DFI Lanparty UT NF4 SLI-DR Problem

[Butter Bandit]

Is it necessary to connect the FDD and IDE power cables to the "recommended" plugs on the motherboard itself? (This is the first motherboard I've seen that has so many power connectors). My PC Power and Cooling PSU only has a single FDD power cable...which is currently being used by my floppy drive.

[Butter Bandit]

Well, I guess I'll outline my actual problem and see if anyone who has experience with this particular board has a suggestion:

I'm using:
DFI LanParty UT NF4 SLI-DR Motherboard
Athlon 64 3200+ (939 pin)
512 MB Crucial PC3200 Ballistix RAM
PC Power and Cooling 510 PSU
One GeForce 6800 GT PCI-E Video Card (EVGA)
2 Western Digital Raptor HDDs

I've connected all of the power cables on the motherboard, and made sure the jumpers are on normal and not SLI. The computer will turn on, the CD-ROMs will spin and light up briefly, and then nothing. No video. SOMETIMES the system will start beeping, it is a one-second long beep every 2 or 3 seconds.

[Butter Bandit]

Upon further examination, it appears as though the LED diagnostic light for the video card is not lighting up, which leads me to believe the problem is with the GeForce 6800 GT. I tried using the card in both PCI-E slots, neither worked.

The power cables are all connected, and when I boot up the computer, a green LED near the power adapter on the card lights up, and the fan on the card spins...but no video, and the motherboard apparently fails to detect the card.

Bad card? Bad motherboard? Any ideas?

[SH64]

Hmm this reminds me of my problem , but it will be too odd for you have the same problem i had.
anyway plugging those are recommended i think though i didnt try not connecting them.
as for your problem .. if you can try another (new) CMOS battery & see what happens.
i know it sounds crazy , but that was my problem which showed the same symptoms as yours.

[Butter Bandit]

Tried replacing the CMOS battery, as well as flashing the CMOS, no change. Thanks for the suggestion though, anyone else have any ideas?

[Butter Bandit]

Called EVGA tech support this morning, and we solved the problem.

The video card wasn't the issue, it was the way I had installed memory in my system. For some bizarre reason (at least I wasn't aware of this) my motherboard doesn't like it if I have RAM in slots 1 and 3, or 1, 2, and 3, or 2, 3, and 4. It appears as though it requires the RAM to be installed in pairs. But, it wouldn't let me just have RAM in DIMMs 1 and 2, I had to install them in 3 and 4 before it would work.

The guy from EVGA was very helpful though, he knew what he was talking about, I'd reccomend them any day based on my experience.

[SH64]

Good to see you're done :)

interesting .. while i was looking for the source of my problem i messed around with the RAM & placed them in different orders , but didnt had that. it'll just tell me that DIMM1,3 will work but only in single channel ... DIMM2,4 for dual channel.

[jAkUp]

I ran my system for a few weeks without plugging in the floppy connector... I didnt realize it was there..lol It is plugged in now though. It is not required... just recommended.

[wheeljack12]

Butter Bandit, I had the same problem. Basically, I would get a molex to floppy adapter to give you the second floppy connector if you want to be absolutely sure (and you have the power wires available, meaning seperate sets of molex adapters) your system is working for sure. PC Power and Cooling makes a good power supply, but their amount of some cabling lacks especially when your power supply is 850watts. Also, it should mention in the bios boot sequence(it did for me) that you should put the two sticks of ram in 2,4.

PS. I tried using the same sets of molex adapters on the same set of wires by looping through a molex and a floppy and I got stability problems. So, the seperate set of wires will work best.

[wheeljack12]

The other problem I noticed myself about the DFI is the com port has to be enabled or my system either freezes and/or slows. Curious if either of you Jakup or Butter Bandit have had this issue?

[jAkUp]

hmmm havent seen that issue yet... I have all the com ports disabled

[wheeljack12]

found out the com port issue. It was my audigy 4 pro. I had it sharing with too many other molex plugs (the audigy 4 pro uses a external hub that is powered through a molex attached to the sound card). Took off all other stuff (mainly case fans and the floppy) from the wire connecting the audigy, all works fine including disabling the com port now. Afaik, the quick start manual didn't say so, but when I checked the creative site, the online manual says don't share the card's power, just like the newer video cards. It also at the moment at least cleared up a problem where my boot settings were being reset all the time. Thought it was the CMOS battery, but the bios wasn't resetting the time or date.