New build issue, ASRock E350M1

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Headcase_Fargone

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 25, 2010
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This is more a basic build issue than anything related to HTPCs, but this is going to be my new HTPC so I figured what the hell, I'd ask here.

I just threw an ASRock E350M1 into a new chassis, plugged everything in and turned it on to... no video signal. The CPU fan comes on, chassis power light as well. No error beeps, nothing.

The only thing I can think of (aside from a defective board) is the fact that I've got DDR3 1333 in it and it's only rated out of the box for 1066, though there's a bios update available to allow for 1333. Would this cause it to not boot at all? It should downclock I would think, or at least beep at me.

What say you all?
 
Was the TV/Monitor set to another input (does it support 1080p if it's a TV?)? Have you tried other outputs from the mobo? Does it work without a HDD attached (boot into BIOS/UEFI)?
 
I tried it on two different monitors, using both VGA and DVI cables. I also just noticed that the ethernet port lights don't come on and I see no lights on the motherboard, though I don't see that there are any on it to turn on. Still, I should get an amber ethernet light even with no cable plugged in, yeah?

Edit: You're the man. Unplugged the SSD and voila, signal. Strange.
 
Headcase_Fargone said:
I tried it on two different monitors, using both VGA and DVI cables. I also just noticed that the ethernet port lights don't come on and I see no lights on the motherboard, though I don't see that there are any on it to turn on. Still, I should get an amber ethernet light even with no cable plugged in, yeah?
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Depends on the chipset, but generally no link status light will activate without the cable.
 
It really doesn't like this SSD. I'm suspecting it's this cheap PSU that came with another case. It won't give me a signal if the SSD power is plugged in, even if SATA isn't connected.
 
This PSU only has the one SATA power plug, so no. I have a pico PSU coming in Monday intended for use in this machine. I was just hoping to get a headstart installing everything this weekend using an old ITX PSU I had lying around.
 
Posting as I have a similar setup (Asrock 350, picopsu, SSD plus 1TB storage and BR reader). Works nicely, idles at 25 watts at the wall.
Still waiting on HD Homerun Prime before jumping into TV with it.

The only temporary issue I had with the board itself was an inability to wakeup the TV properly after standby...probably a HDCP handshake issue. It was seemingly fixed in one of the recent Catalyst updates.
 
Headcase_Fargone said:
This PSU only has the one SATA power plug, so no. I have a pico PSU coming in Monday intended for use in this machine. I was just hoping to get a headstart installing everything this weekend using an old ITX PSU I had lying around.
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Did your mobo come with a molex-SATA connector?
 
I am thinking of buying the very same MB. I hope you could figure out what went wrong.
 
It wasn't the PSU. The pico PSU I ordered came in and the board was doing the same exact thing with it. Very, very strange. I've never seen anything like this in a new build.

Now when I power it on even without a keyboard or mouse plugged in it sits at no signal for 15-20 seconds then displays an error stating "The system failed to boot multiple times before" then brings me straight into the bios. The bios displays the correct amount of RAM, the CPU, etc but I can't do anything in it. Even when it does detect and actually power up a keyboard (1 in 20 boots) I can't actually navigate the bios.

Newegg is sending me a replacement, so hopefully it's just a bad board.
 
Turns out it was the motherboard afterall. Newegg got me a new one overnighted which came in yesterday. Plugged everything in just like the first time but now it's working great. Already got Natty installed on it.
 
Headcase_Fargone said:
It really doesn't like this SSD. I'm suspecting it's this cheap PSU that came with another case. It won't give me a signal if the SSD power is plugged in, even if SATA isn't connected.
Click to expand...

That would be my guess too. I used a cheap PSU once and my computer would not always turn on properly. It'd either come on but nothing shows up on the screen, or get stuck finding a drive or something. Unplugging the power cord from the power supply for a couple seconds and plugging it back in always did the trick.

Got tired of reaching behind my computer so I bought a quality PSU and the problem went away. They both were 750 watts too.
 
No, not so far as I can tell. I'm having to jump through some hoops to build that package. I'm using the walkthrough found here. I won't know if it worked yet since I'm at work and after the reboot portion I'm unable to remote in, heh.
 
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