2012-01-14, 09:34
I finally *loosely* followed eskro's guide to build my unraid server. Here are the parts I ordered:
ASRock 880GM-LE AM3 AMD 880G Micro ATX
AMD Sempron 145 Sargas 2.8GHz Socket AM3 45W
G.SKILL NS 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower
CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 V2 (CMPSU-430CXV2) 430W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
I was very excited and put it all together right away and pushed the power button. All the fans and lights came on, but nothing on the display. BUMMER! ***EDIT: It is in no way shape or form eskro's fault
I did make a modification to his list and ordered different ram for the record***
So I decided to do a bench test. Took everything apart. Put in just one stick of ram and I only plugged the two power cables for the mobo and the power switch. Still nothing. I repeated while unplugging and plugging everything back in to make sure there were no loose connections and switching the sticks of ram and the slots.
It did POST once (after about 10 or 15 tries), but I didn't have a drive or even a keyboard attached, so I got an error message and I turned it off again. Thinking that it was probably a loose connection and that I had fixed it, I plugged in the fans, keyboard and a usb stick with unraid, etc. Pushed the power button, nothing happened.
I went back to testing connections, etc., repeating the whole full power cycle while testing and switching connections. It finally did POST again after about 20 tries. But once again, it happened when there was nothing connected. I again thought it was a bad connection and I fixed it, but to no avail, it stopped POSTing after that.
I got really annoyed. I started reading whatever relevant post I could find on the various forums. I have a couple other desktops at home, but not all parts were compatible. For instance all the other ram sticks I had were DDR2, other processors were AM2, incompatible. I was able to test another psu to rule out the psu problem. I also hooked up an old 7600GT to rule out an onboard video problem.
The remaining potential culprits were the cpu, mobo and/or the ram. I did read on one forum where the user said out of the box, his mobo recognized his ram sticks incorrectly and set the voltage and timings way off, causing the ram to cause POST problems. That kinda made sense to me as I did get my system to POST two out of over a hundred tries. If the ram settings were off, it would be unstable, but could be barely stable (enough to POST) every once in a while.
The only way I could test that hypothesis would be to get it to POST and get into bios and check the settings.
That is when the real fun began. I had to power cycle over a hundred times while switching out ram sticks, keeping one finger on the "DEL" key in case it POSTed.
Finally it POSTed and I got into the bios. Lo and behold, the voltage supplied to the ram by the board was 1.7V whereas the manufacturer recommended voltage was 1.5V. The timings were way off as well. I set the voltage to 1.53V and set the timings correctly, and voila, it started POSTing every time. When I put in the second stick, the problem came back, but switching the older (working) stick into the other slot and changing the voltage and timings again (I guess for that slot as well??!?) allowed me to put in both sticks and still POST.
Prior to finally fixing it, I almost returned everything back to Newegg for a replacement and if I had, the replacement parts would probably have the same exact problem (because they would be the same brand and models). I am glad I stuck it out and troubleshooted it properly (although it was a huge pain in the butt)
So now I have a fully working unraid server that is preclearing some drives. But I am afraid the power button is worn out and it now squeaks :-(
Oh and I was also able to unlock the second core on the sempron with literally one click, turning it into an AMD Athlon II X2 4450e which is a pretty kicka$$ dual core with only 45W TDP.
PS. I didn't write this long post to bore you guys, I swear. I just wanted to get my experience out there so someone else having the same problem might hopefully stumble upon it. I spent a good solid 7-8 hours troubleshooting.
SUMMARY:
Sometimes there might be a compatibility problem between certain boards and RAM, where the board will supply too high of a voltage or timings way off to the ram, making them unstable. It will not POST. You will have no idea what's causing it, as you won't even be able to access the bios. If you can put in a different stick of ram that is compatible (I did not have this luxury), you can get into bios, change the voltage and timing settings and switch back to the original ram and it should work.
ASRock 880GM-LE AM3 AMD 880G Micro ATX
AMD Sempron 145 Sargas 2.8GHz Socket AM3 45W
G.SKILL NS 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower
CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 V2 (CMPSU-430CXV2) 430W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
I was very excited and put it all together right away and pushed the power button. All the fans and lights came on, but nothing on the display. BUMMER! ***EDIT: It is in no way shape or form eskro's fault
I did make a modification to his list and ordered different ram for the record***So I decided to do a bench test. Took everything apart. Put in just one stick of ram and I only plugged the two power cables for the mobo and the power switch. Still nothing. I repeated while unplugging and plugging everything back in to make sure there were no loose connections and switching the sticks of ram and the slots.
It did POST once (after about 10 or 15 tries), but I didn't have a drive or even a keyboard attached, so I got an error message and I turned it off again. Thinking that it was probably a loose connection and that I had fixed it, I plugged in the fans, keyboard and a usb stick with unraid, etc. Pushed the power button, nothing happened.
I went back to testing connections, etc., repeating the whole full power cycle while testing and switching connections. It finally did POST again after about 20 tries. But once again, it happened when there was nothing connected. I again thought it was a bad connection and I fixed it, but to no avail, it stopped POSTing after that.
I got really annoyed. I started reading whatever relevant post I could find on the various forums. I have a couple other desktops at home, but not all parts were compatible. For instance all the other ram sticks I had were DDR2, other processors were AM2, incompatible. I was able to test another psu to rule out the psu problem. I also hooked up an old 7600GT to rule out an onboard video problem.
The remaining potential culprits were the cpu, mobo and/or the ram. I did read on one forum where the user said out of the box, his mobo recognized his ram sticks incorrectly and set the voltage and timings way off, causing the ram to cause POST problems. That kinda made sense to me as I did get my system to POST two out of over a hundred tries. If the ram settings were off, it would be unstable, but could be barely stable (enough to POST) every once in a while.
The only way I could test that hypothesis would be to get it to POST and get into bios and check the settings.
That is when the real fun began. I had to power cycle over a hundred times while switching out ram sticks, keeping one finger on the "DEL" key in case it POSTed.
Finally it POSTed and I got into the bios. Lo and behold, the voltage supplied to the ram by the board was 1.7V whereas the manufacturer recommended voltage was 1.5V. The timings were way off as well. I set the voltage to 1.53V and set the timings correctly, and voila, it started POSTing every time. When I put in the second stick, the problem came back, but switching the older (working) stick into the other slot and changing the voltage and timings again (I guess for that slot as well??!?) allowed me to put in both sticks and still POST.
Prior to finally fixing it, I almost returned everything back to Newegg for a replacement and if I had, the replacement parts would probably have the same exact problem (because they would be the same brand and models). I am glad I stuck it out and troubleshooted it properly (although it was a huge pain in the butt)
So now I have a fully working unraid server that is preclearing some drives. But I am afraid the power button is worn out and it now squeaks :-(
Oh and I was also able to unlock the second core on the sempron with literally one click, turning it into an AMD Athlon II X2 4450e which is a pretty kicka$$ dual core with only 45W TDP.
PS. I didn't write this long post to bore you guys, I swear. I just wanted to get my experience out there so someone else having the same problem might hopefully stumble upon it. I spent a good solid 7-8 hours troubleshooting.
SUMMARY:
Sometimes there might be a compatibility problem between certain boards and RAM, where the board will supply too high of a voltage or timings way off to the ram, making them unstable. It will not POST. You will have no idea what's causing it, as you won't even be able to access the bios. If you can put in a different stick of ram that is compatible (I did not have this luxury), you can get into bios, change the voltage and timing settings and switch back to the original ram and it should work.
Your guide helped me tremendously in picking especially the right board, case and the cables. Thank you for that. (Oh and the case you recommended looks even cooler in real life)
