Problems!!! ugh........

[Parker]

Hi all,

Ok guys.... I've been having some problems the last couple of days with the comp I've been working on for the last month or so, spec's in sig.
First off, on tuesday night, I was just putting together my watercooling loop, everything was going fine, got all the tubing on, rad and pump in place with the res to boot.... got the block mounted, hooked up all the wires, sat down for a second to admire my work of art... pressed the power button and POOFF!!! SHMMMMMMMMM!!!! SSZZZSSZSSZSSSS!!!!! "HOLY SNAP!!!!!" *turns off the power supply*..........
Turns out, the power connector in my disc drive decided it was to cold a night to run, so it warmed itself up a little bitsy..... Just a LITTLE:
(sorry for bad pics, took them to quick...)





So, you kinda get the idea, my disc drive is currently out of service sitting in the garage.....
As for the power connector, I took it off of the wires, and it's just sitting unused ATM.
I then turned the computer back on, and the PSU still worked, booted into windows, and all was well.
Since then I have used my computer without a disc drive, I'm not sure what I should do really.... RMA the disc drive, or the PSU??? Or both?? I dunno...
I really would hate to RMA the PSU right now though, as I've just got a new waterblock and I've been looking forward to testing it out over this weekend... but now, that dream seems lost as the rest of the story unfolds:

Last night, I was getting some things done, preparing to do some testing like I said above, so I restarted, got into the BIOS and set the vcore to 1.4v (just to generate more heat for testing), I just kept the CPU at stock speeds though (2.66Ghz). I knew this was OK to do, and that it wouldn't hard the CPU, I know not to go above 1.47v though.
So I check a couple of other things in the BIOS, like my memory timings, etc.... and then exit Saving the changes.
So it reboots like normal, and then I get this message that says something like "Warrning! New CPU Detected, CPU Initializing Now. DO NOT TURN OFF POWER".
I have gotten this message before, like when I clear the CMOS or something, and it usually only takes a few seconds before that message disappears off the screen and the computer goes into a normal boot.
So I let it sit, but the screen stays the same "Hmmmmm..." I thought.... so I continue to let it sit. And sit. And sit. Until after about 10 minutes, I had to go do something with the family, so I just shut it off by holding the power button down, and walked away.

I came back about an hour and a half later, turned it back on, and got that little message again, but this time the message went away and the screen went blackety black.
I let it sit like that for about 20 minutes, I could not figure out what was wrong, I tried just one memory stick, Nope, I unplugged the hard drive (if I had an non-burnt disc drive, I would have unplugged this too), Nope.
"Ugh, whats wrong here!?" I thought, I checked the back LCD poster on the board, and it said "CPU INIT" which I then googled on my other machine, only to find out that it meant CPU Initialization, "D'oh!" I thought.....

By this time, it was about 11pm, I was tired of messing with the thing, so I went to sleep... "Man, whats up with this thing? Darnit, I won't be able to do anything if I have to RMA something..... ugh....." that was them followed by some ZZzzzzz's.

So, I wake up this morning at early clock 6am in anticipation to find out what was wrong.
So I quickly hop on my secondary comp (mac mini) and do some more googling of the "CPU INIT" error on the striker board, I came across many people on other forums with the same problem as me, I read many many posts and a lot of the problems turned out to be there PSU or board thats dead or is causing problems, "Man!! I don't want to do this, Humf."
I then came across this site, with a short guide on how to fix the problem:
ASUS Striker Extreme - CPU INIT Error | FreeDome

I read through it several times, I followed all the steps, taking all the power cords out, then it said to get some 667Mhz memory that ran at 1.8v, turns out I've got some in my sisters comp, so I go grab that (shes still asleep ), I put in the one stick...
Then I had to clear the CMOS, oh... did I mention that I had done this a gazzillion times already??? Nope, I guess not, well I followed There guide "Extreme Procedure to Reset CMOS".
After that was done, I did the rest of the steps, turned it on, and Still... blankety black screen.

Next, I pulled the processor from my sisters computer (which also happens to be socket 775), a good ol' Pentium 4 3.2Ghz, I took out my proc and swapped in hers, put the waterblock back on, and then powered it on.
Still, black screen.

So, thats were it sits, shut down, and not in use, and with a burnt disc drive to boot!

