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Hi,
I am building my first HTPC and it won't boot. It's a Shuttle SH67H3, with an Intel i3-2100T and G.SKILL F3-10666CL8D-4GBRM.
When I power it on, the power light comes on, the Blu-Ray drive lights up and I can hear the hard drive spin up. I don't know if this unit has a speaker, but there is no sound from the system itself and the monitor stays in hibernation.
Looking at the Shuttle site, this CPU is specifically listed as compatible. The memory isn't, although I thought it should be.
I have not built a PC in some time, and I'm hoping I installed the CPU correctly. The Shuttle Quick Guide (the only documentation I can find) talks about the pins on the socket, but it looked more like just contacts to me. I tripled checked the install - the two triangles lined up and the chip seemed to sit firmly in the socket. I had to put some pressure on the load plate to get it to lock down, but nothing severe.
Does anyone one have any ideas on what I can try? If the memory is not compatible will it cause an issue like this? I certainly hope I installed the CPU properly. At this point I didn't really want to remove it to check it out.
Thanks for your help!
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eskro
Posting Freak
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definitely smells like memory issue,,,
remove it or try with another brand and try again,,
see if it bios posts...
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Try to get a speaker on the MB Header if possible. If the MB beeps during boot, the length of the beeps might point you in the right direction. Memory is pretty picky these days. Double/Triple check it's seated right, and if you can get into BIOS setup, make sure it's setup correctly. Auto-Detect may not be working right. Running one stick of memory at a time may help too.
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2011-07-24, 06:37
(This post was last modified: 2011-07-24, 06:44 by swatbat2142.)
Long shot, but what is happening with you has happened to me. It was the CPU voltage. In my case the voltage on the board was set to "Auto" which ran it at .80-.85V which was too low for the Core I7 870. I upped the voltage to 1.00V and never had a problem ever again.
Look in your BIOS and see if you can manually raise the CPU voltage. It might be set to default "Auto", raise it. DO NOT GO HIGH!!!!!, just get to .90-1.00V and try that out.
My board showed this CPU listed, but a low CPU voltage will not even power up the CPU.
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If he can't even get into the BIOS then the most likely culprits are RAM or the video card.
Make sure your video card is seated properly in the PCIe slot. Is your video card supposed to have a power plug connected to the power supply? Check the connection from the back of the video card to your monitor. Properly seated wires, are you using any type of adapter (DVI to VGA)?
Other things to check for:
Are there any jumper pins on the MB? Check to see if any have pin connectors on them that shouldn't or connectors that should have jumper pin connectors on them that have fallen off.
Any stray metal (case etc.), wires, etc making contact with something on the MB or other component. Improperly placed MB mounts on the MB tray in the case making contact with the board itself...This would be underneath the MB.
Check ALL of your wires to be sure they are connected properly, snug in their plugs. Sometimes I have had to disconnect every wire and start over. Re-connected them carefully one at a time and the computer booted right up.
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Thanks for all the replies. I popped and reseated the two memory modules and it booted right up. I'd left the cover off because I thought I'd be messing with it. I put the cover back on and it didn't want to boot. So I took it off, reseated the memory again, put the cover back on and it seems to be working now.
I don't have a video card in it right now - I want to try the on-board card first to see how well it works. Right now I'm just building it in the basement so it's only on a 19" monitor.
The Shuttle came with the MB and PS already installed. I can take a look to see if anything seems out of place. There are quite a few connections off the PS that I'm not using, and they are just kind of jammed under the drive cage. I may pop that out and try to get these cables better organized.
I have a question on the memory. Since it is now booting up, and recognizes the 4GB of RAM, is it safe to assume the memory is compatible? I'm still a little leery because of the initial boot issues, and the time it didn't boot after it already had. Since all I did was put the cover back on, I'm leaning more toward a possible short somewhere.
Thanks again for your help!
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OK, this thing is really giving me fits. I powered it down and tried to boot it up - same problem of no response. I took it apart, made sure nothing seemed to be touching anything it shouldn't. Bundled all the cables out of the way as much as possible and reseated the memory. Try to boot it up and nothing!
So, I pulled both memory sticks, just put one in, and it booted right up. I tried it in the other red memory slot (the board has two red, two yellow, instructions say fill the red slots first) and it booted right up. I pulled that stick and tried the other one in both slots - and it boots right up.
With a single stick, Windows 7 Home Premium on a SSD, it boots from power button to ready in about 15 seconds. I put the second stick back in and tried it again. The boot took about twice as long but it did come up. Shut down and tried again and nothing. I went back to a single stick and it's booted successfully 10 times or so in a row.
So, I've pretty much determined it must be either the RAM or the MOBO. Right now I'm leaning toward the RAM since it was not on the Shuttle supported memory list. Does that seem like the problem to you?
I've searched for the various types of memory off their supported memory list. I have a question on that as well. Does it make any difference on a build if I put in a matched pair of 2GB sticks or a single 4GB stick? I can get a pair of 4GB of Adata sticks (one of their supported brands) for about the same price as a pair of 2GB sticks from their supported list. I don't need 8GB in this build, but if it all works well I hope to add a second HTPC in the future.
Any other suggestions on this issue are welcome. Thanks for your help!
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Some things to do from here...
Check the settings for your RAM in the BIOS when you are able to boot. See if they ever differ, do they match the specs of the ram, etc. (usually have to de-select "auto" to see what they are.
You might get "lucky" and have some default in the bios that needs to be changed. Alternately, I had trouble booting mine when I was forcing the bios settings to match my ram specs which were supposedly compatible. Had to do the jumper pin reset of the bios in order to boot.
Another option is to have the RAM tested if you have good computer store near where you live. Of course THAT is a big IF! Check your local phone book for an independent (non-chain) store maybe?
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Check the memory timings and voltage... I've had to adjust settings on the last few motherboards.
That said though, I'd been sticking with "approved" memory in all my recent builds. Used to be able to just stick anything in a PC and get it going, but I think those days are over. It's not always the "best" ram to works the best either.
