Mach 2 GT installation problem

B

Ben Anderson

New member
Hello everyone my name is Ben Anderson.

I would grately apprieciate any help i can in getting my pc to work. I recently bought a Mach 2 GT and have fitted as per the instructions but find that when the cooling unit trys to auto-boot my pc it only starts then runs for 0.5sec then shuts down. The cooler cools down to -35 then after the pc fails to startup fully it shows 1 flashing green led and two continuous yellow leds for approx 5sec then goes into idle. I have tried plugging in my HSF to bypass any safety cutoffs set in bios but this made no difference. As far as i can tell the unit is fitted properly and i know my mbd etc is working ok.

Thankyou for your help, Ben
 
Hi ben, okay there's a few things you can try here. Obviously where possible make sure the motherboard has the bios set to continue booting without a HSF/fans connected.

Make sure the power molex from the GT is connected to a clean molex from your power supply - make sure your psu is a branded model above 550w. If you have SLI/Crossfire installed then you need the largest psu you can afford.

Make sure all wires are safely connected, and make sure the motherboard tray isnt shorting out against the cpukit/motherboard.

Make sure the blue and coloured wires from the Mach II controller are securely connected to your motherboard.
 
Hello Phil thankyou for your advice. I have a OCZ powerstream 600w PSU and have my HSF connected to its header (but not fitted to the cpu obviously). What i shall do is check for shorting on the mainboard tray and disable any safety shutoffs in bios just in case. I should be able to get this done this evening so if I am successfull i will let you know.Thanks again, Ben.
 
Hello Phil, I tried what you suggested yesterday evening but to no avail. I put some PVC insulation tape on my motherboard tray (covering the area behind the back plate but this made no difference. In an attempt to pinpoint the fault i electrically isolated the Mach 2 GT from my pc (with neither the blue/white or yellow wires connected) and turned on my pc briefly, it booted up fine first time. Can I conclude from this that the controller board in the back of the phase change cooler has some fault which is causing it to fail during the initial stages of the auto-boot? If you can agree that the unit is faulty from our discussion could you please let me know what the procedure is for returning the unit. If possible I would like the unit to be changed in its entirety for a new one. Once again thankyou for your understanding and i look forward to hearing from you what the next plan of action should be, cheers, Ben Anderson
 
Hi Ben, it's doubtful that the unit as such is faulty - my initial concern is your power supply. I've used a 600w powestream myself and guess what - I had the same problem! I'm not saying for sure your issue is entirely down to the psu, but it may be worth checking. You see when the Mach II is fired up there is a massive power drain. A lot of psu's cant handle it and shut down. This would suggest the problem lies there, although it *could* also mean the controller is faulty (although unlikely at this stage). Just out of interest is your LCD legible? What does it read now?

Also, could you make sure your power molex is properly connected via all the pins. I had one that was loose.
 
Hello Phill, I had noticed that one of the pins in the molex connector (from the Mach 2) was able to move more than the others which meant i had to allign things up properly to get the two connectors to mate properly. I cannot recall exactly what the lcd displayed, something along the lines of "cooling " and the temperature being shown as it cooled down to the boot temp. then after the failed boot it would just say "idle" or something similar. What i shall do is try to source a PSU from work and a different molex cable. If the PSU i borrow isnt of the 550 required rating will it matter as the cooler will be the only thing it has to power? Thanks Ben.
 
name='Ben Anderson' said:
Hello Phill, I had noticed that one of the pins in the molex connector (from the Mach 2) was able to move more than the others which meant i had to allign things up properly to get the two connectors to mate properly. I cannot recall exactly what the lcd displayed, something along the lines of "cooling " and the temperature being shown as it cooled down to the boot temp. then after the failed boot it would just say "idle" or something similar. What i shall do is try to source a PSU from work and a different molex cable. If the PSU i borrow isnt of the 550 required rating will it matter as the cooler will be the only thing it has to power? Thanks Ben.
Click to expand...

As long as the PSU is over 250w it should be fine mate.

I've fired my Mach's and other units up using a 300w PSU before when my motherboard didn't like playing nice with me. Just jumper the 2nd PSU and it should run the Mach unit until u kill the 2nd PSU power.

It's the oldest trick in the book for cold bugged CPU's ;)

Boardy
 
Thanks Boardy, Ill have a word with the guys in the psu department (of the company i work at ) and see what i can borrow over the weekend, ive seen a Tagan on someones bench so hopefully that will do the trick. Thanks for the quick advice, this is my first computer and i must admit its getting a little frustrating but it wouldnt be any fun building something run-of-the-mill. Cheers Ben.
 
