Norm Why wrote:
[snippage]
You can get a "no beep" condition, by using a
reset button crushed in the ON position. Usually
OEM computer cases are the ones with sufficiently
cheesy buttons on the front of the computer, to
make incidents like this possible. I have one
computer here, where the buttons are such,
I know that some day that's how those buttons
will fail. The buttons speak of cheapness.

Paul

Paul, I may have found the problem, no beep. On the one hand the
GA-EP45-DS3L provides a 10 pin keyed audio header while the MX330-X provides
a compatible plug. The mike and line-out go to connectors on the IO shield.
I have headphone-mike connected but that is not where the beep goes.
GA-EP45-DS3L provides a 20 pin front panel header. I have insured that
polarity of POWER, RESET and POWER LED are correct. I do not yet know about
HDD Activity LED. But when I look closely at GA-EP45-DS3L manual, polarized
Speaker Leads are connected to pins 20 and 14. I suppose that is a good
idea. However, the MX330-X front panel header ribbon cable does not provide
these, none that I see. I guess I need to send an email to Cougar customer
support. Odd, cannot see this problem flagged in any review. Maybe I need
to dig into the MX330-X with a flashlight and magnifying glass? Remember the
pin connectors are real tiny. The MX330-X manual is one page, Mickey Mouse.
I need better documentation.

The Power Switch is confirmed.
The Power LED is confirmed.
The Reset Switch is confirmed.

Maybe the HDD Activity LED is in fact polarized Speaker Leads. These pins
are so tiny it is hard to tell. But it is only these that need closer
inspection.

ga-ep45-ds3l(r)_e.pdf

Page 27

FPANEL PWR PWR
LED Switch SPKR
+ - + - + -

X X X X X - - X
X X X X X

+ - - +
HDD RST
LED Switch

Polarity of RST Switch, PWR Switch, SPKR, does not matter.
All assemblies are electrically floating.

PWR LED and HDD LED can be reversed if they refuse to light.

The nine pin section does not need to be
completely wired up while testing. The two
LED indicators are superfluous, until final
build time. Just the PWR switch can be connected
for the style of testing to come.

What is not optional at this point, is the SPKR connection.
You need the SPKR connection to verify that the "missing RAM"
and "missing video" functions work properly, which tells
you that the motherboard/CPU is working, and that when
you plug the RAM in, the RAM is detected.

Once you have completed that phase of testing (successfully),
then you can go back to solving the video card issue,
whatever it is. Since the chipset is P45, I can't see a
reason for the motherboard to be screwing this up. You
should have good luck with PCI Express compatibility
with such a motherboard.

If the card has too much onboard GPU RAM, then it's possible
the OS won't start (address space issue). When doing
the "RAM detected, video not detected" test, you'll be
using a single stick of RAM. Use one of your
*lower capacity* sticks. The smallest I have is
probably 1GB for this particular test you're doing.
In years past (year 2000), you could get 64MB as
a stick, but the "smallest" has gone up a lot since then.

Your GPU has 3.5GB of onboard RAM (GTX970). But the BIOS
screen should always come up, unless the "max address space"
is exceeded. Let's say that is 8GB, just pulling the wrong
number out of the air. I could use a 2GB single stick
of RAM plus that video card, for 5.5GB total. I could
be reasonably assured that the BIOS screen would then come
up.

Once you can see the screen, *future* tests can
use your bigger DIMMs. The objective is to
get to see the BIOS screen first. Once you prove
there isn't a motherboard hardware failure, then
lots of other test cases will make sense to do later.

Windows 10 can start with as little as 256MB of system
memory (tested in a VM environment, to see if it was
possible). While the stated minimum is 1GB, that's
the stated "comfortable" minimum, not the "absolute"
minimum. If you run Windows 10 with 256MB, a task
called the "Memory Compressor" runs almost continuously,
as a measure of how "annoyed" the OS is about this
development :-) When you use 1GB of RAM, the
memory compressor almost comes to a stop.

Paul