New mobo/cpu, still no boot. *Update*

[AMDThunder]

Getting power to HDD and CD initially. They seem to lose power after initial bump. You can hear both drives spin up, but then nothing. If I unplug the IDE cables, they seem to retain power. ie. With CD drive, I can open/close CD tray when power is on as long as the IDE cable in NOT attached. When it is attached, it will open if I hit the eject button as soon as it spins up, but then it stops after opening maybe half way.

I've tried 2 different PSUs, this is a brand new mobo/cpu. Still can't get to bios either. Tried pulling boths sticks of ram, and booting with one at a time. Tried a different HDD, different vid card, and even the CD drive. Getting the initial post beep right when it powers up, you hear the hard drive start, same with CD, then it just stops. All the fans are working, etc. I'm really stumped on this one...

 

[AMDThunder]

Ya know, I was thinkning about that after I posted last night. THat's set by the jumper settings, isn't it? Been way too long. ONly have 1 HDD and 1 CD drive. If I remeber right, both were set as master and running on their own IDE cables.

Just checked it. Both dires on CS enabled. Been like that since I built it 4 years ago...

 

[AMDThunder]

Ok, it seems I was incorrect on the HDD losing power. Was holding it my hand when I powered on, and it is definitely spinning. CD however, does seem to lose power after initial spin up (even with a cd in the drive).

I took everything out of the case. Place the mobo on a cardboard box. Pulled off all cables except for power and cpu fan. One stick of ram (tried both seperately), HDD and vid card. Nothing else it attached. Still getting nothing except fans spinning and HDD. Nothing to the monitor, no bios, etc.

I've looked into several past posts of people having the same issue, but not too many ever posted a resolution. One was a vid card problem, but I've already ruled that out by testing with another card.

HELP! Open to any suggestions. I guess it could be possible I got another bad board, but short of that, I'm at a complete loss.
Here's the board I got.

 

[AMDThunder]

I'm assuming everyone is as stumped as I am?

Gonna try and sort through the whole thing one more time tonight. Thinking there's a chance the speaker on my case fried. I have another one that the speaker should be working in. Will see if I can get any beep codes.

Next option is to RMA the mobo. Reseated the cpu last night. Looks like everything is right. Goes in w/o a hitch. Heatsink and fan snap on right as rain. Talked to a couple of local shops who recommended everything I'd already tried. Of course they offered to check it out for me, but I don't really wanna shell out a minimum of 50 bucks to have them tell me my mobo is DOA. Might have to though.

Please, for the love of all that's right in the world, offer your suggestions no matter how dumb they might sound!

 

[horstmann]

I know on P4's (I assume you are running AMD because of your name)there is a plug from the power supply that supplies the cpu. I forgot to hook this up on one build and it had very similar symptoms. Everything would spin (fans and harddrives) and lights on keyboard and motherboard would come on, but the computer would not boot or anything. I foiund the loose plug after about 5 minutes of feeling stumped. Just a thought since all else has failed.

 

[zjohnr]

Still can't get to bios either. Tried pulling boths sticks of ram, and booting with one at a time.

Heck, if you can't even get the BIOS screens to display I'd start by not even bothering with the hard drive and the CD drive. Unplug everything you can. Cut it down to the absolute minimum components you'd need to bring up the BIOS screen and see what happens.

Do you know if the motherboard is not making it to the BIOS or if the BIOS screens just are not showing on your display because something is wrong with the video. Do you have ... or could you borrow ... a different video card?

-john

 

[AMDThunder]

horstmann, I am running AMD, but I've never seen another power connecter other than the cpu fan.

zjohnr, I've stripped it all the way down. I don't think it's making it to the bios. I've tried another video card. It's a few years old, but still agp, and was working when I pulled it out when it was upgraded.

I've tried booting with just cpu, vid card, and memory (1 stick of 512). As I mentioned above, will try another case tonight to see if my speaker is fried on the case I'm using. Maybe I can get some beep codes to help out.

Will report back later this evening, around 9 or 10 central.

Thanks guys. Keep 'em coming. This whole experience has pretty much made up my mind to order my new one from someone like ibuypower or the like. I used to enjoy this, but it's gotten insanely irritating.

Again, still the possibility I got a bad board or cpu, but you wouldn't think I'd have almost the exact same problem I was having with my original board/cpu.

 

[AMDThunder]

Well, no change. No beep codes, zip, nada. Almost time to throw the whole thing off the roof.

Guess I'll be RMAing this thing tomorrow. Don't know what else it could be.

 

[hondacr123]

plug in the 4 pin cpu power cord right next to the cpu. Sounds like thats your problem seeing as you dont know its there.

 

[zjohnr]

What motherboard is it that you're having the problems with? Is it the recertified PC Chips socket A board you said you were going to get in this post? If so, I'm not as surprised as I might have been that it would fail on you.

-john

Edit: FWIW, I just took a look over at newegg and saw a listing for a recertified PC CHIPS 848ALU Socket A SiS 748 motherboard for ~$24. If that's the board, then I think we can rule out forgetting to plug in the 4 pin cpu power cord as a possible problem. I'm pretty sure this board was released long before 4 pin CPU power plugs started appearing on motherboards.

 

[AMDThunder]

plug in the 4 pin cpu power cord right next to the cpu. Sounds like thats your problem seeing as you dont know its there.

I know it's there. Plugged it in and everything!

zjohnr, I ended up getting a Biostar 754 pin mobo and a new 3000+ cpu. Thought it would be a decent upgrade to get me through.

Anyway, thanks for all the help. I boxed it back up and I'm sending it back tomorrow for a refund. Burned myself out on this one. There was a reason I got out of the tech support business. Now I remeber what it was. Looks like I may be ordering my new PC sometime this month instead of after the 1st of the year. That's what I get for trying to be cheap!

Thanks again.
BKJ

 

[hondacr123]

haha sorry it couldnt be solved through a mistake. Have good luck on your new build.