Project: Blue on Black

[Church]

Oh. I didn't think of that. Yeah, it's possible, old bios yet new cpu or new stepping of cpu, not yet supported by old bios revisions .. try borrowing from some friend some older cpu to flash bios to newer one ..

[Bolas]

Post codes on Gigabyte boards are often completely off-base on what the real problem is.

Probably just need a new BIOS that supports the Gulftown.

That's likely. So how do I get that? I've got a thumb drive and a laptop. Wonder if it's possible to flash the bios from the thumb drive.

[tool_462]

That's likely. So how do I get that? I've got a thumb drive and a laptop. Wonder if it's possible to flash the bios from the thumb drive.

You can blind flash with a USB thumb drive, I'm trying to find a guide but this internet at work is brutally slow and 90% of forums are blocked.

[Church]

I doubt bios can be flashed with yet unsupported cpu if board even doesn't post-s. Put temporarily some older borrowed cpu and reflash then.

[tool_462]

I doubt bios can be flashed with yet unsupported cpu if board even doesn't post-s. Put temporarily some older borrowed cpu and reflash then.

Like I said, you can blind flash with just a USB stick. Maybe it isn't supported by that board (I would guess it is since it is the flagship board) but you don't even have to have a CPU or RAM in the board to do it.

[Bolas]

Like I said, you can blind flash with just a USB stick. Maybe it isn't supported by that board (I would guess it is since it is the flagship board) but you don't even have to have a CPU or RAM in the board to do it.

Pretty sure it's supported, guess I'll work on figuring that out now.

[Bolas]

I thought I had solved the problem -- I realized that the 20+4 pin motherboard cable wasn't plugged in correctly, the 4 pin part has a little locking tab that is supposed to go under the tab on the 20 pin part, but mine was over that tab. I switched it around and plugged the 4-pin part in first with the 20-pin part securely holding it in place and the 4-pin being properly seated for the first time... powered it up... same dang problem.

I also researched the BIOS. You can do the BIOS with Q-flash from a thumb drive, but you have to be able to at least see something on the screen in order to select the file to flash. Mine doesn't display anything, so no way to flash the BIOS short of borrowing an i7 920 and checking if it will boot that way. Blah. Something's terribly wrong with this setup, just not sure what. BIOS probably makes the most sense. Shouldn't it at least display SOMETHING on the screen though? Or nothing with gulftown if it's not at least the F3 bios?

[Bolas]

Maybe I can flash it without seeing the screen if I know what WOULD have been on the screen. I'll at least set up the thumb drive with that file on it and nothing else and see if there is a way to flash the BIOS from the thumb drive with some luck.

[Bolas]

OMG OMG OMG!! First good news I've had all day. I just got a package... from Nils in Germany! My sleeving and heat shrink is here! So now, even if the computer won't boot up and is a useless boat anchor... it can be a good looking boat anchor!! This will give me plenty to work on while I try to find a solution to the post problem.

[Church]

Last thing to do. Check components one by one in some other pc separately. CPU, videocard, motherboard, and maybe ram. When culprit found - RMA? After all, old bios/unsupported cpu is only one possible problem, it's not definite culprit.

[GJS1]

I't looking awesome: keep it up

[Bolas]

Last thing to do. Check components one by one in some other pc separately. CPU, videocard, motherboard, and maybe ram. When culprit found - RMA? After all, old bios/unsupported cpu is only one possible problem, it's not definite culprit.

Keep in mind, the "other pc" that I have is a P4 from ten years ago.... can't exactly pop the cpu chip in there and check it out. The optical drive, ssd, and hdd aren't connected when I get the issue, so it should not be those. The memory and cpu can't be used in the old computer. I doubt it's the power supply based on the nature of the problem.

I suppose I could try my video card in the old computer. Would a Radeon HD 5970 even run on a computer that old? Perhaps that was before the invention of the PCIe slot....

[Bolas]

I't looking awesome: keep it up

Thanks! I just finished sleeving my first cable ever. A PCIe power cable. Wow that's tough to do! My thumbs and index fingers hurt now. And it's obvious it was a "learning" cable. Sleeve lengths and heat shrink lengths have way too much variation. I mean it's painfully obvious.

On the bright side, my skill is improving with practice. So there is hope for when I do the 24 pin motherboard cable that it actually looks correct.

[Bolas]

Well, I have now finished sleeving all the SATA cables. Those sure go quick compared to the PCIe cable! They look much more professional, too. Not anywhere near as tough to sleeve. I've also sleeved the 8-pin motherboard power cable, but it's obvious I still need more practice. I'm getting better, but not there yet.

