Need help, Gerry are you there?

Samson

My lovely upgrade kit arrived from Komplett today:

Intel P4 2.4GHz
Abit BE7 mainboard
TwinMOS 256MB PC2700 DDR-DIMM

I promptly installed it all in my case.
I then plug it in and turn it on and nothing.
Well not quite nothing, every time I hit the power button on the front of the case the fans spin for a couple of seconds and the floppy drive light blinks.
The green LED on the mobo is on.
No beeps.
Any ideas?
My power supply is a 300watt ATX and was working fine with my Athlon1.2/A7V/PC133 RAM yesterday.

I was very careful when assembling and I am not a complete novice when it comes to putting PCs together (or upgrading).
I have checked all the obvious (CPU seated, RAM seated, graphics card seated), I even tried it without all my expansion cards (leaving graphics card in, of course).

Help!

Quigs Snr

Well if the CPU was dead the fans would keep going, LED's would be on, screen would remain blank (I have one here in front of me - not the one I bought off you yesterday though!).

If the RAM was a dud or not compatible, fans would spin, screen would stay black. You would hear beeps probably.

Nope the only time, I've ever had problems like you describe, in fact exactly as you describe was with an ECS K7VZA. Somehow, I first managed to plug the CPU fan to the wrong header and it did exactley as you outlined there, then I went ahead and somehow stuch the cpu fan backwards on the correct header. It span for a split second and then nothing. Installing the CPU fan correctly fixed it up.

Looking at the kit you gave me, I find it hard to imagine that you could have made a mistake like that though.

The_Bullman

something similar to what you discribed happened to me recently samson. It was when i got to a lan, and after I arrived home too. I couldn't figure out what the problem was. I resat the cpu, graphics card, checked the ide cables, and the rest. I finally got it going by taking out the battery(for a minute or two) and clearing the cmos.

it works after i did this. Dunno why really. (by the way does anyone know?)

Gerry

You could try clearing the cmos, abit boards are a bit fussy. Make sure you have the speaker wired up correctly, in case it is beeping. You could check that the cpu fan is in the correct header, like quigs mentioned. Abit boards used to power off if you didn't have a fan connected to fan2 header, I think they dropped this but its worth a shot. This will be in the manual anyway.
You mention that you have no expansion cards in. Try disconnecting ide drives as well. Sorry I'm not of more help, but thats all I can think of right now.

Dr. Dre

hmm OK, where does one start.
Double check the wiring from the mobo to the case, i.e reset switch, HD LED's etc... it's very easy to put one of these fellas in the wrong pins !
Next, failing that, check that the 'clear CMOS' jumper is not in the clearing position by default on that mobo, I don't know anything about that mobo unfortunately.

Bullman, whoever set your PC up on the LAN may have made an alteration to your BIOS ? Your mobo may have a network card onboard, which necessitated that ?
When you clear your CMOS it resets your BIOS to default values, multipliers, HDD detection etc...
Note however, that the default values are not generally the best for your system, I've seen a few instances where people have had their AMD XP's running at 1100mhz 'cos of the default FSB of 100mhz on their mobo, funny thing is they didn't even notice !! :rolleyes:

Samson

I have checked to make sure that the CPU fan is plugged into the correct header (fan header 3 in this case), it is.
I also tried plugging it into fan header 2, to no avail.
The fan is plugged in the right way.
I tried clearing the CMOS, both by using the onboard jumper and by removing the battery.
I disconnected HD LED, reset switch, speaker, etc. and just left the power switch connected.
Disconnected all drives.

No change in behaviour at all.
There is a red LED beside the green LED on the board (which stays on when the PSU rocker switch is in the on position), this red LED blinks on when I hit the power switch too, so again it's indicating power to the board.

Is there any chance my PSU is incompatible with the board?
There is an extra 4 pin power connecter on the board, which I can't recall seeing before. The manual specifies an ATX 2.03 PSU.
I have an Enlight 300W ATX PSU.

Any further ideas?

BigEejit

There is an extra 4 pin power connecter on the board, which I can't recall seeing before. The manual specifies an ATX 2.03 PSU.

Err .. I think you may have found the answer to your problem .... there is an extra connector coming out of the latest PSU's (square, with four pins) and this goes into the mobo .... I'm afraid you may have to chuck youre old psu and get a new one....

PS ... Does anyone know whats coming out on that connector? ... is it higher current 12V and 5V? or different voltages than come out on the ATX power connector??..

Praetorian

Try a different Ram slot with your ram.

Push down on your graphics card very firmly to make sure it is in properly (may sound obvious...but it happens all the time)

Ronan|Raven

I came across a problem very similar to this Samson yesterday on a machine I was building.The power would come on for a very brief moment and then die straight away, after much checking of the components, trying the machine with different dervices plugged in etc I chucked out the 300 w powersupply and threw in a 450 watt power supply and the machine instantly came back to life and is now running happily with all the devices connected to it.

astrofool

assemble it without the case, just video card/ram/cpu/mobo and see if it works.

Make sure the only stand offs in the case (the metal stands that you screw the motherboard into), line up with the screw holes, i've had two abit motherboards not start due to this and causing a short circuit.

Gerry

Yup, completely forgot about your psu. Most psu's sold for the last year have been p4 compatible, but for whatever reason, yours is not. You'll need a new psu with the extra 4pin connector on it ( this supplies extra power for the cpu ). Many p4 boards will boot without this connected, but I'd say yours is one that needs it to even power on.

Something you might try to make sure before buying is try a friends psu, or take in your pc to the shop where you are buying the cpu. ( Shops are more amenable to this in the morning when they are quiet ).

Samson

Originally posted by Praetorian
Try a different Ram slot with your ram.

Push down on your graphics card very firmly to make sure it is in properly (may sound obvious...but it happens all the time)

They were some of the first things I tried.

Quigs Snr

Is the PSU connector the problem ?

If so I have a P4 PSU (only a cheapie 300w), but I can send it to you if you want.

Samson

Originally posted by Quigs Snr
Is the PSU connector the problem ?

If so I have a P4 PSU (only a cheapie 300w), but I can send it to you if you want.

Thanks for the offer Quigs, but after reading the replies from BigEejit and Gerry, I almost immediately ran out and bought a new PSU which has solved my problem.
Much appreciated and it's a pity I didn't hang around in the office for another 5 minutes!

I am now typing this on my new P4.

Thanks for all the help lads!

BigEejit

ahhhhhh *warm fuzzy feeling* ... another happy camper

The_Bullman

Originally posted by Dr. Dre
Bullman, whoever set your PC up on the LAN may have made an alteration to your BIOS ? Your mobo may have a network card onboard, which necessitated that ?
When you clear your CMOS it resets your BIOS to default values, multipliers, HDD detection etc...
Note however, that the default values are not generally the best for your system, I've seen a few instances where people have had their AMD XP's running at 1100mhz 'cos of the default FSB of 100mhz on their mobo, funny thing is they didn't even notice !! :rolleyes:

There was no setting up at all really. All i did was unplug it at home. Drive to Dublin, plug it up again. and Nothing. there was no fiddling with the bios. Any ideas?

Gerry

It's happened to me before, I have an abit board of about 2 years vintage. Some boards are just very finicky about powering up after the machine has been moved around.

The_Bullman

I can only assume that must be it Gerry. Makes no sence to me though, as at the lans before that there was no problems.

ah well, hopefully i will be trading it in soon.