A7N8X won't post, is that a MB or Processor issue

[dhill]

I just bought an A7N8X and Athalon 2700+... yeah, lucky me, I thought.

Well, after putting the system together it won't start. The power comes on, and all the fans start to spin, for about 3 seconds. Then the power suddenly shuts off. The montitor never comes on, and I never hear any POST beeps.

I've tried moving my Corsair PC2700 512 DIMM around between the 3 slots. Still, nothing. Does anyone out there have a clue as to what is going on? I've examined the posts under the board, and it doesn't look like there is any bad grounding.

Primarily, I need to know what parts I should send back to googlegear. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.

I've tried some other tests. When I boot without a CPU in it, I get a looping "No CPU installed" voice from the speaker system. <P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by dhill on 12/06/02 10:23 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Alex11]

I had a similar problem with an AMD M/B powering on and then off in a second... This is probably a CPU Cooler problem...The cooler is probably not correctly mounted on the CPU...If this is true try disconnecting the Fan cable from the M/B and try booting to see if you get POST beeps...If yes that's the answer to your problem...
Hope it helps...

 

[dhill]

Thank you for the hint!

As it turns out, it was the heat sink. I had it mounted "backwards."

I didn't notice the copper circle on the bottom. Apparently, the copper circle's center has to make contact with the copper pad on the CPU chip in order to be happy. I wish that had been better documented somewhere.

In case anyone else has this problem... make sure you mount the heat sink with the copper circle over the center of the processor. The circle is off to one side of the heat sink, because the clip mounts on the socket are assymmetrical. On the Volcano 9 on an A7N8X, the clip with the slot for the screwdriver has to go toward the outside of the board (toward your power supply.)

This must be something really basic that I was unaware of. Unfortunately, the documentation in the Volcano 9 read like a Pokemon comic book (complete with little Anime figure.)

Thanks again for your help!


<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by dhill on 12/06/02 10:33 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[dhill]

Well, as it turns out, I now have another problem. It boots to the POST screen, reports that no floppy disk is detected, and scrambles the letters with orange and blue letters overwriting the existing ones.

I can't get it to go into the BIOS setup.

 

[halkebul]

You mean, you restart the machine and hold down the delete key and it doesn't allow you to get into the BIOS?

<i>It's your world kid!!!</i>

 

[dhill]

Yeah, it turns out that has something to do with my Geforce 4. When I put in an old Geforce 256 it works. The GeForce 4 scrambles the video.

However, just now I've noticed my processor temps rising above 70C, so I still don't have something right with the heatsink. Do I need thermal paste or a thermal pad?

 

[halkebul]

Try clearing the BIOS - involves moving the clear CMOS jumper on the motherboard from pins 1 and 2 to pins 2 and 3 and then back to pins 1 and 2 - then restart the machine. BIOS update may be in order, but unlikely. Does the GF4 graphics card work in another computer? Try artic silver III for the CPU - lowers temps. Disable floppy seek in the BIOS.

<i>It's your world kid!!!</i>

 

[dhill]

Well, I tried my Geforce 4 in a computer it used to work in, and it doesn't look good. I must have fried it trying to get the new system to work. Ugh.

I tried an older video card I have, and that works fine in both machines.

I'm going to try getting a better cooling solution tomorrow, and will buy some arctic silver. I'm still a bit confused about how to use a thermal paste with the 2700+, since the die is now on the bottom of the chip away from the heat sink.



<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by dhill on 12/07/02 01:05 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[halkebul]

Make sure you get *real* artic silver III, from newegg.com. There's some fake stuff floating around out there. And you need very little of it on your CPU. Make sure you follow the directions <A HREF="http://arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm" target="_new">here</A>.

<i>It's your world kid!!!</i>

 

[Alex11]

Be sure to CLEAR any Thermal Compound kremaining in the CPU before you use the new one!!!