ABIT KD7 - No video/post

MrBillMrBill Missouri Member
edited August 2003 in Hardware
I have a KD7 that I am building with all new components. I put everything in the case and powered it on. No video and no beeps. After an hour of trying different things, I removed the motherboad from the case and tried it with just CPU/heatsink, ram and video. Still no video. I have tried clearing the CMOS several times to no avail.

The fans spin and the light flashes on the CD-Rom drive.

I'm too tired right now to take a video card out of another machine and try it, but I will tomorrow (later today actually).

Any ideas on what I might be overlooking?

Specs:
KD7 - non raid
xp2500+ Barton
MSI ti4200
350watt psu

TIA!
«1

Comments

  • EMNEMN
    edited June 2003
    Hrm. Even though the fans come on and the cd-roms flash, it still might not be posting, I've run into similar situations, and it wasn't necessarily the video card, I wouldn't be to worried about that at this point. Whenecer I re-assembled my computer (after shipping it home from school) I ran into the same thing, however, unplugging the power cord and clearing the CMOS did fix all. You could try taking out the battery, that would definitely clear the CMOS. Make sure the clear CMOS switch is not left in the clear position, I've done that before too and ened up with very similar symptoms. ;)
  • kanezfankanezfan sunny south florida Icrontian
    edited June 2003
    I just had the exact same thing happen to my KR7 yesterday. Can't get it to come back to life at all. I bought a KX7-R for $50 as a replacement. Are you sure that mobo was working before you got it?
  • ShivianShivian Australia
    edited June 2003
    I'd try ram in other slots and taking the power/reset switch etc leads and plugging them in from scratch (long shot but who knows... might've been a short somewhere).

    I had a P3 that did the same thing (wouldn't post but powered up) and it was to do with the ram or the the header connections. I'm thinking in my case it was the ram but it can't hurt to check the other possibilities.
  • MrBillMrBill Missouri Member
    edited June 2003
    EMN: I've had the battery out for an hour now, so I'm getting ready to start working on it again.

    Kanez: I am not sure the mobo was good before I got it. It is used, but was supposed to be tested.

    Shivian: It's not the reset/etc connectors as it does it with nothing connected at all. I will try ram in different slots though if removing the battery doesn't help.

    Thanks guys! I'll let you know what I find out.
  • Omega65Omega65 Philadelphia, Pa
    edited June 2003
    No Beep or anything points to a (possibly) bad CPU. Remove it and reseat it. Also remove the memory stick.

    Turn it on, the mobo should beep if the CPU is good and no memory is present.

    Next add one memory stick. See if it posts then.
  • kanezfankanezfan sunny south florida Icrontian
    edited June 2003
    just to add more to this, I moved all my components to another mobo and it all works fine. sounds like you might be in the same boat.
  • MrBillMrBill Missouri Member
    edited June 2003
    Originally posted by kanezfan
    just to add more to this, I moved all my components to another mobo and it all works fine. sounds like you might be in the same boat.
    That's what I'm getting ready to do. One component at a time, I am going to move the new stuff to my KX7 and see if it works.


    Omega: I have reseated the CPU, but that didn't help either. However, I have not tried booting up without the ram installed. We'll see what happens when I move the new components one at a time to my KX7.

    Man I hate tearing down a working computer....:grumble:
  • EQuitoEQuito SoCal, USA
    edited June 2003
    Sounds like the infamous OTP issue. Does the SB gets hot?
    Remove ONLY the CPU and power-up for a few seconds, put it back and try again.
    If that doesn't work, I'll show you a trick later.
    Too bad Abit Forums are down otherwise I'll give you links to many of my threads on the issue.
  • MrBillMrBill Missouri Member
    edited June 2003
    Originally posted by EQuito
    Sounds like the infamous OTP issue. Does the SB gets hot?
    Remove ONLY the CPU and power-up for a few seconds, put it back and try again.
    If that doesn't work, I'll show you a trick later.
    Too bad Abit Forums are down otherwise I'll give you links to many of my threads on the issue.
    EQ: I haven't checked to see if the SB gets hot or not. I'll try powering up with just video and ram for a few seconds, then shut down and install the cpu.

    Here's an update to what I have tried thus far....

    Put the MSI ti4200 in my KX7 - works okay
    Put the PNY pc2700 in my KX7 - works okay
    Put the xp2500 in my KX7 - gets to post screen and freezes at ram OK (says unknown CPU).

    Also, I tried my 1700tbred and radeon 8500 in the KD7 and had still had no video/post.

    I put all my old stuff back in the KX7 and I'm back on it now.
  • EQuitoEQuito SoCal, USA
    edited June 2003
    No, remove ONLY the CPU and power-up, leave everything else in place.
    Then, re-install CPU and try again.

    What we're trying to do is reset the OTP circuitry.
  • MrBillMrBill Missouri Member
    edited June 2003
    Originally posted by EQuito
    No, remove ONLY the CPU and power-up, leave everything else in place.
    Then, re-install CPU and try again.

