New computer build,
Intel DX79TO
i7 3820
CoolerMaster v750

I have had nothing but problems powering the system up since I started this project. It simple gets in the mood to not go.

Using the "Back to BIOS" button it always starts when pressing the power button and lets you into the BIOS, but you have to reboot to get back to normal, then it simply has nothing. One thing I see is as soon as you set the Back2BIOS mode (before powering up) the LED on the GPU comes on, so it must be activating some additional power to the PCI bus or power cable.
EDIT: Swapping cables I found the extra power to activate light comes from bus and not the cable.

And tinkering in and out of the BIOS with different combinations, or clearing CMOS, swapping cards, I have been able to get the system running (more later than sooner), but not now. Just dazed and confused as to why it only powers with that button.

I tried an old power supply to power the 24 pin and PCI, and the CoolerMaster on the 8 pin (no 8 pin on this one), and it is still the same.

PaperClip test powers everything up at full fans, but no video, not sure if it is actually running or not.

Google is not my friend today, I have searched and searched and can't find anything that leads me in the right direction.

It couldn't be a dud could it? It works sometimes.

Any ideas or experiences are greatly appreciated.

Intel boards are choosy about RAM. If you have 'Unsupported' RAM you will see symptoms similar to what you described. It won't give any warnings, it just won't start/run correctly.
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/boards-and-kits/desktop-boards/000006989.html

System memory features
The board has eight DIMM sockets and supports the following memory features:
1.35 V DDR3 SDRAM DIMMs (JEDEC Specification)
    Four independent memory channels with interleaved mode support
    Unbuffered, single-sided or double-sided DIMMs with the following restriction:
        Double-sided DIMMs with x16 organization are not supported
        Double-sided 2400 MHz DIMMs are not supported
...

That could be it, it was an eBay purchase. It was suppose to be 16GB RAM, but showed up with 10 - 4GBx2(1600) + 1GBx2(1333). He is sending the other 8.

Both sets are listed as tested on the page you sent, but I'm not sure about mixing them. or only running 2. More looking required.

The most common problem is with the "Double-sided DIMMs with x16 organization are not supported". It's a very common type of RAM, and I have a couple of sticks that show a different arrangement for the same numbers. The ones I have feature 8 chips per side making them DSx16. They work fine in my HPs. The same number on line shows 8 chips on just one side making them SSx8. The DSx16 definitely doesn't work in my 2009 Intel board. The ones with 8 chips on one side work fine in the Intel board, as well as the HPs.
Hope you get it working.

I still not sure if it is memory or PSU. I would think it should run on 2 DIMMS in slots 1/3, or even 1.

I have 2 -- MT16JTF51264AZ-1G6M1 -- 4GB 2RX8 PC3-12800U-11-11-B1
8 chips per side
http://media.digikey.com/pdf/Data%20Sheets/Micron%20Technology%20Inc%20PDFs/MT16JTF_64AZ_Rev2013.pdf
They seem to be x64 from what I'm seeing.

They are listed as being tested by Intel

Micron MT16JTF51264AZ-1G6M1 4 GB 1600

I have tried every configuration of the 4 and 1GB (and the reverse) I can think of without any change. Really thinking it is the CoolerMaster V750 PSU. I might have to try swapping it with this one, but then I loose my 8x2 980 power cable unless I can make something up.

Ohh the fun, I'm trying to keep things running for the contest, get my RAC up, get Ubuntu working (in the middle of a driver reinstall which required a reboot 1 day ago, grrr) , and I have to keep shutting down my othe computers to steal parts and cables, fun fun fun.

I ran a search at Intel and came up with this, DX79TO Motherboard with an i7-3820
Sounds interesting.

That talks about when this CPU came out the bios didn't support it and the problems of needing an older CPU to update the bios to 430 I think,

I have the latest bios 650.

Well I don't think it's the PSU, my 500W does the same.

TBar (or anyone) did you look at the specs for the RAM? It looks like they are OK to me, but then I'm sure not an expert.

The DX79TO page is a little confusing. In one line it says not to use DSx16, then further down it says you can. I would try it with just the 4GBx2(1600) sticks and see how that works.
Ubuntu will work just fine with 4GB of RAM, even 2GB is fine with limited tasks. The problem you described is exactly the same I had with my 2009 board. It didn't want to boot, but when it did it seemed to work fine for a while and then crash. After the crash it wouldn't want to boot again. That problem was solved, in my case, by replacing the DSx16 with SSx8 ram. Of course, your case may be different.

Yea I did try just the 1GB sticks before without change, will try again. I'm thinking I can put the 16GB in this computer and run mem checks at 1333. can go to 1600, well maybe if I try some clocking. Then I can try this DS 8GB and SS 4GB stick.

Any suggestion for a good RAM stress software for Win8.1

Any suggestion for a good RAM stress software for Win8.1

Just use it's Windows Memory DIagnostics programme.

