I recently bought an Asus DSBV-D rev 1.04g motherboard with an Intel Xeon 5405 Quad-Core processor. After carefully mounting the system I turned on the power and although fans, storage devices and everything started to work, the screen remainined black (later I would discover that it was due to a BIOS issue solved by updating it), but that's not the problem.

The problem is that I unpluged the processor to check that everything was fine and plugged it on again, *forgetting to clean and apply again the thermal grease between the processor and the heatsink*. As I pressed the power on button, the system didn't respond: fans didn't move, as well as storage devices; the only signed given by the motherboard was a LED blinking from the integrated LAN adapters.

I though "how foolish!!! I forgot to put the grease! After cleaning and applying again the thermal grease, the situation remains the same.

Green led on the motherboard shows that it's receiving power, but when I turn on the system, nothing happends except for the LAN led blinking.

My questions are:

• What is the meaning of that LAN led blinking?
• Could the processor be damaged by not putting thermal grease when I should?
• Is there a way to check that without having another processor?

Things done so far:

• Power supply is OK and all the connectors (24pin + 4pin +8pin) are attached correctly
• Detached all the devices, RAM included, but the outcome is the same.

Hi did you check that your motherboard is installed properly on the stand offs and not making any shorts against the case? Check the motherboard manual for error codes/leds to see if the blinking LAN led means anything.

The motherboard should be properly installed since it managed to power up before I removed the processor to perform the checking. The Socket 771 is a hard one to test for shorts, since processor heatsink requires CEK attach and there is no way to test it without mounting it in the case. Any ideas to check for a short?

I triple checked the manual and even the ASUS website and forums a nobody says a thing about this weird LAN led blinking problem. I have emailed the official support asking for this, but there is no reply yet...

Has anyone found a solution for this problem with Asus DSBV-D? I seem to have similar problem. Computer does not boot. The led in the motherboard is on and the lan led is blinking. Computer does not power up however.

I tracked the problem and found the solution. The LAN led blinking actually was not telling anything. It was only causing confusion and leading to a bad diagnosis.

The problem was the Power Supply control cable, I had it connected to the FDB_FAN1. For some reason, first two times worked on this connecter, but not anymore. I solved te problem by pluging the control cable to another connector on the motherboard, for example REAR_FAN1.

I hope this helps solving your problem.