New Build problem

[zychos]

Here are the specs first; Mobo is a Gigabyte 990X4-UD3, CPU is a AMD-FX 8150 8 core, RAM is 4x4GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3, PSU is PC Power & Cooling 950W MKII. Symptoms CPU fan doesn't turn on when I plug in the PSU. I have paper clipped the PSU and it works. I even substituted in a brand new Corsair 600W psu same problems. Thought maybe a RAM issue so went with 2 instead of 4, still nothing. I pulled out the 24 pin from the mobo and the auxillary fans for the shell powered on but shut off when I plugged the 24 pin back into the mobo.
I don't have a spare AM3+ board or another CPU to test. I am thinking it my be the board but not sure. Any suggestions?

 

[zychos]

Yep both power cords in, 1 Ram no Ram 2 Ram 4. Different graphics cards and no graphics.

 

[Raiddinn]

AMD really aren't doing too well in the processor marketplace right now.

Their next big thing was supposed to be FX, but I think they underestimated the level of support they would get from the motherboard manufacturers in terms of the motherboard manufacturers going out of their way to make the FX chips a success.

The major motherboard manufacturers all make boards for both Intel and AMD and they don't really care if they need to make more of one type or less of another. Intel is the easiest thing for them, because Intel doesn't cause support calls for FX.

If people just buy Intel, things get easier for the motherboard makers, so they have an incentive for people not to buy FX. That, I think, is why they feel it is OK to bend people over who do buy FX. They just don't want you to do it, so they generally have a bad level of support for it and everybody knows that. They hope you just read the reviews and buy Intel instead.

Anyway, I think all that is kinda unfair to AMD, but it was AMD's bad call that made all this happen. They shouldn't have made a BIOS update that would make the new chips work on the old boards.

Sure, there is some subset of people who would have had to buy a new motherboard if they wanted to use FX and it wouldn't be as simple as doing a BIOS update with the motherboard and processor you already have to allow you to switch out that processor for an FX one, but I don't think many people are doing that anyway.

For example, I have a Phenom 2 x4 chip myself and I could do a BIOS update and then replace it with an FX 4100 or something, but I really have no intent to actually do that. The gain for me is just not that much.

It is much more likely that a FX chip will be purchased at the same time as a motherboard as part of a new computer. That works OK if the person building the computer has old AMD chips laying around, which OEM builders do, but not well if the person buying the new parts doesn't have that.

Basically, AMD either knowingly or unknowingly screwed the hobbyist on this. Either way is pretty unforgivable.

If they just said the old boards weren't compatible with FX and people had to have a new type of board (AM4 or something) to work with FX, then all these problems would have been avoided.

Anyway, none of that really helps you. I just wanted to give you a bit of background and to say that it isn't entirely AMDs fault. They made a call that would work if the motherboard makers chipped in, but they didn't actually chip in. Thus the marketplace failure.

Anyway, at this point I am pretty much out of things to try. It seems like two different kinds of the same general item just have both been bad and I don't really have any good reason to believe it is one thing or another thing.

You had a tech look at it and they didn't see anything immediately wrong with it with what seemed to be a basic quick look over for incorrect connections or so.

You may have to just bite the bullet and take it to a computer shop, either that or consider trying a 3rd round of parts.

 

[zychos]

Thx for the info Raid. Yea I was a supporter of AMD for a while. When I had friends that wanted me to create a build for them I would using insist on AMD over Intel simply bc you used to get equivalent if not better performance for less money. It is unfortunate that now I am experiencing these problems but its a learning experience.

All this headache just to build a tower that can help me setup my ids labs and now the semester is over. While I subscribed to Moore's law for my CPU, I ended up with Murphy's law.

 

[Raiddinn]

As sad as I am to say it, some percentage of the people who get FX chips are going to get burned in the process. you seem to have been one of the unlucky ones.

In any event, maybe there is some kind of lesson you can learn in all this that you can apply to computer security work.

It is much more about the physical than it is about the digital.

The biggest threat to the security of a network isn't someone in the cloud trying to get past your firewall. Much more of a concern is eliminating human error from the equation.

The human error from the people over at AMD costed you a lot.

Managing the risk of other people making errors will probably be the toughest thing you have to do if you go into the field.

Kevin Mitnick wasn't exceptional at breaking through firewalls, he was exceptional at getting people to give him the phone number of the modem that gets him access to the unprotected RAS server.

He told people a sob story and that is all it took for them to be convinced to lower the security stance of their organization long enough for him to get in and do what he wanted to do.

Indeed, the best hackers aren't the ones that are the best at getting around security, the best ones are the ones that convince others to do it for them. They are also the hardest ones to go after, because they never get their hands dirty.

 

[zychos]

Well, finally determined the problem one of the pins was loose on the mobo itself. So when you connected the power button from the shell to the mobo there wasnt a complete circuit however if you jumped the board with a piece of metal got the fan to kick on and the aux fans to turn on. So have to rma this board but added a new checklist item.

 

[zychos]

Best answer selected by zychos.