P55-GD85 CMOS Pin #s and CPU Phase LEDs

[mgoldey]

Howdy, folks.

Looking for some information that isn't in the manual.

I have a brand new P55-GD85 that won't POST.  Could be a lot of reasons, but I wanted to check that the CMOS jumper on JBAT1 was properly across pins 1/2.  The problem:  The manual doesn't orient the jumper on the board, and the board doesn't label the pins.  Does anyone know whether pin 1 is closest to the battery or furthest from it? 

The jumper came from the factory sitting on the pin closest to the battery (plus the middle pin).  I assumed that the jumper was properly set at the factory, so I powered down the board and moved the jumper to the other pair for 30 seconds or so, and then re-seated the jumper where it started.  Before I did this, powering up the board turned on all of the blue LEDs on the CPU Phase panel, plus LED #1 on the CPU_VTT Phase panel.  Now, none of the LEDs lights at all (except CPU_VTT #2 blinks once if I use the reset button on the board).  The problem:  the manual does explain which LEDs are supposed to light up on boot, normally.  Does anyone know?  Was all of the LEDs lit a good thing or a bad thing?  Now that none light up, is that good or bad?  Is there any documentation for this?

The board came with a plastic cover across one of the two, 12 volt 4-pin ATX JPWR2 CPU power plugs (the one closest to the center of the board).  Nothing in the manual explains why or whether to use one, two or none of the JPWR2 plugs.  Anyone know why one had a plastic cover?  I plugged in both halves of the plug, anyway.

Here are the specs on the machine.  No overclocking, no tinkering, nothing changed on the board, and no peripherals.  I haven't even hooked up the USB headers.  Just the front panel power, which I unhooked once I had these problems.

* P55-GF85 w/ i570-LGA1156 (on the supported CPU list)
* 2x2GB G-Skill F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL (correctly seated in DIMMs #1 and #3 -- testing with 1 stick at a time = no change.  This memory suggested by NewEgg and reported to work with this board)
* Rocketfish 500W RF-500WPS2, which is not a great PSU long term, but at the moment the board isn't running a single HD or peripheral except some fans.  The PSU has 2 12v * 18A rails, and 18A on each of the +5 and +3.3.  The manual says "at least 18W" so this may be a problem.
* An old GeForce 6500 card, which may not work, although it gets power.

Thanks, in advance, for any insight.
 

 

[Jack the Newbie]

Could be a lot of reasons, but I wanted to check that the CMOS jumper on JBAT1 was properly across pins 1/2.  The problem:  The manual doesn't orient the jumper on the board, and the board doesn't label the pins.  Does anyone know whether pin 1 is closest to the battery or furthest from it? 

Google for pictures of the board (large/high-resolutioin images) to compare jumper positions.

The "keep data" position is usually just a parking position that does not much else electrically.  So, taking the jumper off the pin header altogether would also make sure that it is not wrongly placed.

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Remove the board from the case and test it on an non-conducting surface in barebone configuration (just CPU, one stick of RAM, video card & power connectors [24-pin ATX, 12V CPU power, PCI-Express power connector]). Reseat CPU and heatsink as well and check for broken or bent CPU socket pins while you do that.

* Rocketfish 500W RF-500WPS2, which is not a great PSU long term, but at the moment the board isn't running a single HD or peripheral except some fans.  The PSU has 2 12v * 18A rails, and 18A on each of the +5 and +3.3.  The manual says "at least 18W" so this may be a problem.
* An old GeForce 6500 card, which may not work, although it gets power.

Test a video card that works for sure and also test a different PSU if nothing changes,

 

[mgoldey]

Thanks for the tip on the jumper.  (No change, removing it, though.)

I do appreciate the generic advise for testing the board and its components, too.   

I would still be grateful if anyone has the basic tech info on what the board is *supposed* to do on a normal boot.  That info just doesn't seem to be anywhere I can find.

For example, I assume that the board would beep once on boot when it hits the BIOS screen, like most mobos do, and that if the video card or memory were damaged or missing there would be a series of beeps to indicate that.  POST beep codes are listed here -- http://us.msi.com/support/sup_tshoot.asp -- but that page seems very outdated.  This is helpful -- https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=86906.0 -- but who knows what BIOS I have, or whether the GD85 uses any of them or works the same way.  Like the LEDs that are now dark, it would be nice to know what is *supposed* to happen before drawing a conclusion from what is happening.

And I'd still really like to know why one of the 12V CPU power sockets was blocked.  My instinct is that the block because the board doesn't need the second 12V connect, and the plastic bit prevents anything from falling into the socket and shorting out.  Then again, maybe using the second 12V connect screws up the board.  Who knows?  Shouldn't that be in the darn manual?

Thanks!

 

[Frankenputer]

Newer MSI mobos, last 4 or so years probably, beep for each USB device attached at POST. 

The uncovered JPWR socket must be used--the covered one's use is optional, but I advise that both be used.  Use the 4+4 pin from your PSU. 

 

[mgoldey]

A little re-wiring and I was able to plug  speaker into the system board.  A little help from MSI tech support and the verdict was "get a new video card"

With a new video card, the board boots fine.  Here are the answers to most of my questions:

1) The board beeps once after a successful POST, but it takes about 5 seconds.

2) One long + two short beeps = a video card problem.  Two beeps = a memory problem (don't know about long v. short)

3) During bootup, the CPU power LEDs go from two up, to three up, to four up, at least through searching for a boot device.  (I haven't installed one yet).  Only one of the CPU-VTT lights comes on.

4) The power supply seems to work OK with 1 DVD drive and one SATA drive, plus a GTS450 video card.

5) Pin1 on JBAT1 is closest to the battery.

Thanks for the help, and hope this helps someone else.