Red cpu led asus z87 plus

[jimwinnebango]

So this is my second build, first water cooling, and the CPU led was on as soon as I turned it on for the first time, won't boot or go to bios just a black screen. So thinking I might've bent some pins or something I took everything out and checked for bent pins. Nope. Did a bench test with just the stock cooler and one stick of ram and...everything was fine. Got to bios, got a boot device led but I didn't have any sata cables hooked up so that was expected. Put everything back in, bled my loop, turned it on, and the light comes on again! I tried hooking it up to a different power supply and using only one stick of ram just like on my bench, and still nothing. The only difference between now and my bench test is the waterblock I have on the CPU. I tried loosening it a little, nothing. Any help please?

Pc specs
CPU: i5-4670k
Motherboard: asus z87 plus
Ram: corsair xms ddr3 1600
Psu: seasonic x850 (now hooked up to corsair tx750 from my bench test)
Gpu: gtx 770
Cooling: custom loop with xspc raystorm block

 

[namdlo]

Are you positive you didn't spill any water on anything?

Even the smallest drop can destroy a motherboard if it's in the wrong spot.

 

[namdlo]

Is the back of your waterblock touching the case? or any other part of the motherboard?

 

[jimwinnebango]

Pretty sure I didn't spill anything, bled it for a few hours and nothing leaked. Twice. I can't see anything part of the block touching the mobo. Just the CPU and the retaining clip as far as I can tell

 

[smorizio]

did you update the bios to rule out an issue with the gpu?? is the io shield fingers hitting the motherboard. have you tried starting the mb with none of the mb screws holding the mb down to see if it a dead short there??

 

[jimwinnebango]

I'll try those now, thanks for the ideas, I never would've thought of those on my own

 

[jimwinnebango]

So I've ruled out the io shield and dead short. I tried to boot once without the mounting screws and again without the io shield as well. nothing both times. I'm using the onboard video of the mobo just like on my bench so it's not the gpu.

 

[jimwinnebango]

I just put the stock cooler back on real quickly and it's still not booting. Should I send for a new mobo at this point?

 

[smorizio]

one last thing to do is unplug the case and usb cables..could be a bad fan or bad usb cable. also check the front case wires for cuts or shorts.

 

[jimwinnebango]

Hold on I think I figured it out. There's a 3 pin connector near my ram modules that I plugged one of y case fans into. Unplugged it and everything booted like on my bench test. Short?

 

[smorizio]

check that it says sys_fan_1/2/3 if not it may be an audio plug

 

[smorizio]

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Z87PLUS/#gallery
per the photo the yellow cpu fan plug next to the mb standoff on the top of the mb the black port next to it is the cpu fan opt header. case fan header one and two next to the top pci slot and vrm and is black in this photo.

 

[jimwinnebango]

It does not say, it's next to cha_fan3 4 pin connector though. I may have made an idiot mistake here

 

[smorizio]

that is a case fan the photos i seen of them are there four pins. if you can try plugging that fan into the other fan port. also check that the cable your plugging in is not a 4 pin fan/floppy power cable from the power supply or from a fan controller from your case. some case have fan controllers.

 

[jimwinnebango]

Yeah I think I plugged the case fan into the vrm... thanks for helping out an idiot s'mores I really appreciate it

 

[smorizio]

well thank god the magic smoke did not come out.....

 

[jimwinnebango]

If its a case fan port then it just must be bad or something because everything is fine once I unplugged it. It's just the had fan and I have a spare port on y controller I can use so no big deal. Much less worse than I initially feared. At least I isolated the problem though