PC and monitor won't talk

[Guest]

I put together my first new system today in an empty new case, switched it on and.... Erm...

The monitor won't power up properly. It comes on with a message that it's in power saving mode and needs to be activated by the PC but no amount of pressing keys on the keyboard or mouse-clicking save it from going to sleep.

The system is a Athlon XP 1700+ on a K7S5A motherboard with 512MB DDR RAM, a GeForce 256, a brand new WD 80GB hard drive (unformatted I guess), a standard CD ROM drive and floppy drive with a new 370w PSU. Pretty simple system, - the MB has an on board sound codec and LAN socket.

When I switch it on everything looks good inside, - the fans all work (2 on the PSU, one on the csae and one above the CPU), the keyboard lights flash briefly, though there is no beep from the internal speaker.

According to a book I have, no beep means a power supply/system board error, which I imagine is not a good thing.

The fan attached to the GeForce also spins, so it's receiving power. It (the GeForce) also worked fine when it was on my old Dell. I tried unscrewing it from the case and jiggling it about a bit to make sure it was seated properly but that had no effect. Yes, the monitor is plugged into the GeForce.

The HDD, CD ROM and floppy LEDs light up when they're being read at startup.

I have only one doubt about the way I set it up: the 'Power LED' wire from the front panel has three sockets (the middle of which has no wire leading into it), while there are only two adjacent pins available for it on the MB. I don't think that's a major problem and I can live without a power LED so I've left it dangling. I've tried starting with a different monitor but that gives me a 'no power' message and goes into sleep mode, much like the other.

Would clearing the CMOS memory do any good? That seems easy enough, - just moving a jumper while the power's off, but I don't know if that would have any adverse effects.

I'm quite impressed with myself for making a system in which all the fans go round and which doesn't produce loud noises or burning smells, but if I could get something on the monitor I think I'd be really happy.

Please help!!!

 

[Guest]

If you are sure the graphics card hasn't been damaged, it seems like it almost has to be the motherboard. I mean, isn't video init like the first thing even before memory checks etc.?

The only other thing I can think of is if you have another power supply, you might want to give it a try since, I rather doubt that is the problem.

Not much help I know. The outlook is rather bleak from here.

Good Luck.

 

[scamtrOn]

clear the cmos. its not bad for the system. if your video card is pci try another pci slot. disconnect every thing, but keyboard, ram, and video card. see if it works. try without vidcard see if you can hear the beep sound. make sure your vidcard doesn't require extra power to be connected to it. make sure the ps connector is firmly in place. one more thing take the ram out and see if you hear a beep sound, if not your cpu is dead. and yes every thing would get power even with a dead cpu.

its 4:30AM. me sleepy. good luck.

 

[Guest]

I have same problem too! But how do I know that my CPU is dead or not?
Thank you

 

[svol]

All the things I could have said about your video card problem already have been said, so I don't post them again.
But about the power led:
You can cut your plug through the middle and attach them to the pins on your mobo, if it don't light try switching the pins. Having an power led which switches on is much nicer.

And be sure you have seated your video card properly, maybe you will have to push a little but it can help. I also got such a problem once and when I pushed my card deeper into the AGP slot it worked.

Do not make illegal copies of this post

 

[Guest]

Okay, I tried all that, - not a peep out of the internal speaker or the monitor so something major is wrong.

I bought this Athlon XP1700+ processor for 199 dollars from Outpost and the motherboard was bundled with it. I couldn't understand why anyone would be giving the MB, possibly the most important part of any system, away free when you usually pay quite a bit for them but I'm beginning to see why now. It could just be a piece if s**t. There's a white label with a '4' on mine, which means it's revision 4, which is the one that's giving a bunch of people headaches in a thread just below this one.

It seems to be under three year warranty so it looks like I'll have to go that route.

Thanks for your suggestions anyway and good luck, Knewton. Are you having any luck yet?

 

[Guest]

'Knewton. Are you having any luck yet?'

Sorry, I meant Springwater. Yes, it could be the CPU or the MB as far as I know.

 

[Guest]

'I also got such a problem once and when I pushed my card deeper into the AGP slot it worked.'

Me too, with a Voodoo 2 card, bit I've tried every kind of nudging with this one and it won't do anything. I think the problem is with the MB or the CPU.

Interesting advice about the LED, - don't think I'll bother though if I can't get the basic sytem working.

Thanks again!

Kamechan.

 

[Sojourn]

If you're getting no beeps, your system should be running okay. An unseated video card would result in 8 beeps (I experienced this while building a K7S5A system with a poorly seated video card). You can get all of the beep codes from <A HREF="http://www.ami.com/support/doc/beep_codes.pdf" target="_new">AMI's Bios Beep code document</A> (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.)

