Hey sorry I did not find this forum before. I may be able to help you and it will not cost the price of a new board.
I have a lot of experience with these damm boards, Which is why i bought an Eprom programmer
If you can send me the bios chip I will reprogram for the cost of postage plus 5 bucks. If your interested just send me a message and we can discuss it further.
Hi Yezok, I guess that I am late to the problems with this motherboard .... but will your programmer allow me to use 2gb of ram?
My programmer is for re-programming the bios chip when you have a bad flash or program wrong bios and the board will not boot. It does not change the limitations of how much ram the bios supports.
The A7N8X-LA should have no problem supporting 2GB of Ram but you may to buy the right type of Ram.
The A7N8x-LA should support 2048MB DDR SDRAM PC3200 If I remember correctly it must be double sided, by this I mean that each stick is two banks. As a rule of thumb if it from HP you need double sided ram. The bios supports 4 banks but the board only has 2 slots hence double sided ram
You still have the board and processor, ram and HDD, I really do not need the case and shipping would probably be not so nice.
I may be interested in it as I fix up old computers and give them to computers for kids (local Charity).
My programmer is for re-programming the bios chip when you have a bad flash or program wrong bios and the board will not boot. It does not change the limitations of how much ram the bios supports.
The A7N8X-LA should have no problem supporting 2GB of Ram but you may to buy the right type of Ram.
The A7N8x-LA should support 2048MB DDR SDRAM PC3200 If I remember correctly it must be double sided, by this I mean that each stick is two banks. As a rule of thumb if it from HP you need double sided ram. The bios supports 4 banks but the board only has 2 slots hence double sided ram
I do have 2048MB DDR PC3200 double sided, but HP does not have bios updates on it's site. I am running V3.07 and when I put in the new ram I can hear the fan running, buy get a black screen. This is why I think it is a bios issue. Do you know if the V3.21 will fix this problem or should I try one of the Asus Bios listed under the A7N8X-Deluxe or VM listings?
I do have 2048MB DDR PC3200 double sided, but HP does not have bios updates on it's site. I am running V3.07 and when I put in the new ram I can hear the fan running, buy get a black screen. This is why I think it is a bios issue. Do you know if the V3.21 will fix this problem or should I try one of the Asus Bios listed under the A7N8X-Deluxe or VM listings?
DO NOT TRY ANY ASUS BIOS FOR THE A7N8X-LA IT WILL NOT WORK!!!
Doing this will make your board unusable!!!!! You have been warned..
2048 MB Smartmodual PC2700 CL2.5 (1024x2)will work on these boards or at least it does on my focus Board bios revision 3.07 HP model a384x and it is Rock Solid
Ok here are the specs for the Focus board
Maximum memory size is up to 2GB, 1GB per slot (the PC manufacturer's recommended maximum memory may differ)
Supports PC2700/PC2100
Even though the manual says PC2700/PC2100 it should run PC3200 like Kingston
There are many versions of the A7N8X-LA motherboard, the Focus, Kelute. Explorer and Explorer2 for example and they are all a little different so if you are going to attempt to flash your bios make sure you get the right one. They can be identified by the little white sticker on the bios chip eg Focus 3.07 etc
I tried attaching the real manual for the focus motherboard but I get an error "Your file of 644.1 KB bytes exceeds the forum's limit of 488.3 KB for this filetype." You need an admin to fix that in the control panel.
Like how are those of us with the knowlage supposed to try and help others, a lot of motherboard manuals and bios files exceed 488.3 kb.
Oh well it does not matter its not my site and probably why i have not been here for a while.
Its hard to help someone when your hands are tied. LOL
Anyway if you are getting a black screen with the new memory try one stick at a time and try it in both slots, you could have a bad stick but most likely you have the wrong memory density even though it its double sided.
All low density 1GB modules are made with 16 chips (8 chips on each side) using 64Mx8 device.
All high density 1GB modules are made with 16 chips (8 chips on each side) using 128Mx4 device.
LOW DENSITY modules have 100% compatibility with ALL systems and ALL chipsets as it fully follows JEDEC guidelines.
HIGH DENSITY modules only have 10% compatibility and are VERY SLOW as it breaks all JEDEC guidelines.
This is also why almost all Branded-Name systems such as Apple/MAC, Compaq/HP, Dell and IBM only uses LOW DENSITY modules.
