Having problems with a new build? Try this.

[JimB]

So, I have reset the cmos and made sure (several times) that everything is seated (memory wasn't). Still it does nothing!

[highrisemech]

Jim B.
Does the fan in the power supply spin up? If not check the switch on it make sure it is set to 110 or 115. Also if the power supply fan does not spin you may have a bad power supply, which is not uncommon if it is a cheap one. Post your result.

[JimB]

The fan does NOT spin on but then it won't until the motherboard tells it to and since it is not participating I think the Motherboard is bad.

Thanks

[highrisemech]

Very good reasoning. Are you sure you are making contact with the proper start switch leads on the motherboard. I would try this board with another power supply or take the board to a computer repair shop and have it tested. If this is a brand new motherboard and if I were a betting man my money says that power supply is bad.

[NoCloning]

I tried starting up my machine after a normal shut down the night before. Someone hit a telephone pole about 4AM and I had a tripped A/C breaker, and a burned out stove top light bulb along with a dead PC. Before all this happened I had been hard pressed to explain why my Microsoft optical USB mouse was slowing down on screen. The cursor simply wouldn't move as much anymore. I replaced the mouse with a Logitech optical USB mouse, and it worked fine. I know I had my computer maxed out with 6 additional USB ports, lazer led, and 2 CD-ROMS. Still if there was a spike in the electric line, it could've fried the motherboard regardless of load.

I have a P-4 motherboard light on between rimms, which means the board is getting power from the old PS. I bought a new PS and have installed it already since I could not get the fan to spin on the old PS. My next move is to send back the motherboard to the vendor. The biggest hassle is of course going without my PC while I try and trouble shoot it. And even if you take it to say COMPUSA or Best Buys you will be on hold for parts.

[highrisemech]

Hi Nocloning,

In my opinion the cpu and ram are probably still good the rest of the system including the drives are probably shot. The reason why I say this is because I tore down a system that was fried by a spike and then tested each part. the power supply and the drives along with the motherboard were blown out but the cpu and ram were still good. This is most likely due to the fact that the motherboard circuitry blew before reaching the cpu and ram circuits.

[raftero]

did just what hal said and it posted first time,and thanks for the tip about the little triangle i found it and like glc said put every thing on same way sure beat trial and error.

[bonzai]

What do you mean by when u say make sure the motherboard isn't being shorted out anywhere when being placed in the case? My motherboard uses studs, which are metal. And I assume that my case is metal. I screw the studs in into the case, then put the motherboard, aligning the holes with the studs, and screw em in with metal screws. Am i shorting out the motherboard like this??

[Alfie]

bonzai,
The metal studs are aligned with specific holes in the motherboard,these act as grounding posts for the motherboard.
A motherboard will short when the circuit connections(solder points,etc.) make contact with the case.
The standoffs serve the purpose of keeping the motherboards circuitry from making contact with the case.

[Theed]

System Specs:
1ghz AMD athlon k7
Soyo k7VIA mobo
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz - sound
Diamond Viper 200D - video
supramax 56k modem
linksys 10/100 ethernet
16x toshiba dvd
3.5" floppy

Problem:
I was away from my computer and when I returned it was turned off. Each time I attempted to turn it on I recieved no response. At first I thought it was the chip and/or mother board that had been fried on me. I sent both back to the manufacturers and both companies said both products were working fine. I then realized how stupid this was and I simply tried a new power supply... problem solved. Well, after a few minutes of this computer working it simply just craps out. What I mean by this is that it can freeze while booting into windows (yes it's win98se box, my gaming machine). Or it can also do it while in windows, or just after it cleared the bios. It usually takes longer for it to occur after the computer has been off for awhile shorter if it's been on. I have no possible idea to the cause of this. Basically the ONLY thing that has changed is the power supply and now it doesn't work. There isn't a problem with this power supply because it's a 250 watt atx ps that I transplanted from a p2 233 of the exact same wattage and both are atx, so I do not believe it to be a ps problem.

Also, I do not believe it to be a conflict between windows or the hardware because I have never updated any drivers or versions of windows in the 8 months this computer ran flawlessly.

[HAL9000]

The power supply could still potentially be a problem. The AMD chips are fussy about power supplies and I would recommend a quality 300w instead of the 250. While the old one may have been a 250, it may have been of better quality and met the power demands of your system. This is all of course assuming that nothing else has changed in your system (hardware or drivers).

[Theed]

Yep, I noticed earlier today in retardation, that tigerdirect, whom i bought the barebone from slipped in a 300W ps of the same company instead of the 250W they wrote down on the invoice... I just never bothered to look... so I'm going tomorrow and throwing down as much money that is required to buy a 300W or higher... I'm just mad and happy at the same thing that I found this out... thanks for the help though.

*walks off a cliff in stupidity*

[Alfie]

It's not the 300watt that counts,but rather the quality of the power supply,make sure you get a good one.
Antec,Sparkle,highpower,etc.

[Theed]

Grrrrr.... After waiting 2 weeks for my power supply to come in with high expectations they were immediately shot down when after about 10 minutes the problem repeated itself.

