No bios at startup after H100i install

[Jeff1961]

Just attached a Corsair H100i to my Crosshair IV Extreme mobo, I turn it on and all the fans work...the lights on the mobo come on...I see lights flashing as if hdd and optical drives are being accessed...but nothing on my eyefinity monitors. Power lights are amber instead of blue on the monitors.

 

I disconnected two of the monitors and restarted with just the DVI. No change.

 

I disconnected all my peripherals except mouse and keyboard, sound, network and 3 monitors hooked up. No change.

 

I notice the light is not coming on for my keyboard.

 

The light comes on for the Corsair pump. I connected the H100i to my psu with nothing else on the cable. It was a cable with six pins at the psu end...and sata at the other.

 

Even if there were some sort of hardware issue...I should still be able to get in to my bios. I should at least see the first startup messages from the bios. I i've changed nothing but the heatsink. No other cables have been changed. All cables were put back in the exact position as before.

 

I don't see how I could have damaged the mobo. All the lights come on as they usually do.

 

I have not tried disconnecting all my drives except for the system drive...but why would that be an issue anyways...preventing me from seeing the bios.

 

Any ideas of what is wrong?

Thanks. :)

 

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Edit: i notice two things that may be of significance

1. The H100i has a 3 pin pump rpm wire that they say can connect to any motherboard 3 or 4 pin header. I have connected it to the one at the top named "cpu fan". It has 4 pins, and there was only one way to get the 3 pin on due to the small clip off to one side.

2, The power supply instructions have a warning that I don't understand... "The detachable four pin from the 24 pin main connector is not a "P4" or "+12V" connector. Serious damage can be caused if you use it in place of a "P4" or "+12V" connector." The sata power connector I used for the H100i connects to the psu with a 6 pin connector.

[Toasted]

2. It's fine, The 6-pin connector goes to the PSU as it is modular.

 

You may have over-tightened the H100i block to the CPU which may have caused the problem. If you used a screwdriver to tighten the block, try loosening it a bit.

 

If it doesn't work,

 

Remount the CPU and H100i block.

[Jeff1961]

You may have over-tightened the H100i block to the CPU which may have caused the problem. If you used a screwdriver to tighten the block, try loosening it a bit.

 

If it doesn't work,

 

Remount the CPU and H100i block.

 

Thanks.

I didn't use a screwdriver. I just hand-tightened it.

And i've already tried to loosen it...twice. Each time a full 360 degree turn.

 

However I will try this until it is too loose...and if this doesn't work i'll try remounting it.

Does remounting require a new application of thermal paste?

If so...can you recommend something?

[peanutz94]

Does remounting require a new application of thermal paste?

If so...can you recommend something?

Yes, you should replace the thermal compound every time you remove the cooler so it spreads evenly when you reinstall it. Just about any thermal compound you have available would work. Some are better than others but only makes a couple of degree difference. So don't sweat it too much.

 

Instead of just loosening the pump, i would remove it completely and also remove the CPU and check the socket real good for any bent pins in there. If all is good then remount the CPU and cooler and only snug the mounting screws down. They dont have to be real tight

 

If you do have bent pins you can go one of two ways go with it. You can try to straighten them yourself or you'll have to RMA the MB. Straightening them can be done with a magnifying glass and a toothpick or i like an exacto knife. Anything that is real small that you can push the pins with. Sometime they will get bent over ,all you ned to do is just stand them back up....if that is the issue.

[Jeff1961]

The bios is back. Thanks everyone for taking the time to help me.

 

I first removed the gpu and put it back. This did not help.

 

I then tried hitting the red button in the lower-right of the board to switch bios...this did nothing.

 

I then pulled the cmos battery out for 15 minutes and put it back.

Startup was different. The fan noises were slightly different. (there was a pulsing of some fans before, that was now gone) And the red cmos Q LED was off. But the DRAM Q LED was still on.

 

I then pulled out my 4 ram cards. And...my apologies, when I said before I touched nothing...this was incorrect. I had pulled out all 4 ram cards when removing the old heatsink.

I guess this was it, as the bios was there after reseating the ram.

I noticed when putting the ram in this time, although it snapped nicely at the top, there was about a mm at the bottom of the card that still needed to be shoved in. Perhaps this is what I did wrong when putting them in the first time. Because it feels really snug before pushing it in the final way, and I can see how all 4 would have lined up nicely with me repeating that for all 4 cards.

 

Ignorance is not bliss...so my lack of experience with the bios will have me going over it with a fine tooth comb before attempting to start the os, but turning AHCI on is probably the only thing I will need to do. (and set the clock...lol)

There may have been some overclocking settings that were present from the guy who built this for me...ram voltages, things like that. I know nothing about this and will not be worrying about. Just happy to have it up and running again. lol

 

Thanks again everyone.

[Jeff1961]

Things went well with the bios and many hours were spent playing with the cooler software. (CorsairLink 2, ver 1.0.5)

 

I uploaded a bit of the "adventure" to YouTube: