Buying a New PC

[DGuller]

Try paring down the PC to bare essentials.  No need to add more things that could go wrong at this stage.  Doing the wires wrong probably didn't ruin it.  Leave only one RAM stick in, and give all three of them a try if that doesn't help (assuming you have three of them).  Bad RAM stick will certainly cause the computer to do practically nothing at all when you turn it on.

[Ideologue]

Uh, actually, I'm just a retard.  I must have knocked out or pulled the CPU's 8-pin without replacing it. :sadblush:

Powers on fine now, and the speaker was successfully installed (I am: COMPUTER GNEIUS), and I believe it's telling me one dash and two dots, signifying a memory problem.

Have I entered the world of DGuller?

[Ed Anger]

Have I entered the world of DGuller?

The wonderful world of building your own computer and struggling for hours on end to find something wrong with a part the size of a matchbook and realizing if you had just ordered a full computer you could be jacking off to porn at Xvideos?

Yeah.

[Ideologue]

Well, my old computer still works, so porn is still available, and has been a great support in these trying times.

Some very preliminary research indicates that the Corsair 1333 RAM may not be immediately compatible with the P6T SE board, and that the BIOS needs to be configured to accept 1333 (instead of 1066) RAM.

The problem with this, to the best of my knowledge, is that I cannot get into the BIOS to actually do that without RAM... I'd cannibalize my old computer's RAM in order to do this, but DDR2 will definitely not work with the P6T...

I was under the impression that the board would auto-downgrade 1333 to 1066.  Not true?

I also notice that Corsair TR3X6G1333C9 is not on the board manual's list of memory--could have sworn I looked that up before I bought it.  Edit: nevermind, it's actually definitely on there.

[DGuller]

My RAM is not 1066 either, but it downgrades to 1066 just fine.  Have you tried using one stick at a time?

[Ideologue]

^Yeah.  I've tried single and dual channel configurations, with combinations designed to identify any individual nonfunctional stick, to no avail.  It's puzzling.  I'm going to try some other stuff to make sure the error codes it's giving are correct; if that's the case, then that means there's a problem with the board somewhere.

I've narrowed it down to three theories:
1)every memory slot on the board is shot.  This seems unlikely, but less unlikely than all three memory sticks being lemons.
2)the CPU is not seated correctly, which may (?) show up as a memory problem if the memory controllers are not working
3)I read on some forum that someone with a similar problem was experiecing a case short due to some part of the motherboard interacting unfavorably with some part of the case, or perhaps the GPU anchor.

I plan on testing three and two, in that order, but want to research more about theory 3 to determine if it can have these kind of effects.  If I can eliminate theories 2 and 3, then in the absence of any other theory, the board's memory slots are broken, and I guess I'll have to RMA it (which may or may not work, because I cannot say with certainty that I did not break it).

[Ideologue]

This is from a review of the Azza Solano case.

The motherboard tray, while not removable, was still easy to access. There are several raised mounting points on the tray, so we only had to install three standoffs to fully mount our ATX motherboard.

I'm using like... six.  Would the raised mounting points be enough?  It seems obvious in retrospect, but I think this is why it's angled.  I'm going to try mounting it on the raised mounts only.

On the other hand, why are there other mounts if they aren't meant to be used?

[DGuller]

I mounted mine with 9 screws and things that have screw holes in them.

[Ideologue]

I think it's worth a shot, though.  Like you said, it shouldn't be at an angle... even if it's not causing the immediate problem, it still should probably be corrected.

[Ideologue]

I have dominated the machine.

It's full of stars.

The, ah, memory issue was so embarassingly stupid I don't want to discuss it further, but thank you all (especially DGuller) for all the assistance.

[Barrister]

Oh come on - what was the problem?

[Ideologue]

It appears that I didn't actually have the memory inserted into the slots. :sadblush:

Might as well have used a hammer to get them in there, though.  WTF is up with that?

[Barrister]

It does require an astonishing amount of force to get it in there, yes.

[DGuller]

It does require an astonishing amount of force to get it in there, yes.

I don't know, I thought it required reasonable force.  On my motherboard, you just push down, and eventually the sides close on the RAM chip automatically, which lets you know that you pushed far enough.  Are those things on the side not universal these days?

[Ideologue]

They were there, but damn, it makes a sound like a chair breaking whenever anything is added (correctly) or removed to the board.

Other than the MB 24-pin that comes loose if you pick up the case whatsoever (should I get the hammer for it too? : / ), it's working great.  Right now, I have HoI3 running plus a dozen Firefox tabs--a feat already well beyond the capabilities of my old machine--but with memory only 50% occupied and CPU usage not getting much higher than 5%.