Rampage III Extreme not posting

[TheOptimist]

Hi all, I was hoping my first post in this forum would have been a happier one. I've been looking forward to joining the ROG club for a while. Just picked up an R3E off a popular auction site...with the intention of dropping a Xeon X5650 in there.

However, the board is not posting. The CPU LED behind the main 24 pin connector is a solid red whenever I boot, regardless of whether the CPU/RAM is installed or not. I've tried booting with full component installation and nothing, with the same result. Both BIOS have been cleared, and one updated to the latest available (1503), CMOS has been cleared and battery removed (overnight). Have tried booting the board outside of the case. I'm getting no beeps at all, and unfortunately I don't have the LED gizmo to get a code.

Now I'm really hoping that the XFX Pro 550W PSU that I'm using at the moment is the culprit here however having tested the 8 pin wires they're delivering just over 12v, and all the voltages on the ProbeIt points look like they're in a normal range.

Specs:
- Asus Rampage III Extreme
- Intel Xeon X5650
- 12GB OC Platinum (2000MHz)
- Asus GTX 980 Strix
- Crucial M100 250GB SSD

That's basically the core of the system, there is another SSD and a couple of HDDs to connect as well, but not essential.

Have been assured by previous owner that it was working before being shipped - does anyone have an idea what might be happening here? I don't think any of the pins are bent (can supply a picture of LGA if desired). At the moment I don't have any other chips or PSUs (or anything else that matter) to try and troubleshoot further...and don't necessarily have the cash to splash out on a new PUS "just on the off chance".

Hopefully someone can help me out, even if it's to confirm my misery that the board is dead 😞

Thanks all
George

[TheOptimist]

Further to this from reading around other threads, my BIOS might be corrupt. Is it possible that the BIOS chip is corrupt itself (as I've flashed back to 0901 with little change). Would replacing the BIOS chips be worth a try?

I'm hoping to get access to another PSU next week to try that avenue...if neither of these approaches gets the board up and running, looks like i'll have to consign it to the bin 😞

[voidfahrenheit]

I have same issue. I tried flashing the bios using usb flash and rog connect button but still solid cpu light. No beeps also. I am hoping cpu is my problem instead of my motherboard. Problem is, it's hard to find another cpu and motherboard that i can test

[TheOptimist]

Thought I'd come back on my own thread, but clearly not. New power supply did the trick for me.

[voidfahrenheit]

Glad to know it was my cpu not the motherboard 😄 i tried xeon on it and it worked. My i7 960 is dead. I got an i7 920 for 70usd. Just a temporary replacement coz im gonna get w3690 or w3680.