Hello Phill i have updated the fimware and tried using two power supplies and this seems to have solved the problem. The pc does not shut down now but i get a "NO MAINS" reading on the Mach " GT display. I am assuming that this is to do with the fact that the controller board is no-longer turning in its own power supply at auto boot. I havent set the other power supply to be switched on by my mainboard (i only borrowed it to find the fault). Can you recommend a power supply that will be able to power both my pc and the cooler as i would prefer to have just one psu (keeping setup as simple as possible) I see you have a range of Turbo-cool psu's on your website would one of these do the trick, i was not expecting this extra expense so will probably be a few weeks before i can purchase this. Thanks for your help, i must admit iam a little disappointed with my OCZ as i would have expected this to cope with pretty much anything. Cheers Ben Anderson.
 
Hi Ben, I had a nagging feeling it was your power supply. Sorry about that! The only supplies I can strongly recommend are the PC Power & Cooling, which are featured on my site. The 1KW+ will cope with anything you care to throw at your pc but they come with a high price tag. The 850 SSI is probably the best comprimise, the 1KW Quad is future proofing.
 
name='phil123' said:
how loud are the 850w and 1kw psu's?
Click to expand...

They are not "quiet" psu's but you comprimise noise levels for future proofing. Having said that I dont find them that obtrusive personally - also it depends on the load they are put under. Less load equals less noise levels.

If you want a quiet, performance psu then the 750w Silencer might be just what you're after - but again, these probably wont be able to touch the 850/1kw in terms of overall performance under load.
 
Hello Phill the scond psu and updating the firmware seems to have solved the initial problem, i have had her runnind but the display on the cooler gives a 'no mains' reading. Is this just because the second psu is not switched on by the controller board (as it would be iff it was connected to the mainboard). Could you recommend a power supply that can cope with the cooler as i would rather have 1 psu than set up a load of wires to remote switch the second psu. Thanks again for your help. I am a bit dissapointed with the OCZ though.
 
name='Ben Anderson' said:
Hello Phill the scond psu and updating the firmware seems to have solved the initial problem, i have had her runnind but the display on the cooler gives a 'no mains' reading. Is this just because the second psu is not switched on by the controller board (as it would be iff it was connected to the mainboard). Could you recommend a power supply that can cope with the cooler as i would rather have 1 psu than set up a load of wires to remote switch the second psu. Thanks again for your help. I am a bit dissapointed with the OCZ though.
Click to expand...

Correct Ben - it's simply because the second psu is bypassing the controller. My personal recommendation is the PCP&C 1KW Quad. It's future proofed, and allows plenty of connectivity.
 
Cheers Phil, sorry about typing the same message twice! I will probably be ordering one of those when finances allow and look forward to having a complete working pc in the not to distany future. Take care, Ben.
 
Hello Phil123, sorry for the delay in responding. My rig, which i have been building since christmas as and when funds have allowed, is: Lian-Li pc 2100 case, OCZ powerstream 600w psu (soon to be changed to a turbocool 1KW), Abit AW8-MAX mainboard (which i have removed the thermal pads from the VRM heatsinks), Intel D950 3.4Ghz cpu, 2x1GB of Mushkin xp pc2 5400 ram (at 3-3-3-10 and 2.05v), 2x Samsung spinpoint 250gb sata2 hard drives in raid 0 using the intel raid controller with16mb packets, plextor sata dvd re-writer and a mate has lent me some 16mb graphics card so i can get a picyure up. Hopefully i will get it all running nicely before winter! What about you, have you been messing around with computers for long?
 
Hi Ben,

I was just thinking to myself that a 1kw psu may not be required for your rig. What graphics card are you thinking of running with the rig? You might be better off going for a different branded 600w psu and spending the rest on a decent graphics card. Just to put it into perspective i ran the following rig off an enermax noisetaker 600w:

AMD 3800X2 @3ghz (24/7) / 3.3ghz (benching) / 3.55ghz (suicide runs)

Mach 2 GT

2GB OCZ PC4000 ram

Nvidia 7800GT

4 hard drives

2 dvd drives

DFi Ultra-D Mobo

The psu had no issues at all running this rig. As Phil says it must be an issue with the particular ocz psu.

Rather than spending £350 on the 1kw psu you could go for the enermax psu like i used for £90 and then spend the rest on a ATi X1900XT or something similar if you want to use your pc for gaming.

Also another thing to consider if you did go for the 1kw psu is that it is not standard ATX spec size so you would need to make sure it fits in your case.

Off topic, Did you take the thermal pads off the VRM heatsinks and replace with AS5 or similar? Was it because it was getting too hot? How have you solved the problem. I have an issue with PWM temps on my Abit Lg-81 motherboard with a Pentium D 930. (If you could pm me a reply to this off topic bit so not to clutter the thread with unrelated stuff:))
 
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