this has to be the weirdest problem i've ever had...

[Ashleyyyy]

this will be a long post. i'm sorry. 

 

ok, so i decided to try to bring an old system i used to run back to life. 

 

the specs are:

Dual Xeon X5650

36GB of ram (only 16gb installed now)

ASUS Z8PE-D18

GTX 690

GTX 1050 (not installed now)

some SSD's

Windows 10 Pro

 

so here is the problem. 

 

with everything plugged in normally and ram installed into the correct slots, the system will not start. the power button will blink on and off (nothing about this in the manual), the fans will spin up, the GPU's will initialize but it won't POST. 

 

sometimes it will work. i tried for 2 hours to get it to post with various GPU and RAM configurations, until it came to life. at that point i had no GPU installed and only 2 sticks of ram in. 

i then started adding ram until it wouldn't post anymore. i got to 30GB. i then installed Windows (using the mobo's GPU) which worked. then i installed my GPU's. it still worked. then i plugged in a second SSD and we were back to square one. 

 

i then started unplugging stuff. i got to the point of just unplugging the 8 pin for CPU 1 to see what would happen, so i did that, and it booted up!!! it gave me a POST error about an invalid ram configuration on CPU 1. so i removed all of CPU 1's ram, and then rebooted. it booted to Windows. i was beyond amazed. i had no mouse plugged in, but i was able to navigate Windows using only the keyboard, and yea, it detects all the ram that i was able to install (some slots of CPU 2 are damaged, sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. currently they don't), it detects one of the Xeon's, and yea... everything seems to work. 

 

it still has some weird issues:

GTX 1050 won't work. Windows installed the drivers, rebooted, and bluescreened after the windows logo. only having the GTX 690 installed fixes it. likely a driver issue. 

SLI cannot be enabled on the GTX 690 with multiple displays connected. i have to disable SLI and run each display on one of the GPU's or Windows will glitch. 

 

apart from that, as far as Windows knows it's a single socket system now. it does not detect the other Xeon or the other socket, the bios doesn't either. 

 

if anyone can help me get the other CPU working and detected without hanging the whole machine, that would be great. 

[zombienerd]

I'm going to guess you don't have a large enough Power Supply for the demand you're putting on it.

 

 

[Ashleyyyy]

Just now, zombienerd said:

I'm going to guess you don't have a large enough Power Supply for the demand you're putting on it.

it has a Corsair AX 860. so that should be more than enough. 

[zombienerd]

Just now, firelighter487 said:

it has a Corsair AX 860. so that should be more than enough. 

How old is the PSU?  I'd try with another one just to rule it out.  When things start to work by removing random parts each time, it generally points to power.

[Ashleyyyy]

Just now, zombienerd said:

How old is the PSU?  I'd try with another one just to rule it out.  When things start to work by removing random parts each time, it generally points to power.

it's about a year old i would say. 

 

the only other PSU i have is a Corsair RM550X. and i'm scared to use that in here because it's relatively low wattage for a machine like this. 

[Ashleyyyy]

@zombienerd also it still has issues with the GPU's removed. i also tried plugging the CPU power into different outputs on the PSU. 

[zombienerd]

1 minute ago, firelighter487 said:

it's about a year old i would say. 

 

the only other PSU i have is a Corsair RM550X. and i'm scared to use that in here because it's relatively low wattage for a machine like this. 

Theoretically, the dual xeons, a 1050, and all your ram should be fine to test with that 550W PSU.  I'd leave the 690 out of that equation for now.  It doesn't hurt to test.  

It could be a bad CPU #1, a bad motherboard, or both.   Did you try plugging in everything else with just CPU 1 removed?  Did everything work then?  (Edit - I see your 1050 wouldn't work in that config - probably pointing to a bad Mobo)

[zombienerd]

Did you try disabling / removing CPU #2 and booting just with CPU #1?

[Ashleyyyy]

1 minute ago, zombienerd said:

Theoretically, the dual xeons, a 1050, and all your ram should be fine to test with that 550W PSU.  I'd leave the 690 out of that equation for now.  It doesn't hurt to test.  

i don't really wanna risk it though... it's a last resort option, as i'm 99% sure this AX 860 is good. 

 

1 minute ago, zombienerd said:

Did you try disabling / removing CPU #2 and booting just with CPU #1?

i did. it did not work. the hdd LED was lit up solid, and no POST. 

 

also i think you are misunderstanding. CPU 1 is still installed. just the 8 pin unplugged. it's still in there, but not detected by Windows when it's unplugged. 

weirdly if i unplug CPU 1 like i did now, and install ram into CPU 1's slots, it will fail POST with an invalid ram configuration error. 

 

even more strange is that Windows does not detect CPU 1 or the first socket, but it does know that there are 18 ram slots. 

 

 

also a bad CPU is possible. the PC it was in previously died with PSU errors (it was a HP prebuilt server) so... 

however it did this about 9 months ago when i first bought this board, but i didn't think to unplug CPU 1 then, so i just thought it was totally dead and put it on a shelf. the CPU's have been used since then in various other machines, and have always worked. 

 

since it has the same problems as 9 months ago with both CPU's plugged in i doubt it's the CPU's.

[Ashleyyyy]

@zombienerd also i highly doubt it's the PSU... i just updated Windows to 1809 which went fine, and yea... the system is stable like this.

 

i've just been doing casual stuff.. having MLP open on one screen and installing all my software and stuff on my other screen, and everything installed fine, no stutters at all... 
 

if it's the PSU i would say i should have had an issue already if that were the case... so.. i highly doubt it. if it is then it's no big deal, i still have warranty on it, but yea... i highly doubt it. i think this board, or at least the CPU 1 side of it, is just gone.