System turns on, but won't post

DanGDanG I AM CANADIAN Icrontian
edited October 2003 in Hardware
Asus a7n8x deluxe
barton 2500 not overclocked
corsair xms pc3200 ram
swiftech watercooled
antec true blue 480w psu

The other day I was trying to upload some pictures to my web space and my monitor started flickering, which I didn't think much of because my switchbox was acting goofy in the last while anyways, so I just used my other system and left it at that.
This morning I went to check to make sure everything was still doing what it should and got nothing on the screen. So I switched the monitor right to the video card instead of through the switchbox and still got nothing. The thermal probes showed normal operating temps for the system, so I know I didn't cook anything. I then tried pulling the ram and waited for beeps from the onboard pc speaker and still got nothing. Next I tried pulling the video card, and still nothing. Pulled the ide cables off and tried again, and still got nothing.

Is the board dead?

The system will power up, the hard drives spin up, but no video signal and no error beeps.

Comments

  • TBonZTBonZ Ottawa, ON Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    Firstly, I would swap a PSU just to rule it out. The fluttering just might be from it crapping out. :scratch:

    Also clear your CMOS for the heck of it.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited October 2003
    Dan, try the monitor on another computer to rule that out first.

    Also, remove the lead for the case speaker if you have one from the A7N8X Deluxe... as I recall (I'd have to pull mine out of one of my "junk" drawers...) it has an onboard buzzer that will beep if the case speaker is disconnected. See if you can get a beep code out of it that way.
  • DanGDanG I AM CANADIAN Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    Cleared the cmos, nothing.
    Tried my old 350w enermax psu, nothing.
    Tried both the onboard pc speaker,a nd tried plugging one in, still no beeps.

    I've got a spare mobo around here and that's the next try, is it the board or the chip, or something else.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited October 2003
    could be the video card too, you know...
  • DanGDanG I AM CANADIAN Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    If it was video card, I'd get beeps, wouldn't I?

    Well, I changed the board, now it powers on and shuts off right away, and just as it's shutting off, I hear a click. Could it have anything to do with the way the relay is set up for the pump? I set it the same the same way I did last time.

    Gonna try different video card next.
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    Well, if QUIET click it could be a PSU switching relay circuit-- essentially, this can be a POST issue if the PSU cannot handle startup load on all legs at once, but in your case if same Other stuff including PSU and RAM and CPU, then board might have dead CMOS battery cell (what happens if CMOS cell gets down to last ergs of juice is that they are UNDERVOLTAGE ergs and CMOS table can get scrambled and NO beeps can result from that alone, ditto DIMM 0 not being seated right) or be dead itself. If LOUD, try replacing PSU and if PSU is a 350 maybe if funds replace with a 400 or 450 and know you will have enough extra oomph to expand\upgrade your system some.

    John.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited October 2003
    Have you got a different cooling system to try? Try hooking up a regular old HSF and see what it does then...
  • DanGDanG I AM CANADIAN Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    I'm gonna get my spare video card back from my bother tomorrow so I can eliminate that. I'll also give the volcano 9 a shot tomorrow so I don't need to hook anything to the watercooling. As for the psu, 480 watts should be lots for the system to at least post, the watercooling has it's own 120v wall socket, and I didn't have any of my hard drives or cdrom drives plugged in, but I got the same thing when using my old enermax, so I'm pretty sure it's not a power supply issue. I will try a new cmos battery tomorrow too.

    Thanks for the help so far guys!
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    Ok, other mobo works, this one NOT. So, one other dumb idea-- any chance there is an extra mount stud touching underside of NEW mobo where it should not??? Any chance studs are too short and when heatsink got fastened on board bowed just enough so a wave-soldered stub on underside of board is touching backplane and starting an immediate ground short where one is not wanted???

    The new boards are typically DESIGNED to bow with heatsinks torqued to spec for new CPUs. One guy one timne said he had to use minimum stud heights of 1\4" to get things to work, and anothr took some of the pink foam sheet that came in box under his mobo and cut to size a bit bigger than heatsink mount spacing and stuck under CPU mount area of mobo (underneath MOBO) before putting heatsink on and suddenly ZERO boot problems.

    Then there was a guy who came to me and asked why his mobo would not boot-- he had screwed it right to the backplane, NO STUDS and therefore both no boot and instantly drained CMOS\Clock battery. One ohter guy managed to use ONE stud, many nylon feet, had all sorts of problems until used MANY studs and few nylon feet as these new boards have MULTIPLE ground plane layers and in fact layer can be ground plane one place and be divided\sectioned by non-conductive material so only traces are on other parts of that layer, thus board can NEED 3-6 ground points(tightly connected studs provide ground points to backplane, which is ground bonded to chassis if screwed onto case) for all of it to work right.

    Some boards, NO FLOPPY and NO BOOT-- with no beeps. Had a FEW P4 boards do that.

    John.
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