This page is a good read to get to know about memory
YEZOK; I have an HP a220n Pavillon that WILL NOT BOOT-UP, STUCK ASLEEP? (XP SP2, A7N8X-LA MBO, Award BIOS 5LE EXPLE 3 12 on top sticker). All hardware is standard from the box as purchased in 9/2003 with no hardware additions except for extra memory 2 years ago. As I recall, in November 2008, this system went into sleep/standby mode after on-line Windows updates and never woke up. I am a novice, and in my free time, I've been trying to fix this PC but after numerous attempts it just doesn't seem to want to wake-up. System will only power down by holding power switch in for a few seconds. Upon power up, all three fans are working and power supply green light is on, but there is black monitor screen and no progression to windows start-up screens or messages whatsoever. Neither keyboard nor mouse are operational. I've tried a different f1503 monitor that I know is operational, but no changes. PC recovery disc does not help in the recovery process when in cd-rom even though CD-ROM lights do flicker for a short time. Upon power-up, front HD LED will stay lit for 10-20 seconds but then goes out. I don't mind doing a complete system recovery but this PC system doesn't seem to want to wake-up, recover, or restart under any circumstances. I've cleared CMOS and password, and performed the other suggestions from HP for troubleshooting start-up problems, but still no luck. This PC was well taken care of, is sufficient for much of my home use, and I don't want to trash-it if I can get it back operational for not too much $$. Reprogramming existing BIOS chip or buying new BIOS chip may be my next best step but I don’t know what BIOS version to use. Since you espouse to have lots of experience with this style A7N8X-LA MBO, what is your next best recommendation? If it is to have you re-program the BIOS chip from my a220n, which BIOS version would you program to? How best to contact you for shipping info if I want to send BIOS chip to you for reprogramming? Thanks!
The first thing we have to do is determine exactly which A7N8X-LA we are working with.
Award BIOS 5LE EXPLE 3 12
This does not seem right as HP usually uses a phoenix bios based on the ASUS/AMI bios.
[html]http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?product=329076&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&docname=c00006476[/html] Are you sure you typed that in exactly as it is on the sticker. The sticker should have the name of the board in brackets eg. (Explorer) or (Explorer-2).
Can you take a picture of the bios chip sticker and the sticker on the pink parallel port it will have a bar code and number xxxxxxx-xxxxxx.
Windows update will not update your bios so you can pretty much rule that out, Windows update will update your O/S and drivers and may cause your system to not boot the O/S but that will not cause the system to not post, you should always see the HP splash screen a couple of seconds after pressing the power button. If you do not see the blue HP splash screen that would indicate a problem with the board, memory or video.
Do you get any beep codes after powering on?
Did your try to unplug the HDD, CD-ROM from the board and re-seating the memory.
If you are using the on-board video did you try putting in an AGP or PCI card and seeing if it will post?
I don't think it is the bios if you were not trying to update it when it happened, It just may be co-incidental that it happened at the time you were doing updates.
Did you look for bad caps on the board and in the power supply? google bad caps then click images so as to help identify them.
I suspect it is most likely the IGP North-bridge Video/Memory controller, They tend to run hot and sometimes the connections can separate from the board over time, there is no way to fix this with out re-balling the chip which requires some expensive equipment .
You may wish to try placing some folded cardboard or other compressive non conductive medium under the north-bridge and apply pressure to the top of the heatsink and power on to see if it will post don't press to hard because you do not want to crack the board.
As for the best bios version 3.12 or 3.21 a lot of users do not like 3.21 as they had problems with it, but this usually does not occur if you restore from the CD after updating to 3.21 as 3.21 changes some of the parameters for the hardware that windows and the drivers do not like to have changed once installed and that is what causes the instability.
If you wish to contact me to get my shipping info just click my user name beside on of my posts and send me a private message on the next page and I will reply with the details.
i just got this board second hands and i wil try to test it soon
on the bios chip sticker is :
Qb2
EXPLH
3.15
exactly in 3 lines , and on the printer port sticker is :
M7A67M 2.02-D04
HP P/N 5187-4885
C3AS707-00242
just for information ... i really hope there is a fine bios on it ..
if i got sucsesfully fired up this board i will post more information
properly i even can try make an copy of the bios on disk
i really dont know were this board is coming from but it was cheap
i payed less for a board cpu and ram so if the board is fail ...
