no post, no bios

Protazy

Hi everybody
During video playback i got the blue screen with memory dumping info. Then the screen went black and there was long continious beep. I shut off the power. Now i can not get it to post nor to get to bios. There is no ususal beep after i power it on. Fans are going, all drives power up, the hd activity light stays on for a wile then turns off. I tried new sticks of RAM, tried to disconnect everything, reseted bios and CMOS battery. Tried different Video Card. Nothing helped. Please help...
I have Abit IC7 motherboard, 2.4 Ghz pentium 4, 1.5 Gb ram, 450 Power Supply.

Thrax

Sounds like a dead PSU to me. Have a spare power supply to test with? Even CompUSA will let you buy one and return it for your money back if it's less than 15 days.

edcentric

Your heat sink is mounted well, right?
Video decode puts a hell of a load on the CPU. Long beep, no boot, sounds a lot like a dead CPU.
Let's hope that the power supply is the problem.

Protazy

I have a spare PSU i will try it. I hope it will work. That was the only thing i have not tried yet. Keep my fingers crosse.
Thank you guys for your responces!

Protazy

psu replacement did not worked...
should next step be cpu replacement?
or maby motherboard?

Mt_Goat

Try to post with just 1 stick of memory and clear the CMOS. I would even go as far as to move the jumper to the clear position with the PSU unplugged and remove the battery for at least 1/2 hr. Then replace battery and move the CMOS jumper to the normal position. If this works go into the BIOS and monitor the health screen for a while to see if it is getting warm or voltage fluctuates.

Protazy

i have tried that, did not work...
still can not get past POST into BIOS. Should i look around for a new CPU?
Any suggestions appreciated...

Protazy

I have tried pretty much everything but replacing motherboard or CPU.
Which to try first???
Helping advise appreciated!

muddocktor

Check the northbridge hsf out and see if it is still mounted securely. The IC7 series motherboards are noted for having the wires that secure the northbridge to the mobo (the loops that the nb sping clips hook to) pull out and fry the northbridge when the nb hsf comes loose. If this has happened, you can rma it to Abit for around $25 last time I heard.

Protazy

i replaced ABIT's heat sink and fan for fanless zalman cooling. I have no wires and no noise from the "jet" north bridge fan.

muddocktor

That's fine, but how did you attach it to the mobo? Did you use the stock mounting loops on the mobo or did you glue it to the northbridge with AS adhesive or did you use some other method?

I have an IC7-G myself, and unless you've glued that Zalman to the northbridge I don't know how you could have mounted it without using the mounting loops that are soldered into the mobo. I'm lucky in that apparently my board has well soldered mounting loops, but I know of a guy that just had them pull out of his 2 1/2 year old IC7 and fry the northbridge, along with letting the nb hsf to ding his vid card too when it fell off.

Protazy

i used the glue of course. I did it right after i got the motherboard and nb fan started to go south on me. Never had any problems with over heating. After all my attempts to check different components and configuration, i think that it is either motherboard or CPU...but which one is it? I would hate to fork money for something that is not broken...but if needs to be it needs to be...

muddocktor

Yeah, you can rule the nb frying from overheating out, since you glued it on.

Do you have access to another socket 478 system so you can test the processor and ram in it? That would be my next step in troubleshooting the problem. If the processor and ram work in another system, then I would say that the mobo took a dump on you.

Protazy

No i do not have an access to another system...that is the problem. If i had that would have been my next step. Now, it is a gamble. What to replace first? I will have to play the odds which were never good to me.

muddocktor

I guess that since you don't have access to another socket 478 system to test with, it's really a crapshoot as to what went out on you. Since it isn't a psu problem, that leaves the mobo, ram and proc as the most likely culprits.

Since you say that you tried some other ram in the mobo and it didn't work, then I think it narrows it down to either mobo or cpu. Of the 2, I would say the most likely suspect would be the mobo, but if the mobo went on you, it could have also overvolted the cpu severely and cooked it too. So, since this is such an old system anyways, have you thought of upgrading to a socket 775 system that uses DDR and AGP or an A64 system that uses DDR and AGP? Either would be a viable, cost effective upgrade and not too expensive nowdays. You could go with something like the Asrock Dual SATA2 A64 mobo, which can use either AGP or PCI-e video cards with your present DDR memory and you can now get a dual core X2-3800+ for $152 from Newegg and the Asrock board is selling for about $72.00 shipped from there. And a true dual core machine is much more responsive than the suedo-dual core that hyperthreading gives too.

Just figured I'd throw this thought out at you.

Protazy

Thnk you for your input. I was considering this kind of upgrade too. I figured that either way i would go aead and replace both, mobo and CPU. Thank you for your help.

muddocktor

Protazy wrote:

Thnk you for your input. I was considering this kind of upgrade too. I figured that either way i would go aead and replace both, mobo and CPU. Thank you for your help.

You're welcome.:)

And I am talking from personal experience with the Dual SATA 2 mobo and an X2 processor, since I have one set up as a dedicated folding machine. The board is stable and a pretty decent overclocker too, for a cheap mobo. It would make a good upgrade, if you aren't stuck on just Intel based systems. If you do want to go Intel, there is also a cheap, Via chipped mobo out there that uses DDR or DDR2, the ASRock 775Dual-VSTA, which supports Conroe too, besides the regular socket 775 processor lines. It combined with a low end e6300 would also make a decent upgrade path and let you continue to use your DDR and AGP vid card. Be aware that the board only supports 2 sticks of either DDR or DDR2, so if you are using 4 sticks of ram this isn't the board for you. But Asrock also makes a Conore capable mobo based on the venerable old Intel i865 chipset and supports AGP and 4 sticks of DDR.

bananapanda

I had the same problem, 'cept with a socket 775 board. I dont have any friends with a 775, so i have been looking on craigs list for some cheap tecky to test my cpu and ram.