I started on sleeving the 24-pin motherboard cable and discovered that one of the wires was severed neatly into two pieces underneath the heat shrink. I don't think that I did it, but it is a possibility, since I had just cut off the heat shrink at the time I found the severed wire. I'm hoping that I didn't do it and that this is the cause of my motherboard issues. I'm asking Silverstone to send me either a replacement wire or a replacement 24-pin cable. It should be in warranty, but obviously I don't want to RMA the power supply when it's perfectly good other than needing a cable.

I'm really hoping that this severed wire was the cause of all my motherboard issues and that fixing it will cause the system to work. That would confirm that the wire was cut before I removed the heat shrink. And fixing it would get the computer past that part of POST and on to the next bug! However I think I will still need to update the BIOS, even after I do fix the cable.

I suppose I could end splice it together, cover it with electrical tape, heat shrink over the electrical tape, and then sleeve the cable to repair it. But it's probably safer just to get a wire that hasn't been severed in the first place. Last thing I want to do is to come home and find out that my computer burned down the house. That'd be a waste of a good computer.

It seems like everywhere that I want to ask for technical support is closed on the weekends. Gigabyte, Silverstone, Newegg, etc. I guess I'll have to take some vacation for more computer building time when the stores are open.

Maybe I can find a computer repair shop in town that is willing to loan me a core i7 920 to flash the motherboard BIOS. The repair guys I know only do laptops, so not sure what to do about that.

[Bolas]

I went out looking for repair shops, ate some lunch, and totally forgot the reason I went out in the first place -- to buy some more tools. DOH! Scatterbrained today. Now I need to either go out again or make due with the tools I already have, bleah.

Wife took the camera, and we still haven't found the battery charger, so no pics yet today either. I'm actually embarrassed how sloppy my sleeving is so far... I guess everyone had to practice some time. I re-read the tips and I think I can do a better job of it, just need more precise instruments.

[orangeslices430]

Looks like you got a nice setup goin on. I just finished my build with the UD7 and the EK main board blocks and ran into a problem with the 8pin power connector not fitting without some modification on the cable connector it self. Im interested to see if you run into the same problem or if I got an earlier make and they fixed it.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=248425

Not sure if you were able to get it up and running, but check the socket for bent pins aswell. On my UD7 I was getting the same problem and it was a couple bent pins.

[Bolas]

Looks like you got a nice setup goin on. I just finished my build with the UD7 and the EK main board blocks and ran into a problem with the 8pin power connector not fitting without some modification on the cable connector it self. Im interested to see if you run into the same problem or if I got an earlier make and they fixed it.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=248425

Not sure if you were able to get it up and running, but check the socket for bent pins aswell. On my UD7 I was getting the same problem and it was a couple bent pins.

I haven't gotten it up and running yet. Might be bent pins. Might be the severed power cable. Might be the BIOS. Got a lot of stuff to check and to try still. I'll check the cpu and socket for bent pins tomorrow when I remove the cpu to replace it with a 920 and flash the BIOS. I'll most likely be using whatever power supply they have in the computer repair shop, so that will check if the power supply is the cause of the problem or not. Well, that and I'll be repairing the severed cable, hopefully.

I am not sure if I'll have to use the extension cable for the 8-pin motherboard power connector or not. It was a tight fit if I didn't use it and it's probably smarter to go ahead and sleeve another cable to make sure it is long enough and fits. Thanks for the tip about perhaps needing to modify the plug to fit the blocks on the board, I'll keep an eye out for that.

Well I managed to learn a few other things today.

1. If the wire is stuck in the connector and you pull hard enough, you can bend the pin.

2. If you bend the pin and try to bend it back into position, it breaks off.

3. You can get by with just one pin, if you have to do so.

4. Candles are good for heating things. Fingers don't like to be heated.

5. Candles are made of wax. Wax melts. If you bump melted wax with cable sleeve, the wax gets into the sleeve and doesn't like to come out of the sleeve.

6. The more practice I get at sleeving, the better the sleeving looks. You can clearly see the learning curve if you put the cables I've sleeved in chronological order. The first ones I did are horrendous. The last ones I did are borderline acceptable. It's quite a contrast.

7. I like sleeving. A lot. My wife doesn't quite get it, but that's OK, I think she'll like the finished result.

8. I actually can sleeve a SATA power cable. I use a flat screwdriver like tool to pry the wires out, sleeve them, then push them back in with another flat tool.

9. If the sleeve is not held securely at both ends, it will shorten itself. So allow for that if you aren't heat shrinking over the connector on both ends.

10. Do the longer wires first. That way, if you mess up the cut, you can use that piece to do shorter wires later.

11. Do the black wires first. That way, you can learn on the most common stuff and not screw up the colors with much more limited supply.

