Daaaamm Computer Doesn't Work :( :( :(

[NewGuy]

this suckss.... i finished building the new computer.... but when i connected the monitor, keyboard, mouse, NOTHING showed up on the screen :bawling:
The only thing that worked was this LED on the mobo, a few case lights, and the fans. THATS IT!! The keyboard and mouse lights didn't even turn on! I think i heard a few beeps...but then after i tried to find what the problem was, and and then the beeps didn't even work!

I took out the vid card and put it back in...no luck

I tried putting the hard drive jumper in all positions, still nothing :(

The ram looks stable. and i know i put the cpu in correctly.

I put a dvd burner and a dvd rom...but if i messed up with the master/slave things it shouldn't stop anything from showing on the screen right?

I didn't touch any jumber cables on the mobo like the CLRTC (Clear RTC) jumpers

i put the ram in the third slot (B1) cuz the guide says to put it there... and the vid card is in the top pci express slot

I haven't connected the tiny fan cable from the pwersupply to the motherboard, cuz i dont think im supposed to ... im assuming the fan pins on the motherboard are for the smaller fans.

Can anyone please help me out?? :eek3: I had a feeling this wasn't going to work :(

[edcentric]

OK, let's start over.
What is your hardware? Give us a list.
Now, dismantle the entire thing. Take the mobo out of the case.
Read the manual. You may need the fan connected.
PSU, mobo, CPU, cooler, one stick of memory and video card are all you need to see if you get a boot.
Before you plug it in make sure that you clear the bios and return the jumper to the correct position.

[NewGuy]

Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
AMD athlon 3200+
XFX 6800GS 256M
OCZ 1024MB DDR Ram
Western Digital 200GB
Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550W

Ok i will dismantle everything, and only install the necessary parts. Are u sure we dont need a hard drive?

What do u mean by clear the bios and return the jumper to the correct position?

Was i supposed to do this before too?

[Armo]

somewhere real close to the CMOS battery ( looks like a large watch battery ) is a jumpter, if you set it to the opposite postion, by moving it over 1 pin, and start the machine, it will clear the CMOS. when you power it on with the jumper switched it shouldnt display anything on the screen, let it run like that for a few seconds and then set the jumper back to the way it was before.

the HDD is just a storage unit. you dont need it for this level of troubleshooting, theres somthing hardware related going on.

one thing to make sure the CPU/MOBO are correctly running is to take all of the memory out as well as the video cards, with only the CPU/and the mobo powered when you turn it on, you should get bios beep codes comming from the speaker telling you that you dont have any ram installed, if it dosnt make a noise, and the speaker is hooked up forrectly, you have effectivly narrowed your search for the bad parts.

[NewGuy]

nice reply... i will try that cpu/motherboard trick.

about the jumper...should i let it run for a few seconds, turn the machine off, and then switch it back to default postion? or switch it to default postion while the machine is on?

do i have to do that if i only have cpu and motherboard installed?

thanks

[Armo]

turn it off before switching any jumpers, its worth a shot with just the CPU and motherboard, what restting the jumpers does is puts the motherboard back into setup defualts. it will run at the most supportive modes. with the most basic ( not fastest ) settings.

[jradmin]

Also, try putting the RAM in slot #1. ASUS has some issues with OCZ RAM that I've learned dealing with my own machine, and some times you have to throw the manual out the window.

[NewGuy]

It still doesn't work :(

i tried everything....nothing worked

i didn't even hear any beeps with only the motherboard and cpu connected.

I tried connecting only the psu, mobo, video card and ram, but there wasn't anything from the monitor

I dont think any of the I/O slots work... because the keyboard lights didn't even flash like they always do. there wasn't any reaction from the monitor or mouse.

I did the jumper thing too... what can be the problem??

i tried connecting the ram to slot 1 also... nothing worked :banghead:

i am losing hope... :sad2:

[hypermood]

Can you hear the PSU fans running? Double check to make sure the power switch connector is plugged into the right pins.