I've heard of problems with the power saving features on the board and some monitors. I'm not sure how you would go about disabling these when your monitor won't turn on, but maybe if you can find an old monitor without any power saving features you can get it to work. If you can find a crappy old 15", maybe from a neighbor's basement, go into BIOS and disable all of the power saving features, then retry your good monitor. Failing that, deal directly with ECS on getting a replacement board of a newer revision. Generally, a DOA board would not even power up the fans, as the motherboard is what actually tells the power supply to power up.

If you want your front panel Power LED to work, you can easily move the pins around in the case Power LED jack. If you look at the back, you will see the shiny gold of the wire terminations through little cutouts in the jack. There is a tab in that hole that you can gently bend out with a steak knife or any sharp implement. This will allow you to pull the wire out of the jack and slip it into another hole. The tab should lock it back into place. I have yet to encounter a system that didn't require at least one or two jacks to be bunged into place like this. I don't know why case and motherboard manufacturers can't get their act together and standardize these things.

Hope this was helpful.

-= This is our wading pool.
Stop pissing in it. =-

 

[Guest]

Hi Sojourn,

"your system should be running okay"

Nice to read something positive. I think I'll try for a replacement board first. Borrowing an ancient monitor would be a lot of hassle for me.

I'll have a go at the LED thing when I have time. Interesting to know that this incompatibility is common.

Many thanks.

 

[Chrispix272]

sounds like u have already given up...but just in case, i noticed u said your floppy drive light was on all the time,....check to see if the cable is in the right position or better yet disconnect it. i have had it were if i put the floppy drive ribbon connector on backwards (which is easy because it wasnt labeled where pin1 was) that the computer wouldnt boot and the floppy light would just stay on. I hope it were something this easy.

also try disconnecting every thing except your vid card, monitor and 1 stick of ram and see if that does anything, if your computer were booting and u couldnt see it (bad monitor) then u should get one quick beep.

good luck

 

[scamtrOn]

hi. well if you tried to boot with no ram and you heard no beep sound, that's bad. i think you said something about a new case. if your new case had some of those bras motherboard screw things on it, what might have happened is that your motherboards circuitry was sitting on top of the bras thing. that will short things out. make sure that's not happening.

 

[scamtrOn]

if you also tried with no ram and got no beep sound then yes. unless the speaker is dead, but that is unlikely.

 

[Guest]

Hi Kamechan:

No luck yet. I have tried everything you guys said in here, but still no luck yet...@__@
Also I have try boot up system without ram, and there was no beeps at all. So that I think that CPU is dead. I am going to try this CPU with my roommate's motherbotad (A7V266) (mind is A7A266).
Alrite, after tonite that I test on other motherboards, I will let you guys know what's going on.

Thank you so much for helping me...^___^

 

[phsstpok]

Some motherboards have inadequate power regulation to handle the requirements of a Geforce256, which is about 40 watts. Having a high speed Athlon makes the problems worse. Sometimes a high-current power supply can alleviate the problem but can't completely cure a weakness in a motherboard's design. In any case, check your power supply's specs. Look at the 3.3 volt and 5 volt lines. WWW.geforcefaq.com was recommending 20 amps for the combination of an Athlon/Geforce256 but that was when Athlons were down at the 1.0ghz range and lower. I would think you would want a minimum of 25 amps on both lines. 30 or more would be better.

You can test this idea by just using another video card. One that uses less power (that's just about every video card except a Voodoo5) should work fine. Do you have a spare video card or one you can borrow?



<b>We are all beta testers!</b>

 

[rollingrock]

You might also want to double check the pc speaker wire to make sure you are on the right pins. I also have seen pc refuse to boot on a few occasions because of a flipped floppy cable. There's also the chance that the monitor's cable may have been damaged (bent pin maybe).

Oh and one more possibility could be turning the monitor on and off while you have your system running, this may force it to come out of powersave mode if thats actually the problem.

Its always the little things....

I've taken more good from alcohol than alcohol has taken from me --Twain<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by rollingrock on 12/03/01 02:54 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Guest]

guess what, I think its the time for me to crying now.
My PC is still not working, and today I sent back CPU to AMD for RMA.
Because of that I took out my CPU and put into my roommate's PC (MB is A7V266), and the same thing happened angain. eveything worked fine, only nothing coming out on monitor. So that I think that CPU might be dead...

However....wise that I get the new CPU soon and I will test it as soon as possible.

Thank you guys...thank you for helping me so much