Dead in the Water PC

aosborn

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I'm totally confused on this, i've been working with computers for a while and havent came across anything like it.
I have a motherboard, 478pin P4. Not sure on the exact model, it's an AsRock Ge Pro M2 or some such. Also have a Pentium Celeron 2.4GHz CPU. The motherboard specs said the CPU should work.
Also have some 2700DDR memory, 2 256's.
Everythign is brand new.
I've RMA'd the motherboard/cpu twice because it wouldnt work so it shouldnt be them. Tried memory in another system and it works, and its rated for this motherboard.
When it's all hooked up, i turn it on and nothing happens. PS fan and CPU fan turn on and that's it. I do have the special auxilary power connector plugged in.
I get no beeps from a known good speaker, no display, nothing. Even if I only have the CPU and motherboard plugged in it doesnt do anything. I know if I take out the memory on other systems it'll beep. This one doesn't.
Any clues?
If its not compatibility, i tried another motherboard with same results, and I've RMA'd the CPU a few times what can it be?
 

Crashman

Polypheme
Former Staff
Not turning on is normally caused by the board being grounded or the case power switch not being connected to the correct jumper position.

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aosborn

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I've tried the board in the box it came in, as were the instructions of the asus people. Also I've tried it in a different case with the same results. When I push the power button only fans.
Also checked the CMOS jumper, as another board I tried this CPU on was shipped in the clear position.
 

Mr_Nuke

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Either your board doesn't suppurts the CPU, or the CPU is bad. Not turning on like this is only because of a CPU failiure. Usually it happens when you overclock too much and do't give enough voltage. Reseting the BIOS would do it. You say you've allready did it, so it's a problem with the CPU.
 

aosborn

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What if I test the PC out using a crappy low wattage PSU? I always test my PCs with nothing attached to see if it goes through BIOS, with just a 150watt PSU. It's only a 2.4 celeron so thought that'd be strong enough.
By doing that did I somehow mess up the CPU?
And what if, hypothetically, my memory is bad. If I use it once, can it mess up the CPU or motherboard forever? Wouldnt think it could happen, if i use bad memory then try good memory.
Thanks for the help, ill have to see about RMAing the CPU again.
I know the CPU is compatible:
Support Intel® Pentium 4/Celeron Socket 478 Processors @ 400/533Mhz F.S.B.

And of course i've never overclocked it because it've never used it.
 

Mr_Nuke

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Then it's gotta be the PSU. I sughgest using a 350W PSU at least. Faulty memory CANNOT affect either the CPU or mobo permanently. No the CPU may NOT be damaged by a low wattage PSU. It simply doesn't work when it's not being fed enough power.
 

grafixmonkey

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I've seen some motherboard specs say they require at least a certain amperage on a certain line for certain features to be enabled (like, 1A on the 5v line or something). I saw this in connection with enabling power features on some Asus A7N8X boards, like wake-on-lan or wake-on-ring for the lower power save states or something. I don't have the manual now, but for those boards that info was in the jumpers section. Maybe that's it?
 

addiarmadar

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Try a different PSU, maybe a bigger one too. Thats the only thing in the picture of influence that has not been swapped out. After a few RMAs with no luck gotta means that something else is causing the problem.

Mobile Barton 2500+ @ 2420mhz 11x220 1.7v
Asus A7N8X Dlx 440 FSB
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Segata 80gb SATA 8.5ms seek
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro(420/720)
 

aosborn

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I tried a different higher power PSU and it has signs of life now. It will beep at me but won't boot up. With memory in it sometimes will do nothing, no beeps no display, and sometimes will throw out 8 short beeps, pause for a couple sesconds and do another string of 8 beeps, will continue that forever it seems.
Without memory I get a beep error, of course, 3 beeps. Last time it didnt even do that. I know with my last mobo I used a high power PSU and it didn't work, so it must have been the mobo and now the PSU.
I looked at the Asrock webpage and 8 beeps can either be memory or floppy drive controller. I doubt floppy drive controller would cause a PC not to boot up.
I already have a stick of RAM in the mail so we'll see if it helps.

Thanks for the help
 

aosborn

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Update on my computer saga:
Tried a larger P4 power supply and without memory i get beeps for memory error, which on last motherboard i didnt get. So this is good. Try new memory that didnt work in another computer and sometimes beeped, bios webpage didnt help to decipher, and sometimes sat there like normal.
Got a brand new stick of memory and when put in it does nothing, just sits there, doesnt even post because no beeps/no video.
And still when no memory gives me memory beeps.
I know the CPU/motherboard is compatible and should be good. Memory should be good, power supply is for sure good, memory is compatible with motherboard.
WTF!?
 

aosborn

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AHHA! Found the problem. Good people at PCChips and Asrock lied a bit. They said the memory I had was perfectly compatible. Turns out the crappy chipset needs ECC memory to run. Bought a stick of it, that stuffs expensive, and it boots up fine.
Yay for ECC. Suppose its my fault but I looked everywhere online. Until I went to the chipsets webpage. They said I didnt need ECC but all there verified memory is ECC. And I then contacted them and they said I do need ECC. Maybe thats why the chipset is discontinued and only crappy manufacturers like PCChips uses it.