The only possibilities I see are that there could be a problem with the motherboard, cpu, or hdd (this is highly unlikely because when I put another hdd into this computer I get similar errors).

So.... that leaves me with the mobo or cpu and quite frankly if it is either of these I am going to go nuts. Why? do you ask. Because about 7 months ago I sent both back because I thought the problem was with them, to their manufactuers, and both replied they are working 100%.

Anyone have any NEW suggestions?

[highrisemech]

Theed,
Obviously you have an intermitant problem which needs to be isolated. Now that you changed out the power supply and your 100% sure this is good, we can eliminat this as a problem. Also you said you sent the cpu and motherboard back and as well you were subsequently told these were good.

Well lets look at the vaiables here.
Where is the board mounted? Are you sure it is not shorting to the case? Is the fan turning on the cpu? Have you tried another stick of known good ram in bank#1? Either way you have to go through the basic process of elimination until you zero in on the culprit. Me I try everthing that is known good on the board until I finally blame the board.

[Theed]

Originally posted by highrisemech Well lets look at the vaiables here. Where is the board mounted? Are you sure it is not shorting to the case? Is the fan turning on the cpu? Have you tried another stick of known good ram in bank#1? Either way you have to go through the basic process of elimination until you zero in on the culprit. Me I try everthing that is known good on the board until I finally blame the board.

I reseated the board in another case today with 4 risers and each screw has 3 washers on it so I do not believe anything could be shorting out, I did check the back to make sure and I cannot find anything touching.

Yes, the fan on the cpu as well as the case fans are turning. And if it makes a difference all led's light up; power, reset, hdd.

And, yes I did just try all ram slots with a ram stick I am sure is good and I still recieved the same similar errors.

[highrisemech]

Post a thread with the exact errors and problems you are having so that we can better zone in on your particular problem. I have a few ideas floating in my head but I think you would be better served posting a seperate thread so that we can get responces from the other members as well.

[Theed]

I moved it to here (clicky)

[wilcopshot]

Just a minor point..Its always a good idea to putt a folded up piece of normal paper or some other non conducting surface under the MOBO when installing ram. A friend of mine split about 2 inches of the copper tracks on the MOBO trying to push the RAM in and beding the MOBO

[glc]

That's why we recommend installing your ram with the motherboard out of the case on the table.

[Goog]

Thanks to everyone for all their help in this post! It's really awesome...

I followed the instructions and my computer just turns on, then the motherboard gives a loud, pretty long beep and turns off. That's it. It was doing pretty much the same thing for me in the case as well.

It's a 1.2 Duron with a asus a7v mobo.

[Alfie]

Either mobo is bad or cpu is bad,double check all jumper settings,etc.
Pull the memory and see if the motherboard beeps.

[Kil]

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.p...787#post255787


please help me

[Downtown99]

Well I've already tried most everything you have listed here.

Unfortunately I can't take the motherboard out of the case, since it is a Dual-XEON system (P4 and XEON Cpu's have a mounting bracket which, unfortunately, has to be mounted to the case).

I did remove the system board to check to make sure it wasn't being shorted somewhere, however I have the board mounted exactly as specified in the MB mounting documentation.

And as I mentioned earlier, I've pulled the CPUs and remounted them; I've tried booting the system with just one CPU, and also tried rotating out all of the memory.

One thing I have noticed is that there is a discrepancy in the documentation in reference to the memory type this system board takes - On Intel's online support documentation and system specifications, it says that this system board supports DDR200/266 ECC Registered 2.5V memory. However the Quick Start Guide which accompanied the system board indicates that this system board uses 3.3V DDR200 memory. Which one is right ? Anyone know ?

No matter what I do, when I power on the system, only the CPU fans come on, the keyboard lights blink, and that's it. No POST codes, no nothing.

The video is integrated (its going to be a web server anyway, so it doesn't matter), and there are no other cards installed in the machine. The power supply is a 470W Intel-certified PS. I've checked and rechecked all connections and configuration. Even as a last resort I reset the system CMOS hoping that maybe it had a bogus configuration.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Grakmor]

Hey,

I'm in serious problems. I've started up my new built and it gives 1 long beep and 2 short ones. I've looked this up in the beep code page of pcmech, but there were only other codes. Can someone help me? Is it my brand new DDR Ram?

Thanx,

Grakmor alias Bart Jacobs

[Grakmor]

Btw,

The Mobo is a Soltek - SL75DRV5.

[highrisemech]

Grakmor

You have the Award Bios---

1 Long, 2 Short indicates a problem with the video card or the memory on it , I suggest reseating your video card. Make sure it is fully seated.

[Grakmor]

Hey Highrisemech, you're right about it. If I replace my newer videocard (3D Prophet 4000XT 64MB TV-OUT) by a very old model (S3 Virge PCI) then it does work, but if I change them back the problem repeats itself. How come? Btw, thanx for detecting the problem, nice job.

Grakmor

[Grakmor]

Btw, the Prophet does work, cuz I tested it on another computer.

[glc]

Grakmor: Let's be mindful about double posting and posting to the appropriate forum, please. I moved your duplicate post out to the Hardware forum, which is more appropriate for starting a thread on a specific problem such as this. Let's continue the discussion on your issue out there!