First build horror: Asus Prime X399-A mobo not booting?

[poorstudent13]

It would be extremely misfortunate if I get a faulty MOBO on my first build, and since it's my first I wouldn't even know what went wrong...So my I connected everything as expected, but when I power on my PSU and press on the power on button for the motherboard, nothing happens. My fan doesn't spin and all there is is the RGB lighting on the motherboard. 

I tried removing the 24 pin ATX power cable from the PSU to the mobo, and as expected the RGB light died. So this means power probably came to the MOBO, but it is not causing the mobo to work. i.e. is my PSU fine but not my mobo?

Should I expect my fans to spin if i power on the motherboard (and not at the instance when i power on my psu?)? So none of my fans, even the case and the cpu fans are spinning.

I really hope (and find it hard to believe) that statistically this kind of bs can happen esp. when I thought Asus was quite reliable. Could someone please help out?

For the record, here are the parts I got:

 

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Threadripper 1900X 3.8GHz 8-Core Processor  ($449.00 @ Amazon) 
CPU Cooler: Noctua - NH-U14S TR4-SP3 140.2 CFM CPU Cooler  ($79.90 @ Amazon) 
Thermal Compound: Gelid Solutions - GC-Extreme 3.5g Thermal Paste  ($12.89 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: Asus - PRIME X399-A EATX TR4 Motherboard  ($330.89 @ OutletPC) 
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LED 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  ($354.99 @ Best Buy) 
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($289.99 @ B&H) 
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB Blower Video Card  ($1128.03 @ Newegg Marketplace) 
Case: Corsair - 750D Airflow Edition ATX Full Tower Case  ($154.65 @ Newegg Marketplace) 
Power Supply: Corsair - RMx 1000W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($169.78 @ OutletPC) 
Wired Network Adapter: TP-Link - TG-3468 PCI-Express x1 10/100/1000 Mbps Network Adapter  ($10.98 @ Amazon) 
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link - Archer T9E PCI-Express x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter  ($69.99 @ B&H) 
Total: $3051.09
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-12-19 07:44 EST-0500

 

Some photos:

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Extra information:

1. There is a constant, non-blinking orange/amber light called "SB_PWR".

 

2. My Q_Code LED light doesn't appear at all, so I can't diagnose the problem.

 

3. I connected my monitor via HDMI not VGA.

 

4. My zotac gpu manual and the psu doesn't say anything related to connected the PSU directly to the GPU, so I connected 1 PCI 8 pin cable from the PSU to the GPU, and did a (6+2) + 6 connection, with the remaining 2 pins left hanging outside.

 

5. Note that my zotac GPU is not lighting up, although I'm not sure if it should since I got a blower edition instead and am not very familiar with GPU lighting.

 

Things I have tried:

 

1. Manually jumping the PWR_BTN and Ground (the 2 pins that fall under PWR_SW), to manually boot the PC. Pressing on the main power button on the case and the mobo power button doesn't work.

 

2. Connecting the full 24 pin atx power cable, and the 8 + 4 pins EPS cables from the PSU to the Mobo.

 

3. Plugging in only 1 RAM stick at the correct port based on the mobo manual (the 6th one from the left)

 

 

 

Should you need the manual: http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socketTR4/PRIME_X399-A/E13412_PRIME_X399-A_UM_V2_WEB_20170824.pdf?_ga=2.74135313.2057324469.1513642592-614160887.1510241458

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I would be so, so eternally grateful to the community here who can help out as I'm building this PC for my studies, but have been unsettled by my build for way too long so much so that it now disrupts my studies....  

[yaya1]

What about the 4-pin connector in the first picture that is not plugged in? Also, is your CPU bracked fully tightened(by that I mean "according to the tool")?

[poorstudent13]

I have plugged it in subsequently and tried again, but the same problem still persists, unfortunately. For the CPU bracket, do you mean the 3 screws handled by the torx screwdriver? I think I have sufficiently tightened it enough until it can't easily be twisted out by hand...although I can't check it now that the CPU fan is on top of it

[Lineron]

I would try removing from the case, sometimes the case can cause a short, also remove everything from the motherboard that isnt, 1 stick of ram, the atx power and cpu power plus the graphics card and the power for it. If that doesnt fix it, you may have a bad board as the error code LED wont turn on.

[JCMPTech]

Typically 4 pin disconnected you would still get indication of power just no post, same thing with bad ram, or GPU. bad CPU typically fan would spin up to max speed and sit there, does sound like a mobo or PSU issue (providing you didn't miss something) try another PSU if available, still very hard to accurately troubleshoot over forum, people can just make suggestions. 

[JCMPTech]

7 minutes ago, Lineron said:

I would try removing from the case, sometimes the case can cause a short, also remove everything from the motherboard that isnt, 1 stick of ram, the atx power and cpu power plus the graphics card and the power for it. If that doesnt fix it, you may have a bad board as the error code LED wont turn on.

I actually saw something very similar when I worked in Acer's refurb Factory.  PC wouldn't Post, no indication of power in the case, but disassemble it and put it on my desk and it would post fine.  I requested a replacement case from teardown and it all work. 

[Energycore]

My gut tells me that you should check under your cooler for any paste that may have trickled down, in case you put too much paste in there. While you're at it you should reseat the CPU - it's worth trying in case it didn't seat correctly for some reason.

 

Generally if you don't have a CPU, the motherboard won't turn on at all, like it's doing for you, so try that out. Also try out every single RAM slot in case you have some dead ones.

 

But yeah, at this point it's most likely that you'll have to RMA that sucker

[Tedsl]

Got the same problem.

 

Reason of the problem:

Power supply has 4 x 8-pins connectors:

- 3 x VGA: 6-pins+2pins 

- 1 x CPU: 4-pins+4pins

 

These 4 connectors has almost the same key: they can fit in the same sockets.

 

Solution:

- VGA (6+2) connectors should not be connected to the motherboard.

- On the Motherboard 8-pins socket you connect the CPU (4+4) connector.

- The Motherboard 4-pins socket is left empty 

 

 

 

[ClintAlex]

On 12/19/2017 at 2:59 PM, Jonas_2909 said:

What about the 4-pin connector in the first picture that is not plugged in? Also, is your CPU bracked fully tightened(by that I mean "according to the tool")?

Hey, I'm having the exact same problem. Same motherboard. Threadripper 1950x, one stick of xpg ram 16gb. Tested the power supply and it is working. I saved up over a year for this build. It worked for two weeks. Then suddenly went off. Thought the mobo was faulty. But as it was within 30 days I got it replaced for a brand new one. And yet the same problem occurs. Standby light stays orange, pc doesnt want to turn on. Any suggestions would be appreciated. 

[blitzgone]

I have the exact same issues, prime x399-a and 1920x. I only have a 750w PSU and only the 8 pin motherboard power connected, the manual says the 4pin is optional. Can get it to post, only orange light and RGB lights on. It did post twice during initial testing, but after I put it in the case it hasn't run. I have it all striped down for a bench test and still nothing.