My new system that I can't get working.

[Dionysus]

I recently bought an asus a7n8x mb, with an athlon xp 2600, crucial 512 DDR 3200. I put it all together and into my new case, and when I turn it on, all of the lights come on, the fans start going but nothing happens on the monitor, nor are there any beeps. First thing I thought was maybe its not reading my geforce ti 500 since this is an 8x board, and Im not hearing any beeps because its haulting for some other reason that I would have to figure out after I get some picture. So I put in a brand new ati radeon 9200 that I just got for my gf the day before, so I know that it works, as well as my geforce. Unfortunately I got the exact same result. So then I tried having everything unplugged save the fans and the power to the motherboard, removing the drives and excess lights and case fans, still no change. I have a feeling the the motherboard I bought is damaged, one thing I noticed, since I went through and reseated everything just to make sure, when I removed my cpu to reseat it, I feel I used too much thermal grease and have smeared a good amount off the plate and onto the chip itself. I am not sure if that would have anything to do with this or not. Any insight would be a great help. Thanks in advance, Brandon.

 

[Crashman]

Read the FAQ, this sounds like you put it together wrong.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[endyen]

Crashman is ofcourse quite right. Strip your rig down to only motherboard, ram, cpu, hsf, power switch, video card and monitor, and keyboard. See if it boots. If it doesn't, try again with it all outside the case. (this is to make certain you dont have a short to the case) Once you have it able to boot, add one thing at a time, checking for boot after each adition. I still do this even though I have built many rigs. Good luck, and let us know what's happening.

 

[ChipDeath]

I feel I used too much thermal grease and have smeared a good amount off the plate and onto the chip itself

What thermal grease did you use? If it's one that can conduct Electricity, smearing it all over the top surface of an amd chip could short out bridges and confuse the hell out of it. just a thought. Give it a good clean, and read the mobo FAQ.

---
$hit Happens. I just wish it would happen to someone else for a change.

 

[CobraOne]

If you strip it down and assemble it outside the case, just make sure it's on any non-conductive surface?

 

[xeenrecoil]

heya dionysus;

Check the c-mos reset jumper some motherboard manufactures set the jumper in the clear position as default, which yields a result exactly as you are describing.

If your motherboard requires secondary power, make sure the secondary power plug is plugged in to the motherboard, either with the special square 4 pin plug or an "easy power" adapted power plug.

If it is neither of these then it could also be you acidently grounded out your motherboard by using a wrong hole in your motherboard to screw it down to the mounting plate of your case, check to make sure you are using only the holes with metal rings to mount to the standoffs.

These are but a few common mistakes, there are many more things that could possibly yield your results, and these are also listed in the motherboard FAQ, did you read it?

XeeN

 

[CobraOne]

I was theo ne that was having the same problem as you....I was going to assemble it outside the case like they suggested. I unplugged the cd drives/floppy, USB ports, audio think, and the ethernet card. I don't know what happened but I was going to try booting it one more time before ripping it out of the case...to my surprise it worked. I put all the rest back on and it works fine, I'm just playing with the BIOS. But I honestly don't know why it did'nt work the first time.

 

[addiarmadar]

In most cases like this it is usually a mobo issue, make sure you have grabbed the latest BIOS rev too. Usually this is in relation to the CPU and/or ram being dead or the mobo cannot detect them.

 

[Dionysus]

Thanks for all the input. Here is what I have done so far, as of yesterday, after my post I read the faq, sorry for not noticing it, could've saved everyone some typing. I read about the grounding out of the motherboard, so I unmounted the board and remounted it, exactly as the instructions said, still doing the same thing. So inlight of the grease being on the cpu, I removed it and cleaned it good, still some traces on there but nothing that I would suspect caused an issue, but I pulled out my athlon 1200 and put in the board, same affect. So I put my 2600 back in and pulled it out of the case, I had only the basics plugged in, power, cpu, fan, ram, and geforce3. I sat it on the bag the board came in and got the same result. As of today I have gotten two new things to try, clearing the cmos, and a possible problem with the ram. I will try the ram in a different position, and also try another stick of ddr ram assuming my gf's p4 is the same number of pins. Other than that I am thinking that the board is bad. I read the reviews on newegg for cus who bought this board, seems like about 4 of the most recent 7, in the time frame of when I ordered the board had problems with the first one and had to send it back. Thanks again for everyones help, I will keep you updated.

 

[piasabird]

In other forums they suggest testing the Motherboard by placing in on a non-conductive surface.then seeing if it will boot after it has RAM, CPU, Cooler, Fan, Video. Connect an ATX power supply and then just short out the 2 pins for soft power switch ATX POWER SWITCH.

Another problem can be not enough power from the power supply.

when you see smoke is that a good sign?

 

[piasabird]

The A7N8X has verbal messages it gives to tell you what is wrong from the BIOS. When a sound card is used, that does not work. Dont try to connect everything or overclock it until you know it is working.

when you see smoke is that a good sign?

 

[Dionysus]

Great news, I am posting this on my new system as we speak! I cleared the cmos and changed the fsb to a slower speed, it booted up, changed fsb back and I am in business. Now, how do I get my amd 2600 to show as a 2600, bios sees it as a 1250 and windows sees it as a 2000+

 

[pIII_Man]

what is your fsb set at..it should be 166mhz (333mhz ddr).

There is no smell better than fried silicon

 

[SlyNZ]

hey man

You saved my ass i had the same problem with my setup..... cleared the cmos and it works beautifully thanks heaps

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by slynz on 07/20/03 05:15 PM.</EM></FONT></P>