Lanparty nfII Ultra B - Won't POST, Stuck on LED 4

layedback247 · 02-06-2005, 10:09 AM

I'm in need of some help.

I started out upgrading my old system and it has turned into a new system build that has led to me being stuck on diagnostic LED 4. And as i've found out that is really no place to be.

Here's the full story.

I had an Intel P4 Celeron system that i intended to upgrade with a video card. The video card of my choosing (All-in-Wonder 9800) was an AGP card and my system didn't have an AGP slot. Being that i had recently landed a new job, i had a decent financial cushion so i decided why not just upgrade the board, chip, and RAM, and then throw in the vid card. No problem. Chose the Lanparty NFII Ultra B, some Corsair XMS 3200 RAM (2X512MB), an AMD XP 2600+ Mobile chip, Thermalright Si-97 Heatsink and i was good to go. I threw it all together in my old case, retaining my old HDD's, CD/DVD drives and PSU. Fired her up and things were good. Got into CMOS, then formatted one of my drives and installed Windows XP since i had previously been using 2000. Got windows going and had the system running stable for about a week.

Throughout the week i was messing with OC settings and had the system stable at 2.3 and 2.4. I had to reboot and clear the CMOS settings using the jumper on the board a few times. And then there was a shining moment of clarity where i realized the ridiculousness of all the time i was pouring into tweaking the settings just to get a little more speed out of my chip. In that moment i decided to clear the CMOS, since it hadn't booted on that particular attempt, and go back to one of the stable settings i had found and leave the computer alone. Unfortunately i took one step to many down a slippery slope to PC Hell.

When i hit reset i got nothing. All 4 LED's came on and just sat there. I tried many times to clear CMOS. No Good. Something was bad wrong. I RMA'd the board, because i was pretty certain it was the board and not RAM or CPU. While i was waiting for the new board to come, i purchased a Lian Li PC-65 case and an Antec TrueControl 550. I had been using a generic 300W PSU and thought that maybe by OC'ing and using a weak PSU i had done some damage. I wanted to be sure i had enough juice. I also got a Thermalright NB1-C copper chipset heatsink. I figured, what the heck, it's only 17 bucks and i can slap it on there for a little added heat protection.

So the 2nd board shows up at my door. Time to get it together again. While putting the chipset heatsink on, i really had to snap the mounts hard to get it to seat. And there was a brief "Oh S***" moment. But it didn't seem like i had done any damage, so i put everything else together and fired her up. Power goes on.......All four diagnostic LED's come on........Then LED 1+2 only.......Then LED 3 only.......Then LED 4 only............and THEN .................................................. .NOTHING.

That's it, it just sits on LED 4. So i go to the Lanparty User's Manual and check the LED diagnostic codes and it seems that LED 4 only is: "Early program chipset register before POST". So after checking that, i figured that i must have damaged the chipset when putting the NB1-C Heatsink in place. But i wanted to make sure that the RAM and CPU were OK. So i carted my aluminum box down to a local computer shop. We tried starting it up there, and came up with the same result. I figured it was the chipset and they agreed. But they weren't all that familiar with my board so i may have been leading the witness, as it were. But before i left i had them take out the RAM and CPU and try it in one of there machines to make sure it was good. There machine POSTed so they told me RAM and CPU were fine. Again, i come to the conclusion that it must be the board.

So rather than wait for the turnaround on RMA'ing the 2nd board i decided that i would simply buy a 3rd board and when it came return the 2nd board in it's place.

So, board number 3 shows up at my door. I put everything together again. This time i don't even touch the factory chipset heatsink that DFI puts on. I fire her up and....................................SAME RESULT! Power goes on, and it gets to the LED 4 only stage and just sits there. I read elsewhere on this forum about leaving it on at that stage for 20 minutes and then hitting reset. I tried that, and the only thing that did was to get it to beep the second time around.

Now this leads me to believe that i didn't actually damage the chipset on the 2nd board, and that it may have been a faulty board.

At this point i'm consider switching to an Abit NF7 or something of the sort. Which means i'll have to reinstall windows.

But what i really want to know is what's going on here? Have i had a string of faulty motherboards? Are these factory defects or a result of my actions? Is there something i can do to get this MB going or do i need to do some more RMA'ing or even just switch to an Abit or something of the like? And most importantly, how can i get my system going again?

Any help is appreciated.

Jason

firemachine69 · 02-06-2005, 10:34 AM

Those of us with DFI's have aptly named that the "four LEDs of death". It's not uncommon to have to go through 3-4 DFI mobos before finding one that works.

RMA time.

I would switch to the Abit NF7-S if I were you, even if it means absorbing whatever restocking fee they impose.

BTW, chipset is limited to the northbridge/southbridge. Try to avoid using it to describe CPU-bound items (we call it the HSF, or "HeatSink Fan assembly"). For a while I thought you were changing the chipset heatsink without even checking if the mobo worked.

cannary m. burns · 02-06-2005, 10:46 AM

well, dfi is known for having alot of doa nforceII boards, but damn, three in a row? you must have broken a mirror or something, thats bad luck for ya. you could try and see if your video card is toasted before getting the abit, which is also a great board, i heard. tough luck, ive man handled my board quite a few and its still going strong, and follow the philosophy of oc'ing just to brag, dont actually leave the board on the ultra oc'd settings, not worth killing your hardware.