[profdlp]

Have you plugged in the four-pin auxiliary power connector?

[Armo]

most of the time, if you power the machine on with JUST the motherboard and CPU installed that means one of them is bad,

but like prof said make sure all of the auxilary power connections are made to the board, also that the PSU you are using has a 24 main power plug and not just a 20, or that you have some kind of 20-24 pin adapter, the motheboard will not work with a 20 pin power connector.

theres also a small square power connecter that has 2 yellow and 2 black wires going to it, this provides the board with more +5V. also some where near one of the PCI-E slots is a 4 pin molex connector, its not mandatory but hooking power to this couldnt hurt.

can you tell i have the same board :)

[jradmin]

Don't use the EZ Plug power connecting on that MOBO unless you are using 2 vid cards in SLI. Thats just a lttle factoid for ya. You should only be using the 24 pin power connection and the 4 pin square aux power connection. I've heard of some rare issues with people using it any not needing it. Also, take a look at the LED on your MOBO and see if you have a red one lit up anwhere.

Have you mearsured the rails on your PSU yet? Check those to see if your voltage is correct.

[Leonardo]

I want to make sure that you performed the BIOS reset with the CMOS jumper correctly. I am adding a step that wasn't put up here before:

- turn off the computer
- turn off the power supply unit or unplug it
- move the CMOS jumper to the lower two pins and wait thirty seconds
- return the CMOS jumper to the upper two pins
- plug in the power supply/turn on the power supply
- turn on the computer

Please ensure you have taken those steps exactly.

What happens now? PSU fans spin? Motherboard LED light on? Any beeps? Do any other fans spin?

If there is still a problem, recheck the front panel motherboard connectors. I'm talking about the little connectors that attach to the pins at the bottom right side of the motherboard: speaker, reset, power switch, rest, HDD LED, and power LED. If those are not correctly positioned, your board might now power on. Try connecting only the power switch ("pwr sw"). Does it work now?

[NewGuy]

When i first posted this thread, i didn't have the square 4-pin power connected, then after i read the manual and i found out i forgot to connect it, and i was soo confident that was the problem. But turned out it wasn't.

The auxilary power is the 12V square one right?

in the psu manual it says: "it has a 24-and-20-pin Main Power Connector"
but i only see one big power connector...? I guess i will have to count the pins to see how many there are on it

I will also try disconnecting the EZ power and ill double chek all the power switch and led pins.

do the speaker pins have to be in the right direction? for example, in the mobo manual it says connect it this way:

+5V - Ground - Ground - Speaker

but is it ok if i connect it: Speaker - Ground - Ground - +5 ?
i will switch them to make sure.

Also, with the motherboard/cpu beep trick, were u talking about the speakers that i connect from inside the mobo with the tiny pins, or the ones i connect from the outside (in the I/O slots) ?

thanks for all your help guys!!

[Leonardo]

The square, 4-pin connector MUST be connected.

The rectangular (Molex) 4-pin connector is optional unless you are running dual video cards.

The main (ATX) 20/24 pin connector on the motherboard MUST be connected. Does the plug from the power supply fill the whole ATX motherboard socket? If it does, you are OK. The "24-and-20-pin Main Power Connector" is the plug that fits in the ATX slot on the motherboard. That plug is configured with an end piece that snaps away (not off completely, just separates) to allow to use the plug for motherboards with only a 20-pin ATX slot.

Concerning the speaker connector:
All Asus boards I've built with have the connectors' white lettering facing up, towards the top of the motherboard. You shouldn't have to note which pins are positive or ground. (Abit is another story - sheesh! Sometimes you have to do the exact opposite of the Abit board manuals instruct!)

Also, with the motherboard/cpu beep trick, were u talking about the speakers that i connect from inside the mobo with the tiny pins, or the ones i connect from the outside (in the I/O slots) ?The beeps I'm referring to should emanate from the small speaker integral to the case (sometimes in the face plate/bezel). That speaker is powered by the small connector affixed to the tiny pins at the bottom of the motherboard.

