Help needed! Monster PC wont post :C [SOLVED!]

[iamthewizard2]

So I built an absolutely epic PC only to find that it doesn't post :C

This is what happens when I press the power button: the whole pc lights up, all chassis fans spin including fans on the gpus but after 3 seconds the whole thing shuts off. I don't see any bios text on-screen. No beeps....nothing on-screen.

Here are my specs:
5960x water cooled with single loop
128GB 2800 DDR4 ram
X3 980 ti SLI
Rampage V extreme 3.1 usb version
Corsair 1500i power supply
X2 WD Red 6TB drives
X2 1TB Samsung 850 pro SSD in raid 0
1.2TB Intel 750 PCIe SSD

EDIT: at first I thought it was the 128 GB ram so I updated the bios using a usb stick on the ROG port but still no post.

[Nate152]

Hello iamthewizard2@hotmail.com

That is definitely a monster machine and sorry to hear you're having issues. What I would do is strip it down as much as possible, start with one stick of ram. If it still doesn't post remove all drives except one Samsung 1TB drive and any usb devices besides your mouse and keyboard and see if you can get it to post.

[iamthewizard2]

Nate152 wrote:
Hello iamthewizard2@hotmail.com

That is definitely a monster machine and sorry to hear you're having issues. What I would do is strip it down as much as possible, start with one stick of ram. If it still doesn't post remove all drives except one Samsung 1TB drive and any usb devices besides your mouse and keyboard and see if you can get it to post.

I did a few tests tonight and I have ruled out a couple of things:

1) it cant be my GPUs. I removed all 3 980 Ti and put in an GTX 780 from my old PC (which I know works) and it still didn't post.
2) Ive already flashed my bios to the latest version so it can support 16GB ram sticks. I also tested each ram stick individually...still no post. so we can rule out ram
3) removed all HDDs and SSDs and still no post. so cant be drives
4) I triple checked all power cables and they are all intact.

my theory is that there is either an issue with the motherboard, CPU or power supply itself. The thing is my power supply has a 15amp power plug and in Australia most houses only have 10amp power points. so I had to use a 15amp to 10amp converter unit like this one found here: http://www.bunnings.com.au/hpm-15a-single-outlet-power-convertor-with-rcbo-protection_p7050100
im not sure if this could affect post or not
im running out of options :C very frustrating!

Chino wrote:
1. Is that a single 128GB kit?

2. Have you populated the 8 pin and 4 pin power headers on your motherboard?

3. Have you populated the EZ Plug header on the motherboard that provides more PCIe power for SLI configurations?

I bought a 128GB Corsair 2800 ram kit (16GB x 8). I have populated both the 8 pin and 4 pin power headers and the EZ plug too and still no post.

[Chino]

1. Is that a single 128GB kit?

2. Have you populated the 8 pin and 4 pin power headers on your motherboard?

3. Have you populated the EZ Plug header on the motherboard that provides more PCIe power for SLI configurations?

[Nate152]

Does the motherboard give you any readout on the led display when you try to boot?

If you're not getting any code at all you're on the right track to think it's the motherboard or psu and/or the 15 amp converter.

[iamthewizard2]

Nate152 wrote:
Does the motherboard give you any readout on the led display when you try to boot?

If you're not getting any code at all you're on the right track to think it's the motherboard or psu and/or the 15 amp converter.

tried to turn it on again and yes the motherboard does list a whole bunch of readout codes in the led display before it shutoffs. I tried to see what code it read last before it shutdown automatically and it appears numbers starting with 3* (couldn't see the second number)..sometimes though the system would shutdown with the code 61. I checked the manual and it appears 61 means 'NVRAM initialization' and numbers starting with 3 also appear largely related to memory. do you think it could just be that the R5E doesn't like corsair 16GB sticks? tomorrow I'll head to the computer store to purchase a stock standard cheap 4GB DDR4 stick to see if it posts.

[Nate152]

If you're getting codes that's a good sign, as to what is causing it to shut down it's pretty much a guessing game without other components to test with but you're getting it narrowed down. A 4GB stick would be worth a try to rule out the 16GB sticks possibly causing the problem.

[iamthewizard2]

Nate152 wrote:
If you're getting codes that's a good sign, as to what is causing it to shut down it's pretty much a guessing game without other components to test with but you're getting it narrowed down. A 4GB stick would be worth a try to rule out the 16GB sticks possibly causing the problem.

here's the interesting thing though: have you watched Linus' "compensator build video"? this is the link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQRunV2pBVU
It basically showcases an insane build. pretty similar to mine with 128GB of DDR4 corsair memory. In the video they run into the same issue I did. At 7:10 in the video the pc just wouldn't post. they tried swapping out the CPU ...even using slower ram with no success. in the end they managed to get it running by downloading the latest bios...which funny enough I already did with no success (as mentioned before I did a usb flash via the ROG connect button).

[Nate152]

Just to be sure you updated the bios correctly did you do it like this in the guide? You want to rename the bios file to R5E.CAP

http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?1142-How-to-use-ASUS-ROG-USB-BIOS-Flashback

[iamthewizard2]

Nate152 wrote:
Just to be sure you updated the bios correctly did you do it like this in the guide? You want to rename the bios file to R5E.CAP

http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?1142-How-to-use-ASUS-ROG-USB-BIOS-Flashback

yup I renamed it to R5E.CAP and saw the bios LEDs on the MB as well as the thumb drive lights flashing indicating it was working....