Dual CPU Motherboard issues

[Joshi_bo]

I'm playing about with a server build project. I haven't got any concrete plans on what I'm actually going to use it for yet, so I decided to try and keep the cost fairly low. I've got a pair of Xeon X5650s, 24GB ECC Ram and a SuperMicro X8DTL-iF motherboard as my base platform, but I'm having issues that point to the motherboard potentially being faulty. 

 

With everything installed, both CPUs, all 6 x 4GB of Ram and a 780Ti I've got lying around for video, I get nothing, no beeps, no output to my monitor, just the fans spin up and stay spinning. When I got the board, it didn't do this. It was flaky, sometimes it would POST and get to bios, sometimes it would freeze before getting there. I managed to install Windows on it and run a couple of stress tests and CPU benchmarks to see if stability was the problem, but it passed all that with flying colours. After powering the system down for the night, it wouldn't boot the next day.

 

I've gone through lots of different solutions to try and find the issue. I've removed one CPU with just a single CPU running in CPU1 on the motherboard, it boots first time, every time. This is with either CPU, so neither of them are faulty. I've tried Ram that's known to work from a different build to no avail. I've tried a different PSU just in case it was a power delivery issue, but no change. I've tried using onboard graphics, just in case that was affecting things for some reason, but again, nothing changed. I even put a new CMOS battery in, on the off chance that the included one was dead.

 

After the success of finally getting into Windows and running stress tests successfully, I finally thought everything was functioning properly, but now the board seems completely dead with both CPUs installed, but with one it's absolutely fine. I've checked the second CPU socket for bent pins, in case that was the issue, but can't see anything wrong there either. If anyone has any experience with this board, or other SuperMicro boards with similar issues, point me in the right direction? Or have I just got a dead board?

 

Thanks

[Salv8 (sam)]

ok, this is a lot of infomation to process.

at this point in time i can see that you are stressed

calm down and think about this slowly and logically

from what i can tell the board may be damaged somewhere, did you get it pre-owned? if so the old owner probably knew it was faulty and just wanted to get rid of it for cheep and let the buyer deal with it...

on the MB can you look thoroughly (and i mean thoroughly!!!!) and carefully (again, CAREFULLY) for any damaged chips, traces, components or other signs of damage, if so try and get a photo of in in really good light, both zoomed in on the problem, and where it is on the MB

if you don't have good eyes, get a friend who does to go though it for you (or failing that get a magnifying glass and use that)

being stressed can cause you to miss crucial problems that you could see if you were calm and may even stop you from fixing the MB correctly and in the process, cause another problem that you have to fix.

[leadeater]

Upgrade to the latest possible firmware for the motherboard, usually they come with older firmware for the 5500 series Xeons as the 5600 came out later and do actually require newer firmware to work correctly.

[Robertoal]

I have sort of the same problem, only with 2 2670's.

With my system it will always boot if I use only 1 ddr stick per cpu.

If I put in more then 2 per cpu booting will be eratic; sometimes it does, sometimes it doesnt.

 

My conclusion thus far is I have faulty ram slots..

Maybe the same with you? Can't hurt to try!