Looking for advice or guidance for further troubleshooting boot problems with Home server

Greetings!

I’m having trouble with a home server I’ve been working on for the passed couple of weeks. I’m still unsure why, but I can’t seem to power it on. I did as much research as I could before buying the motherboard, CPU, and RAM and as far as I can tell they should all be compatible with each other.

Mobo: ASUS Z10PC-D8/SAS
CPU: 2x Intel Xeon E5-2683v3
RAM: 1 x 8 GB SK HYNIX ECC RDIMM in slot A1, 1x 8 GB SK HYNIX ECC RDIMM in slot E1
PSU: Corsair CX750M

I don’t have any drives plugged in. I’ve reached out to ASUS directly and spoke with Live Chat. They informed me the board was in “Soft Off/Stand By Mode”. This was confirmed by a small green LED that turns on in the bottom left corner of the board when the PSU is plugged in and the PSU switch is flipped to the On position. They advised me to test each component separately, but I did that prior to even reaching out to them. I have a total of six 8 GB SK HYNIX ECC RDIMMs straight from the Motherboard’s QVL list as not to take any risks. I’ve tested each of these sticks in the A1 and E1 slots respectively, but only ever with 2 sticks in the system at once. I tried with only 1 stick in the A1 slot and 1 CPU in the CPU_1 socket. I also tried the inverse with one stick in the E1 slot and one CPU in the CPU_2 socket. All of the sticks were tested this way, but none of them brought me to a successful boot (or even POST). I thought perhaps it was the cords I was using for the 8 pin 12v sockets, but changing these out didn’t seem to solve the problem. I’m unsure where to go from here and any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Assuming you have mounted the board in a chassis, check for stray studs that may connect parts of the underside to the chassis. If unsure, remove the board from the chassis and place on a non-conductive flat surface (newspaper, cardboard, etc). Clear all components from the board, connect the IPMI NIC to your network and obtain the IP address, then proceed to log in to said IPMI environment. IPMI works even w/o any component present on the board, so you should see a response. If not, contact ASUS for an RMA. This assumes you have the additional management board installed. If you haven’t refer to the manual to do a Clear CMOS procedure.

First thing to do after logging in into the IPMI environment is to lead the fail-safe values to the BIOS, this function may have a different name (like default values) but should be present.

Refer to the manual to ensure you have the positions of the A1 and E1 memory slots correct.

The board has a 2-digit display, what numbers does it show, if at all. Make sure you connect the correct pins to the front panel switches.

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What happens when you try to turn on the system? How are you trying to turn on the system? If you have it in a chassis, did you make sure that the front panel connectors for power and reset were plugged in properly? Always try the easiest fixes first. Good luck.

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Hello!

Thanks for the reply! I’ve not placed the motherboard or any components into a chassis or tower yet; I wanted to make sure I could get the system to power on first. I’ve been operating on my workbench with a large piece of cardboard between the motherboard and my bench.

I followed the steps you advised and sure enough I was able to get to the ASMB8-iKVM login page after plugging the PSU into the wall, an Cat6 Rj45 cable into the Management LAN port, and signing in with the defaults (admin, admin). I was able to reset the BIOS, but there doesn’t appear to be an option allowing me to power on the motherboard.

While I don’t have the board placed inside of the tower I plan to use, I have the POWER_BTN header (and ONLY this header) plugged into the PANEL1 System panel connector. I wish I could take a picture to show what it looks like, but I cant seem to send links :/.

I’ve followed the motherboard manual from the very beginning, ensuring I placed the DIMMS in the A1 slot when there is 1 CPU installed and the A1 AND E1 slots when 2 CPUs are installed.

The 2 digit display never turns on when I press the power button, but I do hear a very very faint click sound when I press the power button on the tower.

Hello!

Thanks for replying!! I’ve not placed the Motherboard or any components into the tower I plan to use just yet; I wanted to make sure I could power up the system before hand.

I’ve had the motherboard on my workbench with a large piece of cardboard between the motherboard and my bench. I have only the POWER_BTN header plugged into the PANEL1 System panel connector.

When I try to power on with the power button I hear a very very faint click sound, but nothing actually happens. None of the fans on the Heatsink spin and it’s as if I never even pressed the button. Also the 2 digit display on the bottom left of the board never turns on either.

That’s encouraging, at least. To exclude an error in the power button circuit, disconnect it and short both pins with a small screwdriver or other small (!!) metal object. If the system boots (provided you have at least one CPU and corresponding memory stick installed) you’ll need to replace the button.

If this fails, short the power_on lead on the 24 pin connector from the PSU, there’s plenty of instructions on the web which wires you need (and I’ve forgotten :stuck_out_tongue: ). In the event this doesn’t get you a POST, consider RMA for the board.

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Hello!

Great news (sort of)! I did exactly as you stated and tried shorting the POWER_BTN and adjacent GRD pins only to discover nothing would happen.

Then, I tried testing power_on lead for the PSU and it worked with no issue, so I tried pulling a fresh 500W PSU from a different build and now the CATTERR1 LED flashes on every time the power button is pressed. I’ve got with the vendor to get the board RMA’d. :slight_smile: Thanks for all your help! I definitely wouldn’t considered any of this on my own!

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