NOW I've done it - MicroStar MS-3969 MB won't post

[TechnoMage]

Ok, I'm really thinking I've fried something at this point, but I'm not sure what it is. Here's the story...

I inherited an old Gateway Select 1200 w/ a MicroStar MS-3969 v.1 MB inside, an AMD Athlon 1.2GHz CPU, 128Mb PC133 RAM, adn a 40Gb HDD. My goal was to upgrade the memory to 512Mb, but I only had PC100 DIMMs for the operation. After double-checking to make sure that it supported PC100 chips, I proceded to install them. but I left the J1 jumper set to PC133 FSB speed (which shouldn't matter, since the ram was slower). once I installed the new memory, the machine stopped posting. I pressed the power button, the PSU fan kicks in, I hear a few warming-up clicks (normal), and then I get NOTHING. No display, not even any diagnostic beeps to point me in a direction to troubleshoot. I thought I might have fried teh on-board video, so I installed a 32Mb AGP card in it just to check, but I still get nothing on the display. I have reinstalled the one stick of PC133 RAM again, but get the same behavior... could itbe that I've fried the memory slots themselves? I grounded myself as normal, and made sure that I performed teh operations off of carpeted flooring...

I would try and use a boot disk, but I can't get that far... do I have any options at this point other than just buy a whole new motherboard? let me know your thoughts. Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for listening to a newbie Rant

Oh, about chipsets (just in case):

it's a VIA VT82C686B chipset, with 0113CD and 13B709400 on the chip as well. and It has AMI BIOS AB84 5462 (printed on sticker).

 

[notherdude]

Reset the CMOS. It's probably trying to boot with settings that won't work and resetting CMOS will put them back to fail-safe levels

I could be missing something but jumpering 100 ram to run at 133 is not sure to work because the RAM is 'slower'? I would expect just the opposite. Set it to 100 if it's 100 ram, just to be safe..

ok, reread the post and I see you put back the 133 ram.

Still, reset the CMOS and if that fails then unplug the mobo power and let it sit for a few hours. It might come back to life.

 

[TechnoMage]

Well, I tried removing the J2 jumper altogether, for recovery, but that did no good. Are you saying take the CMOS battery out adn see if that works, and if not, unplug the PSU connectore from the MB to see if it will reset that way? Just making sure before I do more damage.

And I tried it with the J1 jumper set to 100FSB, and got the same results. System didn't post.

 

[notherdude]

Well, I tried removing the J2 jumper altogether, for recovery, but that did no good. Are you saying take the CMOS battery out adn see if that works, and if not, unplug the PSU connectore from the MB to see if it will reset that way? Just making sure before I do more damage.

Just to clarify . . J2 is the recovery jumper? It resets CMOS? Assuming this is the case simply removing a CMOS jumper won't do anything. That just leaves it in the normal state. To clear CMOS it has to momentarily be put into the 'clear' position. A CMOS jumper header has three pins, you take it off the two it's on, say 1 and 2, and put it across the other possibility, 2 and three.

Alternately yes you can simply remove the battery for a time and yes remove the power cord from the power supply. Always recycle power to the power supply anytime the system won't boot. Also sometimes the entire system simply needs to 'rest' for a time. Don't ask me why but I've overclocked dozens of machines of that era and it often works.


Somehow I doubt you have fired anything. Just be sure you actually reset the CMOS/BIOS.

If you unplug power and remove the battery for about an hour or so this should kill a few birds at one go.

 

[evilshuriken]

notherdude, some motherboards from OEMs don't have your typical 3pin clear CMOS jumper switch.
Instead they have a jumper between 2 pins you remove and power on the system, that will reset all settings.
You have to make sure to put the jumper back once settings are cleared though since it will keep clearing everything at every boot.

Just thought I'd point that out, since OP might have such a setup.

 

[notherdude]

notherdude, some motherboards from OEMs don't have your typical 3pin clear CMOS jumper switch.
Instead they have a jumper between 2 pins you remove and power on the system, that will reset all settings.
You have to make sure to put the jumper back once settings are cleared though since it will keep clearing everything at every boot.

Just thought I'd point that out, since OP might have such a setup.

OK. My apologies to the OP.

 

[TechnoMage]

yes, on this MB, J2 has 3 pins. If you close 1-2, it's normal mode, close 2-3 it's configuration (clears passwords), and removed completely, it's recovery.

Now, I have another question... What next? I removed the CMOS battery and disconnected the PSU cable from teh MB, and let it sit for about 2.5 hours before hooking everything back up... no change. just PSU fan and that's it. no display at all, no diag beeps.

 

[notherdude]

Hmmm, well it does sound like something got busted.

I'd rebuild it at this point - barebones out of the case - one stick of ram only CPU/Fan, video, power, monitor - everything else out. Be sure to re-seat the video card and ram in this process and all power connects.

If that fails then try another RAM stick and in a different slot, play with the RAM, different sticks, different slots. If that fails the try another video card and then another PSU. If all of this fails it is likely the MOBO got fried. Examine it for any burn marks or popped capacitors etc.

 

[TechnoMage]

WEll, I went ahead and looked teh MB over and didn't see any black marks or areas, or popped capacitors. Could powering it on with the CMOS battery in backwards have done anything? I realized that there were + and - markings on the MB to show the proper orientation to insert the battery, which told me I had it in wrong. Just curious.

 

[notherdude]

any luck?

I don't think the backwards CMOS battery would hurt. Never heard of that anyway.