    What we're trying to do is reset the OTP circuitry.
    I had already done all the things I listed before I read your post EQ.

    I have, since reading your post, put the memory and video back in, but left the CPU out. I turned it on for about 10 seconds and shut it off. I then installed the CPU and turned it back on.

    I nearly shit myself when it POSTED! If I never told you before EQ, I'm telling you now. I LOVE YOU MAN!!

    Now I can put it all back in the case and hope it still works. :)


    THANK YOU EQ...YOU ARE THE MAN!!!!!


    Bill
  • ShivianShivian Australia
    edited June 2003
    Good stuff EQ! Gonna have to write that one down...
  • EQuitoEQuito SoCal, USA
    edited June 2003
    Thanks but there is much more to it.
    In fact, he put everything back in the case and it doesn't boot anymore. It's not case related or anything else, the board's OTP circuitry is acting up.
    The fix for that is to solder a jumper to the board but you'll need good soldering skills. The other choice is to use conductive paint instead of soldering but doesn't always work.
  • ShivianShivian Australia
    edited June 2003
    Is there OTP circuitry in a KR7A?
  • EQuitoEQuito SoCal, USA
    edited June 2003
    I don't think so, at least not in the same way it has been implemented on KD7's
  • edited June 2003
    Ok, so the thing posts out of case but not in.... I had something kinda like this a few times, maybe telling about them will ring a bell in someone's head that will help.

    1. Guy brought in this brand new mobo.... Had nice used case, bought from friend. Friend forgot to give him risers. He thought-- ok, screw mobo to backplane. Well, three problems resulted:

    CMOS battery was totally drained first time power was applied as backplane was bond-grounded to ground wire of power cord and battery instantly got drained when power cordplugged into wall and it had a ground route. I took MB out, put on insulated surface, put in new CMOS cell and it powered up. Stuck standoffs of normal height in and srewed mobo in-- no power up. Took out of case, powered up after resettting CMOS, POST time. Scratched head, pulled some hair, put pink foam antistat pad with holes for studs under MB, screwed it on, silly thing posted right up. Dismounted, put pink foam only under fan mount braket on underside of mobo (nice metal thing, um,conductive), remounted, POST. Repeated sans pad-- NO POST. Removed screwon backplane for mobo with mobo on it, and found the heatsink mounting had warp\stressed mobo. R&R'ed with pink foma under mobo where heatsink bracket was under mobo. A year has passed, no problems.

    Look for a warped mobo, CMOS Cell that was jumpered to on prior to mounting and got drained almost all the way by being shorted to case after "first good post" worked, and test ground-bond the board to a ground that you know is good from one of its ground points to the ground connect on a surge strip outlet that does have a good polarized connect to a known good outlet.

    2. Had a friend with a new PSU, new mobo, old case. He jury-rigged the PSU, and did not replace the switch. Key words here were old case, and the OLD switch that was not a momentary contact switch( ever tried to control an ATXPSU with an AT switch and satisfy its power-good hunger?? try every other boot you get a post if lucky!) Leson two, make sure the power good circuit works and someone did not try to use an old PSU(non ATX 2.03) or old switch or did not connect power good jumper and tried for a second boot attempt and got zilch. In our case, we figured out that the second boot always happened after the PSU had been unplugged for 10-15 minutes, and I remembered an AOPen PSU's liking to cold reset and needing 10-15 minutes to do so(thermal cutoff, and PSUs shorted that way thermal quickly). One reason I like to keep a retail Antec PSU around is that uaully they come with switches pre-connected. I also used a little PC Power And Cooling ATX tester to cross-check this-- PSU stayed bad if plugged before 10-15 minutes was up, tested good after that.

    3. Guy brought in a mobo with a nice post-mounted heatsink he had bought used with no posts. No POST after his posts were put on board, while board was mounted in case. Post out of case on insulated surface FINE (every time, we repeated boht ways twice). Looked on underside of board. NICE METAL posts. Hmmmm..... Artic silver paste.... Hmm.... Copper heat sink.... Hmm....Metal heat spreader on topof CPUIS NOT supposed to be grounded, but looked like a nice ground route to me.... Lesseee-- metal plate, silver conducts. heat sink conducts, Post conducts, case is safety bonded to ground, did he just manage to ground short CPU from the TOP SIDE??? Yup. Double stick foam tape under bottom of metal posts, no more boot problems(cork or rubber would have worked here also, had foam tape handy and did not want a lesser non-conductive paste as it would not have conductively cooled as well). Also, nylon bottomed post sets woudl have worked....

    Lesson--ground *not* thy heatsink directly or indirectly to chassis\case\wall outlet when using metallic content heatsink paste, nor carbon impregnated conductive pads (carbon conducts electricity too-- in fact, most of the best heat dissipative things will conduct electricity at least SOME, heat is ions jumping around and electricity is ion flow).

    4. This one was more "fun," took a magnifier cuz I have iffy vision, but someone had cross-shorted his CPU by sticking a tib too much heatsink compund on (actually,gobs too much) and managed to short transistors to core. Cleaning excess paste off actually let the thing work (rubbing alcohol and qtip works in an emergency).