It was good enough for me to determine a module was faulty on my Vista system.

---

Grant
Darwin NT

Yea I did try just the 1GB sticks before without change, will try again. I'm thinking I can put the 16GB in this computer and run mem checks at 1333. can go to 1600, well maybe if I try some clocking. Then I can try this DS 8GB and SS 4GB stick.

Any suggestion for a good RAM stress software for Win8.1

Ubuntu has Memtest86 built in to the Grub screen. When you go to reboot just use the arrow key to move the selection to Memtest.
If you have a 4GB Single sided DIMM that will work in the Intel board I highly recommend giving it a try. I'm pretty sure the board will work with just a single stick.
My experience with the DP45TF was the same as this post, https://communities.intel.com/message/11615#11615 Except I didn't bother with the Tests, when I saw a number of people having the same troubles as me I just bought a couple sticks of single sided ram....and it worked. The double sided ram that didn't work in the Intel board is Still working fine in an HP board.

I think I solved my testing problems now. I had to walk away from it for a day to cool off. Swapping/testing RAM in my i5 went fine, ran at 1600.

On the other hand putting my 12G i5 RAM in the i7 didn't, it isn't on the supported list so didn't really expect much of it, but some idiot put it In with the power ON :(( Now I have a dead 8GB stick and a dead motherboard. I would guess it's the motherboard and not the CPU. All I get now is power lights but no sign off life.

So far searching for a 2011v1 board for i7, DDR3 and a decent PCI setup in Canada isn't going so well. There has to be something around to find ...

I guess I will pull a 750Ti and run the 980 in the AMD4200 for now. Or maybe i5 with 1070 and 980 in i5 with other PS.

Santa was bad on Xmas day :(

Well, that doesn't sound good. I've changed ram many times with the machine plugged in...but never with it running. If there is any hope you might resurrect it by unplugging all the wires/cables, removing the motherboard battery, and letting it sit for an hour or so. You need to remove any power sources including the monitor and Ethernet cables. Then remove the ram, replace the battery and cables and see if it beeps when you try to start it. Then shut it off and install the ram again. If that doesn't work it's probably hopeless.

I just picked up another eBay board just before Christmas. It's a very old Intel board that features 3 PCIe 16x slots. Since PCIe speed doesn't matter with SETI, I figured the three double spaced slots would be worth it. So far it's working well and as expected the 750Ti times are the same as they were with the PCIe2 board. One day I might even install my third 750Ti in it, I'll probably have to upgrade my 11 inch box fan first though, the old one is getting very weak. Just as with the retired DP43TF board, the older one doesn't recommend Double Sided x16 ram either, Desktop Board D975XBX2

I moved the 980 hybrid over to my i5, with my 1070 along with the PSU to get the right cables, and thought what the heck I'll pop in the SSD too and see how badly it will complain about being moved. To my surprise before I had a chance to look at the screen it was sitting there waiting for a login. WOO HOO Finish installing the NVIDIA drivers (which bloody 'ell is why I was rebooting the i7 for in the first place)and away it went crunching away on the stock apps.

I'll let it run though these 3 day old tasks before trying peti's code.

P.S. still haven't found a decent MB for i7.

Does anyone have anything good/bad to say about a SUPERMICRO X9SRA Board? It seems to have everything I need.

Seems to support i7 3820, non-ECC UDIMM (have 16GB) should be able to use 3 PCIe slots.

It seems the i7 3820 only supports PCIe x16 2.0 Does that really matter for anything but gaming?

Does anyone have anything good/bad to say about a SUPERMICRO X9SRA Board? It seems to have everything I need.

Seems to support i7 3820, non-ECC UDIMM (have 16GB) should be able to use 3 PCIe slots.

It seems the i7 3820 only supports PCIe x16 2.0 Does that really matter for anything but gaming?

Arguably wouldn't even matter for gaming.

There was a user here earlier in the year, that had some processor compatibility weirdness on a supermicro board, which apparently had firmware predating the processor release. On attempting an update, apparently that bricked it (for whatever reasons). Supposedly quite recoverable on his particular board, but definitely frustrating. So if going with a Supermicro board, I would be inclined to triple check the installed firmware has the necessary microcode for the CPU to be used beforehand. [Seems like a newish board, and earlier processor, so should be fine, though 2011 socket spans a wide time range so...]

---

"Living by the wisdom of computer science doesn't sound so bad after all. And unlike most advice, it's backed up by proofs." -- Algorithms to live by: The computer science of human decisions.

Yea, the BIOS is definitely a cencern of mine, apparently needs 3.0 to work with an i7, but what version I get with the board is a concern. With neithier the board or CPU having video, will I even see the BIOS??

Won't know until I get it next week If I have to find someone with an old Xeon to borrow to flash it .....

Well the board showed up with the right BIOS, whew and it WORKS even with memory that they didn't have listed!

Guess I have to swap everything back around again, but my mid-tower will sure like seeing those GPUs leave.