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System not posting - SOLVED

MARSTG

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Joined
Apr 22, 2011
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5,062
Location
Montreal
I am really not so lucky with Core 2 Duo era motherboard other than those corporate Intel models. (I passed the C2D era in AMD camp) This is my second "other manufacturer than intel" motherboard with intel chipset that dies or is dying on me. (First one was an Asus deluxe that came with one of those AP solutions, very cool)
Ok so my mobo is the DFI Lan Party Dark P35. This board was finicky from the moment I got it, obviously a performance model, good when it works, a ton of ovc options, maybe too many, fully featured ICH9R, ( it allowed me to test the RAID 5 feature and prove that actually is not taking so many CPU cycles like so many complain about, and which is a wrong perception rooted in the days before the multicore CPU era).
Ok, so this board like I said was finicky from the first day I got it, the main issue being that if you leave the system unpowered for a few days, 2-3, it will not power up. I also have an E8500 CPU on it with the original Intel copper core heatsink that was coming with the Q6600 (would ovc the Q6600 with that heatsink alone at 3.0 GHz, very nice) and it does not detect the E8500 properly, it would show it run at 9x333 MHz when in fact E8500 is at 9.5x333. I have to load the defaults value and reboot and then it would detect it fine. The board has the latest public bios, but apparently there is a beta bios published by DFI that offers support for latest quad core CPUs like Q9550.
So the not booting issue does it mean that the CMOS battery powering the BIOS is dead or dying? Would just replacing that solve my issues? I happen to have an Asus PKPL-CM with an E6600 that I can leave unpowered for weeks at a time and boots from the first power on switch at the PSU.
Yesterday it was the last straw, I have seen that DFI bios splash screen and then nothing, I have a passively cooled Radeon 5450 that takes care of the display, the system would stay on but the display is black, I hear some HDD activity from time to time like the system would perform normally but that is all. Any advices?
 
Last edited:

proxy

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Joined
Jan 9, 2011
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220
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GTA
None here, I had a DFI LanParty that just went fritz back when, and I just junked it. I think I have a Gigabyte EP45 somewhere that I ended up using.

It was finicky until I realized that the 4 memory slots wasn't playing nice with the Q9550 I put in, had to crank up the voltage to near the red line to get it to post consistently.
 

MARSTG

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Joined
Apr 22, 2011
Messages
5,062
Location
Montreal
Actually it was only the CMOS battery dying. I replaced the CMOS battery from a corporate Intel Q45 board and it fixed the issue. I was so glad, that I went ahead and updated the bios too, the latest beta bios from DFI adds support for Intel Q9xxx CPUs, using the USB flash drive method. The complete board model is DFI Lan Party DARK T2RS, as there are quite a few DARK P35 mobos in the wild, it is mentioned only on one sticker on the back of the board. I think I will go ahead and rework that Xeon mod project I abandoned a few months ago. I like this board as it has a very nice and powerful integrated audio solution, I am a bit disappointed by the integrated audio on the MSI H81i and the lack of RAID.
 

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