Question My Ampere Altra Q64-22 + AsRock Rack ALTRAD8UD does not POST or power on ?

[TheChuckster]

Hi! My Ampere Altra Q64-22 + AsRock Rack ALTRAD8UD does not POST or power on.

I've stripped the board of everything but two sticks of known-good RAM and the CPU. I've also tried two known-working power supplies. I also tried manually clearing the CMOS. I also measured the CMOS battery, and it's reading 3V DC, as expected.

IPMI via OpenBMC works fine, I get a ping and can open the web UI, but the Power status in the web UI is "unknown" no matter what I do, with the CPU installed in the motherboard. Every sensor and health check in the web UI passes. I just cannot get it to power on no matter what I do (even tried manually bridging the front panel connector power pins), and there's no VGA output no matter what I do.

As an experiment, I even removed the CPU. Interestingly enough, the CPU health check passes with the CPU removed, AND interestingly enough, the Power status now goes to "green".

At this point, it's either the board or the CPU that is DOA. How can I further diagnose this? Is there anything I can do to help repair this at this point???

I really just want a working Ampere build, this is so disappointing to spend $1500 on parts, and it doesn't work. I thank you in advance for and really appreciate any help...

 

[Lutfij]

IMHO, you should find a way to drop the culprit processor onto a known working(with the latest BIOS version) motherboard and see if the same issue crops up. You could conversely drop in a known working processor onto the motherboard and if the issue persists, maybe try and refalsh the BIOS with a CH341A BIOS programming toolkit since I don't see any mention of a BIOS recovery option on the motherboard's manual.

 

[ASRockRackTSD]

Dear Sir,

Thanks for purchasing ASRR's product and sorry for inconvenience caused.
I understand you may have performed some troubleshooting steps but just in case,

1. temporarily remove the CPU from the socket and carefully inspect the pins condition to see if there is accidentally bent pin or stained pin. And make sure the CPU and CPU heatsink are installed and the screws are tightened correctly.

2. if you have tried booting the machine up by trying to populated the DDR4 288-pin RDIMM/ LRDIMM memory modules at A1 & E1 DIMM slot? (UM pg.29, Recommended Memory Configurations)

3. if you have ruled out the rest of your components, e.g. your RAM, PSU, any other Add-on cards, as probable cause of the issue, e.g. by testing them?

4. if you have tried to use these components on another machine?

5. if you have tried to test your machine with another PSU, or this PSU on another machine?

6. if you have tried clearing the CMOS and or reseating the components as sometimes that can fix any momentary BIOS corruption?

Clear the CMOS !. you need to:
- Disconnect your power cable
- Remove the Cmos Battery
- Press the power button to drain residual energy
- Touch/Short the 2 points/pads on the Clr_cmos pad with a paperclip

If you have completed the above steps and the motherboard still fails to POST, kindly give prioritize to contact the retail which you brought for the further RMA support.

And if you have further inquiries, please feel free to submit a support request form to us. https://event.asrockrack.com/tsd.asp?ln=en

Thank you.

 

[TheChuckster]

I was able to solve the problem. I was using UDIMM desktop RAM instead of registered RDIMM server RAM. Once I switched memory, the board powers on.

Also, I have discovered that it takes about 30-60 seconds after powering on until the board POSTs and shows any VGA display output. This is normal / expected.