Here's what I have put together:

Cooler Master TAC-T01-EK All Aluminum Mid Tower Black Case
OCZ POWERSTREAM 600WATTS ATX POWER SUPPLY
DFI LANParty UT nForce4 SLI-DR Expert Mobo
AMD ATHLON 64 X2 4400+
CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel
Lite-On Dual Layer DVD-RW
1 BFG GeForce 7800 GTX OC 256MB PCI-Express Dual DVI/VIVO
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Extreme Music
Microsoft Windows XP Pro

On my initial power-up, after about 3 seconds the whole thing shut down, but on my subsequent try and every one since, it has stayed up and running. The problem is that I'm not getting anything to the monitor, it stays in Standby. Also I tried to open/close the DVD drive and got nothin. There are some indicator LEDs on the motherboard that indicate detection of the BIOS, CPU, and one that lights for going into the start-up sequence. All are lit and I'm not getting any error beeps or anything.

Edit: Forgot to mention that I tried both video card outputs, with the card in BOTH PCI express slots.

Suggestions?

I have had this problem a few times. If you are not getting it to post, and you have mande sure that everything is firmly in sockets (Especially the CPU). then there is a very real possible DOA with either the chipset or the bios. Also worth mentioning is that Nforce chipsets can go Bye Bye, simpy by not useing a surge protecter when you plug in your PSU. (this has happend to me too) Double check everything. make sure your video card is plugged in to the psu. If you are capable of checking the rails of the psu than do so. maybe your not getting the proper voltage.

Well after further reading in the Motherboard manual, for the nVidia 7800 GTX and other high power vid cards it says there are a couple of +5 and +12 VDC connectors that need to be plugged in for extra current capacity, I think that was the problem there.

However, now that they are plugged in, I would start it up and the LEDs would ramp up through VGA detected, RAM detected, and at CPU detected it holds for a second and then the LEDs ramp back down again, and the CPU and chipset fans turn off.

I pulled the heatsink, feeling I probably got too much thermal paste applied, but in process of that, the CPU came with it and I bent some pins being clumsy.

All in all, not my best PC building experience.

Arch, if you're really, really, REALLY careful you can bend the pins back with a pocketknife or similar.

Other than that, sorry bud.

My Guess is that the cpu was not completely locked down into the socket. I agree with spiff, You should be able to bend the pins back depending on how bad they are bent. Slow is the key word here when doing this. those pins break easy.

Look at the cpu from all four sides so that you can see the rows of pins. If done correctly, the CPU should just slide right into the socket. Push down the locking arm and then check the cpu against the socket makeing sure there are no gaps.
After that give a very lite tug on the cpu makeing sure it does'nt come up from the socket.

It should have never come up from the socket. Was thermal compound already applied to the heatsink you purchased, or did you use a seperately bought compound?

I'm going to try and bend the pins back, hopefully I'll be able to do it safely. Just haven't gotten around to it nor gotten the stomach for potential disaster yet.

The heatsink is the stock one, I scraped the thermal pad off, cleaned it real well, then applied the thermal past to the CPU. I used way too much. The CPU is still stuck to the heatsink. lol.

Wish me luck me boyos!

Yarr!!!!!!

remember!... 1 micron thick man. Thats all ya need.

Yep, easy on the paste, Arch.

Does that chipset have the ZIF socket-type arrangement? If so, you simple set the CPU in, and then lower the arm and lock it down. As was mentioned earlier...it should NOT just "come out" with a tug, and it should not require any force to go in.

Frustrating problem...good luck with the solution!

It's a ZIF socket and I was easy on the paste this time, and got all the pins bent back, I had to put a smidge of pressure on it to get it in since the pins weren't perfect but they aligned when I got it to seat. however. Still no dice.

VGA available LED? check...
RAM available LED? check...
CPU available LED? check..... Oh, wait, no... it's gone out

RAM available LED... oopps, just went out

Um, yeah, it's bad that the CPU cooler and chipset cooling fans just STOP, right?

Hurrrm....that sounds like motherboard troubles to me, though I guess it could be somehow related to the PSU. You might call DFI, but if you do, don't use 'bent' and 'pins' in the same paragraph, and certainly not in the same sentence. Everybody gets really hinky when you mention that.

Hurrrm....that sounds like motherboard troubles to me, though I guess it could be somehow related to the PSU. You might call DFI, but if you do, don't use 'bent' and 'pins' in the same paragraph, and certainly not in the same sentence. Everybody gets really hinky when you mention that.

Is it running yet Arch? DS had a minor scare last night when he used ASUS AI to move his system up to 10% OC. It locked up on him, and he had to go into BIOS to make it right again.

I was gonna ask the same question... What was he trying to overclock Sled? the Videocard, Cpu, or overall system? If he is trying to overclock the videocard, he would be better off using somthing like RivaTuner.

Nope, not running yet, All I can find for tech support for DFI is an e-mail address and I haven't heard back from them in 4 days yet. AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!

