igratton

Weird as hell.

One of my pcs is just not working anymore. Its a weird one. I first I thought the CPU (XP2600+ barton) had blown as nothing happened at bootup. The HD appears to be ok (not sure about booting) but I can read the partitions if I stick the disk in the server.

So, I got myself an nice new XP2800+ barton today and stuck it into the machine with a new CPU Cooler.

So - now when I start the machine *NOTHING* still happens. I can see its polling the IDE channels but nothing appears on the screen. I've tried the graphics card in another PC and that works fine. No pre or post beeps, nothing.

I've also tried to reset the ASUS board by removing the BIOS battery and shorting out a jumper (as per the mobo manual) without any success.

So - would I be right in thinking my mobo is fried ??? I don't have another machine to try either the 2600 or 2800 cpus

Answers on a postcard.

Ian

DominicA

try here http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15104

PS- i may be interested in taking one of the cpus off your hands... assuming you get it sorted and dont need both

DominicA

may be worth removing the board, all components and rebuilding, sometimes works...

Jye

Doesnt the Asus A7N8X have a speach post reporter, can you turn that on and try?

Are you using SATA?

Jye

Also turn off the 'no boot' low fan speed setting in the bios anol.

igratton

I will give what the link above suggests a go tomorrow.

I can't change any bios settings as the graphics card isn't waking on boot. Just left with a blank screen. Running AWDFLASH from a floppy seems like a last resort - lets hope it works - the MOBO is only 6 months old.

Its a weird on as no BIOS settings were changed - but it does sound like something has corrupted it - just as well I have another few pcs to work from.

As for the speaking post messages - there is none of that happening either.

Jye

I always keep an old pci gfx card just for probs like this. BTW I run the same mobo on one of my PC's, its has flaked out a few times as you described, could never pin it down though, as once i was working again it was stable as a rock.

P1_scooby

I've had a very similar prob to this on a couple of pc's (all using a variant of the A7N8X board - deluxe and -X versions)

Have you tried swapping the ram modules? this cured helped on one problem, and also setting the jumper fsb to the basic 100Mhz, instead of the auto/133 and above. Once your in the bios, you can update with the latest (1007) which is alot more stable.

hope this helps..

Tin

Dutch Scooby lover

iTrader: (3)

They are renown for the Die on Bios/Boot thingy.

I had 1 just like you and because i got Watercooling i went into bios to turn of the NO CPU FAN alarm, i rebooted and it didnt do a thing.
Got a mate at the compushop to get me a bios from a mb they had lying about(that was the only part working on that PC)
swapped em out and it worked again.

May be off some help may be not.

mynickers

I have the same MOBO, if there are no beeps, it's not booting at all not even in bios. Normally if there is a system problem but if can't boot, it will give you the beep signals. I had that for ages when I first put my system together. It turned out to be the ram, once I had worked out what the frigging beep codes were. All you can really do you have already done, resettig the board bios memory, then try swaping around, CPU, Graphics, and ram etc. Make sure you have the bare minimum of hardware initiall, IE no sound cards or anything else, just he basics till you get it to boot.

However, if it was a CPU, graphics or ram causing the problem you would get the beep codes (i am almost positive). If there are no beep codes, my first analysis would be there is a fault on the board. There are some good computer shops around, my local shop has a genuis working there. he cut of my arm and my leg in payment, but he used all kinds of scientific looking things and checked all the circuits on a board, and isolated exactly which ones weren't working (clever chap).

The only other thing you can do is what I normally do, is take everything apart, put it back together very carefully, sometimes I found I had mate a silly mistake, (not saying you have), but you might find somehting you've over looked for example. It's just a case of excluding all the possible causes, till you get to the last one, which may mean a new board. If you're CPU blew, it could of damaged the board.

Hope that helps,

I know what it's like building PC's, sometimes it's too easy, and sometimes it's a WORLD of pain. I am defo getting a mac when I get some money lol. Out of the box plug it in - the end.

Cheers

nick

Delboy2

I have just had a ASUS P4533T do a very similar thing, won't post at all. The cpu fan starts, the hard drive starts but **** all happens [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]


Cheers

igratton

Well I've tried re-flashing the bios using the boot disk and no video card technique and no luck - it refused to boot from the floppy drive.

