Need help troubleshooting no POST with GTX470 SLI

Colonel_Panic

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 5, 2009
Messages
328
My system has decided to not POST any more. I've been running 2 EVGA GTX470 cards for the last 2 weeks or so, cooled with full blocks. My PSU is an 850W OCZ Z Series model, and today I replaced it with a friend's Corsair 1000W unit to see if that was the problem, but it still didn't POST.

The problem right now is that no video comes up on either monitor, but since my 700D case doesn't have a speaker, I can't tell if the system has triggered an error code. What order should I try to replace things? Since my mobo is fully water blocked, I really don't want to replace it, so it will be last.

Here is a list of things I've tried so far:
- Reset memory settings using button the board
- Remove all memory DIMMs except one
- remove power to one graphics card
- switch the PSU

Nothing has changed. My next course of action is to remove the SLI water bridge to try to single out a graphics card, but maybe there's something I can do before so that I don't need drain the water lines.
 
Hopefully you didn't knock off any capacitors when installing the blocks, I've seen some weak assed soldered caps on certain cards. (Cough EVGA) That will undoubtedly give you a black screen if one has fallen off or you knocked one off accidentally to the card. ;)

EDIT: Flip both cards on their backs and compare capacitors on both cards, look for any differences is my advice since you have 2 of the same card.

Also I would manually set all memory timings, not just press some silly button and hope for something magical to happen lol.
 
Wait you had this running for a while right, so if that's the case the first thing I'll think is the power supply, you tried that so the next thing that comes to mind is that there may have been a slight leak that you haven't noticed.

* Looked closely under bright light and make sure there wasn't a leak that caused your motherboard to short out.
* If everything looks secure and good, the next thing I would suggest is to remove the ram, power on the system and see if you get a no ram beep

If so, put one chip back in, making sure it's in the slot your mobo manual says a one chip config is supposed to go into

If not troubleshoot your ram one chip at a time to see if you get any good behavior from them, this is a bad sign btw

Next remove your cpu and power on the system and see if you get a no cpu beep code

If so just put it back in, if not your motherboard is hosed or your speaker is bad :D

Try one videocard at a time and at the same time, remove all other pci/pcie cards other than the one videocard.
 
Thanks guys, I'm going to follow those suggestions. My coolant is Feser One dielectric fluid, so I'm hoping that wouldn't short the mobo out, but stranger things have happened.

The part that's awkward about troubleshooting is that neither the motherboard nor the case came with a piezo buzzer, so I've had to order one from eBay. Hopefully by the time it arrives, I'll have more information.

I'm going to try to go through each item individually and hopefully find the culprit (I can handle a single failure, but hopefully a group of them didn't decide to go poof).
 
wow that sucks... I love water cooling but it makes troubleshooting this kind of stuff so much harder.. I would pull all cards except for the video cards, try - if your cooling lines will allow this, re-seating the video cards just a little.. back them out of the slot just a tiny bit then click them in nice and firm... If you're going to risk tweaking the card to card water junction then that might not be a good idea.. but if there is any way you can get a minor reseat done without pulling water lines I would try it.. Try seeing if you get any signal one card at a time, so just one display and one card try top then bottom...

anyways, without the buzzer you're shooting in the dark.. so maybe wait for that or rob one from another pc??
 
anyways, without the buzzer you're shooting in the dark.. so maybe wait for that or rob one from another pc??

I looked at that, and I even have a piezo buzzer lying around, but I couldn't make the connection work correctly. I think I'll let it be for now until I can source a buzzer and troubleshoot properly.
 
Do you mean just the RAM settings (something like the Asus MemOK button), or a full CMOS reset? (If not the latter, give it a try).

I used the MemOK button, so now I'm trying to figure out how to reset the CMOS from the board itself. There is a reset button near the power button in the bottom left, I suppose I just have to press that. From the manual it could be only a manual restart button, so I'm not sure if it's actually the right procedure.
 
I used the MemOK button, so now I'm trying to figure out how to reset the CMOS from the board itself.
You're probably looking for a jumper (two little metal prongs, maybe 5mm long and 3mm apart). Just touch both of them with something conductive (screwdriver, coin, spoon...) and hold it for a few seconds.

Failing that, just pop the battery out for a moment.
 
Some progress today. My eBay order of motherboard speakers arrived so I connected one and learned some interesting things.

First boot resulted in beeps of 1 long 3 short followed by 1 long 4 short. In the ASUS manual, this corresponds to VGA error and hardware failure, respectively. So there's now some hope that the problem isn't my motherboard.

I drained the coolant and removed the second 470 and tried booting again, 1 beep for OK. Progress. About 30 seconds later, I hear 3 super quick beeps and 4 short. Not sure what that means.

So now what? Since I did hear 1 beep, I'll try connecting it to the monitor and see what's going on (hopefully). My hope is that those beeps warn about the lack of CPU fan (I disable it since I'm using water).
 
So it was the graphics card. The second card I added, to be specific. I'm going to see if EVGA will RMA it.
 
ok cool... so it finally is working? I read that mobo has a mem ok button which might need to be pushed to clear the other beeps you heard but not sure on that... or were those complaints about no cpu fan? or no kb maybe?
 
ok cool... so it finally is working? I read that mobo has a mem ok button which might need to be pushed to clear the other beeps you heard but not sure on that... or were those complaints about no cpu fan? or no kb maybe?

Booted with the display/kb and the extra beeps were a warning about the lack of CPU fan. Normally I have it disabled but after resetting the BIOS it came back. Right now I'm just trying to get the air out of the lines so I can plug everything in again.
 
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