Quick question about ASRock EP2C602-4L/D16

[Bill1950]

I recently acquired an EP2C602-4L/D16 mb. Completed a basic build and cleared CMOS. Powered up the board. Fans started, the 2 green board LEDs illuminated. But there was no beep. The heatsink on the chipset remained cool. Nothing displayed on the monitor. Dr. Debud displayed nothing and remained dark.

I removed all but one stick of memory for each processor (in the prescribed mem slots), disconnected all the drives and removed the video card (using the built-in video only). PS tests OK. Fans and green LEDs come up, but Dr. Debug remains dark and there is not POST, no display.

Am I missing something or is this a "dead" mb?

 

[fastrax203]

How long do you let it sit before giving up? The board does a power up pre-check before any post codes showed up on Dr. Debug. If it never, ever posts then there's a chance it could be dead. Everything connected correctly?

 

[Bill1950]

Everything is connected correctly. It's not my first build.

I gave it at least 10 minutes more than once after hitting the front panel power switch. There does seem to be a state in which the board has power, but it has not been powered up (power supply on). One of the green LEDs (near the back panel) blinks slowly after the power supply has been turned on for a minute or two. But no POST, no display.

 

[fastrax203]

Wow, yeah I'd say there's a good possibility that the board is bad. Have yiu tried booting with just one cpu installed? It will boot, with just one. I ran mine with one for a few days while I waited for my second cpu cooler. Just make sure to remove the cpu from the socket.

 

[Bill1950]

Dead with one CPU and one stick of memory. No display, no POST after 10 minutes, three tries. Got a return RMA from newegg. maybe I'll have better luck next time.

 

[wildpig1234]

sorry to hear ;(.. what was your reason for getting this particular board?

 

[Bill1950]

My use is as a workstation and general use computer. Only gaming is flight simulator. We already have an in-house server is just for file sharing and disk image backups. Small, but effective.) On some rare occasions, I use use heavy computation that would benefit from 16 cores / 32 threads. I've been beating up an AMD FX-8350 and just need more horsepower. New system will use dual E5-2670 V1's.

Why this board? Good reviews (lol, in retrospect), 16 memory slots, positioning and orientation of SATA ports, multiple PCIe 3.0 ports. Got it from newegg on sale for $290. Looked at the S2600CP2J, but also read on these forums some less than flattering remarks about it, and it fell a bit short on specs / features. Also had a hard look at a SM X9DR3-F, but couldn't justify the cost over the EP2C602-4L/D16.

Now I just want one that works.

 

[wildpig1234]

that's the problem with all these server boards are that they are designed for servers. S2600CP is not too bad. but for the best onboard features with usb 3.0 and sound card included, you should look into also barebone lenovo d30 and dell t7600.

 

[Bill1950]

To some extent, I agree. That's one of the reasons I chose the ASRock board. Though it is designed as a 24/7 server board, it also has features that make it adaptable as a workstation or a massively multi-threaded PC. And server motherboards, in general, appear to be build like tanks and to accommodate robust processors that can be pushed hard for extended periods. With lots of I/O options and multiple high-speed lanes to move the data through the system and execute a lot of code quickly without the CPUs or controllers waiting around.

Like some other server motherboards, there are documented conflicts with Windows 10, but I don't intend to, nor do I see the need to use that data mining O/S anyway.

I though about barebones systems and looked at the Dell. It had potential, but my long-term track record with Dell has not been...

All that aside, it still gives me great pleasure to build my own. If I can save some money along the line, all the better.

 

[fastrax203]

I was only using Windows 10 for its DX12 capability when gaming as it helped utilize more cores on the CPUs for smoother gaming. Windows 8.1 Pro worked just fine with no real issues. I ended up just buying some components to build a pure gaming PC (ASUS Z170S Sabertooth, i7 6700K, Kingston Hyper X Fury DDR4 16gb). The Dual Xeons will probably go into pure server duty once I build a rack for them.

 

[wildpig1234]

Actually, the only complaint i have right now with my s2600 is that the sleep feature is wonky and uses 17w instead of the usual less than 5w. but other that everything on it is working great. I even forget the fact that Via chipset usb 3 won't work on it since the renesas based card is working fine.

 

[William]

Swap the battery on the board with a new one and try again.
If you got the board used you never know, worth a shot anyway.

 

[Bill1950]

Oh, yeah. Definitely a dead motherboard.

Got a new mb this afternoon. Carefully and incrementally tested the board starting with one CPU and one stick of memory. Worked it up to most of the full system with 2 x E5-2670 and 8 x 4gb Samsung ECC RDIMM. 2 x Samsung 750 250gb SSD, 1 Kingston 110 gb SSD (for W7 pagefile) on a Maxell SATA3 port and a couple of spinners on SCU ports, nVidia GTX 750Ti.

Takes a bit longer to get through POST.

Will add audio and more USB eventually.

So far, just using "test loads" of software, stable and reasonable fast under W7, monster under Linux Mint. Haven't tried sleep.

Nice and quiet in a Corsair 750 Obesity case (with a few extra fans) and EVGA SuperNova 850 B PS.

 

[wildpig1234]

glad to hear