There's an office number for Cali, I'm gonna try that tomorrow and see what I get. If it is in fact the processor I doubt I can get the warranty covered on it. There goes 500 bones.

It was the "safe" overclock software that comes with the ASUS board. It seems to be a little buggy. It doesn't like to be changed once you've made one change, up or down. Working fine now.

Arch, good luck on that call tomorrow!

What's the latest, Arch?

Well, hopefully most of my issue is an RTFM issue. (Read The F#$%n Manual)

The LEDs are SUPPOSED to go out as the certain things are detected. The last one (VGA detected) stays on.

The fans are bios speed controled and the default setting for temp in the BIOS is 55 C for some lame reason. I had an e-mail exchange with DFI tech support and the guy said that in a cool room the fans will throttle down and even stop if temps are low enough. When they stopped I just shut right down, never waited to see if they come back on.

So, now I'm going to get a cheapo PCI video card to put in to see if I get anywhere. Hopefully that is it, and I can RMA the vid card.

Thanks for all the help and thoughts guys!

Well, looks like I found the problem, or at least one of them. The video card was DOA. I happened to snag a PCI vid card out of a computer going to recycling from my company and tried that. Worked like a champ and I was able to run the motherboard with 1 RAM stick, the CPU, and the el-cheapo vid card into BIOS and mess around. Next steps, RMA the vid card and then finish the build. Hopefully the new vid card will come soon and work! Would suck if the actual problem is the motherboard slot and not the card. No way to check though, don't have an extra PCI-x16 card lying around.

Good to hear Arch! If I had to bet I'd guess you're in the clear now. A bad video card to me seems a lot more likely than a bad mobo slot.

BFG has SUCH a great return policy. Their stinkin card doesn't work for me from the outset and I get to pay for return shipping and insurance, then they take a day or two to "process" it. THEN they ship me a card UPS GROUND. Not neccessarily a brand new card either, could be new, but could be this one repaired, or a different refurb....

GAH!!!!

Where are the days of "Oh, our product doesn't work for you? We'll overnight you a new one, just pop the non-working bit back in the same box and afix the return shipping label we'll provide for you."

When I had a bad stick of RAM from Mushkin that's how it was. I don't think even they are like that anymore though.

But does it work?!

I get to wait a couple weeks until I know if the video card works or not with their return policy. So I guess I'll try and get Win XP installed with the crap vid card and be all ready for when my real vid card finally shows up.

Yes its called people not being responsible for thier own screwups. It's become quite the trend.(Talking about the peeps that sent you the card. not you. ) Glad to see you are getting the issue resolved though. Hope the vid card was in fact the issue.

SO...... Now I'm waiting for my replacement vid card, should be arriving next week some time.... I'm trying to get windows loaded on using the el-crappo vid card I got, but I can't get Windows Setup to partition the drive. As noted above, it's a Maxtor 320 GB SATA II drive. I downloaded the SATA/RAID driver from the DFI site and put them on a floppy as instructed. The BIOS sees the drive, Windows Setup sees a very large unpartitioned space, but when I enter a partition size and hit enter I get "please wait" at the bottom of the screen for a long time, then finally get an error message to the effect that Windows Setup could not communicate with the hard drive.

I'm going to take the drive out and try it in my current computer, but that computer only has SATA I.

Any other ideas?

Check out Maxtor's knowledge base for info on your particular drive and using it in a SATA1 controller. I've quit buying Maxtor myself after numerous bad experiences with them (at least 7 failed drives) and have gone back to Seagate and Western Digital (not a single problem with either make) so I'm not familiar with how Maxtor does it...

But with the SATA2 drives I have, to make them work with SATA1 controllers, I have to put in a jumper. Once that's done (if it works), you can just use the windows version of maxtor's Maxblast software to partition your drive or something like partition magic to get the job done.

I switched SATA cables, and put on a different power connector and the drive is formatting now. Weeeeee!!!

Now I just need my vid card and I'm set!

Spoke too soon. The drive partitioned, the partition formatted, Windows loaded files, and then on the reboot, after resetting the boot order to floppy-HDD-CDROM, it booted to CDROM again, and after that, it can't refresh partition information and at times won't see the drive.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK, here's where I sit. Found out from DFI tech support, (when I finally got a person and not their greeting asking me to leave a message and they'll get back to me...) That there is a known compatability issue with the Maxtor drive I got and the NF4 chipset. I just had to flash the firmware of the drive and all would be well. I did that and YAY! It worked. I loaded windows XP, AVG, updated windows fully and put my BFG nVidia 7800 GTX OC replacement card in. It worked! Woooot!!!!

So I made sure to load up all the up to date drivers for everything. THEN, when my girlfriend's bro gets home from work, I decide I'm going to load up Call of Duty 2, which came with the Vid card. Install...Great. Game starts up and runs the Intro movie. BEAUTIFUL!!!! So I decide I'm gonna get down with some single player goodness....

