Striker II Formula won't post

After scouring the net I hope that somebody here can help me.

I am building a new rig with the following components:

Case: Gigabyte 3D Aurora 570
Powersupply: PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700
CPU Fan: Zalman CNPS9700NT Copper
Motherboard: Asus Striker II Formula
Memory: OCZ NVIDIA SLI Ready XTC PC2-8500 2X1GB DDR2-1066 CL4-5-5-15
Soundcard: Asus Supreme FX II Audio
Video Card 1: EVGA E-GEFORCE 8800GTS 670MHZ 512MB 1.94GHZ DDR3
Video Card 2: EVGA E-GEFORCE 8800GTS 670MHZ 512MB 1.94GHZ DDR3
Hard Drive 1: WESTERN DIGITAL WD5000AAKS 500GB SATA II 16MB 7200RPM
Hard Drive 2: WESTERN DIGITAL WD5000AAKS 500GB SATA II 16MB 7200RPM
Hard Drive 3: WESTERN DIGITAL WD5000AAKS 500GB SATA II 16MB 7200RPM
Floppy: Mitsumi FA404M-BK 7-IN-1 Floppy Drive & Flash Reader
DVD: LG Super Multi Security DVD Writer 20x20x12x, SATA w/ Lightscribe

I installed all the components including the little LCD monitor that came with the motherboard. When I power up all the fans start up (Videocards, Casefans and CPU Fan) and most of the light go on (CPU Fan, ROG Logo, Casefans, Power LED and Reset LED). There are threeLED's that I can see that do not go on. The one for the memory, CPU and northbridge. On the little LCD poster it shows CPU Init. The system does not power down automatically and nothing else happens. It seems to be stuck on that step.
Initially I thought that this was a processor seating issue so I reseated the processor and heatsink but that changed nothing. (This is a real pain to do with a heatsink that requires to be screwed on.)
I have read online that this has to do with memory timings not being set properly. This could be changed once able to get into the BIOS. So I did what was suggest and seated a stick of memory in the bank furthest from the CPU and cleared the CMOS. This did not change a thing and I was still stuck.
So I tried the same procedure with a slower stick of Kingston 800 RAM with the exact same result.
I then proceeded to eliminate different devices one by one and repeating the CMOS reset procedure with the two different ram sticks. In the end I had the DVD drive, the floppy drive, 1 Hard Drive and 1 Video Card connected.
This changed absolutley nothing. I am at a loss. I have built several computers over the years and the worst that ever went wrong before now was that I connected the power and HD LED's wrong.

Any suggestions/help recommendations would be appreciated. At this point I believe that I have a bad motherboard.

Thanks

Reduce the system to the processor, one stick of RAM and one video card and see if it will start up. The Strikers are a finicky bunch, and I've had enough bad ones to easily believe you may have a dud. However, before you send it back, also check the following:

1) are your power, reset, and other connections to the pin grid correct? If you are powering the fans, these connections are probably OK.
2) Are your standoffs (9) correctly placed and are all of the screws seated correctly through the motherboard to the standoffs?
3) Do you have both the 24-pin and the 4-pin ATX connected to the board? Depending on the vintage of your power supply, you may have an 8-pin ATX connected.
4) Do you have any loose screws floating around behind the motherboard?
5) The early versions of the original Striker had a button that activated the LCD readouts. For some reason, the board would not post until you pushed that. I haven't tried the Striker II Formula, but you might look for that option.

If you've checked all of those, then the next question is whether you are getting error beeps or codes on the LCD. Let us know.

I was going to suggest lower voltage RAM so you could get into BIOS but you have tried that. The only thing I can suggest beyond what Arlie already has already, in this order, is:
1. Disconnect the DVD drive and floppy and try and boot with the lowest voltage RAM you have.
2. Reseat all power connections.
4. Try another vid card.
3. Move the lowest voltage RAM you have around until you can get into BIOS and can up the Vdimm and load the la-*test*-('") BIOS version.

Other than that and what Arlie already has suggested, I'd say dead board as well.

After trying a few more tricks yesterday (sadly couldn't try the switching the processor trick as I don't have another 775 chip) I dropped it off for -*test*-('")ing at the store I bought it at. I just got a call from their tech guys stating that I had indeed received a bad motherboard and that a replacement is waiting for me.

I hope that I have better luck with the replacement. Thanks for the advice guys I will keep you posted.

We have some very experienced Striker folks here.

The new motherboard posted immidiatley. Didn't need to use any tricks just plugged in the devices and booted just fine. Having some issues with my partitioned Raid 0. Vista and XP found them fine for install, but XP balked upon reboot to complete the installation. I am not sure exactly why, but at this point I can't wait. Might try it again with two different Hard Drives at a later time. But now to the real issue: The memory I have is 1066 but the motherboard only recognizes it as 667. In Bios I need to go into the Extreme Tweaker area to enable being able to set anything. Here though I am unable to set anything besides the speed as far as memory is concerned. I don't seem to be able to change voltages or timings. So I changed the memory speed but the system did not like that. Personally I would prefer to avoid changing any voltage settings. Would I be better of with a different set of memory?

The Voltage for these OCZ sticks is between 2.1 and 2.3v

Extreme Tweaker --> Over Voltage--> Memory Voltage.