12. People that put two wires into the same crimp are not your friend.

Sorry no pics for a while. We found the camera battery charger. A little late to do the detailed work log that I had planned, but I can still take a few more pics and show how things are progressing. Battery is charging over night, I should have a halfway decent camera to use again soon.

[Bolas]

Gigabyte called me. Very helpful tech. He said I could either get an advance RMA from Newegg and then return the motherboard to them, or I could get an RMA from Gigabyte, ship them my board, they would flash the latest BIOS and test the board to make sure it worked properly and send it back to me.

Then I called Silverstone, they are going to ship me out a replacement 24-pin power cable by UPS priority mail and email me with the tracking number. Which is perfect! I should have that in a few days and then be back in business. Now I can do a temporary patch to the cut cable and then completely replace the cable with the new one when it arrives.

I think I'll try to get the BIOS flashed here locally first to see if I can save the time, that way there's a small chance that I could have the entire system up and running today!

I took the day off of work to work on my computer. I've got most of the big sleeving done, just some minor single sleeve case wires left to do. Those should be pretty easy. I'll also want to re-do the PCIe cable, if I have enough sleeving left. No rush on that though, just need to re-do it for cosmetic reasons.

[Bolas]

Well, this overgrown country-bumpkin corn-husker bass-ackwards town doesn't have any computer shops that sell processors or that carry "high-end" stuff like a core i7 920. So nobody in town can flash my BIOS. So I'm sending the motherboard off to Gigabyte to repair. Guess it'll be a week before I have a chance to power up the computer, and another week or two before I get the loops set up and running.

On another note, it's amazing what a difference the lighting makes on the cable color. In the basement, it's tough to distinguish the dark blue from the black color, but outside in bright sunlight, the colors just POP out.

[RCG_Bex]

Thread needs more pr0n pics!

Lucky you with Silverstone - never replaced my cables - 24pin had a dodgey connection and eventually blew my PSU

Boooo at the lack of PC stores

~Bex

[Bolas]

Thread needs more pr0n pics!

Lucky you with Silverstone - never replaced my cables - 24pin had a dodgey connection and eventually blew my PSU

Boooo at the lack of PC stores

~Bex

Ok, by request... more pics!! (well, that and the camera battery finished charging)

I thought I could put the power supply in and start powering things up. So I pull off a white RoHS sticker that's just too glaring and put the power supply into the case.



Bonk!



Some kind of interference...



Doesn't quite fit. Hmm.. what to do?

Looks like I'll need to unscrew the power entry module a bit and then wiggle it to get it in.



Ok, that worked.



Now to screw it in... hmm.. what's this? One of the screw holes has a circuit board in it? FAIL.



Guess it's time to get my power supply pcba cutter out... or is that a bad idea? Maybe I will just stick an ice pick into the hole and bend the board out of the way. Or just screw into the board. Yeah, that'll work.



Oops, no gasket. Time to remove it and try again.



Hmm.. gasket doesn't quite fit, either. Lame.



More mod needed. Forget it, power supply with no gasket, for now.

Now to put in the motherboard.



Nice accessories.



Goofy heat pipe.



And the cutout is... bleah ugly color. Why not black instead of puke beige?



At least I get some more stickers!!



Oh yeah, ESD smock and ground strap.



Then on to the CPU.



Here it is.



Whoa, that's a crazy size stock heat sink.



Don't you think so?



What's this switch do? Ah fan speed!



Oh look, daddy, the fan cover comes off!!



Here, I'll install this for you. You can thank me later.



Not so fast, little one. First you need to remove the backing and apply thermal paste.



About now... my camera battery dies. So I don't have any pics of all the sleeving or of it not working and the error code 89 showing up. So skip forward a few days, and I show off the motherboard right before I ship it back to Gigabyte.



Yep, that big guy who has kicked off his socks and shoes is me.

Here's an artistic rendering of me.



And the contents of the package. What's left of it, anyways. Today's overcast sky seemed to make the colors pop. I guess I'll have to wait for gloomy weather to take pics of the final product.



Here's my chosen color scheme for the wiring.



Can you tell what's wrong with this cable?



Good thing Silverstone has awesome customer service and is sending me a replacement. Bless you guys!!



Here's the SATA power cable, before and after. Notice that I shortened it to what I actually need.



The four SATA data cables that came with the Corsair Obsidian 800D, sleeved.



And adding in two of the SATA data cables that came with the motherboard, also sleeved. The end connectors don't match, boo hiss.



Here's my sleeving of the 8-pin motherboard power cable.



Here's a shot of before, during, and after of the sleeving of the PCIe cable.



