Please help, DFI Expert worked fine, now no post, LED's Flash on then off.

[computerpro3]

Hello,
I'm having an incredibly frustrating problem right now. The machine was running for 3 days PERFECTLY, at 3.1ghz with 33C under load @ 1.53v. Yesterday, I rebooted it, and it hung at the post screen. I did a hard power off, reset cmos, popped in one sitck in the 3rd orange slot, and turned the machine back on. IT posted, but gave me a CMOS checksum error. I proceeded to load up windows, where it acted REALLY slow for some reason. It was so slow that I did another hard power off, and thats where the machien died. It quite simply will not post no matter what I do.

The exact symptoms are as follows:

1. hit power button on board OR case
2. All 4 LED's flash on and off instantly once.
3. Machine just sits there and fans whir, hard drive churns a bit, and no post, no led's.

These are the things I know so far

1. Bios chip is not the problem. I swapped it out with another known good from another expert I own.

2. Power supply is not the problem. Aside from the fact it's the second best power supply in production fpr high draw systems, (it beats the pcp&c 850 for SLI configs due to single high amperage line) the voltages check out fine on the multimeter. Tried with Antec 550, same problems.

3. Watercooling is not the problem. It worked fine for 3 days, no leaks, nothing.

4. Shorting is not a problem. I installed all the motherboard standoffs correctly and nothing metallic is in contact with the motherboard.

5. Ram is not the problem. Same symptoms with the following ram, I tried all of the following as individual sticks and dual channel: 4x512mb mushkin redline xp4000 (2GB), 12x512mb OCZ Platinum pc3200 2-2-2-5, 8x512mb Corsair Valuram. None work.

6. Video card is not the problem. Despite the voltmods, it ran at 38C full load. Tried with voltmods removed and on, no difference in motherboard. Also tried one of my 7800GTX 512mbs in the board and it did not work.

7. interestingly enough, I can get the 4 leds to stay on if I unplug the 8pin connector from the motherboard. However this obviously causes the board not to post in and of itself, so its not much help.

I have all the obvious stuff done right; power connectors are all in, tried cmos reset, battery out, etc, etc.

At this point, its either the CPU or the motherboard in my opinion. It is unlikely that it is the cpu simply because it was working fine and under such superb cooling. This is supremley frustrating and I would really appreciate some help. Thanks in advance.

[pcdoc1]

I believe the 8 pin is providing voltage for the mosfets/cpu area. Sounds like the LED's are shuting down as a result of detecting a short in that area... I have my own theory/speculation on what's happening here but as I'm very bios toward that product (as I have already lost two of them), I'll step aside and hope someone else can give you a solution before you go for RMA...

EDIT: Do you have another board you can test the cpu with... I'm not certain I would jump right into putting another chip in that board...

[mercyless]

most likely cpu.
i have ,dfi expert,170 opty, ocz eb ram , 2x7800gtx sli'd ,enermax 620w psu. watercooled.
i had similair problem, i thought it was psu/power/mobo related,tryed diff psu,mem,etc, so convinced its the problem
after 2 days tried another cpu and it worked.
as above post says try cpu on another machine and see.

[computerpro3]

I'm going to be absofuc*ingloutley furious if this board killed my CANBE 0530 146....did 3.1ghz on air.

I have another machine with an expert in it right here as well as one with an a8n premium and a sli-d. I also have another expert on the way. I'm going to try the chip in the other machine and see how it goes.

If this board killed my CABNE, it ain't goin in for no RMA, it's gettin a M80 strapped to its ass.

[pcdoc1]

...... it's gettin a M80 strapped to its ass.

If that happens please shoot a video, after losing 2 170's I'd love to watch this...

[computerpro3]

If that happens please shoot a video, after losing 2 170's I'd love to watch this...

Oh I will. I'll post it on DFI street too.

So spill the beans, howd you lose the two chips? Board killed them? Any clue why?

[Richteralan]

If when booting the board gave you a CMOS Checksum error, It means your BIOS setting is LOST!

You need to go in BIOS setup and do a RESET TO DEFAULT, otherwise the wrong/corrupted BIOS settings may kill your hardware.

[pcdoc1]

Oh I will. I'll post it on DFI street too.

So spill the beans, howd you lose the two chips? Board killed them? Any clue why?

Here's the info on the last one, I'm still looking for the previous...

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...ad.php?t=91970

Oh and DFI street thing will be fun, they won't leave it posted very long... I'd give it 30 minutes or so...

And here: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...&postcount=112

[D_o_S]

What revisions were your mobos?

[Diverge]

Any updates on this? (I'm getting more and more scared to play around with my PC - rebooting to tweak stuff. I'm getting concerned for my opty170 oem )

[pcdoc1]

What revisions were your mobos?

Both of mine were AA0...

[pcdoc1]

Any updates on this? (I'm getting more and more scared to play around with my PC - rebooting to tweak stuff. I'm getting concerned for my opty170 oem )

I'd be concerned too with an OEM, AMD replaced both my Retail 170's... I noticed in you sig you're running the Venus bios, if you ever had a problem with the board you won't be able to flash back and that could be a problem for warranty. You might want to think 'bout flashing back to 12/07, pull and save the bios chip, and then get another chip to run the Venus or a beta bios on...

[Diverge]

I'd be concerned too with an OEM, AMD replaced both my Retail 170's... I noticed in you sig you're running the Venus bios, if you ever had a problem with the board you won't be able to flash back and that could be a problem for warranty. You might want to think 'bout flashing back to 12/07, pull and save the bios chip, and then get another chip to run the Venus or a beta bios on...