[NewGuy]

wait, i only know speaker connectors that are at the bottom of the mobo, which speaker connecters are at the top?

[Leonardo]

You should not be attempting auxilliary speakers at this time. That should be one of the last things you do, after your computer is booted into windows and running well. The ONLY speaker you should be concerned with right now is the tiny case speaker (inside the case somewhere) that provides beep codes for diagnostic purposes. That speaker is connected via a single single, very small black connector that you affix to pins on the motherboard.

BTW, did you perform the CMOS reset exactly as prescribed in my post above. I'm not ragging on you. We want to help you. It's just that we'll never get through this troubleshooting if we can't confirm the steps taken, one at a time.

[NewGuy]

I want to make sure that you performed the BIOS reset with the CMOS jumper correctly. I am adding a step that wasn't put up here before:

- turn off the computer
- turn off the power supply unit or unplug it
- move the CMOS jumper to the lower two pins and wait thirty seconds
- return the CMOS jumper to the upper two pins
- plug in the power supply/turn on the power supply
- turn on the computer

Please ensure you have taken those steps exactly.

What happens now? PSU fans spin? Motherboard LED light on? Any beeps? Do any other fans spin?

If there is still a problem, recheck the front panel motherboard connectors. I'm talking about the little connectors that attach to the pins at the bottom right side of the motherboard: speaker, reset, power switch, rest, HDD LED, and power LED. If those are not correctly positioned, your board might now power on. Try connecting only the power switch ("pwr sw"). Does it work now?

I did that... with the vid card and ram...and without it

with the video card and ram... the psu, cpu, and vid card fans started spinning and the green light on the mobo was on, no sound

without vid card and ram (only cpu and mobo) .... same thing.... cpu, and psu fans started spinning, with the green light always on, no sound

i performed the CMOS procedure exactly for both (with and without ram&card) as listed above, except i might have waited longer than 30 seconds

I also unhooked all of the speaker, reset,ide, and pled pins... so that only the power switch was hooked, but i got the same results: spinning fans with no other activity

[NewGuy]

I jus want to note...

u know those two steel "pins" touching the side of the CMOS battery.... well, yesterday in the manual it said to clear the CMOS thing by first removing the battery. I didn't know how to remove the batter, so i tried pulling on the pins, then im like forget it cuz it didn't seem like the right way to remove it, so i just gave up. Now one of the pins is not touching the side... it is almos touching, but its not... is that a bad thing?

[Leonardo]

OK, good work. Off the top of my head, I can't think of anything else right now. You may just have a bad motherboard. If you/we don't come up with a troubleshooting step within the next 24 hours that works, it's probably time to call the seller and ask for an RMA (return merchandise authorization). If it's Newegg, you've got 14 days or 30 (don't remember) for a new board.

[NewGuy]

maybe the speaker is bad? can i try connecting wires through the speaker connector, and the other ends of the wires toching a battery, and see if it makes a "static" sound?

[NewGuy]

I also want to note the bottom of the motherboard is touching the case, would that cause any problems?

[Leonardo]

Yes, both pins should be touching the batter. For CMOS battery removal, a small knife blade or small screw inserted between the battery and the plastic holder, twisted gently will remove it. Yes, removing the battery is another way of clearing the BIOS.

I don't know about testing a case speaker, so I can't recommend your suggestion. I can nearly guarantee you that the speaker is not defective.

[jradmin]

I also want to note the bottom of the motherboard is touching the case, would that cause any problems?

You mean the bottom as in the back of the mobo where all the solder connections are? Or the bottom as in if the mobo is standing up in the case...the lower edge of the board.

If the back of the board is touching any part of the case, then you have it shorted out somewhere.
If its just the bottom edge of the board standing up, then its still very possiable that its being shorted out.