This shot shows the "learning curve" for sleeving. My first sleeving job was HORRIBLE!! I slowly got better at it, to the point where the next system I sleeve should actually be decent. Left to right is the order in which they were sleeved.



Go ahead and laugh, I know... the first cable is just so bad. I'll eventually re-do all the sleeving to get it right, I suspect. Just not today, not enough time or sleeve left.



Here's a shot of the last cable I sleeved. Still need to get the heat shrink further into the connector, but at least it's a bunch better than the first one I sleeved.





One final shot of the sleeving colors, showing frayed sleeving compared to properly melted sleeving and scorched sleeving. Basically, I'm doing pin one as light blue, pin two as dark blue, and the rest black, so that the colors seem to fade to black.



I got some bad news today. Provantage was supposed to ship my DisplayPort to DVI-D cable on April 12th, now they say it is scheduled to ship on April 26th instead. By then, my motherboard might be back, but I will be out of town from April 25th to the end of the month, so I won't get to see all three displays up and running at the same time until May. That's if I can even get the system working before I leave.

Due to time constraints, I won't get to do any liquid cooling stuff until May either, it looks like. I'm so anxious to get this put together and running, but it's better to take my time with it, I think.

I still need to sleeve the cables in the case. I've decided that I'm not going to sleeve the SATA power cable that comes with the case. It's already solid black and hidden by the case design, it has too narrow spacing between connectors, and it is molded solid on one end. I'm also not sure about what to do with the front panel audio cable, I'm tempted to cut off the second connector since I don't think I'll use it.

I'll do only one sleeve for each of the remaining case cables. Not much point in separating the triple conductor ribbon cable for the fans to sleeve them individually, that would just add bulk for little benefit. Straight black for those and only a single sleeve.

I'm still wondering if I should not water cool the graphics card due to having not enough radiators to cool everything. Probably better to add in a radiator somewhere. A single in the bottom looks like it would bump into power supply cables and have some tough radii (radiuses for you Alabama folks) to overcome.

I could do the double rad mod in the bottom of the case, but I'm a bit on the fence on that one. Might affect the structural integrity of the case a bit much. I sure wish Corsair had put that in as a standard option -- remove the bottom hard drive cage and have a radiator mount already set up and ready to go there.

I could also do some external radiators. Run some pipe out the two holes in the back of the case and cool things there. Not sure I want to do that unless I go with a second 5970 card. Pity that the 5970 4GB editions aren't out already, I could have just gotten one of those and left it air cooled.

I suppose as long as I'm not doing anything too intensive, the system won't have any problem with the heat. It's not like I'll be loading down the system with heavy loads 24/7 or anything. So maybe the existing cooling plan will work fine. Guess I'll see in a month.

[Liderc]

lol, loved all the PSU problems, was literally lol'ing.

[Bolas]

lol, loved all the PSU problems, was literally lol'ing.

I wish I had photos of ALL the problems I've had with this build so far.

Dropping the screws for the motherboard heat pipe and checking the manual for screw size to see that it says "use screws that came with motherboard".

Not remembering to pull the plug on the power supply before removing RAM. No power switch on the power supply, so plugging is the way to go... which means that then the cord drops off the back of the desk because it barely reaches... which means that then you get to crawl around under the desk... again.

Screws not cooperating for the expansion slots.

Cable not reaching for the optical drive.

And TONS of mistakes with the sleeving. At least all the cuts I got were fairly minor. I'll be buying some good scissors soon so that next time when I do sleeving, it'll be a bit easier. And some calipers, too, for more precise measurements.

I sure hope that nothing else needs to be RMA'd.

[Antioch]

I believe the reason the sleeving "pops" in overcast weather is because the sky in that condition outputs the most "neutral" temperature color. Nils actually mentions this on the product page for the sleeving - saying something like the pictures were taken in studio with a light setting of xxxx degrees, the same as you'd have on a cloudy day...

[Bolas]

I believe the reason the sleeving "pops" in overcast weather is because the sky in that condition outputs the most "neutral" temperature color. Nils actually mentions this on the product page for the sleeving - saying something like the pictures were taken in studio with a light setting of xxxx degrees, the same as you'd have on a cloudy day...

Yep, that's why I shot in that lighting. I was still amazed at what a difference it makes having good lighting.

I don't have a stuido or fancy lighting stuff or even a light meter, so I'll just wait for a cloudy day or take early morning sunrise photos.

I guess my "pops" comment was mostly about how it made a much bigger difference than I thought it would. Looking at the dark blue in the basement, it looks almost black and doesn't really look all that great. Looking at it on the deck with overcast skies... WOW it looks good.