First build woes

[Lagrange]

I have an ALLEO C300ATX power supply, TYAN S2668 motherboard, Nvidia Geforce FX5500 video card, WD 800 HDD, HP 1040 optical drive.
These items are all used, but worked in their perspective units when removed.
When I power on the unit, I get a long beep followed by two quick beeps - a breif pause and then two more beeps.
My monitor displays nothing. I have checked and rechecked everything I can think of and still get the same results time after time.
Can anyone help?

[jdeb]

that is not a supported video card for that board...

http://www.tyan.com/archive/products...7505_spec.html

what is your cpu (s) model number or type I assume you have 2 xeons but are they 400fsb or 533fsb?
what is the installed memory, you have to have at least 2 sticks 4gb max

a xeon cpu with a 400 front side bus will support ddr200 (pc1600) and ddr266(pc2100).

a xeon cpu with a 533 fsb will only support ddr266(pc2100) memory

tyan makes a great board but they are very finicky with their memory.

[Lagrange]

They are 400fsb Xeon's
I am looking into the video card to see if I have one that is listed.

I appreciate the help.

[glc]

The board *SHOULD* support any 4x/8x AGP video card or any legacy PCI video card. I suspect memory incompatibility, unless you are using memory that previously worked in that board.

[jdeb]

that board takes a 1.5 V agp card and I thought it should work and I was surprised that it was not on the list. I could be wrong but I have seen certain agp cards not work on boards like that. If is a 1.5v card it should work, If they have a spare agp card in the list, it would be wise to check and rule that out.

I suspect memory as well since they didn't list it in the post, that's why I listed that. I have always used samsung memory from geeks.com for that board. I think I used PQI once as well from new egg

geeks pc2100
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?inv...00-SAM&cat=RAM

new egg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820141218

[glc]

The FX5500 AGP is a 4x/8x card. It will run at 1.5 or 0.8 volts. The slot is keyed, as is the card - if it will fit in the slot, it *should* work.

[jdeb]

Originally Posted by glc The FX5500 AGP is a 4x/8x card. It will run at 1.5 or 0.8 volts. The slot is keyed, as is the card - if it will fit in the slot, it *should* work.

right, maybe it wasn't available at the time testing...

[Lagrange]

Hey guys, thanks for the help so far. I still havent resolved the video card issue yet. I dont have one that is on the list of compatible cards.
On the issue of memory... I am using two sticks of Micron MT16VDDT6464AG-265G4 512MB DDR 266 PC2100 CL2.5 in the DIMM1 & DIMM2 slots. I believe this board will support 4Gg total. This memory was on the board and working when the board was removed.
I think the issue may be in the video card as was mentioned before.

I am going to order a couple of memory sticks 1Gig each and a new video card from the list and see if that helps.

Any additional thoughts on the subject would be greatly appreciated...and anticipated.

You guys are great on this site.

[glc]

Instead of ordering a new video card, see if you can find an old legacy PCI card for testing.

[Lagrange]

Well as you know this is my first attempt to put one of these together. I am beginning to feel a little bit frustrated. I tried clearing the CMOS, I preplaced the battery in the board and I put in a Radeon 9600 Pro video card and still I get nothing.
The machine fires up, all the lights come on, the fans run, and in general it should run. But my screen remains blank.

I havent replaced the memory yet. I have been thinking about doing that next but I dont know if it will do any good. I hate to throw good money at a loosing proposition.

Taking the machine in to the repair shop would make me feel like a failure and defeat the purpose of this project.

...anyone have any ideas or suggestions? How about some encouraging words?
Or should I just go back to the couch and let the big boys handle the rough stuff?

[jdeb]

all you can do is swap parts, if you can get your hands on some spare parts you can isolate it.

[glc]

PROBLEMS with a NEW BUILD? Try This!!

[Lagrange]

Okay sports fans, I finally got it running.
I changed out the memory and everything runs fine. In fact, I am posting this using my new build.
I was wondering, the cpu fans are running real fast and making a lot of noise. I was wondering if there is a way of altering the fan speed or monitoring the speed. Or can anyone suggest a quiet fan to replace the ones I have?

[glc]

Welcome to the hassles of running a server motherboard and processors. It's going to be noisy.

[jdeb]

Originally Posted by Lagrange Hey guys, thanks for the help so far. I still havent resolved the video card issue yet. I dont have one that is on the list of compatible cards. On the issue of memory... I am using two sticks of Micron MT16VDDT6464AG-265G4 512MB DDR 266 PC2100 CL2.5 in the DIMM1 & DIMM2 slots. I believe this board will support 4Gg total. This memory was on the board and working when the board was removed. I think the issue may be in the video card as was mentioned before. I am going to order a couple of memory sticks 1Gig each and a new video card from the list and see if that helps. Any additional thoughts on the subject would be greatly appreciated...and anticipated. You guys are great on this site.

Nice Job! I knew you could do it... glc is right, those puppies can be noisy. but here is a link I learned from glc, a good resource.. I have ordered a lot from them (lately) and they have been great

http://www.starmicro.net/detail.aspx?ID=412... I am not sure if they will be any quieter.

here are a couple from geeks but they are out of stock. the first one, I have used and it was better in terms of noise

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?inv...042-CU&cat=FAN

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?inv...-7H51C&cat=CPU

[Lagrange]

You have my heart felt thanks.
I felt like Dr. Fankemstien when it came to life.
This could be addictive.
Do you suppose the government has a program to support geek addictions?