[Straight_Man]

Um, did you use the little brass mounting studs in the case to mount the board???? Or just screw it to the case???? If you screwed it right to the case, you now have a dead CMOS battery also and will get nothing from the board until the board has a new CMOS battery installed (had a friend do that one time)..... 99% chance.

[Armo]

ive seen fried PSU's like that

[NewGuy]

The back of the board where all the solder connections are! I just screwed it on to the case. Maybe thats the problem :D

i mounted the board with normal steel screws, and the bottomo of the board is touching.

I did get big plastic screws, and i got gold screws, and i got very thin circle things that i think are for putting around screws. Ill send a picture of them as soon as i find the "necessary software" to install my webcam

[Armo]

there should be small brass standoffs that came with the motherboard, those screw into the case, thent he motherboard sints on top of the standoffs, ONLY WHERE THERE ARE SCREW HOLES throught the motherboard

[NewGuy]

ok, first the brass, then the sints (the small circular ones right), then the motherboard, then the normal steel screws right?

sorry im slow at this

[jradmin]

Yes, in that order.

I believe you should have 7 holes. 2 on the top, 1 in the middle and 2 on the bottom forward and bottom rear.

The screw holes your looking for will have a silver lining around them...like a cloud :crazy:

[NewGuy]

Hi again,

i put the brass screws in and hooked up the motherboard. there were ony 5 of the brass screws, so i put 1 at the top, 2 in the middle, and 2 at the bottom.

i instaled the cpu and all the power switches, and hooked up the power cables in the necessary spots. then i tried booting it up, cuz i might hear a beep now, but i didn't ARGGG ( i also cleard the CMOS memory)

i guess now im gonna have replace the CMOS battey (btw i fixed the pin that wasn't touching the battery)

so do u guys think it is the battery causing the problem? Lets hope it is...

[Donut]

try stripping the case back down, psu, board, etc. try to see if you can get it working on your desk before you try to put it back in your case. By doing this you should be able to troubleshoot easier, as we won't have to deal with the board shorting on the case.

[Gobbles]

No your battery is probably not the cause of the problem.

1. Remove the motherboard from the case.
2. Remove the power supply from the case.
3. Remove the heatsink and remove the CPU, now re-insert the cpu into the socket carefully.
4. Now carefully re-install the heatsink.
5. With the mobo on a cardboard box, the one it came in, connect the psu to it, making sure you get the 24pin power connected and the 4pin located right behind the keyboard mouse connector.
6. install your video card
6A. make sure you have connected the power to it as well.
7. plug in your power supply, make sure its set to 115 on the back (if its settable)
8. if you psu has it, make sure the switch on the back is set to the - side.
9. you can now either jumper the power on with a small screw driver by shorting the small posts or stretch the power lead from the case out to it and use the case power button.

note that your RAM should be installed as well. Does the machine now fire up? if so you either had a short or the cpu was not installed perfectly.

Ive seen this exact issue with machines and re-seating the cpu generally fixed the issue or the board was dead..

post back.

[NewGuy]

nothing :( ...

i reinstalled the cpu, took out the mobo and pluged in the vid card, ram, and psu connectors. I hooked up the monitor to the video card, but when i booted it up... i got no result. same thing, fans were spinning, light was on, but no reaction from the monitor :(

i guess i will exchange the motherboard...just hope they take it

[NewGuy]

Hi all,

ehm... i just got the new motherboard today after a looooong wait. so, i want to do it right this time!!! pleas tell me what i should do first...

should i leave the motherboard inside the cardboard box, and only install cpu, and hook up the power supply cabels and see if i hear a beep? this will make sure the cpu is not bad right? (i hope not!!)

[csimon]

I always put the mobo on the anti-static bag it comes in then place it on the box.

[Nightwolf]

I'd set the mobo in the case just for ground, Install the cpu and memory only, boot it up and see if the internal speaker works. And no, depeding on how many and how long the beeps are it could possibly mean something is wrong with your hardware!

