New Computer doesnt work, please HELP!

[ssh2004]

I have just built a new system, the specs:

AMD Athlon "Barton" XP3200+ 400FSB
Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe nForce2
Zalman CNPS7000B-Cu Ultra-Quiet CPU Cooler
Lian Li PC 6070 Silent Aluminium Midi-Tower
2 x Crucial Ballistix PC-3200 BL6464Z402 512MB DDR
Antec TruePower 430W PSU
128 MB Geforce 4 TI 4400 graphics card (from my old computer)
Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 200GB 2000JD SATA 8MB Cache

Ok, i plugged everything in and switched the computer on. The fans started up, the motherboard had power (there is a light on it), the graphics card and other cards seemed to be on and the power light on the case was on. However on my monitor nothing came up. The monitor light was flashing like no signal was being received. There was no "beep" to indicate POST had completed and the onboard ASUS Reporter said nothing.

So i removed all unnecessary components i.e. drives, pci cards etc. Tried again, no luck. Then i tried with one stick of RAM and tried different memory slots, again no luck.

I then tried reseting the CMOS as stated in the motherboard manual. This worked! The computer came on, the beep sound happened. On the screen it said 1gig of RAM, good. It says the CPU speed is 1100mhz even though it is an XP3200+. I guess its a default safe setting. Then it said

CMOS error...defaults loaded.

I think this is to be expected, since i reset the CMOS. It then says it detects my Primary/Secondary devices i.e. CD ROM and then at the bottom it says

F1 to continue DEL to enter BIOS

and stops right there. If i press F1 nothing happens. Its almost like the F1 button on the keyboard doesnt work. So i press Delete and it goes into the BIOS. This is where my problems start. If i make any change in the BIOS and then hit save and exit (or make no changes and press save and exit) the computer restarts and i get the original problem again. The screen is blank and the monitor light flashes. So i reset the CMOS again and then the POST sequence succeeds again and then it says

F1 to continue DEL to enter BIOS

again after checking the memory and drives. i cant save any changes in BIOS without causing the POST to fail again and then i have to clear the CMOS again.

The drives are being detected and the lights come on so i put a boot disk in the floppy drive but it doesnt do anything. I tried putting a windows xp cd in the CD ROM drive which is detected in the BIOS but again nothing happens. Perhaps because the boot sequence is not run til the next screen (after the screen where it shows how much memory you have and your primary/secondary drives)

I thought about flashing the BIOS but i dont see how i can do that if i cant get into DOS or anything to run it from?

I have read of many other people with similiar problems with this board but they dont seem to get it working to some extend using the CMOS reset while i can. Some people on other forums said you can get a new BIOS chip from ASUS (here in the UK for only £5) and that may fix the problem. However, i dont know how to put the BIOS chip in, i really dont want to do any soldering etc. and i am hoping there is an easier fix here.

Any ideas?

 

[Cybercraig]

BIOS chips just pop in and pop out. No big deal. Try another keyboard first. I had the same problem with an NF7-S. It would not recognize any of the Function keys when I was setting up. Switched keyboards and viola! Loaded the keyboard drivers afterwards and now it's fine. See if you can borrow a keyboard that F1 will work on.

Abit IS7 - 3.0C @ 3.6ghz - Mushkin PC4000 (2 X 512) - Sapphire 9800Pro - TT 420 watt Pure Power
Samsung 120gb ATA-100 - Maxtor 40gb ATA - 100
Sony DRU-510A - Yellowtail Merlot

 

[jammydodger]

If you are using a PS2 mouse and keyboard make sure they are plugged into the correct sockets.

 

[ssh2004]

yes i am sure they are in the correct socket thanks. When i can get into the BIOS, the F keys do work i.e. i can hit the F10 key to save and exit although the ESC key does not seem to be working.

 

[jammydodger]

Ok just making sure, its often the simple things that are overlooked.

 

[Craig_Johnson]

I had the exact same problem with an MSI 865Neo2pe motherboard. The only change I could make to the bios was to enable boot to floppy, ANY other change resulted in NO POSTY. My solution was to sell the system and never buy that board again. No BIOS update would fix it either.