Not Starting Up!

[neo1716 0]

Last night i tried to install a Asus 7X8N-E Deluxe motherboard on my pc. My specs before i tried to put in the new motherboard are:

 

Athlon xp2600+

Thermaltake Silentpurepower 480w

Some old motherboard i havent got the name of right now.

Radeon 9800pro 128mb

Crucial 512mbx2 PC2100 Ram

Fast Ethernet Lan Adapter

80gb Maxtor IDE Hard drive

CD rom

DVD rom

 

Now i took out of the case all these items and started from scratch and put in the Asus motherboard and inserted all the components onto it (Ram, CPU, cpu cooler etc). Made sure everything was plugged in right and turned it on. The result is a blank screen which usually the light turns green on turning on. And also it made one weird beep like its trying to tell me something although i didnt install a speaker ( i dont knwo if this affects anything).

 

Things ive tried:

 

Replacing the Radeon 9800pro with an older working Radeon 7500LE 64mb card - nothing happend, exactly the same.

 

Taking out current memory and putting in a lower single 256mb Crucuial PC2100 which worked on my other PC - exactly the same result.

 

Disconnecting all devices (e.g CDrom, DVDrom, PCI card) apart from video card, hard drive and Ram - Still nothing.

 

Now a few things that could be the problem that i dont want to try yet incase it isnt that much of a problem:

 

During the handling of the AthlonXP2600+ when i tried to take it out of the old one, one of the "pins" were very slightly bend a bit. So i bend it back with a tweezers (i know very clever) to the right position and it fitted nicely. I dont know if this may cause a blank screen unable to boot up?

 

Also another thing i didnt do is Wipe the hard drive from the previous installation of the motherboard. Would this stop it from displaying anything?

 

I really hope someone would help me and solve this problem i have. Im kinda desperate to get my PC working and i hope i havent damaged anything. Thanks for reading this!

[ScinteX 0]

hi,

This sounds familiar (i think most of us have been here when building a system!)

It looks like you have done all of the right things. Also I'd add that the power supply *should* be ok since I use the same one on my machine.....so its got enough grunt

 

I think we are left with 2 possibilities plus an idea I have.

 

1- CPU is actually dead cos of the pin (i doubt it though as long as you didnt actually snap the pin)

2- Motherboard is defective

 

Then my idea:

 

On the ASUS site it appears to be quite specific about memory in this board. It states preferred vendors and that PC3200(DDR400) is used. Maybe it is a bit unhappy with your RAM.

 

The system speaker is really really useful since you get warnings regarding video, ram and CPU.

 

To summarise:

 

I'd connect a speaker to see what it says then go from there.

Maybe you could test your CPU in your old board.

Might need some DDR400 RAM, one of these should do here and scroll down to "A7N8X-E Deluxe DDR400 Qualified Vendor List"

 

However to save you buying DDR400, if the board doesnt speak I'd send it back

----

Scin

[neo1716 0]

Thanks for the reply

 

I forgot to mention i did actually give up on the Asus board and put in my old motherboard back in and everything back to as it was. I turned the pc on and it isnt starting up atall. So its definetely me doing something wrong here! I did double check to see if everything is fitted correctly.

 

I guess i should try and connect the speaker but i dont know what the beeps mean. It does actually make a 1 beep noise somehow even though i havent attached one.

[AndyFair 0]

I don't think it'll be the RAM, most motherboards will be OK if you put slower memory in them, it just means that the system won't run as fast as it could.

 

When you press the power button, can you hear the hard drives spin up? If so, it's unlikely to be the PSU.

 

It's likely, then, that the processor is fubar. Do you have another processor that you could try?

 

As far as hearing a beep goes, do you have speakers plugged into the connectors at the back? Some modern motherboards use these connections for diagnostic beeps, rather then rely on a system speaker. Your motherboard manual should be able to tell you what the beeps mean.

 

Rgds

AndyF

[neo1716 0]

Yes i can hear the hard drives...and its cooler. I know power is going through the motherboard because the green light on it is on.

 

I dont actually have another processor so ill have to buy another one but i want to make sure incase it isnt the processor if anyone has any other suggestions.

 

I dont have a speaker connected atall but when i turn the computer on, a beep does sound. It must be a built in speaker in the motherboard, also, when i switch the pc off the beep goes again from a high pitch to a low pitch noise.

[AndyFair 0]

I've never heard of a motherboard with a built in speaker before...? Curious. Can't find anything on the Asus website that mentions an onboard speaker, either.

 

The fact that the system beeps when you turn power off too suggests that something is majorly fubar'ed - could be the motherboard as well.

 

Just one thought: the heatsink was installed correctly wasn't it? There aren't any scorch marks on the CPU?

 

I would suggest that you take the motherboard and processor back to the store where you bought the mobo, see if they can test it. If the motherboard is faulty, it could have been that it fried the processor too - could be worth a try!

 

Still trying to help

Rgds

AndyF

[neo1716 0]

Oh sorry i didnt explain properly... I gave up on the Asus board and tried going back to my old motherboard which had a built in speaker. So im using my old motherboard until i get it working again.

 

Hmm the CPU doesnt seem to have any scorch marks on it but i noticed when i took the heatsink off the cpu wasnn't positioned *exactly* right. On one corner it was a bit lifted but i fitted it right.

[AndyFair 0]

Then, if the old motherboard was working before you swapped, then it looks like the CPU is toast.

 

Sorry

AndyF

[teqguy 0]

That board only supports 1.5v AGP cards (AGP 3.0 rev)... meaning it isn't backwards compatable with AGP 2x/4x.

 

If your 9800 doesn't support AGP 8x, then your AGP slot is supplying 1.8v less than it needs to be to power the card.

The same applies to a 7500.

 

In some circumstances, undervoltage is just as volatile as doubling an overvoltage, so it is possible that you damaged your motherboard. ::hugs P4 motherboard's seperate AGP rail::

 

Was that 7500 an AGP or PCI board? Because if you haven't tried a PCI video card, I'd shoot for that before anything else.

[neo1716 0]

Are you saying that an old Radeon 7500 doesnt work on a brand new Asus A7N8X-e Deluxe motherboard? The Radeon 9800pro does support 8x AGP, isnt it the default?

 

ok I have today borrowed a new processor off a friend (Athlon 2800XP 333fsb) to test it after taking AndyFair's advice. Thanks for your suggestions by the way. Im hoping this will prove my CPU is burned because atleast ill know whats wrong. Ill test it tonight. If not i havent got a clue what to do.