The green light is on on the mobo which I assume means everything is ok - but no luck.

Any other suggestions. I'd prefere not to buy a new mobo but it looks like the only option now

Does anyone have a mobo who would be willing to hotflash my bios if I were to send it to you ???

[Edited by igratton - 12/31/2003 11:22:21 AM]

Hobbsy

Had the same thing with ASUS board although not your model. It had been RMA once and sent back as no fault for the not holding BIOS settings problems. Still doing the same thing but occasionally played up. I cured it by removing the BIOS chip and re-seating. Try this or get someone with the same board to put their chip in your system. Good luck with ASUS as I have found the support in UK not exactly great. Boards are sent away for repair and come back the same with no fault found labels stuck all over them. This has happened 4 times

mynickers

even though there is lights on the board, doesn't mean that the board doesn't have a fault, there could just be a dodgey circuit etc.

Couple of forums I used whilst I was building mine and having problems were really helpful here they are:

http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/forums/index.php

and opps I can't find the other one, but the chaps on here are all home build / case mod nuts, and sure they'll be able to give more specific help. If I was in your position I would be reaching for my credit card

RoosterRoo

I had the same problem with this board after overclocking. To solve I just took out the cmos battery and moved the jumper next to it to reset all the BIOS back to default. Put the jumper back, reinserted battery and then repowered. All then worked fine. Give it a go if you haven't allready.

Rich

Hobo_Jojo

i tried to overclock mine and it wouldnt startup at all (no hardware check or anything) just blank screen, reset the bios by changing the jumper to the clear memory ones leave for a few secs then put it back. did the trick.

mynickers

I messed around with overclocking, but eventually decided to just get a faster chip, you're always monitoring / worrying about things when you overclock. Rather not have the stress...

lightning101

When you put the motherboard in, did you make sure you only put enough brass screwholes in the case. If you put even 1 extra this shorts part of the motherboard and no boot takes place. I think it will be either this or try one piece of ram at a time in different slots alternatly

AlexM

Try the board with another PSU. I got a new 350w PSU in a case from Scan and the board did something very similar. Tried it with a known good psu and all was well.

igratton

Ok,

I'm going to try a ham fisted approach to solving this.

I'm gonna order a REV 2 ASUS mobo of the same type and a bios savior, another new case with a 400W PSU.

All being well I'll be able to backup the new bios on to the savior and boot my old mobo from it to flash the duff bios.

This means I may have a A7N8X rev 1.06 board, XP 2600+ Barton and case for sale...or I could just keep so I don't have to dual boot between XP and Fedora.

Will let you know how I get on when I've ordered the new stuff.

I think scan are the only people which sell the ASUS board and the correct bios savior...unless anyone knows different ??? Don't fancy the hotswap technique LOL.

DominicA

I'm interested in the barton if you sell....

and good luck...

DominicA

ps... i would've offered to try flashing your bios but i've only got the one pc an can't afford to risk ******* it up...

Hobo_Jojo

should i stay clear of this motherboard and get a different one? as i was considering this board for my upgrade...

igratton

I think the mobo is still one of the best socket A boards... And the nforce chipset is good too. I think MSI and a few others now have very close performance without running the nforce chipset (revised version of the via ???)

The good things for me about this board are

2 x 100mbit lan cards (hardware router anyone ???)
6 x USB sockets
highly configurable bios (but obviously mine isn't right now LOL)
Onboard raid and SATA support.

I think there is a newer version of this mobo now that offers WiFi via an add-in daughter board - could be useful for some I guess.

igratton

Well,

bit of feedback.

I ordered a brand new A7N8X Deluxe (Rev 2 - 400FSB) from ebuyer the other day. It came - its in the machine and working perfectly. So - no damage to my expensive 512meg memory sticks, processor, or graphics card. Its now running the 2800XP and no overclocking for the time being.

The company who the original board came from in April last year have told me to send it back for a replacement new board. Good service.

So, do I turn all these bits into a new PC so that I don't have to dual boot between XP and Fedora. Or do I sell em ???