i still have a cpu and ram for not too much
YEZOK; I have an HP a220n Pavillon that WILL NOT BOOT-UP, STUCK ASLEEP? (XP SP2, A7N8X-LA MBO, Award BIOS 5LE EXPLE 3 12 on top sticker). All hardware is standard from the box as purchased in 9/2003 with no hardware additions except for extra memory 2 years ago. As I recall, in November 2008, this system went into sleep/standby mode after on-line Windows updates and never woke up. I am a novice, and in my free time, I've been trying to fix this PC but after numerous attempts it just doesn't seem to want to wake-up. System will only power down by holding power switch in for a few seconds. Upon power up, all three fans are working and power supply green light is on, but there is black monitor screen and no progression to windows start-up screens or messages whatsoever. Neither keyboard nor mouse are operational. I've tried a different f1503 monitor that I know is operational, but no changes. PC recovery disc does not help in the recovery process when in cd-rom even though CD-ROM lights do flicker for a short time. Upon power-up, front HD LED will stay lit for 10-20 seconds but then goes out. I don't mind doing a complete system recovery but this PC system doesn't seem to want to wake-up, recover, or restart under any circumstances. I've cleared CMOS and password, and performed the other suggestions from HP for troubleshooting start-up problems, but still no luck. This PC was well taken care of, is sufficient for much of my home use, and I don't want to trash-it if I can get it back operational for not too much $$. Reprogramming existing BIOS chip or buying new BIOS chip may be my next best step but I don’t know what BIOS version to use. Since you espouse to have lots of experience with this style A7N8X-LA MBO, what is your next best recommendation? If it is to have you re-program the BIOS chip from my a220n, which BIOS version would you program to? How best to contact you for shipping info if I want to send BIOS chip to you for reprogramming? Thanks!
YEZOK: Thank you for your responses; I appreciate your interest in my problem. My answers to your questions are in BOLD below. I also have photos if I can figure out how to get them to you.
You said:
The first thing we have to do is determine exactly which A7N8X-LA we are working with. (5L3 EXPLE 3 12, Photo #1)
Are you sure you typed that in exactly as it is on the sticker. The sticker should have the name of the board in brackets eg. (Explorer) or (Explorer-2). Can you take a picture of the bios chip sticker and the sticker on the pink parallel port it will have a bar code and number xxxxxxx-xxxxxx (C38B050-02126, Photo 3).
Windows update will not update your bios so you can pretty much rule that out, Windows update will update your O/S and drivers and may cause your system to not boot the O/S but that will not cause the system to not post, you should always see the HP splash screen a couple of seconds after pressing the power button (No HP Splash Screen, just completely black screen). If you do not see the blue HP splash screen that would indicate a problem with the board, memory or video. (Memory cards (2) of Corsair VS512MB333, Photo #4)
Do you get any beep codes after powering on? (NO BEEP CODES, No Video, seemingly NO keyboard)
Did your try to unplug the HDD, CD-ROM from the board and re-seating the memory. (YES, I’ve removed every piece of hardware and all removable boards then added each back in but no difference in symptoms)
If you are using the on-board video (YES Nivedia) did you try putting in an AGP or PCI card and seeing if it will post? (DO NOT HAVE POST CARD… yet). I don't think it is the bios if you were not trying to update it when it happened, It just may be co-incidental that it happened at the time you were doing updates.
Did you look for bad caps on the board and in the power supply? google bad caps then click images so as to help identify them.(Googled “bad caps†and with magnifying glass & flashlight I see no bad capacitors (no oozing, bulging, or swelling). In addition, I swapped power supplies operational from another system but there was no difference in symptoms).
I suspect it is most likely the IGP North-bridge Video/Memory controller, They tend to run hot and sometimes the connections can separate from the board over time, there is no way to fix this with out re-balling the chip which requires some expensive equipment referrelative="t" o:spt="75" coordsize="21600,21600">ath o:connecttype="rect" gradientshapeok="t" o:extrusionok="f">ath>. (As near as I can see, there appears to be no separations on top or bottom of MBO, photos 7, 8, & #9. You may wish to try placing some folded cardboard or other compressive non conductive medium under the north-bridge and apply pressure to the top of the heatsink and power on to see if it will post don't press to hard because you do not want to crack the board. (Triedto do so but No Difference in symptoms)
As for the best bios version 3.12 or 3.21 a lot of users do not like 3.21 as they had problems with it, but this usually does not occur if you restore from the CD after updating to 3.21 as 3.21 changes some of the parameters for the hardware that windows and the drivers do not like to have changed once installed and that is what causes the instability.
