Gigabyte 8KNXP won't POST

[excitron]

I just put a system together around a Gigabyte GA-8KNXP and I can't get it to POST. The system is based on a P4 3.2 gig with 1 meg L2 cache, 2 gigs of Geil Golden Dragon PC3200 ram, and an Antec TruePower 480 PS.

When I first put it together and tried to boot, I kept getting a series of rapid continuous beeps. The Gigabyte manual stated this as a POWER ERROR. It gave no further details about that error (typical Asian manual), so whatever that referred to, I'm not sure.

I did noticed that a case fan I had connected to the SYS FAN connection on the motherboard (an Enermax two-speed fan) would start to go on, then stop. I disconnected the fan and then the system no longer created the beeps, but now it will not POST. I get no initial beep from the system, and the screen remains blank. All motherboard component fans (CPU, chipset, graphics card and Giabyte DPS2 board fan) all go on, as well as all hard drives.

Could this fan have somehow fried the board? I find it hard to believe. Is there anything else I can consider to get the system going? Thanks for any help with this.

 

[Crashman]

Did you remember to plug in the 4-pin ATX12v connector?

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[excitron]

>>Did you remember to plug in the 4-pin ATX12v connector?<<

Yes.

 

[Cybercraig]

That board may need a BIOS update for your Prescott, and no, it's not fried. Make sure your plug the CPU heatsink fan into the CPU fan buss or it will not start.

Abit IS7 - 2.8C @ 3.4 - Mushkin PC4000 (2 X 512) - Sapphire 9800Pro - TT 420 watt Pure Power
Samsung 120gb ATA-100 - Maxtor 40gb ATA - 100
Sony DRU-510A - THAT'S MORE LIKE IT!

 

[excitron]

>>That board may need a BIOS update for your Prescott...<<

It says on the box that it's Prescott ready. Besides, how do you update your BIOS when your machine won't come up?

>>Make sure your plug the CPU heatsink fan into the CPU fan buss or it will not start.<<

Everything's plugged in fine. Everything works, except the motherboard. I thought that perhaps the graphics card may have something to do with. I'm waiting for my ATI Fire GL T2 to come in, so I sub'ed a Matrox G450. Thinking it may not like that card, I used an old PCI Diamond Stealth 64 to see if I'd get anything. The card didn't make any difference.

As a curiousity, I re-plugged in the suspect fan, and the board no longer beeps, so I suspect that the fan may not have had anything to do with it. The fan looks as though it's being fed AC instead of DC, which I realize now was the same when I first fired up this board. I've checked all the cabling and nothing looks out of place.

Someone mentioned somewhere about smelling around to see if there possibly may have been a roasted capacitor. I thought that I may have smelt something, but I'm not sure.

It'd be nice if the documentation included more details about BIOS beep messages. Telling that I have a "power error" doesn't say much. Why Asian board manufacturers don't hire Americans to write their English manuals is beyond me. This manual is frustrating at best.

I just wish there was some way I can ascertain whether this board is dead or not, and more importantly, what may have killed it if so.