AMD 9850 Build

[Sumgai]

OK. So earlier today I helped a friend of mine build his new AMD system. The component list is as follows:

AMD 9850 2.5GHz Black Edition
ASUS M3A-H/HDMI 780G Mobo
2GB OCZ Platinum DDR2-1066
Thermaltake W0104RU 650w PSU
EVGA 9800GX2
2x WD Raptor 74GB Hard Drives
ASUS IDE DVD-ROM
Samsung 20x SATA DVD-RW
Old School Viewsonic 19" CRT

That's the meat of the system. We put it all together earlier today, but I ran out of time and had to go to class before we got it all buttoned up and hit the power button for the first time. So a little while ago he called me and said it won't give him any video to the monitor. The rig tries to boot up and starts running but then restarts with no video on screen, so he really can't see to find out what the problem is.

After asking all the typical "Are all your power connections good" etc... questions, I suggested he try his roommate's 22" Acer LCD because I thought maybe his shiny new 9800GX2 didn't like the native res on his CRT. No dice. Then he tried swapping out his video card for the old 7800GT that was in his previous system. Still nothing. The key bit on information I do have is that he tried throwing in only one stick of RAM in each DIMM slot one at a time to see if maybe the system didn't agree with his memory and he did get the blue video signal LED on the back of the 9800GX2. When he tried to startup with both DIMMs installed, he did not get the light. In both cases, the monitor didn't have any "No Signal Input" message, which indicates to me that the monitor/video card are actually trying to output the signal, but there's a kink in the process.

The only other route is possibly something I read under the reviews on newegg. Someone stated that the motherboard would not initially recognize his 9850. He had to drop in an Athlon X2 to flash the BIOS and then switch back to the Phenom chip. After that, the guy stated that everything worked as advertised. We do happen to have an AM2 chip available if that's the case, but obviously, I'd rather not go that route unless we absolutely have to. So I'm on my way to his house now, and I'll check the boards again after I get there. I'm looking forward to your replies; you guys are always really on-point with troubleshooting. I have all the information, I just don't know exactly what to do with it because this one's a bit over my head.

Thanks in advance -Brandon

[polobunny]

Do you have any other memory under the hand to test the system? Maybe the OCZ memory isn't being detected properly (improper timings and voltage to make it work) and this is what is causing the system not to boot.

[simple_inhibition]

are you getting any beeps at start up? might give you a clue as to whats going on. also be aware that some 780G based motherboards dont have enough voltage phases to run the higher 125TDP phenoms (ie 9850). i would swap chips then update the bios then put the phenom back in and try again.

[azianai]

oh and the GX2 has a little bug, only the bottom DVI port works for single monitor. Its the one with the LED lights.

[Sumgai]

He thought they had an AM2 chip in one of the other systems in his house, but they're all 939 chips...so we're dead in the water on the swap-out option atm...

Too bad Wal-Mart doesn't sell CPU's by themselves.

[Sumgai]

Originally Posted by azianai

oh and the GX2 has a little bug, only the bottom DVI port works for single monitor. Its the one with the LED lights.

Cool, that explains the LED issue. Thanks man. We're off to Circuit City to pick up a low-end AM2 chip as we speak...

[Sumgai]

Well, we spent the entire weekend working out the numerous bugs, kinks and overall pains in the ass that came along with building my buddy's PC. Needless to say I HATE Vista and everything to do with it. It looks pretty, but you know what they say about polishing a turd.

The problem ended up being that his 9850 CPU, coupled with his (Garbage, IMO) ASUS M3A-H motherboard was just not a match made in heaven. At all. We ended up jumping to clear the CMOS to fix the boot issue. After that was resolved, Vista still wouldn't recognize that his two 74GB Raptors were installed. After jacking with it for another entire day what ultimately fixed it was re-formatting the HD's again. I'm not sure if he formatted them correctly before I started helping him, but I'm gonna go ahead and say no.

The funny thing is, I've helped other friends and co-workers build a bunch of C2D systems and they all went together without a hitch. The 680i system I built for a friend almost a year ago has an OC'd E6600 in it and we took it to 3.2GHz with a Zalman 9700 from day one and it's been solid as a rock ever since. The bottom line for me is this: I hate the Phenom core processors and I hate, hate, hate Vista. May it rot in pieces and continue to never be in anything I build for myself.

/rant.

[Lokie]

Sorry you had this much trouble with it, I just built mine and went with out a hitch. Of course I did my homework and made sure the board was compatible with the 9850 BE. There are issues with newer cores but if one researches it, it should go smoothly. Of course the problem being, someone else was messin with it.

AMD Phenom 9850 BE
MSI K9A2 Platinum
4 G of Corsair
2 Radeon 3870 X2 in Crossfire
4 7500 g HDD's
Blue ray Player/DVD burner
Vista 64 bit

[stinger608]

Something else that is fairly important about the Asus motherboards....Check the CPU temps!!!! Both that board and the M2N series of mobos, would sometimes up the voltages way the hell up in the 1.5-1.7V area!!!
The temps are the first indication of this, as they will run around the 60C area at idle if the voltage is set wrong, or high. If this is the case, you will have to go into the bios and manually set the voltage to 1.2V

[Sumgai]

Yeah good points guys. We ended up stepping down the voltage for that very reason. His GX2 + Those stock temps = severe heat-soak.

I'm glad to hear yours went together well Lokie. Looks like a sweet system too. As you said, I kinda got thrown a pile of crap and had to sort it out. If he had come to me first before going to one of my...(uneducated?) co-workers, I would have steered him in the Intel direction, but even if he insisted on an AMD platform, there are plenty of other motherboards I would have recommended over the one he bought.