I have some other bioses chips around, as well as some other systems to hotflash on, so I'm not really worried about my MB. I just compulsively bought a refurbashed PI-A9RX480 from newegg for like $104, so I can put my mind at ease in a few days I was looking forward to the new sapphire board, but the only reason I want it is cause it is something new and different - I don't have another videocard for crossfire, so the PI-A9RX480 will due. this one is alot cheaper too

sorry to go a little off topic there

[MikalCarbine]

What vdimm were you using?

[computerpro3]

3.5v.

It appears the chip is dead. Here's a link, I'm about to pwn the mods on DFI street that claim they don't kill chips.

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/show...373#post441373

Grab some popcorn and watch me pwn his ass, I really don't care if I get banned. Lets see how long it takes for them to hide my issue.

[Richteralan]

3.5v.

It appears the chip is dead. Here's a link, I'm about to pwn the mods on DFI street that claim they don't kill chips.

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/show...373#post441373

Grab some popcorn and watch me pwn his ass, I really don't care if I get banned. Lets see how long it takes for them to hide my issue.

Although those mods in DFI-street generally don't really know about computer, plus I don't really like their attitude, but you ignored the CMOS checksum error message and go ahead booting the machine.

This is the part you need to be responsible for.

[computerpro3]

Although those mods in DFI-street generally don't really know about computer, plus I don't really like their attitude, but you ignored the CMOS checksum error message and go ahead booting the machine.

This is the part you need to be responsible for.

Perhaps I should give you the exact message:

Bios Checksum Error - Default Values Loaded. Press f1 to continue.

[Richteralan]

Perhaps I should give you the exact message:

Bios Checksum Error - Default Values Loaded. Press f1 to continue.

OK that clears the thing up.

[Eldonko]

The DFI guys are there to help you, I doubt any PWNing is needed.

[computerpro3]

The DFI guys are there to help you, I doubt any PWNing is needed.

Apparantly you havent heard. Whenever any negative threads come up about a possible issue the boards have, it either gets moved to a dead end area of the forum "accidentally" or it flat out gets deleted. Plus all a couple of certain mods do is go "clear cmos, clear cmos, clear cmos" after you've said in big bold red letters that you tried it 50 times. It's one of the most heavily censored board on the internet, and they get VERY upset and defensive when you suggest that there jut might be a problem with their boards.

Quite frankly, it is NOT user error that is killing the chips. At least not on this forum. I'm sick of their elitist attitudes, as well as how they simply pretend issues do not exist. So are a lot of other people.

[computerpro3]

starting to get interesting over there; largely based on ex-roadies inability to read or make a coherent argument.

[Richteralan]

Just let it be.
I read there since long ago for my old DFI LP NF2 Ultra B, and found nothing really useful besides those "PSU guides"/"NF4 Memory guides".

[thegoatman]

lol what about Rgone's every-difinitive-word-in-quotes problem?

EDIT: after reading this post, I've decided I'm gonna run my expert on stock settings with a stock cooler for the next year. Let's see if anything goes wrong. If something does, you better believe I'll be 18 by then and have a lawyer.

[pcdoc1]

lol what about Rgone's every-difinitive-word-in-quotes problem?

""""""""""""""" """""""""""""""

[wesleys_dad]

first dfi board i ever tryed but with all the fuss about them i almost went with the ultra d but thought the expert with 4 phase power and a newer board mite be better.big mistake.after trying for 3 days to get the board to load windows and 3 sets of ram i felt good ,at least i had it up and running pretty stable at stock speeds and voltages.so for 2 weeks i run the board just reading and studying the bios,so maybe in a few weeks ill push it up just a little.well i come home one nite a fer weeks ago and hit the power switch and nothing.so i start checking it out.mind you im an A+ certified tech and have networking and hardware certs,plus make my living building custom rigs for people,so im not a dumb ass with computers.after many hours of troubleshooting its the cpu thats toast.made me real mad cause its all set on defaults,nothing is o/clockedi contact dfi and its the attitude user error,sorry.we dont have a problem with experts doing this.i tell them about the forums with these things doing this alot,not true they say.most people dont know how to set up these boards.pissed me off good because this is happening to people smarter than me and very good at what they do in these forums.people that are engineer level types.they know what there doing.well they will replace the board but no cpu.well if its me why are they replacing the board.so i recieve the board and its a new retail board with the latest bios and has been tested by there qc department.my cpu was a venice 3200 and i loved that cpu.i took the board and sold it to buy a new cpu to put back in my asus a8n-e rig which i loved.looking back on it now i wonder why i even changed my setup as i was totally happy with my asus setup.just wanted to see what all the dfi fuss was about.
i wont send amd my cpu as its dfi's problem that it cooked my cpu.
I replaced my venice 3200 and im back with my asus setup and all is great.i do love this board.im currently getting a raid 0 setup going on this board.waiting on the 2nd hard drive to arrive.my o/clock is good on this board and im happy as can be,dfi will never see another dollar from me and i tell all i come in contact with about there attitude and lack of not stepping up to the plate.they are not a class corporation.ill do the am2 when the 65nm comes into play at the end of the year or the beginning of 2007.the expert board has a defect in it be it bios or hardware and dfi wont admit it or do what they should recall the boards and compensate people who have lost hardware to there poor design.ill stick with asus,abit,msi,biostar,etc as ive had great results from them and they have always taken care of bad boards ive had over the years.though ive never had a board take out a cpu before,especially at default settings on a start up.good luck to all who have the expert with a much more expensive cpu than i had....just beware.........