After Replacing Mobo: PC Powers On but No Display Signals, and Keyboard LEDs are Flashing

[UncleAJ]

When searching the web for the issues that plagued me today in as many descriptive ways as possible, this forum popped up the most. Ya'll must have a good reputation! Well I tried to avoid resorting to making a thread, but I'm on my 12th straight hour of troubleshooting and have given up my entire July 4th holiday... I'm tapping out.

I wanted to upgrade my CPU from an i7 2700k to an i7 6700k, The current mobo (ASUS Sabretooth P67) didn't have the right socket. Picked up an ASUS Z170-E and some new GDDR4 RAM (Two 8GB Ballistix sticks) from a local Micro Center. I set aside today for the mobo replacement process.

I spent most of the day troubleshooting the PC failing to get to POST, but turns out I'm a dummy and completely missed the 2-pin connector for the main power button. So seeing the lights light up and the fans spin was huge progress for me. I walked out of Micro Center with a new PSU just on the CHANCE that my current PSU was to blame (despite the fact it worked perfectly fine this morning before I started this whole process), but I'll be returning it tomorrow.

So where I'm at now is: the PC powers on, but my displays aren't getting any signal. And the only form of feedback I'm getting is the LEDs on my Corsair Strafe keyboard behaving very strangely. All of the keys flash in an oscillating pattern from right to left, like ocean waves. The last time I saw that was a similar no-display issue that I resolved by re-seating the RAM. No such luck this time.

Things I've already tried:

• 
  * Everything in this thread: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-perform-steps-posting-post-boot-video-problems I think I've thrown out my back hauling my PC around, removing and reseating parts all day long.
  * Re-seating the RAM sticks, including leaving only 1 stick in the board instead of both, in all four of the slots.
  * Unplugging the VGA cable from my GPU and plugging it into the VGA port directly on the mobo.
  * Powering on the PC without the GPU connected at all.
  * Unplugging everything from the rear panel except the VGA cable and power cable, then powering on.
  * Unplugging everything, including the power cable from the PSU, then holding down the power button for a full minute (apparently discharges electricity), then plugging everything back in and powering on.
  * Searching the web for various permutations of "corsair strafe LEDs blinking" to find out what the heck that means. (Results are sparse. There are some mentions of ONLY the Scroll Lock key blinking which apparently indicates being in a BIOS mode, but that doesn't apply to me.)

Things I haven't tried yet:

• 
  * Getting audio feedback from the motherboard speaker. (I don't have one... never have. Micro Center didn't have any in stock, but I just ordered one from Amazon and it'll be here in two days.)
  * Clearing the CMOS. (Very skeptical about having to go this far since I just took this mobo out of its packaging today, but I looked into it. The manual states "Unplug the PC, then short circuit pin 1-2 with a metal object or jumper cap for about 5-10 seconds." What? When I search the web for guides about resetting CMOS almost all of them mention removing a battery first, and you just want me to go right in there with a paperclip or something? I'm going to be 100% SURE that's necessary before going that far.)

My Specs:

• 
  * CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 8M Skylake Quad-Core 4.0 GHz LGA 1151
  * CPU Heatsink: Cooler Master Hyper 212... uncertain of specific model
  * Motherboard: ASUS Z170-E LGA 1151
  * PSU: Corsair HX850
  * RAM: Ballistix GDDR4 8GB x2
  * GPU: Gigabyte GTX 970 G1, GDDR5, 4GB
  * Hard Drive: Western Digital WD20EARX 2.0TB
  * OS: Windows 7 64-bit
  * Monitors: ASUS VW246 and Dell S2415Hb
  * Keyboard: Corsair STRAFE

Still holding onto hope I'm just missing something obvious and that nothing is damaged. Much appreciated, everyone.


UPDATE (7/7):
I exchanged the motherboard and RAM for fresh versions just to narrow down the possibilities of the culprit. Took extra precautions when installing everything. Still no display signal. At this point, it's either a bad CPU, or I'm still missing something super obvious. Or there's a compatibility issue somewhere that pcpartpicker.com isn't picking up. Regardless I RMA'd the CPU back to Newegg for a free replacement. Now to wait a week.

I put the original mobo back in, so I'm back up and running for now. All the components are still working fine, so good to know I didn't damage a GPU or monitor cable or something along the way.


UPDATE (7/22):
Finally had time to take another crack at this.

I'm working with a second round of fresh parts now: mobo, CPU, RAM and a new mobo speaker for providing feedback.

Still no display.

But thanks to the speaker I now know where the hangup is: ASUS support website lists my beep code pattern as "No memory detected."
http://www.asus.com/us/support/FAQ/1029959/

I went ahead and tried seating the RAM sticks one at a time in every possible combination of slots, no difference in any of them.

So either I managed to get a second busted mobo or second faulty set of RAM despite astronomically low odds, or... the RAM I got isn't compatible?

They're 2 8GB DDR4 2400 1.2V sticks (Crucial Ballistix), and the official ASUS specs claim that should be fine. (https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/Z170-E/specifications/)

One friend pointed out to me that their voltage might be too high and I'd need to adjust that in the BIOS, but besides the fact I need a working display to use a BIOS at all, I'm not seeing any indication of 1.2V being out of the question based on the brief research I did into the subject.

I did find an official ASUS Qualified Vendor List for DDR4 2400 memory, and Crucial is listed there, but only for 4GB sticks. I'm using 8GB sticks...
http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1151/Z170I_PRO_GAMING/Z170IPG_2400_QVL151106.pdf

The board clearly supports 8GB sticks from other vendors so it'd be quite silly for this all caused by me picking the wrong vendor, but I suppose it's possible. Anyone else think that's absurd?

Regardless I'll try swapping the RAM for a model listed on that official list and see what happens, as I've run out of ideas otherwise.

 

[alexoiu]

Can you post a picture of the motherboard?

 

[UncleAJ]

Issue resolved! Though I’m not 100% certain why this did the trick, I tried assembling the board outside my case with just the bare essentials (CPU, CPU cooler, 1 memory stick, PSU and a monitor plugged directly into the board), and on my first boot attempt (by shorting the power button pins with a paperclip), the error beeps never happened and I got a display. Slowly added more things to the board - the other memory stick, the GPU, the keyboard and mouse - and it still got to POST flawlessly. It even went straight the BIOS interface once I had all 16GB of memory installed.

No issues after moving everything back into the case. I had to restart the system about 6 times to get all the firmware installed for all the stuff on the new board, but it looks like the worst is over.

Now, if you’re sitting there thinking “well it worked fine outside the case so he must not have had the board screwed into the standoffs correctly,” the way I mounted the board into the standoffs this time wasn’t any different than the half-a-dozen failed attempts before it. The standoffs were always perfectly aligned with the holes in the board. So I doubt this was the cause.

I suppose it’s also possible I didn’t have the RAM fully seated in their slots for the dozen+ previous attempts too, but I always worked on a firm surface and firmly pressed both ends into the slots.

I’m inclined to believe keeping the board outside the case AND removing all extraneous parts caused some sort of condition to be met that allowed the memory to finally be configured correctly. The original error beep codes I was getting were definitely related to memory.