Asus M2N32SLI-Deluxe and AMD Phenom won't POST

Red Alert

Hey guys, I'm building a new rig at the moment. Specs are:

ASUS M2N32SLI-Deluxe
4GB RAM (4x1GB)
AMD Phenom Quad-core
ASUS 8800GTX
2x 500GB SATA drives
Zalman Cooler with PWM control

When I put the machine together it will power on for approximately five seconds, all fans turn on then the system shuts down. It will do this whether or not the graphics card is inserted. I have read on the net some issues about the AMD Phenom and some motherboards, but I'm a bit unclear on how to proceed:

Possible causes from what I've seen on google:

• RAM incompatible - will try pulling all but one and rotating them, and will try a stick from my current machine if it's compatible.
• Processor incompatible with BIOS - this one I guess will be tricky to fix seen as I'll need to get hold of another processor to do the flashing.
• Electrical short or PSU problem - unlikely seen as it runs at all, will do a run with the board out of the case to be sure.
• Thermal problem - I'll check the cooler/processor case contact, although I did take my time on the thermal paste and cooler seating. Will also try plugging in the stock cooler to make sure the board is sensing the Zalmann's RPM.

There's also no system beeper on it for the moment so I haven't been able to tell if has stopped before POST for any reason. Has anyone any pointers? I'm going mad looking at the box in my room!

Anti

i'd try just one stick of ram first, could be the issue - Remember how some intel boards wouldnt post with 4x1gb dimms.

Also try a different psu, your one could be nackered.

final thing to try would be to build the pc out of thr case.

SickBoy

I'm not much up on the Phenom but I'm wondering does the memory controller on the die(s) require registered/buffered/ECC memory?

astrofool

I think that board needs a bios update to support Phenom, used a couple myself, and the updates have been fairly frequent. Do you know the bios revision of the board? Sometimes it's silkscreened or on a sticker somewhere (the shipping revision).

Spear

SickBoy wrote: »

I'm not much up on the Phenom but I'm wondering does the memory controller on the die(s) require registered/buffered/ECC memory?

No, normal unbuffered and unregistered RAM is used.

I've seen a number of reports where older AM2 (not AM2+) boards have difficulty supplying enough voltage to the third and fourth cores, but that usually leads to instability rather than no POST.

Red Alert

astrofool wrote: »

I think that board needs a bios update to support Phenom, used a couple myself, and the updates have been fairly frequent. Do you know the bios revision of the board? Sometimes it's silkscreened or on a sticker somewhere (the shipping revision).

If that's the case I'd need to buy or borrow another non-Phenom processor to do the change?

Thanks for the replies so far - i'll have a shot at it on Monday as I'm heading off for the weekend.

DirkVoodoo

I think the M2N needs BIOS 1202 or newer to support Phenom. I ma be disposing of a socket AM2 processor soon if you haven't sorted it out by then.

TerrorFirmer

Out of curiosity, why did you go Phenom?

conzy

ha, Was gonna ask the same thing....