Screen flashes to black, Monitor goes to power save mode, Still hearing sound, but computer goes kind of wacky. I shut down. full power down and it comes back up just fine. I try again. Same result. I go get the Dual Core patch for the game. For some reason, try to install and get an error message that part of the file package is corrupt. Re-download and try again. Odd, I'm getting that with quite a few files I download. Bad stick of RAM perhaps?

So I'm browsing around, looking for answers, I tried a Demo from nvidia and it crashed out too. Then, yesterday, as I'm browsing the web.... BAM... Screen goes black, monitor to standby.

I reboot... Nothing. No video. Try again.... Nothin....

I have a feeling that my motherboard is frying my vid card. That is not good, since if it's the Mobo frying it, BFG isnt' gonna replace it again. $500 paperweight.

Further problem. The computer I WAS using, and have been for quite a while now reliably.. Well, I moved it to the other desk, and after the move. Will not power on. It hickupped like it was trying a couple times, but now I get nothing, nada. Zip, Zilch. I know the button is good, I checked resistance at the connector. I checked voltage from outlet to power supply and inside the power supply checked the 120 VAC to where it goes, and cleaned everything out... Still nothing.

Can anyone give some suggestions? I'm really in a lurch here. Giving up hope. I even spent most of yesterday playing xBox and reading a book. I'm drowning!!!! lol.

Is there anyone you know that would let you put that video card in thier PC to just check it out? Couse if that card isnt the prob, then it sounds like either the PSU or that mobo. I would definately be looking into getting a differnt board or harddrive maybe. Did you make sure the video card is properly plugged into the psu?
So many different variables, and not one of them a sure thing. sorry for the frustrating times you haveing with this man.

Sorry if this sounds like the adice given to idiots but....

Some PSUs have an independent power switch, if yours does, make sure it didn't get knocked during the move. (No, I have never experienced this, but my mate Sean who is /meant/ to be an IT tech spent 3 hours trying to fix this PC after he forgot to turn on its PSU...not to mention his own Mobo where he first failed to plug the PSU into the MOBO and then failed to plug the power switch into the MOBO)

Also just remove and replace all the connects for power button (Usually the connecter is labelled PWR BTN) and also the PSU-Mobo cable.



As for the new PC....have you checked if your PSU is the right wattage and what not etc to handle everything?

Old computer: Yup, the switch is definitely ON, I turned it off to move it, and back on and off several times since then. There's an LED on the mobo that tells you the 5VSB is being supplied from the PSU. Even with everything stripped out of the system except the mobo that thing doesn't power up. So it's either the PSU or the mobo. Gonna try the new PSU in old computer to see.

New computer: The power supply I have is definitely capable of the load. 600W, plenty of current capacity. Should run SLI and a RAID 0+1 array no problem, let alone just a since HDD and single vid card, even a high end one. I'm going to put it in the old machine and assuming it powers up, I'll check all the rails and make sure the proper voltages are supplied. I'm pretty sure it's solid though.

Damn Arch! What a mess! Get them fixed?

Well, have the original computer up and running in a pretty new black case with blue LEDs on the front and fans. Need to replace that power supply though as I've heard sketchy reports on it. But it works for now.

NEW POS:

Problem with installing Windows XP turned out to be an incompatability between the firmware on the hard drive and the NF4 chipset on the motherboard. Windows installed after a hard drive firmware flash.

Problem 1: Downloading current drivers and other stuff. Every time I go to install a driver or patch, I get an error message saying the download is corrupt, and I need to re-download it. I searched, and found something about Win XP sometimes having a download corruption problem, but not nearly EVERY file.

Problem 2: Tried Call of Duty 2, which came with the vid card, upon going into single player mode from the main menu, my screen goes black, and the monitor goes to standby. I have to totally shut down and restart to bring video back. I tried a couple of other games, and get the same thing. Even once while just surfing the web, it did it, and even shutting down and restarting would not bring video back. Computer sat for a long while until I got the original back up.

Going on an idea I got from the DFI-Street forums, I put some spacers under the motherboard standoffs to make sure the the card was seating properly. Apparently DFI and some other manufacturers use a slightly thinner breadboard for their motherboards. Coupled with PCI-EX cards being slightly narrower, there's the chance of the bracket on the card bottoming out before the card is fully seated.

Well, it didn't seem as if the card was seated any differently. At least the computer started up, with video, but still have the black screen of video death upon trying anything taxing.

The vid card temp at idle is 43C, which isn't great, but not terrible either. Have no idea under load, because I can't get it under load, nor figure out how to record temp data from it.

I RMA'd the video card before, because a PCI card worked fine, though I couldn't play games on it because it is an old POS. Unfortunately it is unclear wether the card I got back is the same card tested as good, the same card repaired, or a brand new replacement.

I did the DirectDraw and Direct3D tests in DxDiags and they passed no problem.

So there's my situation. Fun with computers! I suspect either a major driver issue that I can't fix due to corrupt downloads, or the motherboard keeps killing cards.