help cant boot w/ 5850

[Jaime Frontero]

well, i was wrong then.

I have the 8 pin connector plugged into the motherboard. I have two PCI-e cables from PSU to graphics card. I've been trying to boot with only one card the whole time.

You may have some defective hardware, then. I'm guessing the MoBo doesn't have an LED POST readout on it?

I'd try reseating the RAM, only putting one stick in, and trying different RAM slots, then reseating the CPU, then replugging all the power supply connections, and then I'd send it back if it still isn't working -- worst part is you don't know what's failing unless you can get a POST code. Rarely, MoBo manufacturers include a speaker which will beep out an error code. If you have a case, sometimes they have the speaker built into case with a wire coming out which goes into the speaker pins for a code.

if you got the mobo new in the box, it came with a little speaker (pencil-eraser size) attached with two inch-long wires.  plug it in to the speaker header, and check MSI's web site for beep codes...

[tanerlorn]

k i finally found the little speaker. i booted up and got i believe 3 short beeps. which means base 64k ram failure. what do i do? using 1gb of kingston ddr ram i believe

[tanerlorn]

just tried taking out the ram and put in two 512mb sticks that were lying around. same problem, and still get 3 short beeps on boot

[grndzero]

just tried taking out the ram and put in two 512mb sticks that were lying around. same problem, and still get 3 short beeps on boot

Are they DDR3 13333 or faster?

[tanerlorn]

just tried taking out the ram and put in two 512mb sticks that were lying around. same problem, and still get 3 short beeps on boot

Are they DDR3 1066 or faster?

Using this ram stick, its 2gb actually

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134812

it says speed ddr 1333 so yeah.

the 512mb sticks that i tried, probably not

[grndzero]

just tried taking out the ram and put in two 512mb sticks that were lying around. same problem, and still get 3 short beeps on boot

Are they DDR3 1066 or faster?

Using this ram stick, its 2gb actually

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134812

it says speed ddr 1333 so yeah.

the 512mb sticks that i tried, probably not

Did you try putting the ram in all the slots? It sounds like a bad stick of RAM but you can't rule out the board either unless you know the RAM stick is bad.

[kjj]

That is the right memory for that board.

Troubleshooting 101:  Unplug EVERYTHING that isn't absolutely essential to booting.  Triple check the things that are.

Motherboard should be populated with CPU, RAM and video card only.  Double check orientation and seating of memory (DIMM slot 1, closest to CPU).  Triple check it.

Make sure video card is fully and evenly seated.

Check main ATX power cable.  Make sure it is fully inserted and latched.

Check the +12V connector.  The yellow wires should be on the side of the latch.  Nothing in the manual suggests that you can't use the full 8 pins.  If you go with only 4 pins, I think use the right side of the connector (looking at the motherboard so that the latch is "up").

Make sure the CPU fan is connected.

Make sure the CMOS jimper is on pins 1 and 2.

Leave the speaker connected, I guess.

Connect a monitor to the video card.

Since this board apparently has a power button built in, there should be nothing else plugged in at this point.  No SATA cables, no USB cables, no front panel headers, absolutely nothing else.

Try to power it up using the onboard button.  Check the diagnostic LED (page 2-28 in the manual).

[tanerlorn]

Ok, I took the motherboard out of the case. Booting it up on the insulated material it came in. With one graphics card plugged in, and one stick of RAM. Nothing else.

When I boot, instead of 3 long beeps, I now get 1 long beep, and 2 short beeps.

MSI website says this means "A video error has occurred and the BIOS cannot intialize the video screen to display any additional information "

What are my options now?

[tanerlorn]

The debug lights on the mobo that were saying FF before, now are saying 2E

However, there is no reference for 2E in the manual

[Jaime Frontero]

Ok, I took the motherboard out of the case. Booting it up on the insulated material it came in. With one graphics card plugged in, and one stick of RAM. Nothing else.

When I boot, instead of 3 long beeps, I now get 1 long beep, and 2 short beeps.

MSI website says this means "A video error has occurred and the BIOS cannot intialize the video screen to display any additional information "

What are my options now?

you probably need a monitor plugged in.

what are you using?  a monitor with a VGA connector - plugged into a gender-bender on the first DVI plug (the one in line with the PCIe slot the card is plugged into)?

[kjj]

What exactly do you mean by insulating material?

2E appears to be somewhere in the vicinity of setting up the video device; well after setting up the initial slice of RAM it needs for booting, but before the initial video display.  Make sure the aux power for the video card is plugged in (I forgot to list it, but it is essential for botting).

[tanerlorn]

Ok, I took the motherboard out of the case. Booting it up on the insulated material it came in. With one graphics card plugged in, and one stick of RAM. Nothing else.

When I boot, instead of 3 long beeps, I now get 1 long beep, and 2 short beeps.

MSI website says this means "A video error has occurred and the BIOS cannot intialize the video screen to display any additional information "

What are my options now?

you probably need a monitor plugged in.

what are you using?  a monitor with a VGA connector - plugged into a gender-bender on the first DVI plug (the one in line with the PCIe slot the card is plugged into)?

I have a monitor pluged in.

I'm using a monitor with a DVI connector, but I tried it using the VGA connector on the monitor then using the gender bender plug to connect to the card, but same result

the insulating material is just the plastic the motherboard came in.

the aux power is plugged into the video card, i didnt have it plugged in fully, i only had one 6 pin connector in before and the system just BEEEEEEPED...so i plugged two 6 pins, or maybe one 6 pin one 8 pin in and that stopped....that might have caused a problem with the first card i used, but like i said i have two cards, and the second one i plugged in correctly the first time, and the same result

[tanerlorn]

GOT IT TO POST!

I'm not sure exactly what it was because I did so many things in the past few hours, but I just took the card out of PCI-slot 1 and put it in PCI-slot 4, booted up, and it posted. i got one short beep, then two very short beeps afterwards, prolly because it has no boot device, but yeah

thanks everyone for your help so far, im hugely relieved, now for the long process of getting the software to run!

[kjj]

Slot 4 is 4x only, by the way.  That is perfectly fine for mining, but might not be great if you plan to play games on it too.

[tanerlorn]

Slot 4 is 4x only, by the way.  That is perfectly fine for mining, but might not be great if you plan to play games on it too.

thanks for the tip, ive actually had to move it to slot 3 because it wouldnt fit in slot 4, psu was in the way haha. but its working now, got ubuntu installing, so *crosses fingers*