K8V-X board not booting/powering on correctly after RAM upgrade attempt

I've been running a K8V-X board with an A64 3000+ and one 512MB stick
in the first (blue) slot for over a year with no problems at all.
Several days ago, I added another 512MB stick, in the second slot,
after which something went terribly wrong. The LED on the board is on,
the fans are spinning, but the hard drive is silent and I'm getting no
signal to the monitor. That is--turning on the computer does not bring
the monitor out of standby anymore. I'm hearing no beeps at all, so
it's not posting.

Naturally, I suspected the RAM to be defective, so I reverted to the
original setup with my old 512 stick that was fully functional. Same
result--no display, no complete powerup. I thought I might have somehow
shorted my good RAM with a bad new stick, so I went out and bought two
new Kingston 512s, but the result is still the same. I get no display
or hard drive activity whether I have any DIMMs in there or not,
whether they're new or not. I even tried a different video card that I
know to be functional, in case I somehow destroyed mine, but to no
avail. I even cleared the CMOS by both trying the jumper and replacing
the BIOS battery, none of which did anything.

ASUS tech support were no help ("Make sure the power supply is
connected to the motherboard and your computer plugged in..."), and I'm
absolutely clueless as to what else I can try or how to find out what's
wrong. The board is the likely suspect at this point.

Any thoughts on what I might have done to it and how, just by adding a
stick of RAM?

Any helpful suggestions would be highly appreciated.

 

What happens when you don't have any RAM installed? Do you hear
any error beeps from the speaker? If not, then the motherboard
is most likely the cause. ASUS ones have a 3yr warranty ().

 

When I have no memory in the slots, it behaves the same way it does
when I do--no monitor feedback or hard drive spin. No error beeps,
either. It's for this reason I was suspecting the board, but I was just
looking to see if anyone has faced a similar issue before and maybe
found a soluition of some kind, short of replacing the board.

 

I trust you read Table 1 on page 1-11 of the motherboard manual first?

 

Yes, I did read the memory configuration table, and it struck me as
kind of odd because just about every possible configuration is
apparently "recommended." I was a little puzzled as to why they felt
compelled to make this table instead of saying that every memory
configuration is fine. Either way, I have since tested out the RAM in a
different computer and found it to be functional, as the other machine
booted fine and accounted for the newly inserted DIMMs.

I even took out the motherboard and assembled the computer on a wooden
surface, thinking that perhaps there was a short with the chassis
somewhere. No luck, still no post or complete powerup.

Does it look like I'm in for a motherboard replacement?

 

This is not strictly true. Table 1 has 2 speeds. DDR400 and DDR333. I can't
see anybody running this board at less than DDR400 so run a pencil line
through all the 333 speeds. This makes table 1 much smaller. ASUS makes a
big deal out of running single sided and double sided ram.
What you would do is to lay your ram out and see what you have and then
consult table 1. Most of the slots use single sided ram so if your new ram
is double sided then you can pencil out all the single sided settings. This
will make table1 even smaller. You should be getting the picture by now.
Mostly it says to use one double sided and one single sided if you are to
use 2 sticks. My dealer only had double sided ram at the time I needed it so
I swapped the two sticks and took one big stick which I put in the
recommended blue slot first. Too easy eh?
Just put one stick in the blue slot and maybe try a different video card and
if you put the board together from scratch you may wish to remove the CPU
cooler to make sure it is on correctly. I have had no problems with this
board other than the initial fight with ram.

 

One last thought, is your power supply new enough to give the extra power
these boards need? There is a 4pin socket on the motherboard that must have
a power cable plugged into it too. Without that cable you will not get a
boot either.

 

Ah, I see, thanks for clarifying that memory table for me.
Unfortunately, no combination of RAM seems to be working, even though
all of the four DIMMs I have are functional, as evidenced by another
system happily accepting them.

My power supply is a 450W Enermax that has been working nicely all this
time, and yes of course it has the 12V plug required for this board,
which is definitely connected. I did try a different video card, too,
but it didn't seem to change a thing.

Starting to look at other boards out there :/

 

If you have tested everything in other computers then just about all that is
left is the mobo. Fortunately they are fairly cheap to replace at this time.
At least with whatever board you get you are more prepared now to read the
manual and fit whatever your board will operate with in the way of ram.

 

Looking at your sequence of events, I think the new RAM has
damaged your processor. The memory controller is inside the
processor, and you say the processor would no longer do anything
after that second DIMM was added. The Kingston RAM could not
work at that point, if the processor had been damaged.

If I were you, I would:

1) Send the DIMM that did the damage back to its supplier,
telling them it destroyed your processor.

Do NOT test it in any other motherboards, like don't
stick it in your friends motherboard Don't test it
at a local computer shop either, unless you never plan
on going to that shop again. While you could spend an hour
on it with an ohmmeter, looking for a rail to signal short,
there is no guarantee you'll learn anything from that.

2) Take your (presumably dead) processor to any computer
shop that is willing to test it for you. There is
no reason to suspect at this point, that the processor
will damage any other hardware it is used with. I feel
it won't pass any damage it has suffered, to another
motherboard. If the processor is visibly damaged (burn
marks), then no further testing is necessary :-(

Have the shop test it while using one DIMM. Move the
DIMM through all the RAM slots, to prove the processor
will POST no matter what slot the RAM is in.

3) If the processor tests good, that leaves the motherboard.
Since there is no memory controller on the motherboard,
the RAM may have damaged the Vdimm power source or
termination supply. That is about all I can think of. I
think most of the rest of the interface comes from the
processor.

4) If the processor tests bad (will not POST on the test
motherboard, not even enough to beep when no RAM is present),
then you'll need another processor. You could try the
AMD warranty route, as you don't really know for sure
whether the DIMM did it, or it was a coincidence. Or you
could buy another processor.

I hope you were careful to check that the green LED on the
motherboard was not lighted when you inserted the RAM. What
I do, is unplug the computer before opening the side, to
add or remove hardware. That prevents accidents where things
like DIMMs, connect to "hot" pins in the socket caused by the
standby power source (+5VSB). Hot inserting components while
+5VSB is present can damage them, and the DIMM slots receive
power so that the computer properly supports S3 sleep mode.
(The DIMMs are powered and are refreshing themselves when in
sleep mode.)

If you are living on a desert island, and no testing is possible,
then I would purchase another processor and swap it in. But
don't insert the "killer" RAM in the board again!

There is no reason to suspect the power supply, as the
incremental increase in power consumption is about 5 watts
with another DIMM.

Paul

 

Thank you all for replying and for the very sensible advice, thought
I'd post a follow-up with the result of it all.

A replacement Gigabyte K8NS board solved this problem. The computer
instantly powered up with all of the DIMMs, including the suspect one
(previously tested in another system), accounted for. I've not lost
faith in ASUS completely, but I must say that I'm very disappointed not
to mention bewildered by the fact that an upgrade as simple as a RAM
chip rendered a functional board dead. Vdimm power source or the
termination supply--I wouldn't begin to know why either of those should
stop working with the addition of a memory stick.