Right now, I'm really frustrated with this, all I have had with this board is PROBLEMS, problem after problem after problem, and as some of you know, I sent the board to RAID to do a memory review with the board.... he spent almost an entire week trying to get Vista installed and working, BSOD, BSOD,BSOD, B S O D. He explained it as BSOD Heaven, a BSOD Merry-Go-Round, everything evolved around the BSOD's.
He now too, hates the darned board. He even thought of sacrificing it to the review god's (don't kill me for saying that Mat ).... but I asked him not to, as that was my only board, and I need it back....

Any help at all would be GREATLY appreciated, cuz atm... I don't know what to do...
I can't RMA the board either, as I got it through a buddy who works at a big company, and ASUS sent the board to the big company to test on one of the top machines, turns out, the big company didn't need the board, because they already had a board to test. So the board was up for grabs at the big company (for employee's), so my buddy picked it up, and gave it to me....
If I RMA it, ASUS will remember the S/N and the info will go back to the big company and the big company could get in trouble.
The big company is aloud to give out things like this, but only if the items will be contained. I.E. not sold, used for yourself, etc...

So again, I cannot RMA the board.

Please help me!
-Parker

[drew and not u]

That's a bummer man. Personally I doubt they would look that deeply into it. However if you are concerned, would it be possible for your friend to RMA it under the assumption that the company is using it as a test board?

[Parker]

Originally Posted by drew and not u

That's a bummer man. Personally I doubt they would look that deeply into it. However if you are concerned, would it be possible for your friend to RMA it under the assumption that the company is using it as a test board?

Yea it sure is...

I'll have to talk to my buddy, because there is a slight possibility that he might be able RMA it...

[gvblake22]

With the disk drive, I would RMA the PSU and have Corsair replace the PSU and the optical drive.

[Parker]

Originally Posted by gvblake22

With the disk drive, I would RMA the PSU and have Corsair replace the PSU and the optical drive.

Hmmm, ok. But how would I prove to them that it was the PSU's fault and not the disc drives?

[gvblake22]

Originally Posted by Parker

Hmmm, ok. But how would I prove to them that it was the PSU's fault and not the disc drives?

The customer is always right
It's not something that is easy to prove one way or another, but it's obvious something went wrong. Since Corsair is a reputation for good customer service, I would try and just do it all through them. Just show them those pictures and they probably won't have an issue with it. If they do question it, then the worst that would happen is that you have to do two separate RMAs (one with Corsair for the PSU and one with Samsung for the ODD).

[Parker]

Originally Posted by gvblake22

The customer is always right
Seriously though, just show them those pictures and they probably won't have an issue with it. If they do question it, then the worst that would happen is that you have to do two separate RMAs (one with Corsair for the PSU and one with Samsung for the ODD).

Ahhhhh, ok. I'll have to do that then.

But, how would they replace the ODD? Just send me $28 to buy a new one?

[gvblake22]

Originally Posted by Parker

But, how would they replace the ODD? Just send me $28 to buy a new one?

Not sure really. They might just give you some kind of electronic gift card at Newegg (or the electronics store of your choice) for the original value of the drive. Just start by talking to Corsair customer support and see what they have to say...

[Parker]

Originally Posted by gvblake22

Not sure really. They might just give you some kind of electronic gift card at Newegg (or the electronics store of your choice) for the original value of the drive. Just start by talking to Corsair customer support and see what they have to say...

Will do! Thanks!

Ok, so how about the board? Anybody have any ideas of what I can do to get it to work?

[Capper]

Ok Parker........first thing we can try is to unplug the computer completely (no power at all). Pop the CMOS battery out and discharge any electricity in the board (hold down the button for a few minutes).

After 5-10 minutes, replace the battery and try rebooting with only the minimum attachments......one stick of memory, video card, keyboard, and mouse. It would be better if you had an optical drive and could put the driver disk in ther.....ASUS board have a feature that if the BIOS is corrupted, they will automatically boot from the disk drive and recover the BIOS....sometimes it works, sometimes not so much.
If this doesn't work, I would try to RMA EVERYTHING.....PSU, CPU, RAM, optical drive, motherboard, graphics card......you have no idea what could have been damaged by the power supply and what looks like some sort of surge.

Keep me posted on this Parker, I'll help with whatever I can.