No Post on P7N Diamond

Hello,
I've had my current set-up for 2-3 years now, and the entire time I have had random and rare no post's upon a cold boot. This problem was always fixed by doing a hard shut-down, or turning off the PSU at the switch. However, two days ago it started happening literally 90% of the time. I have re-tested my OC with IBT, OCCT, and Memtest. My video card is known good (because, you know, im using it right now haha). I have reseated the RAM, the Video Card, and even stepped down to using 4GB from 8GB. Even a CMOS reset with all settings at default I'm still getting this problem.
When the computer does the no post, usually(but not always) the hdd light comes on and stays on. There is no video, and my keyboard never powers up.

Any idea's? I know that no boots on a cold boot have been reported with this board, but I have never seen where it got this bad.

CrAsHnBuRnXp said:

Can you test the PSU and see if its still good?

Click to expand...

no, i unfortunetly have no way of testing the psu. but it was RMA'd last year.

CrAsHnBuRnXp said:

Can you try stock settings and see if you can reproduce the problem?

Click to expand...

yes, after the cmos reset the settings were at default, verrifed as the mb told me that the settings had been reset when i finally got a boot out of it.

CrAsHnBuRnXp said:

How long have you let the CMOS battery off the motherboard?

Click to expand...

i didnt time it, but well over a minute

CrAsHnBuRnXp said:

Do you have the latest BIOS?

Click to expand...

yes. i actually just doubled checked that on msi's website.

for some reason the damn thing seems to be working fine again. im at 3 successful posts/boots in a row. <shrug>

EDIT: course, now that i've said that, i'll go home tonight and it wont do shit lol

i will have to try playing with the ram than. currently with the 4GB in its been just fine - im wondering if i just need to go back and tinker with the voltages a bit due to the board getting worn. i also have not been able to get the ram to run past ~1066

in reference to your settings though, and im assuming that your ramV is supposed to be 2.1-2.2v, try putting your ram at 2.1v and bumping your NBv. stock/auto NBv is 1.3v i think, and i have mine running at 1.375v to stabilize the ram. something that surprised me though is that running 2 kits of my OCZ Reaper, according to OCZ my timings should be 6-6-6-20. i have been able to get my ram to run at 5-5-5-18 2.1v 1061mhz. being able to tighten the timings really gave me a nice boost in ram bandwidth.

i remember that when i switched from my 9800gx2 to the gtx285, and changing nothing else, all of the sudden the ram was unstable. just switching the cards made me have to add NBv to re-stabilize the ram. maybe i'll have to add another .25v and to the NBv and see what happens when i add the other 4GB back in.

i actually have been running w/ stock settings for now(no OC on anything) to make sure that it will still boot. i'll try my OC settings tonight with 4GB and see what happens, then move back up to 8GB

thx for the input dude

ok i got it figured out, and i wanted to post back in case anyone ever had a similiar problem
the motherboard has developed a problem with my ram settings - the same settings that i have been running stable with for well over a year.
the settings are as follows:
2x4GB OCZ Reaper
5-5-5-18 2T 2.1v
1.375v to the NB (stock/auto is 1.3v)
i had to run the extra .075v to the NB to stablize my ram after switching from a 9800gx2 to a gtx285 (refer to http://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=132680.msg998784#msg998784 for more info on that)
heres how i figured it out
i reset my cmos, and just used 1 4GB kit. after 1 no post i was finally able to boot into windows. i ran like this for a week to make sure it would boot reliably. then, i put in my OC settings. still A-OK.
at this point i figured that maybe it was just a bug, so i put in my other 4GB kit of ram. no post(damnit!)
i take out the 4GB i just put in, and after 1 no post, it boots again
next i played with my voltage settings. previosly i had been running my NBv at 1.375v in order to stabilize my ram. so i bumped it to 1.4v and my ram to 2.2v. put in the second 4GB kit. after 1 no post(this is a recurring theme for some reason now) it posted and booted sucessfully, but only once. after the initial boot and shutdown, it went back to no posted.
at this point i really have only 1 thing left to try, as im not willing to raise the NBv or RAMv any higher than it already is. my RAM timings are set at 5-5-5-18, which is what 1 kit of my ram is supposed to run at. according to OCZ 2 kits requires 6-6-6-20. i had beena ble to get the ram to run at the tighter timings so i never worried about it until now. so i reset the timings to 6-6-6-20, put in the other 4GB kit, and after 1 no post, i was successfully able to post and boot into windows several times. right now, as im at work, i have memtest running at home to verify that the ram is still stable. when i get home tonight i will try and reduce the NBv and RAMv, one at a time, back to where i had them before.
so, it seems that my MB no longer likes to play nicely with my ram. if it gets worse i will have to RMA, but for now it seems to be fine.

this current problem was not due to upgrading to the gtx 285 - that was probably ~1.5 years ago when i did that. but when i did do the upgrade, that was when the ram went unstable and i had to add the .075v to the NB

this current problem just cropped up out of no where, which is why i atributed it to wear and tear on the NB.
it seems that the NB just decided that it didnt like the 5-5-5-18 timings anymore. running 6-6-6-20 w/ the voltages reduced back to 1.375v for the NB and 2.1v for the RAM everything is a-ok again.

im with you on holding off on an upgrade - im waiting to see what ivy bridge has to offer.