1st Time Builder Needs Help

[jstijerina]

1st time builder needs help!

I am on Holiday Vacation and decided to build my own computer rather than to buy one. I am using the PC Mechanic Guidance as a guide.

I bought a EPoX motherboard EP-4G4A+ and a Penitium 4 1.8 GHz CPU. No video or sound card as the motherboard said it was "integrated". I plan to buy these later. I used an IBM 60 GB hard drive and two sticks of DDR 256 MB (32X64-266 unbuffered). I had a YAMAHA CD-RW already and a floppy.

After I put this altogehter and powered up, all the fans work, but it will not boot up to the BIOS (Award BIOS). It gives me continuous long beeps and a Siren. After reading some of the messages on this board, I think it may be related to the memory or the CPU fan, or perhaps the fact that there is no video card.

I don't want to give up just yet, and go to a local PC repair shop.Can anyone help? Thanks in advance.

[ZANEY123]

are you using the old case..from the pavillion?

[ZANEY123]

also try removing one of the sticks of ram and try it that way? try both ways. with both sticks.

is the cpu all the way in the socket?

Zaney123

[jstijerina]

No, it is a new P4 Best Vent CS-3051L-S3+LC-A350ATX. It is an ATX Tower with 350 W Power.

Regards, Jesse

[ZANEY123]

okay just wanted to make sure.

did you also get your new OS or did you get that worked out?

[reboot]

The siren is for overheating. It will also sound if you have the CPU fan in the wrong plug, and the mobo thinks there isn't one attached.
Try digging through the manual again, and if necessary, clear the CMOS and try again.

[jstijerina]

Zaney123,

I tried each of the Ram sticks in different ways and still got the same beeps. I re-checked the CPU and it looks OK.

Regards, Jesse

[ZANEY123]

how about the fan headers like reboot was saying are all the fans hooked into the correct headers?

Zaney123

[jstijerina]

Jim,

My motherboard EPoX 4G4A+ has connections for three fans. Fan1=CPU, Fan2=PW fan, Fan3=Chassis Fan. I have CPU fan connected to Fan1, but the PW fan and Chassis fans are powered directly by the power supply. Therefore the motherboard thinks that I have no fans for Power and Chassis Fans. Is this correct? Could this be causing the siren?

Also, My motherboard has jumper settings for CPU speed. 1-2: CPU Select (Default); 2-3 100 MHz; Open: 133 MHz. My CPU is a P4 1.8 MHZ (400-MHz system bus) How do I know where to set it.

Also, when I set the CMOS Clear = Clear CMOS, the computer would not even power up.

By now you probably can tell that I am a novice, so thanks for the help.

[reboot]

OK, you've cleared the CMOS. You should have read the manual, and do NOT try and start the computer with the jumper on the clear CMOS setting,...however...lets hope you didn't do permanent damage.
To set CPU speed, put the jumper on 1-2 for default.
Now I'm thinking that motherboard won't support that CPU, having no setting for a bus speed over 133mhz...anyone know more about this?

[Cricket]

Originally posted by jstijerina My motherboard EPoX 4G4A+ has connections for three fans. Fan1=CPU, Fan2=PW fan, Fan3=Chassis Fan. I have CPU fan connected to Fan1, but the PW fan and Chassis fans are powered directly by the power supply. Therefore the motherboard thinks that I have no fans for Power and Chassis Fans. Is this correct? Could this be causing the siren?

The CPU fan sounds like it's connected to the proper fan header. Don't worry about the other fans being connected directly to the power supply like that...it's actually recommended that you connect them directly to the power supply. That's not what's causing the siren.

Originally posted by jstijerina Also, My motherboard has jumper settings for CPU speed. 1-2: CPU Select (Default); 2-3 100 MHz; Open: 133 MHz. My CPU is a P4 1.8 MHZ (400-MHz system bus) How do I know where to set it.

That P4 would use the 100MHz jumper setting...but if it's on the CPU select, the motherboard should configure itself to the correct FSB speed for that CPU. But set it to the 2-3 100MHz jumper setting and see if that helps.

Originally posted by jstijerina Also, when I set the CMOS Clear = Clear CMOS, the computer would not even power up.

I hope you unplugged the power cord from the power supply or the wall outlet when you did that. With ATX systems, power is always going to the motherboard even if the system is off. If you moved the jumpers around with the system plugged in, you may have damaged something.

You would set the jumper to the CLEAR CMOS jumper setting for a few minutes with the system unplugged, return the jumper to the NORMAL jumper position, plug the system back in and then power it up.

I would remove the CPU and check the pins to see if any are bent. The P4 is sort of small and aligning the pins to the socket is a little harder than with older CPU's.

Is there a jumper somewhere on the motherboard that controls the on-board video? The beeping might be the system thinking a AGP video card is supposed to be installed and it's beeping because it isn't finding one.

Cricket

[jstijerina]

Dear All,

I went and bought some Namebrank DDR Memory (Kensington) and the long beaps and siren immediately went away. I guess the problem all along was BAD RAM.

Thanks for everyone's help. I will now venture into configuring the BIOS, which will be another first.

Regards, Jesse

[ZANEY123]

generic ram can cause those promblems.glad you got it going you can read through the articles her on pc mech about the bios

http://www.pcmech.com/show/bios/17/

and

http://www.pcmech.com/show/bios/23/

Zaney123

[minsonngo]

Actually, you have to set the cpu speed jumper to run at 133mhz. This will allow the cpu to run at its rated speed which you said was 1.8 GHz. If you set it to 100mhz jumpers the cpu will run significantly less than 1.8GHz.

[LawyerRon]

Jim, that board has the 845G chipset and will support that 1.8 P4 just fine. LEAVE THE JUMPER ON THE DEFAULT, AUTO SELECT. The bios will then detect the cpu. Also, it should not run with the jumper in the cmos clear position, put it back.

[Cricket]

Originally posted by minsonngo Actually, you have to set the cpu speed jumper to run at 133mhz. This will allow the cpu to run at its rated speed which you said was 1.8 GHz. If you set it to 100mhz jumpers the cpu will run significantly less than 1.8GHz.

jstijerina wrote "My CPU is a P4 1.8 MHZ (400-MHz system bus)"...that P4 uses the 100MHz FSB jumper setting. Setting the jumper to 133MHz FSB will overclock the CPU (and the system).

I thought the 533MHz P4's started at 2.26GHz? Those are the P4's that use the 133MHz FSB setting.

I agree with LawyerRon about leaving set to the default jumper setting...let the BIOS detect the CPU and set the proper FSB speed.

Cricket

[Tuf]

There is a little bit of overlap the 400's go up to 2.6ghz and the 533's start at 2.26ghz.

[reboot]

Cool Ron, thanks.
As everyone is in confusion about BUS speed, set the jumper to autodetect, and leave it alone.