X79 Sabertooth / 3820 - No power / Post - SOLVED

[madpete]

Hi Guys, I've been out of the loop for ages, but trying to get back in.

I am having a total nightmare though, for the love of god someone help me!

I have a X79 Sabertooth, that will not power up for longer than a second.

When I press the power button, the fans spin for 1-2 seconds then everything goes off....then it comes back on again itself for 1-2 secs, then off. Repeat etc

I have tried 3 psu's, a 1500w thermaltake, a 1250w OCZ and a 500w Seasonic...its the same on all of them.

I have reseated the ram, and tried one stick (on its own) in every slot. I have tried 3x lots of ddr3, Gskill, OCZ and Kingston.

I have reset the bios, and tried to update / recover bios by using the usb flashback feature. I used a corsair usb stick formatted to fat32 and loaded with the latest bios (renamed to saberx79.rom) However, this feature doesn't seem to work either. The bios button led only blinks for 1 second, then says on. Afterwards, this has no effect on the problem.

I have taken out all of the unnecessary components and tried to run with just mb, cpu, and ram...but it still does the same.

I have ensured that everything is seated correctly, and have reseated everything numerous times to no effect.

The board is new from Amazon, its a replacement for the first one that didn't power up at all.

Please can you help? Is there anything I can try?

Full system spes are:

Intel Core i7 3820
Asus X79 Sabertooth
GSkill Ripjaws 2133mhz Quad Kit 16GB
Sapphire 5970 2GB
Auzentech Forte PCI-E
OCZ 1250w or Thermal Take Tough Power 1500w
Vertex 4 128GB
4x Western digital Black 500GB
Corsair H100

Thanks guys, Pete.

[OS-Wiz]

Have you tried powering up with the mobo out of the case (mobo somehow shorted to case)? The HSF plug on the mobo CPU_FAN header? All power plugs attached to mobo and vidcard(s).

[madpete]

Thanks for the reply,

yeah I've had it out of the case with just cpu, mem and power plugged in. After the first board didnt work, I was super paranoid and went over my case (Coolermaster Stacker) with a fine tooth comb. Anything that even remotely stuck out I put black electrical tap over.

The HS/Fan is connected to the correct header, it has two headers actually and I tried both.

Yes, All power plugs are in. I've been over and over checking and reseating them.

[madpete]

Heres a video to show you whats happening...I was testing every slot with a stick of 1333 kingston at this point.

I have shorted the power pins ONCE to start the system, after that it turns itself on and off by itself.

But it does this no matter what I do:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QZsE...ature=youtu.be

[madpete]

Well....some progress....

I cant quite believe it but I took the CPU out and cleaned it, applied a wheelbarrow of thermal paste and locked the cooler down tightly.

It now powers up and stays on, but does not post.

The CPU LED is lit constant RED.

Again I've taken out the mem and reseated tightly, took out the cpu again and reseated, reseated the GPU but still no display. Also tried 1 stick at a time, in different slots.

When it stayed on, I honestly thought it was fixed for a few seconds. Doh

[OS-Wiz]

Heres a video to show you whats happening...I was testing every slot with a stick of 1333 kingston at this point.

I have shorted the power pins ONCE to start the system, after that it turns itself on and off by itself.

But it does this no matter what I do:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QZsE...ature=youtu.be

I believe the memory stick is in the wrong slot for single stick operation -- check mobo manual.
I can only think of two possibilities:
bad mobo, geez, again or
bad CPU

You might RMA the Sabertooth for the P9X79 or the Rampage IV Extreme. I believe both will outperform the Sabertooth; I know the RIVE will.

EDIT: h4ll, rma the mobo and cpu.

[madpete]

I believe the memory stick is in the wrong slot for single stick operation -- check mobo manual.
I can only think of two possibilities:
bad mobo, geez, again or
bad CPU

You might RMA the Sabertooth for the P9X79 or the Rampage IV Extreme. I believe both will outperform the Sabertooth; I know the RIVE will.

EDIT: h4ll, rma the mobo and cpu.

Thanks for the reply man, I was swapping sticks around at that point.

I work for a big tech company so I've asked for a CPU to be sent to me for testing...gonna try that first. I just cant believe my bad luck so far.

[madpete]

Here is whats happening up to now, there is no display to the monitor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvfh-...ature=youtu.be

[OS-Wiz]

Here is whats happening up to now, there is no display to the monitor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvfh-...ature=youtu.be

Hold down the MemOK switch on the mobo until the memory light starts flashing. It will probably reboot. Check the mobo manual for error indicators on the mobo.

[madpete]

Hold down the MemOK switch on the mobo until the memory light starts flashing. It will probably reboot. Check the mobo manual for error indicators on the mobo.

Thanks, just tried this the board reboots and the fans spin up to max...the mem led blinks away but still nothing on screen. Left it for twenty mins, but no go.

There a hold up on getting that CPU in, so instead I found I local (ish) pc centre who will swap out the cpu and or mb to diagnose the problem for free. Going in the morning, will defo post back here once I know what the fault is so that it might be useful for others.

[madpete]

Just to wrap this up...

It was the CPU, it was dead!

New CPU in and it boots fine, got windows installed and she's flying now.

As a side note, I also discovered that 3 of my HDD are dead, I mean wont even spin up dead.

I think that first mb I had, the one that wouldnt power up....somehow has taken out the CPU and 3 of my HDD's. No idea how, or why but its the only theory I have. I've done hundreds of builds and I know I did nothing wrong.

Anyway, thanks for your help.

Case closed.