Eek! I think my DFI Expert is dead!

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Hello all!

I've had this board for about a month now, and I think I've killed the poor thing. I've been running my 146 Opteron on it at 2.8-2.9GHz 24/7 for the last couple of weeks. This morning I left the house and my computer was happily folding away. I returned this evening to an ominously quiet PC...

It had switched off! "Power cut," I thought, but on trying to turn it back on all that happened was something made a quiet 'click' noise, the fans jogged about a quarter turn... and that was it.

Oh dear. I've tried everything I can think of. I reset CMOS, going so far as to remove the battery for an hour. I've disconnected absolutely everything in turn from the mobo and PSU - graphics card, sound card, disk drives, fans, RAM, even the CPU, and it's always the same. No beeps, no fans. Just the little orange standby LED. The LED by the RAM slots is off at first, then comes on with a click when I press the power button, but that's it.

I've tried another PSU as well - same problem.

Have I made some glaring omission? Or is it, as I fear, a very dead mobo. Advice and commiserations welcome, lol.
 
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I should add that my load temps were never very high: CPU got up to about 42, Chipset up to 50 degrees.

The chipset voltage was quite high though - 1.6V I think?

vDIMM was very high - 3.6V, but the RAM's rated up to 3.8, and I had an 80mm fan strapped onto the sticks so they didn't get hot.
 
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check the cpu in another board if you can and hope and pray you havent got a dfi expert that likes muching your components,

dont mean to worry you mate, have you checked the psu?
 
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Well, those that said PSU, give yourself a pat on the back! Tested the RAM and CPU in another PC, both worked fine. Tried the PSU and... *click* nothing.

Dead 600W Seasonic. D'oh!

Still not sure that the mobo is alright - the only other 24-pin PSU I have to test it with is itself dodgy and it doesn't turn the mobo on.

Hmm, if the Seasonic has well and truly had it then it's the second high-end PSU to bite the dust while powering this mobo (the other being dodgy Antec NeoPower 480W mentioned above). Can anyone recommend an alternative while I RMA the Seasonic?
 
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Cheers for the link. Seems like I have the new revision though: the fan has 7 blades instead of 5, which one of the posters says means it's the new one, and anyway it's less than a month old (bought on special offer from OcUK).

Oh well. The damn thing weighs a ton too - will cost a fortune to post back for RMA, LOL. Thanks for all the help everybody - sorry if it's been a bit of a wild goose chase (I just couldn't believe at first that my £100 PSU could give up the ghost so easily! Otherwise I'd have figured it out sooner).

Reckon two dead PSUs in a month is just a coincidence? Or should I be worried that my mobo is out to murder the next power supply too...
 
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I must say I do like the look of that Enermax :D
One nice thing about things dying on you is that you get to try new things, LOL. But then who gets excited about power supplies?


Oh yeah - we do! ;)
 
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Well I got one of the original Tagan 480W ( model No U01) just when everyone started reporting problems with them - its still going strong to this day ( so far at least hahaha) -- sometimes you get a bad one, its as simple as that, no reason in my opinion to change brand or model ( on first rma at least) but I would also be tempted to exchange / rma your "Expert" also, just to be on the safe side
 
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I would like to, if only to give me peace of mind But if I sent it back, wouldn't they just test it, say there's nothing wrong, and send it back to me?
 
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Here's an interesting thing: the problem I had with my Antec NeoPower 480W was that the +5Vsb standby line was dropping to about 3.5V when switched off then back on, not enough to turn on the PC in a cold boot.

BUT when it's unplugged from everything, the +5Vsb line sits at a happy 5V. As soon as i plug the 24-pin ATX cable into the DFI it drops off to around 3.5 again... WHY? What's the board doing, when switched off, that the PSU can't even hold up 5V on the standby line?!

Ah well, ignore my futile rantings. I've ordered an Enermax Liberty 620W :D If that dies too, we'll know it's the board, LOL.
 
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Interesting thread. My mate has got a DFI Expert and he is having real issues with it. I feel bad in that I recommended it as a hot MOBO to haev right now, and hes had nothign but problems. He has RMA'd and to his disgust it has come back as being fine. The issue is a lot like you have described. Just randomly will not cold boot, unless the PSU rocker switch is turned off then back on. Im wondering if his PSU is to blame, but the thing is, its a brand new Hiper 580watt modular beast.

Intrigueing.
 
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Sorry to hear about your mate's board. I'm exactly the same way when I recommend something to my less computer literate friends and family - sometimes it doesn't work out and I feel terrible :(

And very frustrating that they returned the board as fine. What, are we supposed to just put up with expensive goods intermittently failing because they don't do it in the 10 minutes they're being played with in the shop's back room?

I believe a growl is in order. Grr.


Bet that scared them.
 
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lol

Well, it was always predictable that it would get returned non faulty. Might have to just wait for DFI to put an official message out about this. i.e. Will their be a BIOS fix, as people need to know whether to RMA or not.
 
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