DFI nF4 Ultra-D stuck in standby....won't boot.
Hi guys. My new DFI board is like me at the moment. Not happy. 
In a nutshell......tried a mild overclock, which it would not boot from.
This board has been problematic from day one. Needs multiple re-starts to get it to run, even @stock.
Now it's stuck in "Standby". The standby light is on 24/7 as are the 4 lights next/near it.
Had it @2416 for a while, but too inconsistant. Read just about every post on the web just to get it going on day one. Then read the remaining info to try O/C.
Main sites for info have been dfi-street and xtremesystems.
Posted a message at dfi-street and it was suggested by RGone to reboot holding the insert key whilst rebooting after leaving the battery out and jumper moved for 3-4 hrs, with PSU cord removed. Did not work.
The board is out of the case, tried various ram/various slots. PC2100, as per RGone suggestion, even had a brainwave and put a bootable memtest in the floppy.
Removed heatsink and reapplied AS5. Tried with nothing hooked up to everything plugged in and everything in between. Still nothing.
Tried a TTake 450w PSU also. Any combination of parts available to us.
Have NOT tried a different graphics card as i did not feel that would help.
AMD64 3500+
2 x 512 OCZ ram
500w PSU (20 pin) extra plugs into mobo
3.3v rail rated @ 35A
In a few more hours the battery wil have been out for 12 hrs and i'll try again.
Just thought someone may just come up with an idea that may work. (already considered RMA thanks).
Jon
========================================
Thanks for the offers of further assistance folks.
Believe me, i have tried pretty much every kind of trick in the book.
The end result may well be a bios chip replacement,which needs to be done under warranty, hence i sent the board for RMA as Prof pointed out.
As i work away from home for 2 weeks at the time i was not prepared to keep playing around in the hope of finding a possible fix (or not).
In over 1 year of being on this forum, there was one problem the guys could not help with and rightly so. Turned out to be a bios flash gone wrong. The update was sourced from the net, triple checked by me via different methods. Turned out the update was corrupt. I was taken back to the repairers, who put a bios chip in from a simular model.
To date the company that helped us out has fried 3 bios chips confirming it was not our fault and hence the reason the good folks at Short-Media were unable to come up with a fix. As mentioned:"Without the board" it can be hard to fix the problem.
Sure hope the board comes back for my next trip home so we can get it folding again.
Your comment noted Prof.
Jon
In a nutshell......tried a mild overclock, which it would not boot from.
This board has been problematic from day one. Needs multiple re-starts to get it to run, even @stock.
Now it's stuck in "Standby". The standby light is on 24/7 as are the 4 lights next/near it.
Had it @2416 for a while, but too inconsistant. Read just about every post on the web just to get it going on day one. Then read the remaining info to try O/C.
Main sites for info have been dfi-street and xtremesystems.
Posted a message at dfi-street and it was suggested by RGone to reboot holding the insert key whilst rebooting after leaving the battery out and jumper moved for 3-4 hrs, with PSU cord removed. Did not work.
The board is out of the case, tried various ram/various slots. PC2100, as per RGone suggestion, even had a brainwave and put a bootable memtest in the floppy.
Removed heatsink and reapplied AS5. Tried with nothing hooked up to everything plugged in and everything in between. Still nothing.
Tried a TTake 450w PSU also. Any combination of parts available to us.
Have NOT tried a different graphics card as i did not feel that would help.
AMD64 3500+
2 x 512 OCZ ram
500w PSU (20 pin) extra plugs into mobo
3.3v rail rated @ 35A
In a few more hours the battery wil have been out for 12 hrs and i'll try again.
Just thought someone may just come up with an idea that may work. (already considered RMA thanks).
Jon
========================================
Thanks for the offers of further assistance folks.
Believe me, i have tried pretty much every kind of trick in the book.
The end result may well be a bios chip replacement,which needs to be done under warranty, hence i sent the board for RMA as Prof pointed out.
As i work away from home for 2 weeks at the time i was not prepared to keep playing around in the hope of finding a possible fix (or not).
In over 1 year of being on this forum, there was one problem the guys could not help with and rightly so. Turned out to be a bios flash gone wrong. The update was sourced from the net, triple checked by me via different methods. Turned out the update was corrupt. I was taken back to the repairers, who put a bios chip in from a simular model.
To date the company that helped us out has fried 3 bios chips confirming it was not our fault and hence the reason the good folks at Short-Media were unable to come up with a fix. As mentioned:"Without the board" it can be hard to fix the problem.
Sure hope the board comes back for my next trip home so we can get it folding again.
Your comment noted Prof.
Jon
0
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
If this is the case, get an adapter like this below, and your stability should greatly improve.
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductdesc.asp?description=12-183-045&depa=0
...if not try a bios update like mtgoat mentioned.
Larry, we actually updated the bios to the 3/10 last week. Still hoping to get an improvement on this board.
Had been thinking going to the 3/10p next. Unfortunately, at the moment can't get into the bios as it won't boot.
ryko, the suggestion for the adapter is good. We actually purchased a couple of those a while ago. Did try it yesterday as part of the trial/error thing to see if anything would make it boot. Still no go at that point.