PC Bliss · 02-06-2005, 10:48 AM

Yeah i had two of the same board that did the same thing last spring. I thought they had fixed the problem, i guess not. I switched to the NF7-s and it was awesome. very stable. i suggest you do the same and safe yourself the headache.

Goty · 02-06-2005, 11:51 AM

I got two that were DOA after I killed one with a watercooling accident. Well, one was jsut a used board and the other was a refurb, so I don't know.

layedback247 · 02-06-2005, 03:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cannary m. burns

well, dfi is known for having alot of doa nforceII boards, but damn, three in a row? you must have broken a mirror or something, thats bad luck for ya. you could try and see if your video card is toasted before getting the abit, which is also a great board, i heard. tough luck, ive man handled my board quite a few and its still going strong, and follow the philosophy of oc'ing just to brag, dont actually leave the board on the ultra oc'd settings, not worth killing your hardware.

Well, from the responses i got it sounds like it's the Motherboard, but how do you check to see if your video card is still good?

_visible · 02-06-2005, 03:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Goty

...after I killed one with a watercooling accident...

i can only imagine... xD

layedback247 · 02-06-2005, 04:38 PM

I might just get an Abit NF7 so that i have an actual working machine. Then fool around with the Lanparty and all the RMA'ing.

The first Lanparty i had was pretty nice when it worked.

So what are the differences between all the Abit NF7 variants? The NF7-S, the NF7-S2G, the NF7-S2. And how about the AN7?

Basically I'll have an AMD XP 3200+ 400FSB (I've decided to forego OC'ing), 2X512 DDR 400 Corsair XMS RAM, Si-97 Heatsink, Radeon All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro, and a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz Sound Card. A couple of IDE HDD's, CD-RW, and DVD-R. Is all that stuff going to be compatible with one of the Abit's?

And I guess i'll have to do a reinstall of windows. But hopefully i'll have a fast, stable machine at that point.

cannary m. burns · 02-06-2005, 04:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by layedback247

Well, from the responses i got it sounds like it's the Motherboard, but how do you check to see if your video card is still good?

if you have a spare video card, try it in the motherboard and see if it posts. or, if you have a spare motherboard, see if your video card will post in that one. otherwise, there really is no way to check. doubt that its the video though, but doesnt hurt to check before wasting more money on shipping and the other rma charges.

layedback247 · 02-06-2005, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cannary m. burns

if you have a spare video card, try it in the motherboard and see if it posts. or, if you have a spare motherboard, see if your video card will post in that one. otherwise, there really is no way to check. doubt that its the video though, but doesnt hurt to check before wasting more money on shipping and the other rma charges.

Yeah, i don't have a spare vid card or MB. But if i get an Abit i can figure out what's good and bad by trial and error. But based on these responses i'd say the vid card is fine and it's just a DFI thing.

