, and no dice.

These are my components which are connected at this time:

PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151072
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115078
Board: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128474
Mem: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231189

SATA, HD audio, USB headers have been discoed to make sure that's not a factor. It could very well be that something is DOA, but it's just as likely/more likely that I've done something supremely silly. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Re: Power and breadboxing the board, yes, the power is definitely correct. I'm also trying a breadbox in a few, just haven't gotten back to the bench. Grounding or some other short was my first thought and still sounds sensible.

The memory might very well be a problem. A tool I ran for this board before said it would be fine, but it isn't officially approved. Would this be expected behavior for incompatible RAM? Wouldn't I ordinarily get further before failure?

Yeah, identical behavior without the case. I swapped memory sticks through the slots and get the same thing.

I guess different memory is the next thing to try. *grumble* Would be my own fault.

That would make a lot of sense! It would be great if it were that simple, but it's a plunger-type button rather than a switch....and definitely the right pins.

I ordered the new memory for Monday delivery, so we'll see.

None.

I fully expect the memory may be compatible and haven't settled on anything, but given that I have no other compatible memory to test in it, there's no reason to wait until Monday to order something to try.

Regarding the post after, yes, I've cleared CMOS, pulled the battery, cleaned the contacts, reseated the CPU and heatsink twice. I ruled out the power switch by putting it on the reset switch instead.

However, after doing some more research, it's apparently a known scenario for Gigabyte boards. Narrowing my search by brand (rather than model or motherboards in general) returned a number of examples of threads on Tom's Hardware and elsewhere where people have this or nearly identical issues. Oddly enough, while I'd think I'd get a different behavior, this apparently *can* be caused by memory the board doesn't like, and some report the board behaving identically without memory, even though there's supposed to be a beep code. Switching makes/models comes up quite a few times as the resolution.

http://www.google.com/search?q=no+be...ient=firefox-a

Still, I'm going to keep trying things over the weekend, and if the memory doesn't do the job I might run the CPU and PSU out for a bench test at a local shop. Any other ideas are welcome.

Just to update you guys on this little situation...

I got the new memory but had the same issue, got an alternate power supply to try and also had the same issue. After consulting with Gigabyte, I was advised to go ahead and RMA the board defective.

I got the replacement board today and....same behavior.

After consulting with Gigabyte once again, the second technician said that the RMA was unnecessary and that this power cycling is almost always a memory issue but as the memory controller is on-board with the processor, a defect in the processor can cause this as well.

After calling around, nobody local is in a position to test the one I have, so I'm going to go ahead and see what happens when I get the new processor.

I'm a week off-schedule and in for about $30 more than I'd intended in restocking/shipping, but it could be a lot worse. Just looking forward to getting this thing running.



One more problem, mind you, and I'm ordering an Asus.

...and we're live. It was apparently a faulty processor all along.