[profdlp]

Go through the manual page-by-page and make sure you have all of the jumpers set correctly. Then install the CPU & Heat Sink, the RAM, and any add-on cards (Video, etc) which you have. If you have any questions about this please ask and be as specific as possible.

Post back here before proceeding any farther - let's take this one step at a time so everything goes right all the way through this time. :)

EDIT: I am the slowest typist in the world - two more posts will I was pecking this reply out. :mullet:

[NewGuy]

ok before i do anything i have a question about grounding. It says in the guide that:


BEFORE YOU PROCEED

- Use a grounded wrist strap or touch a safely grounded object or to a metal object, such as the power supply case, before handling components to avoid damaging them due to static electricity


i dont have a wrist strap. So do i touch a metal object(with my finger right?) such as a power supply, or do i make the component touch the metal?

how serious is this grounding issue anyway?

[Armo]

when you work in the case, just make sure your touching skin to the metal as much as possible. i usually sit idian style and have the case in my lap touching my legs, and build from there. but thats just me.

[NewGuy]

oh ok, so we dont touch the component to a metal right?

[Leonardo]

Good question! Simple answer. No, you don't have to have a wrist band. It's simple: just touch the the internal metal case frame, before touching computer internals. Some people never do anything whatsoever concerning static and have no problems. My computers are in a carpeted office with a high static charge most of the time. I have destroyed components before by static shocks. No biggiy - touching the case rail/frame will discharge static electricity away from the components. Once you've touched the case frame, you don't have to keep holding it. Good rule of thumb is just to touch it every time you leave the computer and return to it.

[NewGuy]

alright! I got the cpu + heatsink, Ram, and Video card installed. (But not Hard drive) what is next?

[profdlp]

Hook up the power supply connections to the motherboard. Besides the big rectangular one there is also a smaller square one as well.

Make sure everything is settled firmly on your bench and attach the monitor cable, mouse and keyboard. Don't worry about the hard drive(s) or cdrom, etc, right now.

Then check the manual carefully to see which pins would normally have the power switch wires attached to them if you were building it inside the case. (See the attached picture.)

CAREFULLY short the two power switch pins together with a small screwdriver - don't accidentally bump any of the other pins! The computer should start up.

Let us know if that is indeed what happens. :)

[NewGuy]

sorry for the long wait, im about to do it now.

note: When i installed the video card, cpu&ram, the motherboard was on top of the thin black foam which came with the motherboard box, and i put the foam+mobo on top the cardboard box it came in. Can i fire it up like that also?
(motherboard on top of foam and cardboard?) or should i fire it up only on top of the cardboard box, or i can use the bag also.

another question. Since i gotta be very careful with the screwdriver, can i stretch the power cable from the computer case and hook it up to the mobo instead?


Hook up the power supply connections to the motherboard. Besides the big rectangular one there is also a smaller square one as well.


the square one isn't beside the big rectangular one. Do i hook up all the power supply connections? (there are 3 in total + 1 for vid card)

sorry for asking so many questions, but i dont want to screw up this time

[profdlp]

sorry for the long wait, im about to do it now.

note: When i installed the video card, cpu&ram, the motherboard was on top of the thin black foam which came with the motherboard box, and i put the foam+mobo on top the cardboard box it came in. Can i fire it up like that also?
(motherboard on top of foam and cardboard?) or should i fire it up only on top of the cardboard box, or i can use the bag also.
I'd stick with just the box, unless you are absolutely certain that the other stuff is non-conductive.