If you wish to contact me to get my shipping info just click my user name beside on of my posts and send me a private message on the next page and I will reply with the details.
(My answers to your questions are in BOLD below. I also have photos if I can figure out how to get them to you.)
In order to insert pictures to your post you have to upload them to something like photo bucket and then click the insert image button and paste in the url of where you have your pics uploaded. there are a lot of free ones.
exactly which A7N8X-LA we are working with. (5L3 EXPLE 3 12, Photo #1) I don't see the photo but that number on the bios sticker is just weird I have never come across that one. It could be an explorer4 -GL6E but with out actually being able to see it I am just guessing
BIOS chip is actually an SST 49LF040 33-4C-NH 0321063-BA, see Photo #2) The SST 49LF040 is a 4Mbit LPC flash and is the correct type
Are you sure you typed that in exactly as it is on the sticker. The sticker should have the name of the board in brackets eg. (Explorer) or (Explorer-2). Can you take a picture of the bios chip sticker and the sticker on the pink parallel port it will have a bar code and number xxxxxxx-xxxxxx (C38B050-02126, Photo 3).
That number means nothing it's probably the hardware BOM. The A7N8X-LA boards are usually numbered like this
HP P/N 5187-6189 HP P/N 5187-4343 HP P/N 5187-4884 HP P/N 5187-4113
Look for one of these numbers or something similar on the sticker on the pink parallel connector
(NO BEEP CODES, No Video, seemingly NO keyboard) Not good she is a dead horse. probably a bad Mosfet in the the on-board SMPS or a bad pulse width modulater.
(DO NOT HAVE POST CARD… yet). post card will probably hang at 00 or C0 which does not tell you much because the processor is not initializing due to a failed component.
(Googled “bad caps†and with magnifying glass & flashlight I see no bad capacitors (no oozing, bulging, or swelling). In addition, I swapped power supplies operational from another system but there was no difference in symptoms). Sometimes a cap will look good but have an internal short or really high ESR (equivalent series resistance) which you need an ESR meter to test.
Power the board up and let it run for a few minutes then with the tip of your finger touch the metal top of each capacitor can for a few seconds are any of them warm to the touch?
As for checking the north bridge it is impossible to see whats happenting between the chip and the board The nVIDIA nForce2 IGP North Bridge Revision A2 is a 840 Pin BGA Package and you will never see any of the balls other that the ones around the outside so its impossible to tell if any have a cold joint but somtimes the preasure trick works.
You would be better off finding a board on eBay, HP will hose you 300-400 bucks for a replacement.
Keep in mind that you must replace it with the same exact model or you restore CD will not work because these machines are SLP system locked pre-install and they check the bios for the tattoo. No tattoo restore CD no worky, If you use an off the shelf msi or other board the only way around that is to borrow a XP Home OEM disk and install with your key off the side of the machine and activate over the phone, it must be an OEM version a retail version will not work.
When you talk to mickey-soft do not tell them you changed the board because your operating system is licensed to the A7N8X-LA motherboard, all they need to know is that you replaced the hard drive because it died and found out that your recovery Cd's that you burned with the HP Recovery program program wont work " Error reading disk when you try to boot off it" so you took the OEM disk your other computer and installed with your COA Key off your HP computer and they will activate it over the phone.
I will send PM you my email address and you can send me the pictures of the board sticker and maybe we can figure out exactly which model you have and go from there .
If you wish to contact me to get my shipping info just click my user name beside on of my posts and send me a private message on the next page and I will reply with the details. I will PM you my contact details so you can email me the pics of that board.
i just got this board second hands and i wil try to test it soon
on the bios chip sticker is :
Qb2
EXPLH
3.15
exactly in 3 lines , and on the printer port sticker is :
M7A67M 2.02-D04
HP P/N 5187-4885
C3AS707-00242
just for information ... i really hope there is a fine bios on it ..
if i got sucsesfully fired up this board i will post more information
properly i even can try make an copy of the bios on disk
i really dont know were this board is coming from but it was cheap
i payed less for a board cpu and ram so if the board is fail ...
i still have a cpu and ram for not too much
more comes
PARCIFAL:
What tool(s) will you use to determine if the MBO, BIOS, and Memory are OK?
