Topton NAS Motherboard Intel i3-N305

[thekiwi]

I am in the process of building a new server, but encountering a potential MB and/or PSU issue I am struggling to resolve. I bought one of Topton's N305 NAS motherboard from AliExpress and am wishing I didn't. It took over 2 months to arrive but now that I have it in a Fractal Node 304 with a be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 750W PSU, the server is failing to boot on. It switches on and immediately flicks off again; the fans on the MB and case manage to get a few rotations in, but that is it. This behaviour repeats every couple of seconds - power on immediately followed by power off...

I have unplugged all the peripherals so that it is just the MB connected to the PSU but the issue persists. It is entirely possible I have something hooked up wrong, but I am stumped as to what it could be.

Any thoughts would be welcome on what to do to troubleshoot the issue.

 

[thekiwi]

Some more testing. Removed board from case and placed it on cardboard to see if that was causing it to trip. Issue persists unfortunately.

Anyone else experience this issue? Not sure about the success I'll have getting a replacement from AliExpress...

 

[Avathar77]

What are the rest of the specs? ram, SSD/HDDS?

 

[thekiwi]

I never hooked up the the HDDs. On the MB I have a single Crucial 32GB 4800MHz DDR5 SO-DIMM ram and a single M.2 2280 SSD (WD_BLACK 2TB SN770 NVMe).

I'm going to try connecting to another PSU later to rule that out.

 

[Tzvia]

I never hooked up the the HDDs. On the MB I have a single Crucial 32GB 4800MHz DDR5 SO-DIMM ram and a single M.2 2280 SSD (WD_BLACK 2TB SN770 NVMe).

I'm going to try connecting to another PSU later to rule that out.

Remove that 2tb nvme and try. Then if no go, remove the ram too. Board should beep an error due to no ram if it attempts to post - you should get a beep provided there is a speaker/buzzer on the board.

 

[thekiwi]

Thanks @Tzvia.

No dice on both counts after removing the SSD and RAM. I've also tried another PSU and get the same response. Seems quite fatal.

 

[Tzvia]

And you did reset the cmos.... probably a jumper on the board...

 

[tcutting]

I have had a lot of issues with similar (same?) board, and for me it seems the be issue interfacing to the RAM.
Started with Crucial DDR5 4800, 16g. Was able to get into BIOS, and ultimately get to install and boot Proxmox. However, saw instability and regular hangs/crashes.
I then manually set RAM clock from auto down the 4200MHz. Seemed stable after.
THEN tried to update the RAM to 32GB - Corsair 4800 stick. Could not get to boot at all - no startup beep, could not get into BIOS, nothing.
Did CMOS reset, and was able to boot, and get into BIOS. Left on auto RAM speed, and selected the "optimized" BIOS settings.
Seemed to work OK, but running memory tests within Proxmox, was getting some errors, and seeing instability (system would hang).
I've now manually reduced RAM clock again - I believe to 4400 this time. Ran Memtest from Grub bootloader - about 2 hours, 2 full passes, no errors.
Going to monitor system to see if it runs without crashing.

 

[Tzvia]

Boy, the more I read the original post here, the more I think... PSU... PSU. Is PSU known good? Fires up with a different mobo ok? Or is there another known good PSU you can try. Spins up then shuts down can be something in the PSU tripping... This would be the time I remove the mobo from the case, and put it on a cardboard box along with the PSU and some different ran sticks and just swap out bits...

 

[pkoci]

Did you connect both 24pin and 4pin Psu connectors to MB?

 

[emparado]

Hello!
I'm sorry if i'm posting in the wrong place or order here. This is my first post.

I am very new to pc building and motherboards and power supply and all that. I have also bought the Topton NAS motherboard with the n305 processor. The board arrived but i don't really understand how i should power everything.

I ordered the sku that included an external 12v dc psu, barrel plug style. I realize now that this powers the board, but i dont see how i can connect any drives. these are some cables included with the motherboard. but the backplane in the case i bought, there seem to be a molex connector (i think it is called that) and i believe that it is power to spinn the drives?

And when i am looking at these ATX power supplies. They have a long connector that goes to motherboards, but this board from topton does not have that connector.

So when i look at this it seems like i need both the barrel connector to drive the board, and then i need a ATX power supply to drive everything else i connect to the board? Is that really the case? have multiple psu's hooked up to this board to make it work like a NAS?

And yes, i realize that i should bought a qNAP or something that is way more plug and play. but, we all have to start some where.

Please forgive me if this should have been a new post. i just saw that this threadwas talking about the same motherboard that i have and also discussed power to it.

Thanks!

 

[gbrossi]

Some more testing. Removed board from case and placed it on cardboard to see if that was causing it to trip. Issue persists unfortunately.

Anyone else experience this issue? Not sure about the success I'll have getting a replacement from AliExpress...

I'm having the same issue.

I tested with sodimm 'Kingston Fury Impact KF548S38IB-32' and 'Crucial CT32G48C40S5', both with the same problem you had.

I also tested to manual reduce mem clock speed to 4200 and 4400... but the problem still persists

Did you manage to solve the problem? Or did you have to return/replace the motherboard?