...Since i gotta be very careful with the screwdriver, can i stretch the power cable from the computer case and hook it up to the mobo instead?
Sure, just don't strain the wires and break them. GHoosdum made a suggestion in another thread to use a spare jumper to temporarily short the pins. Stick it on, then pull it off right away.


the square one isn't beside the big rectangular one. Do i hook up all the power supply connections? (there are 3 in total + 1 for vid card)...
I meant that like "in addition to", not adjacent. Yes, by all means make sure all of those power connections are hooked up. :)

[NewGuy]

THANK YOU GOD!!!! :respect: :respect: :respect:

I have a story to tell!

first i hooked everything up and turned the power on. then... the fans started spinning slowly, after like 5 seconds they started spinning faster, weird. BUT guess what? Nothing showed up on the screeen!! I WAS LIKE SHIIIITT :banghead: :banghead: I noticed that the keyboard light was on so it couldn't be the same problem as before, then i checked the motherboard and noticed the video card wasn't in properly at one side!! A LITTLE HOPE! I pushed it in and tried again.... THEN THE ASUS SCREEN SHOWED UP ON THE MONITOR!!!!:celebrate :celebrate

yesss!!!!! i am soo happy

then i saw do u want to setup raid and press F4 or something, i just turned it off there.!!

wooooot!

so what is next? :D

[Armo]

Pics!

lol, do you want to setup a raid? if not just install winderz on your drive like normal

[NewGuy]

naaa...i only have 1 IDE hard drive

[NewGuy]

Should i go to the asus wesite and update the bios? Or should i just continue with the current one?

[NewGuy]

Here is the link to the bios upgrade site:http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=A8N-SLI%20Deluxe

This is what it says on the asus site (it is not the newest version!):



Version: 1016 --- 2005/12/21 update

OS: DOS

Description:
A8N-SLI Deluxe Bios version 1016

Please do read the description before updating BIOS

To avoid crashing file system, please do update the chipset driver to below version prior to this Bios.

For WinXP 32bit system, please download and update chipset drivers V6.65 or later

For WinXP 64bit system, please download and update chipset drivers V6.65 or later

For Win2k/2003 32bit system, please download and update chipset drivers V6.66 or later

For Win2003 64bit system, please download and update chipset drivers V6.66 or later

1- Support new CPUs. Please refer to our website at: http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx
2- Update awdflash.exe to v1.14
3- Remove 2.88MB floppy item value

File Size 453.4 (KBytes


what does 32bit and 64bit system mean? Do you think i should upgrade to this bios?

The newest Bios upgrade is this:

Beta Version: 1017.004 --- 2006/02/14 update

OS: DOS

Description
A8N-SLI Deluxe beta BIOS 1017.004
Latest beta BIOS.

File Size 454.5 (KBytes)


This is the newest version, and also note it is a beta version!

[airbornflght]

32 bit and 64bit is just how the os talks to the processor, if your operating system isnt 64 bit (it probably isnt) then dont worry about it.

[profdlp]

The next step I would recommend is to hook everything back up - inside the case this time. Be extremely careful where you place the motherboard standoffs. You want to be absolutely sure that every single one of them is located exactly under one of the openings on the MB. If you have any doubts at all, please stop and ask - I'm pretty sure that this is the point where things went bad for you before.

You're getting there - just be sure and pay attention to the little details. :thumbup

[Leonardo]

LITTLE HOPE! I pushed it in and tried again.... THEN THE ASUS SCREEN SHOWED UP ON THE MONITOR!!!! Ha ha - I know exactly how that feels.

That's good news.

[NewGuy]

hey guys

i have installed everything and i put the cover back on. I am about to test it right now!! i wont upgrade the bios. Wish me good luck! :cool2:

[csimon]

Good luck!

[profdlp]

Good luck!
Times Two! :D

[NewGuy]

Hello

i just installed windows xp pro. it works great!! thanks guys :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: i made 2 partitions: first 20gb for OS, and the second 170GB for everything else!

i only have 1 problem. When i start the computer, it takes forever to load. you know that black screen when windows loads (It says Microsoft Windoes Xp, and below it is the green loading bar).... that takes lik a minute to go away 4 some reason. But this is just a minor issue, everything else works!

Thanks alot for taking time to help!! May Waheguru (God) bless you!! :thumbsup:

[profdlp]

Sounds terrific! :D

I think the slowdown at boot is probably due to Windows not being able to identify all of the computers hardware correctly. Get the latest chipset drivers for your motherboard and see if that helps. :)