What tool(s) will you use to determine if the MBO, BIOS, and Memory are OK?
at the moment testing some other boards and after that i will try to power up the asus
i using lots of benchmarks tools
superpi pifast wprime .. and i have lots of memmory modules to try so we will see
most important is that the bios has options engough for speed and voltage / timings
if thats is missing is no board for overclock but just something for a regulair pc
i think i will get work on it tomorow
I as many others have flashed my 3.7 A7N8X-LA (Compaq S5500UK, Focus chip) to the hp 3.21 which rendered my PC useless, if i turn it on it wont turn on the screen and nothing else happens and of course i cant access the bios page.
I read here and elsewhere that it is possible to make a bootable floppy or cd and revert the bios to 3.7.
Does anyone know how can i do this? Does anyone have the necessary instructions?
Comments
Thanks for the offer but I moved on long ago.
The A7N8X-LA should have no problem supporting 2GB of Ram but you may to buy the right type of Ram.
The A7N8x-LA should support 2048MB DDR SDRAM PC3200 If I remember correctly it must be double sided, by this I mean that each stick is two banks. As a rule of thumb if it from HP you need double sided ram. The bios supports 4 banks but the board only has 2 slots hence double sided ram
I may be interested in it as I fix up old computers and give them to computers for kids (local Charity).
DO NOT TRY ANY ASUS BIOS FOR THE A7N8X-LA IT WILL NOT WORK !!!
Doing this will make your board unusable!!!!! You have been warned..
2048 MB Smartmodual PC2700 CL2.5 (1024x2)will work on these boards or at least it does on my focus Board bios revision 3.07 HP model a384x and it is Rock Solid
Ok here are the specs for the Focus board The manual says Supports
- Two 184-pin DDR DIMM
- Maximum memory size is up to 2GB, 1GB per slot (the PC manufacturer's recommended maximum memory may differ)
- Supports PC2700/PC2100
Even though the manual says PC2700/PC2100 it should run PC3200 like KingstonThere are many versions of the A7N8X-LA motherboard, the Focus, Kelute. Explorer and Explorer2 for example and they are all a little different so if you are going to attempt to flash your bios make sure you get the right one. They can be identified by the little white sticker on the bios chip eg Focus 3.07 etc
I tried attaching the real manual for the focus motherboard but I get an error "Your file of 644.1 KB bytes exceeds the forum's limit of 488.3 KB for this filetype." You need an admin to fix that in the control panel.
Like how are those of us with the knowlage supposed to try and help others, a lot of motherboard manuals and bios files exceed 488.3 kb.
Oh well it does not matter its not my site and probably why i have not been here for a while.
Its hard to help someone when your hands are tied. LOL
Anyway if you are getting a black screen with the new memory try one stick at a time and try it in both slots, you could have a bad stick but most likely you have the wrong memory density even though it its double sided.
- LOW DENSITY modules have 100% compatibility with ALL systems and ALL chipsets as it fully follows JEDEC guidelines.
- HIGH DENSITY modules only have 10% compatibility and are VERY SLOW as it breaks all JEDEC guidelines.
This is also why almost all Branded-Name systems such as Apple/MAC, Compaq/HP, Dell and IBM only uses LOW DENSITY modules.This page is a good read to get to know about memory
Hope this clears things up check your sticker on the memory it will say the density and follow the memory guide when you upgrade.
Later People
Yezok
The first thing we have to do is determine exactly which A7N8X-LA we are working with. This does not seem right as HP usually uses a phoenix bios based on the ASUS/AMI bios.
[html]http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?product=329076&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&docname=c00006476[/html] Are you sure you typed that in exactly as it is on the sticker. The sticker should have the name of the board in brackets eg. (Explorer) or (Explorer-2).
Can you take a picture of the bios chip sticker and the sticker on the pink parallel port it will have a bar code and number xxxxxxx-xxxxxx.
Windows update will not update your bios so you can pretty much rule that out, Windows update will update your O/S and drivers and may cause your system to not boot the O/S but that will not cause the system to not post, you should always see the HP splash screen a couple of seconds after pressing the power button. If you do not see the blue HP splash screen that would indicate a problem with the board, memory or video.
Do you get any beep codes after powering on?
Did your try to unplug the HDD, CD-ROM from the board and re-seating the memory.
If you are using the on-board video did you try putting in an AGP or PCI card and seeing if it will post?
I don't think it is the bios if you were not trying to update it when it happened, It just may be co-incidental that it happened at the time you were doing updates.
Did you look for bad caps on the board and in the power supply? google bad caps then click images so as to help identify them.
