GIGABYTE GA-K8NF-9 Please Help!!!

[automaton20]

Hey I have recently purchased this motherboard along with
amd 64 3500+
1 gig of corsair twinx ddr400
a 74 gig 10000 rpm sata wd raptor
dvd burner
a chaintech 6600gt pci expresss
rosewill 400 watt power supply

and i have never been so frustrated in my life

firstly i mounted the motherboard on the removable mb rack in my case... hook everything up and no go
i tried several times then i realized that i was shorting it out because of the metal on the motherboard tray
so i then place a nonconductive material between the mb and the tray... and power
well i had all the case fans + the hs fan running and the hd spinning
then i hooked up the vid card and the fan on it was spinning so i then hooked up the monitor... no video nothing
then i hooked up the cases speaker and when booting up there were constant long beeps which i guess means dram error ... so i kept switching up the ram in different slots and tried again still no go....
One thing i should mention is that the the motherboard i recieved does not have a chip set fan on the northbridge..
Like this one here http://www.newegg.com/app/Show...mage=13-128-268-02.jpg
instead it looks like it has some sort of passive cooler... does anyone have the same motherboard and notice the same thing ... cause when i touched the nb durin run time it became extremely hot very quickly... i think that i may have a defective board
someone plz help

 

[hafa]

So let me get this straight...

Did you not use the standoffs (the hexagonal brass units) when you first mounted the board? Are you using them now?

If you just screwed the board onto the tray with no standoffs, then you shorted the board and cannot ethically return it, as the board would not then be defective. Your call...

Try only 1 RAM stick and see if it will boot.

Also try removing the battery, clearing the CMOS with the jumper, replace the battery and then reboot.

 

[automaton20]

i allready tried almost every single configuration with the memory.. one stick two sticks each in a different slot... and yes i did use the standoffs... but i noticed that a porion of the board was touching the tray...i took the battery out... i am sorry i am a bit of a neewbie but would that clear the cmos?? thank you for your help does anyone have any other info

 

[hafa]

There should be a jumper for clearing the CMOS; you'll move it from the default position and then back again afer you've removed the battery. Please consult your users manual for location and procedure.

 

[jterrell]

Make sure the memory is installed all the way into the slots.
If one of the dimms is not as well seated as the other you will not boot properly.


The board gave me zero issues. It was set for pci-express by default. See my config below.

The board not being set on the mobo tray or in the case properly could of horked it.

 

[automaton20]

hey thanks hafa you are the man... i reset the cmos and it brought music to my ears... only one short beep..
ok now i have another question.. while i was trying to get everything put away when i was ready to send the board back i screwed up the thermal paste a little bit...it was only a few smudges... i put it in anyway stupid me... now when i started windows i get the bsod kernel dump thing with rebooting.. i am pretty sure i need some more thermal paste... does this sound right???

 

[hafa]

First, what thermal paste are you using? If you are using a metalic paste like AS-5, keep in mind that it is conductive, so you need to be sure it does not get on any components.

If you're using the stock white paste, it's not such a problem if it gets on other components, but I'd recommend you remove the HSF, clean the heat spreader and HSF with acetone (remove the processor from the socket first to keep the acetone off the board!) and re-apply a THIN layer of paste to the heatspreader. Then boot, get into the bios right away and go to pc health. Let it run on idle a while, watching the CPU temp and make sure that it is below 60C. (It should actually be much lower, but I'd say 60C is a safe limit for idle).

If your temps are within spec, try booting into Windows with only a video card and memory installed (no other pci cards and nothing plugged into the machine but a power cord, keyboard, mouse and moitor). If you still get the BSOD, you may have physical damage to the board due to the earlier shorting.

 

[automaton20]

hey thanks again hafa... got it into windows