    5. This one was not a normal short-- what are the chances of one corner pin on a CPU getting bent and shorting against another on a P4 chip between mountings???? Bend pin carefully up with very finetipped tweezers and tip of Xacto knife blade and bent-tip dental probe-pick, runs like a champ. Oh, WiHa (WILLI HAHN Corporation) makes great fine little tweezers and one of the little dental picks they and others have available made a fine "starter" as the pin was squashed flat ( Did I hear "who needs a dental pick??").

    Times 6-20 were variants on the first two, so will not bore you more.

    In this case, think from what you said the mobo probably needs RMA'ing, but any other issue you may have noticed that seems very much like any of these might need to also be fixed. Fixing them first might save an RMA.

    John Danielson.
  • EQuitoEQuito SoCal, USA
    edited June 2003
    Originally posted by Ageek
    Ok, so the thing posts out of case but not in....
    It did post inside the case once, but then locked up at bios screen due to a non related incident.

    This behavior is known to occur on all KD7 models (R/G/S/E) and has nothing to do with PSU's, RAM, case mounting or any other component for that matter.

    Simply put, sometimes the CPU fails to send the right signal to the OTP circuitry (Over Temperature Protection) or the circuitry fails to read it properly and the board shuts down to protect the CPU from heat damage.
  • edited June 2003
    Ok, that explained nicely. Thanks. And cleaning the Socket and CPU with contact cleaner does not help??? So it is not partly corrosion of socket or CPU contacts or some corruptive resistance on CPU contacts from finger oils???

    And it is not something caused by a slight undervoltage into PSU from supply causing an overread, but instead is a mfring or design problem???

    Live and learn and do not buy that one thank you, IMO.

    John Danielson.
  • EQuitoEQuito SoCal, USA
    edited June 2003
    Nope. There is nothing you can do to avoid it IF it happens except for the steps above or the installation of a jumper.

    We cannot call it a mfring/design flaw as most of the boards do not exibit this behavior.
  • kanezfankanezfan sunny south florida Icrontian
    edited June 2003
    shit, I'm gonna try to that on my "dead" KR7A, see if it helps at all. I just can't understand why it would just up and die.
  • MrBillMrBill Missouri Member
    edited June 2003
    EQ: I have a question regarding putting a jumper on it. Does it have to be a removable jumper or can I just solder a piece of wire across the 2 contacts?
  • EQuitoEQuito SoCal, USA
    edited June 2003
    Either way or even conductive paint as long as you short the two points:
  • MrBillMrBill Missouri Member
    edited June 2003
    Ok, thanks EQ. I'll see if my friend can solder it for me. I'm a feathered barnyard animal when it comes to stuff like that. :D
  • MrBillMrBill Missouri Member
    edited June 2003
    Update #1

    I had my friend solder a wire per EQ's picture and it posted on first try outside the case. I'm getting ready to put it all back together AGAIN and see what happens. So far, so good....

    I'll report back later. :)
  • MrBillMrBill Missouri Member
    edited June 2003
    Update #2

    Put everything in the case and zilch. Back to square one. I cleared the CMOS and it posted. Booted to the MaxBlast Cd and formatted the HDD. I don't have an OS to load yet, so I shut it off and just for kicks turned it back on. NOTHING!

    I give up.....ordering a new NF7-S from Newegg tonight.....


    Bill
  • berkoberko NY
    edited June 2003
    what speed ram are you using?

    I had a similar problem with mine, it would post after clearing cmos but not on reboot, i have pc3200.

    I cleared the cmos and then went to bios and I changed the DRAM clock from SPD to 166, and didnt have a problem after that.

    Dont know if that is your problem but it was for me.
  • MrBillMrBill Missouri Member
    edited July 2003
    I'm using PNY PC2700. I tried setting the DRAM to 166 and it booted, but.....

    The first time it showed DDR333, then it showed DDR200. The bios shows 166, but it's picking it up as 100 for some reason. Sometimes it shows the processor at 1100mhz even though the bios says xp2500 (333).

    It is booting up repeatedly now, it just doesn't show the right DDR speed.

    Cheap ram? Defective mobo?

    I'm confused. :confused:
  • kanezfankanezfan sunny south florida Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    dead battery? bios chip dying?
  • ShivianShivian Australia
    edited July 2003
    Ps just for the record, as was suspected, it didn't work (removing CPU to get POST) on my friend's KR7A... was hoping it would but we're pretty sure he fried something on the board.
  • MrBillMrBill Missouri Member
    edited July 2003
    Well, the NF7-S didn't come today. FedEx tracking says nobody was home, but my wife said she was here.

    So.....I'm back working on the KD7. So far tonight it has booted repeatedly at the proper CPU and DDR settings at POST. I'm installing Win2K now and should have it up and running shortly. I guess when the NF7-S gets here, I can start all over again. :D


    Thanks again EQ. The OTP mod has made the board usable. :)

    //edit: I'm breaking the xp2500 in at 2162mhz running F@H...
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