I suspect it is most likely the IGP North-bridge Video/Memory controller, They tend to run hot and sometimes the connections can separate from the board over time, there is no way to fix this with out re-balling the chip which requires some expensive equipment
You may wish to try placing some folded cardboard or other compressive non conductive medium under the north-bridge and apply pressure to the top of the heatsink and power on to see if it will post don't press to hard because you do not want to crack the board.
As for the best bios version 3.12 or 3.21 a lot of users do not like 3.21 as they had problems with it, but this usually does not occur if you restore from the CD after updating to 3.21 as 3.21 changes some of the parameters for the hardware that windows and the drivers do not like to have changed once installed and that is what causes the instability.
If you wish to contact me to get my shipping info just click my user name beside on of my posts and send me a private message on the next page and I will reply with the details.
on the bios chip sticker is :
Qb2
EXPLH
3.15
exactly in 3 lines , and on the printer port sticker is :
M7A67M 2.02-D04
HP P/N 5187-4885
C3AS707-00242
just for information ... i really hope there is a fine bios on it ..
if i got sucsesfully fired up this board i will post more information
properly i even can try make an copy of the bios on disk
i really dont know were this board is coming from but it was cheap
i payed less for a board cpu and ram so if the board is fail ...
i still have a cpu and ram for not too much
more comes
____________________________________________________
YEZOK: Thank you for your responses; I appreciate your interest in my problem. My answers to your questions are in BOLD below. I also have photos if I can figure out how to get them to you.
You said:
The first thing we have to do is determine exactly which A7N8X-LA we are working with. (5L3 EXPLE 3 12, Photo #1)
Award BIOS 5LE EXPLE 3 12, this does not seem right as HP usually uses a phoenix bios based on the ASUS/AMI bios. (You are correct, I got incorrect information from a HP Spec Sheet, BIOS chip is actually an SST 49LF040 33-4C-NH 0321063-BA, see Photo #2)
HTML Code:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?product=329076&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&docname=c00006476
Are you sure you typed that in exactly as it is on the sticker. The sticker should have the name of the board in brackets eg. (Explorer) or (Explorer-2). Can you take a picture of the bios chip sticker and the sticker on the pink parallel port it will have a bar code and number xxxxxxx-xxxxxx (C38B050-02126, Photo 3).
Windows update will not update your bios so you can pretty much rule that out, Windows update will update your O/S and drivers and may cause your system to not boot the O/S but that will not cause the system to not post, you should always see the HP splash screen a couple of seconds after pressing the power button (No HP Splash Screen, just completely black screen). If you do not see the blue HP splash screen that would indicate a problem with the board, memory or video. (Memory cards (2) of Corsair VS512MB333, Photo #4)
Do you get any beep codes after powering on? (NO BEEP CODES, No Video, seemingly NO keyboard)
Did your try to unplug the HDD, CD-ROM from the board and re-seating the memory. (YES, I’ve removed every piece of hardware and all removable boards then added each back in but no difference in symptoms)
If you are using the on-board video (YES Nivedia) did you try putting in an AGP or PCI card and seeing if it will post? (DO NOT HAVE POST CARD… yet). I don't think it is the bios if you were not trying to update it when it happened, It just may be co-incidental that it happened at the time you were doing updates.
Did you look for bad caps on the board and in the power supply? google bad caps then click images so as to help identify them.(Googled “bad caps†and with magnifying glass & flashlight I see no bad capacitors (no oozing, bulging, or swelling). In addition, I swapped power supplies operational from another system but there was no difference in symptoms).
I suspect it is most likely the IGP North-bridge Video/Memory controller, They tend to run hot and sometimes the connections can separate from the board over time, there is no way to fix this with out re-balling the chip which requires some expensive equipment referrelative="t" o:spt="75" coordsize="21600,21600">ath o:connecttype="rect" gradientshapeok="t" o:extrusionok="f">ath>. (As near as I can see, there appears to be no separations on top or bottom of MBO, photos 7, 8, & #9. You may wish to try placing some folded cardboard or other compressive non conductive medium under the north-bridge and apply pressure to the top of the heatsink and power on to see if it will post don't press to hard because you do not want to crack the board. (Triedto do so but No Difference in symptoms)
As for the best bios version 3.12 or 3.21 a lot of users do not like 3.21 as they had problems with it, but this usually does not occur if you restore from the CD after updating to 3.21 as 3.21 changes some of the parameters for the hardware that windows and the drivers do not like to have changed once installed and that is what causes the instability.
