HELP !!! putting new PC together

ThreadKiller

Hey Guys !

I recently bought the following:

Creative 3DBlaster GeForce4 MX440 64MB AGP, DDRAM, TV-Out, Retail
Abit KR7A Main board Socket A (DDR) VIAKT266A, ATA/100, ATX 266MHz FSB
AMD Athlon XP1800+ 1.53 GHz 266 MHz bus Socket A (Palomino) prosessor
GlobalWin CPU-Fan Socket A/7/370/FCPGA WBK68, Max 1,5GHz and for AMD XP1800+
DDR-DIMM PC2100 512MB DDR CL2.5 Generic Memory 184-P (for DDR-PC266mhz)
IBM Deskstar 80GB IDE 7200RPM ATA/100 Hard Driv 120GXP /IC35L080AVVA07

Addittional components are another IBM Hard Disk, a Soundblaster live, a CD player & CD writer.

I have completed assembling the equipment which is sitting in a server case with extra fans & a 300W PSU, when I try to boot, I get no display (the card works in another system), the floppy does not kick, the hard drives spin up, I get brief keyboard lights then nothing.

I've been assembling systems for nearly four years now & have never encountered this problem before. I've searched the manufacturer's websites but they report nothing like this. I've tried every possible combination of having components attached/detached at this stage & it's getting a little frustrating.

Anyone have any ideas at all ???

Alk3

Seens as you don't even get a POST screen, I am guessing faulty ram. And seens as you are using generic ram this wouldn't be all too surprising. Oh, and I would strongly advise you to return any and all IBM hard drives as soon as you can because the last few batches have been, for want of a better word, useless. If it still works by christmas you'll be lucky.

po0k

Could just be that the board is touching off the tray in the case and shorting it out.
Remove the board from the case, place on a wooden board and assemle again with just CPU, graphics, Ram and power attached, see if it POSTS.
If it doesn't then I imagine either the board itself, the CPU or the ram is faulty.
Plug in the PC speaker and listen for any beeps, though that mobo probably has a few LEDs to idicate probs. Look at the manufacuter's website for the codes.

po0k

it was the 60 or 75GXPs which were faulty. The controller chp in them overheated. They just need a heatsink and they're ok.
Afaik the new 120GXPs are TEH WIN.
Gerry?

Saruman

before you start looking at the ram.. make sure its not the mobo or cpu.. IF you have another cpu all the better... take OUT the ram and see if you get beeps.. doe the same with the video card.. basic troubleshooting here... if the mobo and cpu ARE working you will get beeps (assuming your speaker is plugged in and/or you have one on the mobo itself.. depends..) anyway basic stuf.. oh and make sure you have a 300watt psu... a 200watt wont power the mobo so you will have the problem you described.. if you have an aulminium case i assume you got a 300watt with it!

thats about it... oh make sure your cmos clear jumper has not been set to recovery as that will also turn off display.

As for your floppy.. does the floppy light stay on? if so the cable is the wrong way around!

ThreadKiller

Thanks for the tips guys. Tried every possible combination both in & out of the case, nothing, nada, zilch. Get fans on mobo but no speaker on mobo so no beeps (obviously enough), gonna try changing the mobo & processor with komplett which means yet another week

alb

I've been having almost the exact same problem Keyboard lights light up and stay lit i get nothing on the monitor and no system beep.

After unplugging all drives and trying different RAM i figured it was either the mobo or CPU and with no way of testing i chanced it and bought a new mobo, but had teh exact same problem again, new CPU arrived yesterday i've yet to try that

I now have duplicates of many parts *sigh*

BKtje

if you bought mobo+cpu new and from same place i wouda sent em both back and let them figure out which it was.

A bit late now i know but maybe there will be a newxt time

Gerry

Cpu's don't arrive dead, they have to be killed. Since you have replaced the mobo, something is up with your setup. Run the motherboard on top of its box or some other none metallic surface. It is far more likely that you got dud ram than a dud cpu.

