Supermicro Server Motherboard does not boot (most of the time)

[nanoandrew4]

So here is the situation. This board arrived yesterday and I decided to throw my 2 Xeon X5670 on with the RAM on the box it came in, before putting it in the case. The system posted fine, did its beeps and all was well. I then put it in the case, and it stopped posting. The fans turn on, and the lights on the motherboard do as well, but no beeps, and no post, just black screen. So then I took it out and all worked well.

I figured the motherboard was touching the case or something like that, and put some cardboard as a "backplate" to keep the two from touching. Put it in the case, and all was fine and dandy. Today, I'm setting up my server, just getting some updates on Ubuntu Server 16.02 LTS and go have breakfast while its updating, come back and its off. Try turning it on and same deal, fans run but no post or video output. I left in unplugged for some hours, came back and tried to boot it, same result. I have no idea what is going on or what to do, I've read the RAM could cause issues with booting but I don't know why it would boot after being taken out of the case and stop after being in the case for a while. It is ECC RAM, I checked and it should be compatible, everything checks out. Processors obviously work fine since the system powered on for a whole day. All video outputs on the motherboard produce no output, and as previously stated, no beeps where usually there are some.

The motherboard is a Supermicro X8DTL-IF, running with 2 Xeon X5670's, 16 GB of ECC DDR3 RAM (from a Blade server, if that matters) and a 750W EVGA modular power supply which is fully functional. I have scoured the compatibility sheet as well as the manual and I'm clueless as to what to do.

Any suggestions?

 

[nanoandrew4]

As a follow up, I swapped the Blade RAM for some RAM that was tested with the board before it shipped, and was proven to work. System powered on and posted fine. Then I swapped that RAM out for 2 of the Blade chips. System powered on fine. Put all 4 in. No post. Took 2 out. No post. Replaced the Blade RAM with the original tested RAM. No post. There is no pattern here, nothing seems to consistently work. I am at a loss as to why this wont work. I left the system unplugged for a couple hours, tried to turn on, no post. Then, an hour later, when I swapped the RAM, system posted. But it does not seem like the RAM is the problem.

 

[nanoandrew4]

After doing a bunch of testing today I have come to the conclusion that there is a fault on the CPU2 8-pin header or on the CPU2 socket. RAM was ruled out as swapping the RAM I bought for the one that came as part of the "tested" pack with the motherboard did nothing. I also moved around the slots to see if maybe one of the slots was acting weird, and nothing changed. Then I decided to take out the CPU's and test one at a time. The CPU In the first slot worked fine by itself, so I thought maybe the other CPU was dead, but upon swapping I saw that the server still booted and posted with the other CPU as it had with the first. I tried putting one CPU In the CPU2 slot, which did not work (probably would not anyways because for CPU2 socket to work I think, and might be wrong here, there has to be a CPU in CPU1 socket)

Then I thought maybe power was the issue. Since the behavior was inconsistent the first day, I thought maybe my 750 watt power supply was being weird or not supplying enough power. So I plugged another power supply in to help feed the 8-pin connections, with one motherboard doing each. The 750 watt power supply did fine with one CPU, so I thought maybe two was too much for it, for whatever reason. The other power supply only powered that one 8-pin connection for the CPU2, nothing else. No post.

I took the CPU's out, cleaned them with some chemical pads designed to clean the contact surfaces of chips and such, and after they dried off, put them back in. No post, I then swapped my CPU's out with the ones that came with the "tested" package, two Xeon E5504 CPU's. I put both in, and same result, no post. I think there is definitely something wrong with the 8-pin connection for the second CPU because it is inconsistent on whether it posts or not, and if it was the socket, it would just flat out never work. Today I have not once booted with 2 CPU's successfully.

If anyone has any suggestions please post (no pun intended), otherwise I will return it and get another one, but that would be my last resort because I am moving soon and I would have to ship it to where I am going, and I would not get to use it till late next month.