If you wish to contact me to get my shipping info just click my user name beside on of my posts and send me a private message on the next page and I will reply with the details.
In order to insert pictures to your post you have to upload them to something like photo bucket and then click the insert image button and paste in the url of where you have your pics uploaded. there are a lot of free ones.
exactly which A7N8X-LA we are working with. (5L3 EXPLE 3 12, Photo #1)
I don't see the photo but that number on the bios sticker is just weird I have never come across that one. It could be an explorer4 -GL6E but with out actually being able to see it I am just guessing
BIOS chip is actually an SST 49LF040 33-4C-NH 0321063-BA, see Photo #2)
The SST 49LF040 is a 4Mbit LPC flash and is the correct type
Are you sure you typed that in exactly as it is on the sticker. The sticker should have the name of the board in brackets eg. (Explorer) or (Explorer-2). Can you take a picture of the bios chip sticker and the sticker on the pink parallel port it will have a bar code and number xxxxxxx-xxxxxx (C38B050-02126, Photo 3).
That number means nothing it's probably the hardware BOM. The A7N8X-LA boards are usually numbered like this
HP P/N 5187-6189 HP P/N 5187-4343 HP P/N 5187-4884 HP P/N 5187-4113
Look for one of these numbers or something similar on the sticker on the pink parallel connector
(NO BEEP CODES, No Video, seemingly NO keyboard) Not good she is a dead horse. probably a bad Mosfet in the the on-board SMPS or a bad pulse width modulater.
(DO NOT HAVE POST CARD… yet). post card will probably hang at 00 or C0 which does not tell you much because the processor is not initializing due to a failed component.
(Googled “bad caps†and with magnifying glass & flashlight I see no bad capacitors (no oozing, bulging, or swelling). In addition, I swapped power supplies operational from another system but there was no difference in symptoms).
Sometimes a cap will look good but have an internal short or really high ESR (equivalent series resistance) which you need an ESR meter to test.
Power the board up and let it run for a few minutes then with the tip of your finger touch the metal top of each capacitor can for a few seconds are any of them warm to the touch?
As for checking the north bridge it is impossible to see whats happenting between the chip and the board The nVIDIA nForce2 IGP North Bridge Revision A2 is a 840 Pin BGA Package and you will never see any of the balls other that the ones around the outside so its impossible to tell if any have a cold joint but somtimes the preasure trick works.
You would be better off finding a board on eBay, HP will hose you 300-400 bucks for a replacement.
Keep in mind that you must replace it with the same exact model or you restore CD will not work because these machines are SLP system locked pre-install and they check the bios for the tattoo. No tattoo restore CD no worky, If you use an off the shelf msi or other board the only way around that is to borrow a XP Home OEM disk and install with your key off the side of the machine and activate over the phone, it must be an OEM version a retail version will not work.
When you talk to mickey-soft do not tell them you changed the board because your operating system is licensed to the A7N8X-LA motherboard, all they need to know is that you replaced the hard drive because it died and found out that your recovery Cd's that you burned with the HP Recovery program program wont work " Error reading disk when you try to boot off it" so you took the OEM disk your other computer and installed with your COA Key off your HP computer and they will activate it over the phone.
I will send PM you my email address and you can send me the pictures of the board sticker and maybe we can figure out exactly which model you have and go from there .
If you wish to contact me to get my shipping info just click my user name beside on of my posts and send me a private message on the next page and I will reply with the details.
I will PM you my contact details so you can email me the pics of that board.
PARCIFAL:
What tool(s) will you use to determine if the MBO, BIOS, and Memory are OK?
at the moment testing some other boards and after that i will try to power up the asus
i using lots of benchmarks tools
superpi pifast wprime .. and i have lots of memmory modules to try so we will see
most important is that the bios has options engough for speed and voltage / timings
if thats is missing is no board for overclock but just something for a regulair pc
i think i will get work on it tomorow
I as many others have flashed my 3.7 A7N8X-LA (Compaq S5500UK, Focus chip) to the hp 3.21 which rendered my PC useless, if i turn it on it wont turn on the screen and nothing else happens and of course i cant access the bios page.
I read here and elsewhere that it is possible to make a bootable floppy or cd and revert the bios to 3.7.
Does anyone know how can i do this? Does anyone have the necessary instructions?
Please advise!
Thanks,
Nikola