02-06-2005, 10:09 AM	#1
layedback247 softcore Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 12	Lanparty nfII Ultra B - Won't POST, Stuck on LED 4 I'm in need of some help. I started out upgrading my old system and it has turned into a new system build that has led to me being stuck on diagnostic LED 4. And as i've found out that is really no place to be. Here's the full story. I had an Intel P4 Celeron system that i intended to upgrade with a video card. The video card of my choosing (All-in-Wonder 9800) was an AGP card and my system didn't have an AGP slot. Being that i had recently landed a new job, i had a decent financial cushion so i decided why not just upgrade the board, chip, and RAM, and then throw in the vid card. No problem. Chose the Lanparty NFII Ultra B, some Corsair XMS 3200 RAM (2X512MB), an AMD XP 2600+ Mobile chip, Thermalright Si-97 Heatsink and i was good to go. I threw it all together in my old case, retaining my old HDD's, CD/DVD drives and PSU. Fired her up and things were good. Got into CMOS, then formatted one of my drives and installed Windows XP since i had previously been using 2000. Got windows going and had the system running stable for about a week. Throughout the week i was messing with OC settings and had the system stable at 2.3 and 2.4. I had to reboot and clear the CMOS settings using the jumper on the board a few times. And then there was a shining moment of clarity where i realized the ridiculousness of all the time i was pouring into tweaking the settings just to get a little more speed out of my chip. In that moment i decided to clear the CMOS, since it hadn't booted on that particular attempt, and go back to one of the stable settings i had found and leave the computer alone. Unfortunately i took one step to many down a slippery slope to PC Hell. When i hit reset i got nothing. All 4 LED's came on and just sat there. I tried many times to clear CMOS. No Good. Something was bad wrong. I RMA'd the board, because i was pretty certain it was the board and not RAM or CPU. While i was waiting for the new board to come, i purchased a Lian Li PC-65 case and an Antec TrueControl 550. I had been using a generic 300W PSU and thought that maybe by OC'ing and using a weak PSU i had done some damage. I wanted to be sure i had enough juice. I also got a Thermalright NB1-C copper chipset heatsink. I figured, what the heck, it's only 17 bucks and i can slap it on there for a little added heat protection. So the 2nd board shows up at my door. Time to get it together again. While putting the chipset heatsink on, i really had to snap the mounts hard to get it to seat. And there was a brief "Oh S***" moment. But it didn't seem like i had done any damage, so i put everything else together and fired her up. Power goes on.......All four diagnostic LED's come on........Then LED 1+2 only.......Then LED 3 only.......Then LED 4 only............and THEN .................................................. .NOTHING. That's it, it just sits on LED 4. So i go to the Lanparty User's Manual and check the LED diagnostic codes and it seems that LED 4 only is: "Early program chipset register before POST". So after checking that, i figured that i must have damaged the chipset when putting the NB1-C Heatsink in place. But i wanted to make sure that the RAM and CPU were OK. So i carted my aluminum box down to a local computer shop. We tried starting it up there, and came up with the same result. I figured it was the chipset and they agreed. But they weren't all that familiar with my board so i may have been leading the witness, as it were. But before i left i had them take out the RAM and CPU and try it in one of there machines to make sure it was good. There machine POSTed so they told me RAM and CPU were fine. Again, i come to the conclusion that it must be the board. So rather than wait for the turnaround on RMA'ing the 2nd board i decided that i would simply buy a 3rd board and when it came return the 2nd board in it's place. So, board number 3 shows up at my door. I put everything together again. This time i don't even touch the factory chipset heatsink that DFI puts on. I fire her up and....................................SAME RESULT! Power goes on, and it gets to the LED 4 only stage and just sits there. I read elsewhere on this forum about leaving it on at that stage for 20 minutes and then hitting reset. I tried that, and the only thing that did was to get it to beep the second time around. Now this leads me to believe that i didn't actually damage the chipset on the 2nd board, and that it may have been a faulty board. At this point i'm consider switching to an Abit NF7 or something of the sort. Which means i'll have to reinstall windows. But what i really want to know is what's going on here? Have i had a string of faulty motherboards? Are these factory defects or a result of my actions? Is there something i can do to get this MB going or do i need to do some more RMA'ing or even just switch to an Abit or something of the like? And most importantly, how can i get my system going again? Any help is appreciated. Jason

02-06-2005, 10:34 AM	#2
firemachine69 hCw~junkie Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 13,839	Those of us with DFI's have aptly named that the "four LEDs of death". It's not uncommon to have to go through 3-4 DFI mobos before finding one that works. RMA time. I would switch to the Abit NF7-S if I were you, even if it means absorbing whatever restocking fee they impose. BTW, chipset is limited to the northbridge/southbridge. Try to avoid using it to describe CPU-bound items (we call it the HSF, or "HeatSink Fan assembly"). For a while I thought you were changing the chipset heatsink without even checking if the mobo worked. __________________ Last edited by firemachine69; 02-06-2005 at 10:44 AM.

02-06-2005, 10:48 AM	#4
PC Bliss Truly HARDCORE Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Italy Posts: 7,410	Yeah i had two of the same board that did the same thing last spring. I thought they had fixed the problem, i guess not. I switched to the NF7-s and it was awesome. very stable. i suggest you do the same and safe yourself the headache. __________________ My PC sucks now, thank god

02-06-2005, 11:51 AM	#5
Goty Tagger of the Realm Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Dacula, GA Posts: 3,488	I got two that were DOA after I killed one with a watercooling accident. Well, one was jsut a used board and the other was a refurb, so I don't know. __________________

02-06-2005, 04:38 PM	#8
layedback247 softcore Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 12	I might just get an Abit NF7 so that i have an actual working machine. Then fool around with the Lanparty and all the RMA'ing. The first Lanparty i had was pretty nice when it worked. So what are the differences between all the Abit NF7 variants? The NF7-S, the NF7-S2G, the NF7-S2. And how about the AN7? Basically I'll have an AMD XP 3200+ 400FSB (I've decided to forego OC'ing), 2X512 DDR 400 Corsair XMS RAM, Si-97 Heatsink, Radeon All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro, and a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz Sound Card. A couple of IDE HDD's, CD-RW, and DVD-R. Is all that stuff going to be compatible with one of the Abit's? And I guess i'll have to do a reinstall of windows. But hopefully i'll have a fast, stable machine at that point. Last edited by layedback247; 02-06-2005 at 04:48 PM.

02-06-2005, 10:46 AM	#3
cannary m. burns im in ur tubez Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Bronx, NY Posts: 2,142	well, dfi is known for having alot of doa nforceII boards, but damn, three in a row? you must have broken a mirror or something, thats bad luck for ya. you could try and see if your video card is toasted before getting the abit, which is also a great board, i heard. tough luck, ive man handled my board quite a few and its still going strong, and follow the philosophy of oc'ing just to brag, dont actually leave the board on the ultra oc'd settings, not worth killing your hardware.

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