RGone @ dfi-street said, if he had the board he most likely would get it going through trying different things.(practise makes perfect).
The last thing i want to do is RMA. I'm sure it's a brilliant board, just giving me more grey hair than i already have.
Basically, if we can get into the bios we have it made. It's this "Standby" thing that is stopping us.
If no success, might have to make some phone calls to see if another bios chip could be fitted locally, guessing this MAY be the problem.
Jon
There is a lot known of issues w/ the original bios and OCZ TCCD modules. It was all fixed w/ the first beta bios and better supported w/ the later official releases.
Having another read of the answer from RGone and it appears it's not stuck in standby mode, just won't boot up. Apparently the standby light is on all the time.
Either way, it won't run. Rang the guy that sold me the board and he had no answer either. Guess rma is the only way out now.
Did you try one stick in the dimm 2, orange slot? The leds on the board...is the fourth one blinking or how does it look?
Tried 1 x 512 OCZ first, next a cheaper 512 ddr400 & then as per suggestion an old stick of pc2100. Nothing worked.
When ready to power up after having battery out for quite some hours and jumper on pins 2/3, put jumper back on pins 1/2, battery in, hold insert key, power up and always the same..........1 light near ram, 1 standby light and 4 red ones on instantly. No flicker of sorts. Been looking for any sort of activity. None from the mobo.
H/D spins up as i can hear it. Monitor light goes to constant green, screen stays black.....aarrrggghhhhh!!!!
Mate, if you can think of anything that may take the parkbrake off, we are ready to try anything.
Still have not tried a different graphics card as that means shutting down another computer and deep down don't believe it will help. I'm sure that is the only thing we have not tried.
Jon
17 computers and 15 of the intel.
That is certainly an odd problem you are having. It does not strike me as a memory issue, or power supply issue, I'd bet the BIOS is borked, or perhaps some other apect of the board. As mtgoat mentioned, a quality 20-pin PSU with the molex plugged in should work fine. I didn't even have the FDD style connector connected with my antec 20-pin, and got the same overclock I got with my PCP&C 24-pin PSU. I believe the only time you really need to worry about the 24-pin PSU is if you are using the +5V memory jumper (heard that directly from Rgone or Angry IIRC), but there is a strong push from DFI to get people to pick up 24-pin supplies. You have a very hefty +12V rail, I would not worry about it.
I have never attempted this before, but if you have another board around with the same bios chip type, you could attempt a 'hot-flash'. But since your board is so new, I think an RMA would be a better solution.
You didn't mention if you wound up trying a different graphics card.. If you have an old PCI card, give it a whirl. I have had no-post issues with my old 9700pro and asus board before.
I have tried both the 3/10 and 3/10P bioses, and to be honest, I had the best luck with the 2/17 beta BIOS. The 3/10P gave me some strange stability issues. 3/10 seems okay so far, but I haven't done much pushing on it yet.
What board revision do you have? is it an A02 or A00? (Should be a sticker on one of the PCI slots).
I don't think leaving the battery out for hours and hours will accomplish anything. In some instances, leaving it out for several minutes can help.
Good luck with the board
Decided to to the right thing by me. It was sending me around the twist, so it's packed up ready for rma. This is really the last resort ofcourse.
I tried different psu's, tried the 20/24 adapter, had a floppy and molex power plug into the mobo. Had considered running minimal stuff with 1 psu and hook up another for the extra plugs in the mobo.
Got sick of trying different things as this has been going on for some days now, hence rma time.
I did not try another graphics card as i really felt it would be unnecessary agrivation, as well as having another computer down. Could have done with a little extra peace and quiet, though. The 14 desktops and 2 notebooks with coolers under them with a 2.5hp aircon running does make a fair bit of noise and that is with 5 of them water cooled.
Re: another board for a "hotflash", no such beastie here. With the intel boards i could try a lot more swap arounds if i had to. Only 1 A64.
Since the board has been a bit finnicky since day one, we updated the bios as it came to hand hoping for an improvement. Hope Sally kept all the different versions on disk as it may come down to an earlier version being better than a later one, as per your comment. She does all the software stuff, like OS, bios, programs etc. I buy the parts and put them together. Good team work.
Anyway, thanks again for the replies guys. It sure has been an unsuccesful learning curve. We'll have to see what happens when the board comes back.
Jon
though (two days old)... good luck!
I have no doubt it is a great board. Guess i drew the short straw with this one. Not ready to say anything bad about it just yet. Glad yours is going well for you.
well, i'm not "of the geniuses", what's your take? cpu? he can't get to bios.
blew some caps, failure from bad rail=cooked? corrupt bios? that seems extreme...loose hsf fan monitor cable? " mild overclock kills nf4 chipset, pictures at 11:00?" without the board in my hands, i'm stumped.
Good luck with the replacement, Jon (dragonV8).
SOLVED BY RMA" awards all in one night!!!
It's kind of pointless to continue offering suggestions when there is no way of trying them out.
If you're eager to be of help, there are plenty of people with threads all throughout these forums who would no doubt appreciate your input.
Thread Closed!