Friend's FX-60 rig having bootup problems

[SamuraiInBlack]

Specs are as follows:

AMD Athlon 64 FX60 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Dual Core Processor
Lian Li PC-7 B Plus Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
LITE-ON Black ATAPI/E-IDE DVD Burner Model SHW-160P6S
CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Dual Channel Kit System Memory
Two Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drives- OEM
eVGA Geforce 7800GT 256-P2-N515-AX Video Card (PCI Express)
ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI X16 ATX AMD Motherboard
SeaSonic S12-600 600W Power Supply
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS 70SB035000000 8 (7.1) Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCI Interface Sound Card
Thermalright SI-120 heatsink with 120mm fan (Panaflo, I think)

This is his first time building. Problem is there is no POST beep after powering on. All fans power on, there's a light on the board that is on, the hard drives spin up and seem to try and access something. After I resisted the urge to figure out a way to reach through my monitor, and smack him back to the 2nd grade on his end of the Internet, for comparing its noise levels to a Dell ("The Dell was quieter!" ) I decided to try and help him as best I can.

Everything he says is seated properly. But despite this, no POST beep, no video, no kickover. From past experience I'm thinking dead processor, which I hope to god is not the case.

I'm also thinking the board needs a BIOS update since it's an FX-60 but I'm not sure how relatively new the board is. But I'm not sure if that would be a simple enough cure. Obviously at this point the only way to find out is to get another 939 processor, possibly a non-FX one that isn't too extremely new to find out if it boots off of that. Problem - he doesn't have one. Has made it very clear he isn't going to buy another one. Probably won't ship out his board and graphics card to me to see if I can pop mine in and get it to work. Don't blame him.

I was thinking maybe having him pull the CMOS battery and clearing it that way and popping it back in just to see what happens. But I don't know how helpful that'd be.

Any ideas? And yes, before anyone asks, he RTFM'ed on everything.

 

[discochan]

Just in case your friend forgot, did he attach the 12v plug to the mobo. Thats usually the first mistake first time builders make

 

[Standpoint]

A first time builder should really be working with components that don't cost as much as a car............

My guess is something obvious and overlooked. Or bad Hardware. IF you can't explain it to him over the phone, I'd have him find a techie friend from around where he is. Maybe he could take the CPU to a custom PC shop in the area and have them put his CPU in one of their boards to make sure it works.

Have him start from square one and go step by step through the building procedure with him. Then you will know that he didn't miss anything. Then its down to figuring out hardware issues.

 

[Tigerbiten]

The FX60 is only supported in the latest bios.
He may well need to go someware local to get the bios flashed.

Luck..........

 

[SamuraiInBlack]

The FX60 is only supported in the latest bios.
He may well need to go someware local to get the bios flashed.

I told him that too. he didn't want to hear that. In fact if it involves more money than what he's already invested, he doesn't want to hear it. Can't blame him I guess.

But he worked on it today and apparently one of the slots where he put the RAM in, the board threw a fit about it. I'm wondering if he didn't set up the dual channel setup with the modules right so the board basically told him where to go. I wouldn't know because I don't have the manual in front of me

His only complaint now is the GPU fan making a lot of noise. And I have no idea what to recommend. He doesn't want to do watercooling, and I don't know of any 7000 series coolers that would effectively keep his card cool but not put out so much noise.

Any advice?

(Edit) He said he read somewhere about the card being noisy until drivers get installed. I've no idea cause I've never noticed any difference in my fan noise with my 5500 to say if this is true or not. So any news on this?

 

[Standpoint]

I don't think thats true about the vid card and drivers, I have one and it didn't make any diff. unless it someohow involves cool n quiet. Can't you download the latest BIOS that works for the FX-60? Have him flash it himself. Scary but free.

 

[IanG]

His only complaint now is the GPU fan making a lot of noise. And I have no idea what to recommend. He doesn't want to do watercooling, and I don't know of any 7000 series coolers that would effectively keep his card cool but not put out so much noise.
Any advice?
(Edit) He said he read somewhere about the card being noisy until drivers get installed. I've no idea cause I've never noticed any difference in my fan noise with my 5500 to say if this is true or not. So any news on this?

The card should quiet down when windows loads, as the nvidia drivers manage the speed of it. It'll still get noisy again during 3d session though.

I think the zalman700cu (or the new one) or the new one from Arctic cooling (Accelero?) can handle a 7800. I got a 700AlCu last night for my 6800GT and at 5v that thing is silent.