Alk, do you have reliability data for the 120GXP? Please do not engage in scaremongering and FUD. All signs point to the 120GXP being an extremely fast drive, I don't know why you are presuming that it will not be reliable. 2 bad eggs does not a bad basket make.

Alk3

Gerry, IBM (eventually) admitted that pretty much every GXP Deskstar produced between Feb 2001 and October 2001 had a 1 in 1,000,000 chance of lasting a year -- I'll try and find the offical press release a.s.a.p.

alb

CPU and mobo were bought last year but never even taken out of the box till now, so the warentee's were up

Also I've tried two different sets of RAM so thats why I didn't think that was it.... I guess there's a small possibility both were bad All will be revelaed tomorrow evening

Lump

I had the same problem with a Abit KT7A board, turned out the the dimms were fried, I have to send the board back to america.



John

alb

Ok now i'm really pissed off, I changed the CPU and tried booting with no drive connected and just a graphics card in. STILL NO BEEP! grrrr

I have now replaced every part, I guess its possible both RAM chips i tried were incorrect or sth, but i'm fairly sure the one i bought is correct. Anyway teh RAM LEd is lighting green on the motherboard. this indicates its ok?

My power supply is only 250 Watts but this should still be enough to boot yes?

grrr i'm extremely pissed off about all this now, anyone please have any more possible solutions?

sisob

sisob's guide to pc troubleshooting

Step 1
Take the mother board out of the case.

• Put it on a wooden table.
• Add cpu - make sure it is clocked correctly - it it isnt you wont get any video signal.
• Add RAM - if the ram works in pair make sure you have 2 matching sticks - make sure that the board is configured for the ram you are using.
• Add video card - ideally one that has been tested in another machine
• Connect to a power supply

If it doesn't work then try swapping ram/cpu/power/video card/mobo with ones you know work, but it is much more likely that one of your jumpers is set wrong that a faulty piece of hw.

Step 2
If it works then one by one add your hard-drive, floppy, etc... booting to the bios after each component.

I've broken and fixed a lot of pcs in my time - i'd like to think i've learned somthing from it all

MisterMack

It IS jumper settings......... you have to set it to be the right bus speed........ clock speed etc. there might even be a jumper for your AGPx4, i know this is what the rest said, but break it down to the very basic............. btw, your cpu is good if you get a flash on the k/b........... try a bog standard pci graphics card............ and make sure you have your ram in the appropriate slots.......... ie, dimm1,2,3,4 should have them in order, if you use 3 and 4 it might not work. and hook up all the LED's that are on the case, and also try it with the no led's and jump it with a skrew driver.

btw dude........ try callin up about the warranty, i think some chips have 3 years, and also, you can throw out some bs, if your within 2 months they have to let it slide (normally)

bkehoe

250W is a very low rated psu though. If its not producing enough power, you will get cold boot problems. 300 is the lowest recommended for athlon systems; I usually use 400+W in the systems I build.

On the KR7A, I found it very hard to get the dimms to sit in fully; check that they definatly are fully locked in. Also, do you have a fan connected to the CPUFan header on the motherboard; some Abit boards won't boot if they think the cpu's fan is dead.

Do you have a card other than the GF4 to try?

Brendan

Gerry

Good point on the dimms, I have heard that as well. They need a lot of force to seat fully.

250W is plenty to get a post, I've run many athlon systems on testbeds with 235w psu's. Unless of course the psu is faulty..

alb

YES!! finally got my problem sorted anyway. It would appear it was the graphics card. Despite working fine in my old computer, when in the new one it was preventing it from beeping/booting. I took it out and tried booting with just ram and processor on the board and it beeped alright, so i put in a new g-card and now its all ok. pretty weird. The old card is now in my old machien and working correctly there. I think it might have not been fitting into the slot on the new mobo correctly, anyone else ever have a problem like this?