12 replies to this topic

[mr.lively]

So after blowing some canned air to clean out the cobwebs, my computer proceeded not to start. Open it up, and it's the dreaded ff post code. Proceed to remove components one by one until I'm left with one stick of ram, the cpu, and my mobo. From the manual, FF = first stage of post: power on and initialize cpu. I had this problem once before. And some folks on vent helped me get it fixed. I tried clearing cmos, no help. Am I fucked? What do?

Edit: sending board out for rma. will update when i get it back.

Edited by mr.lively, 14 May 2012 - 01:51 PM.

[DarkShadow]

could be a lot of things really, could of been a loose ram stick.

[mr.lively]

moved the ram back and forth, took out one, then put the other one in. don't think it was anything but the motherboard. I tried starting with my old chip, same thing, so not the cpu. gonna go to fedex today, hopefully msi fixes it. otherwise I'll be looking for advice on which board I should replace it with.

[eRoC]

man, I cant tell you how many times I have seen this happen.. My friend did the same thing and raged before I could get to his house.. When I got there his rig was a pile of parts and never worked again, had to scrap everything for gold.

when I use compressed air, I disassemble everything, blow out the power supply, remove the GPU and blow that heatsink out. Its possible you knocked an IC or capacitor off the board with a blast of air, I did that to a videocard once..

My only question would be, did you try a different power supply? You have eliminated CPU and ram as a possibility, so based on what you told us its looking like motherboard or power supply to me..

The quality of motherboards also seems to have gone down in the last few years.. I always used to go with MSI, but have stayed away as of late. Everyone always bags on biostar as a budget brand, and they are, but the last 2 I got have taken lots of abuse, and still work to this day.. We're talking extreme overclocks sustained over a several year period. My socket 939 rig still functions normally after 6 years, my socket 775 still going after 4.

Let us know if you have another power supply to test your rig with... for some reason I'm getting a feeling this might be an issue, just a feeling.

[mr.lively]

RMA finally came back, with remark: "Swapped". So the board is brand new. I put shit together, but the problem persists. What have I done? Do I need a power supply? I've eliminated ram and cpu as a possible culprits, but the fact that MSI spent a week processing my RMA and then sent me a new board tells me the board was fucked. Now I get the same problem making me think I fucked the board somehow again... Fuck this shit.

[DarkShadow]

well its possible you had a surge and it fucked up a lot of stuff, but what exactly happens when you press the power button? possible that you fucked up your connectors to the case or put them in backwards.

is the motherboard light on? is the switch on the back of the PSU in the correct position? tried the paperclip trick?

[mr.lively]

dont know what the paper clip trick is. the connectors are correct, the ff post code comes up, tried clearing cmos, no go. you were talking about front panel connectors right? I could have fucked up power connections but I don't think so.

[DarkShadow]

so everything starts correctly but you see nothing?

A) compare the post code to your motherboard manual, also give me the code.
B) check if your monitor is in the correct mode, if that fails try a different screen, for all you know you accidentally hit a button and switched DVI modes or whatever the fuck.

I'd lol.

[eRoC]

the paper clip trick is a way to test your power supply.. you short out 2 pins and the PSU will come on, then you can check the 12v and 5v with a digital multimeter.

am I correct in saying that your computer does turn on and POST's, but then fails when it goes to windows? can you get into the bios?
Do you have more than one computer? If so take your power supply, plug it into computer #2, and see what happens. Do you have any other ram? one of my motherboards had an unhappy marriage with a set of crucial ballistix, but played just fine with gskill. no logical explanation. try different ram and cross check your MB's list of compatible ram against the ones you have. Also by clearing cmos, your ram is now running on auto voltage, some types require specific voltages to boot.
Also like shadow said, your monitor may have been cursed by gayness of the input selection and/or resolution. Do you have another monitor to test? I have done dumb things like plug my monitor cable into the onboard video port when I had a videocard installed. Are all the standoff's behind your MB properly secured and grounded by a screw? A standoff touching the backplane of your MB without a screw on the board, or a loose tab on your I/O shield (remove that if you haven't already) can cause a short, which stops the board at the POST due to incorrect voltages. Basically the POST verifies all the voltages are correct and then starts the boot sequence. So if its hanging up at the POST something is wrong electrically.
Let us know what happens, try everything.

[DarkShadow]

your ram is now running on auto voltage, some types require specific voltages to boot.

you're full of shit bro, no ram requires specific voltage to boot. it defaults to the JEDEC spec ala 1333@9-9-9/1.5v, if it cant do that it isn't DDR3 or you have a hobonigger motherboard with massive vdroop.

[eRoC]

gotta try everything in a situation like this. My old rig at one point would BSOD instantly if my ram timings/ voltage were not set exactly at 2.2v with 4-4-4-12 timings (I think) .. yes this was ddr2, yes I probably fried my memory controller with an aggressive overclock, it is what it is. And this was after I RMA'd my memory to crucial after failing memtest. They sent me back my Same Exact ram with a small sticker on it that said "2.2v 4-4-4-12" on it. Thanks alot crucial. SO I got another 4 gigs of gskill ddr2 and the machine runs fine (at stock speeds/voltages) to this day.

either way based on the process of elimination it could only be psu or ram at this point. He rma'd his board, tried another cpu, and took everything else out.

[DarkShadow]

trying everything only wastes time and money, his memory isn't the issue unless its dead. I say this because he's using an old kit I sold him along with my X4 955. the issue you described is PEBCAK related.

if only Lively would get on vent I could most likely figure it out in 5 minutes tops.

edit: Lively, just to humor eRoc - take your memory sticks out and grab a rubber eraser, gently clean the connectors for the ram. when that is done verify wiring is correct (4 or 8 pin for CPU, 24pin for board and all the others).

[eRoC]

indeed.. I only said that because I usually have extra stuff laying around.. I've always been an electronics hoarder.. People mock me for it, yet having 10 of everything does come in handy sometimes. Actually at last count I had 35 cpu, (a sweet gold faced AMD k-5 being the centerpiece of the collection) a shoebox of ram, 2 milk crates of assorted PCI cards, 10+cases, (most will be scrapped for metal) power supplies, hard drives etc.

stuff that works is saved, the rest is sold for scrap. e-waste is a big deal these days, lots of companies pay cash for your swag. Check out the latest price list at www.boardsort.com I have a 30lb shipment that should net about 100$.. So not much money, but not a waste of time either..

SO if anyone has old crap they don't want, PM me please. basically any nonworking/scrap RAM, motherboards, pci cards, CPU, game consoles and cellphones. old ceramic processors being most desirable.