Extreme Tweaker--> Overclocking--> Memory Timing setting

You sure its 4-5-5-15, not 5-5-5-15? Sometimes the motherboard doesnt read the SPD (Serial Presence Detect) of the RAM properly and defaults them to the lowest setting i.e: 667mhz and 1.9v memory voltage... These sticks are rated to run at 2.1-2.3v so thats where they should be try setting 2.1v 1066mhz and whatever the timings were, I couldnt find your brand of OCZ RAM with those timing sets on their website.. only 5-5-5-15

Glad to hear you're off and running. I went through two Strikers before I got a working one (really shook my confidence).

If you installed Vista first, XP is going to balk, as it cannot take control of the master boot record. If you are installing for dual boot, you must install XP first, and Vista second.

Also, don't forget that you will need to load your raid drivers from a floppy disk or USB stick during the XP install.

To Paulzig: Yes it is 5-5-5-15 ... I was copying from my invoice and not the actual ramstick as that was installed already. So I set the voltage to 2.1 and timings manually and about every second boot I get an extremely long beep and the system halts. I assume this means it is not liking the memory. I am not much of a tweaker in that regard.

I have also noticed that my North and Southbridge are running very hot compared to the rest of the system. Is that normal?

Arlie: Seems like I was anyhow. Got BSOD complaing about pagefaul error and sentfilt.sys (comes from sound) and NTFS.sys. Any fix attempt new drivers, windows updates did not improve matters. So I am retrying with Raid 0.

DRIVER_IRQL_LESS_THAN_OR_EQUAL_TO and PAGE_FAULT_IN_NON_PAGED_AREA are the most common blue screens you'll see... They can be driver related etc.. but pagefault can also be your RAM, or a corrupt hard drive..

What slots do you have the RAM in blue or white ones?

1 long beep like that usually indicates memory failure too.. Try changing the RAM to different slots before we get too carried away with anything... I would suggest flashing the BIOS but you do want a stable system before you go ahead and do that so nothing unpleasant happens... Welcome to the wonderful world of computing mate

Well it keeps getting better and better. So far I have installed XP Pro 4 times.

I have all kinds of BSOD's now. senfilt.sys and ntfs.sys on a page fault in a non paged area. And nv4_dsp and a Bad_Pool_Caller.

I thought this might be the memory so I set everything back to the way it was at auto. Memory is running at 667 again. I seriously starting to think that the memory just does not work with this motherboard.

The QVL is not exactly helpful. It lists two 1 Gig sticks one by Micron, which I can't find anywhere (but it runs at 1.9V) and 1 by Corsair (runs at 2.2V). Since the current ram is 2.1V RAM I would tend to stay away from that one.

So what to do now? I am using the blue slots btw.

Micron is a manfacturer of RAM chips, Corsair,OCZ,Crucial dont make their own RAM chips, they buy whatever is cheapest on the day... Micron usually comes in highend RAM and you're lucky to get it or you paid good money for it.. Have you tried running a single stick in slot number 1?... Your OCZ runs between 2.1-2.3v... but if it cant run 667 at 2.0v we may have to start suspecting the RAM as faulty...

Download a copy of Mem-*test*-('") v2.0, the "Download - Pre-Compiled Bootable ISO (.zip)"

http://www.mem-*test*-('").org/

Make yourself a bootable ISO with it, make cdrom 1st boot.. put the disc in and run the program... just run the whole -*test*-('") a couple or so times to see if it doesnt throw up any errors at you, if it does then we can say theres something wrong with the RAM

I am running mem-*test*-('") as we speak. It will have several hours of -*test*-('")ing before I get home from work.

I have not tried running a single stick so far. I will do that after mem-*test*-('").

And the memory I have is not Micron (not as far as I know as the Micron is rated for a lower voltage). The Micron memory is on the QVL from Asus which is kind of funny especially since it is not publically available. They should really only list actually available brands.

True, that Micron isnt a retailer as such in the old days you may have seen some Micron or Samsung branded stuff around but these days companies like OCZ, Corsair, Crucial etc buy their chips, speed rate them and put a fancy heatsink on so that you cant see what chips are actually on it.

You cant really conclude what chips you have on yours just by going off the voltage though, especially with the PC8500 or 1066mhz RAM, as its just overclocked PC6400 or 800mhz RAM. I have 1066mhz Crucial RAM with Micron chips with a stock voltage of 2.2v
All chips are diffferent and will all take a different voltage to clock from 800mhz to the 1066mhz so the companies set a limit for warranty and try to clock the RAM up to within PC8500 within that threshold.

I have some 1066 g.skill RAM here thats rated 1066mhz at a whopping 2.3-2.4v... which is pretty high, but i'm guessing its Elpida RAM and its guaranteed for that speed at those voltages so i dont care as much..

You're right about the manual, by the time you get the board its already out of date and is only fit to wipe ones ass with...

Now if Mem-*test*-('") passes we have to look at other things like Hard drive etc.. If it does throw up errors try 1 stick in slot 1 and run -*test*-('") 5 and -*test*-('") 8 about 10 times each.. -*test*-('") both sticks individually to determine which one is at fault.. Or save yourself some time and return both and get some different RAM.

One of the most frustrating things in a build is having bad RAM, black screens at startup, incessant beeping, blue screens in windows etc etc...I Know how you feel mate, but I'm sure it can be sorted out.