2 Dead MB, not Posting (no post for me!)

[Jerky15010]

Can anyone help me??

I put together a system that booted once, enough for me to get into the bios, load system defaults and it will not restart- no beeps. power is on, fans spin, including cpu fan but no boot

SY-KT400 DRAGON ULTRA SOYO(PLAT)
athlon xp 2100
mushkin 3200 - 256
VGA ATI|A-I-W RADEON 7500 64MB RTL
enermax POWER SP|350W(P4)EG365P-VE(FMA) (says amd approved)

stripped down to just the basics, still no post

got a a-open mb from a friend, booted to bios, went to restart, same problem, no post, no beeps, fans spinning
do we have two dead motherboards?

do I get another MB and different power supply? please help

Jerky

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Just try a different PSU first, it's highly unlikely the exact same symptoms would be caused by 2 different boards. Clearing the CMOS and manually picking DDR333 for the ram, picking the most conservative timings, and even increasing the vDIMM a bit to see if the ram is having trouble running in spec would be a good idea as well. Also, have you eliminated heat issues? are you certain the heatsink and fan are mounted correctly and plugged in the correct fan header(this turned up in a thread the other day so I'm starting to ask that myself now because even though it's super basic anyone can make a mistake )?

 

[Jerky15010]

Thanks for helping!!

I did the clear cmos thing on both boards and no go.

I believe the heat sink to be correctly installed. currect paste, and fan plugged in to 3 pin connector (saw that on other thread as well

I'm working on getting another atx power supply to try. (just got a call from a friend who will lend me one)

I can't get into any bios settings any more- only the once- I did check the heat setting in the "pc health" at the time and it seemed ok.

cross your fingers- I'll post results.

Jerky

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Good luck EDIT: If you can get some 2100/2700DDR give it a try as well if the PSU alone doesn't get it going.

 

[Jerky15010]

thanks again-

any other suggestions are welcome and begged for!!

Jerky

 

[Jerky15010]

UPDATE:

put in new ps only a 250 wt but it should do the job

got a series of beeps 1 long....1 long.....1 long.... etc... no screen msg

the board I have in there now (a-open loner) uses award bios which i gather uses few beep codes but 1 long might be memory

moved memory (mushkin 3200 256) to middle slot

board started up / got into bios took defaults

began setting up windows

system froze at "windows getting list of files..." or something like that

I hit reset

back to original problem (no beeps, some power on, no screen msg, fans spinning)

so..... does that mean
soyo mb good?
power suppy good?

that leaves
memory
vid card
processor

am I thinking right?

wife is starting to ask questions and dog looks at me funny.. please help

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Hahahahahahahaha! "dog looks at me funny" That's the funniest sh*t I've heard in an age!!! Sounds like the memory to me brudda, so eliminate that before moving on.

 

[Jerky15010]

update #2

put soyo mb in with new power supply

no response, no bios, nothing

moved memory to all 3 dimms, nothing

pretty vexed over here

any ideas out there?

Jerky


now my dog is asking the questions and my wife is looking at me funny

 

[DAPUNISHER]

2 words, different memory!

 

[Legendary]

Try switching your RAM first. Then the video card. Then the processor. Whichever one makes it work is the broken part.
That's what I did with a computer of my friend's in fact.

 

[mechBgon]

SOYO AMD boards typically default to not POSTing unless they are getting RPM readings over 2100RPM on the CPU_FAN header. You can override by holding down the INSERT key while powering the system on, until it POSTs. Then go into the BIOS and disable Fan-Off Control (FOC). Fans which don't send an RPM signal, or whose signal is too low for the board to read, may need this done. I know you mentioned seeing this, but do try the INSERT key trick and maybe you'll succeed. And go back to the Enermax PSU

 

[Jerky15010]

thanks mech. tried the insert key thing, no go

working on switching ram and / or making sure case is not issue (by starting outside of it)

I'll let you all know

Jerky

 

[Jerky15010]

next update

put in new ram- 256 of pny 2100 = no go! same old lights on, fans spinning, no beeps

started board on non-static sheet to eliminate shorting = no go


suggestions....???

replace board? I still can exchange
what else?

Jerky

thanks for helping

 

[mechBgon]

Is the Clear CMOS jumper on the normal position? If it were on the Clear position, that could cause this too.

 

[Jerky15010]

good idea but it's in the right place. I've tried that a bunch of times.


Jerky

 

[Storm]

Originally posted by: Jerky15010
UPDATE:

put in new ps only a 250 wt but it should do the job

got a series of beeps 1 long....1 long.....1 long.... etc... no screen msg

the board I have in there now (a-open loner) uses award bios which i gather uses few beep codes but 1 long might be memory

moved memory (mushkin 3200 256) to middle slot

board started up / got into bios took defaults

began setting up windows

system froze at "windows getting list of files..." or something like that

I hit reset

back to original problem (no beeps, some power on, no screen msg, fans spinning)

so..... does that mean
soyo mb good?
power suppy good?

that leaves
memory
vid card
processor

am I thinking right?

wife is starting to ask questions and dog looks at me funny.. please help

Who was the manufacturer of the bios when you got the 3 long beeps?

 

[Jerky15010]

Thanks for helping,

I would call the beeps more of 1 long beep over and over that would have kept going. The bios was Award on an a-open board.

This is what Soyo sent me (I'm surpised they replied). My comments in *....*

If theres No beep, and theres no POST this means the CPU, and the board are
not transferring any signal codes. In this case follow these steps:


- Please be sure CPU is seated properly. *done this a couple of times*

- Please be sure JP5 is set on Pins 1-2. System will not work if JP5 is set
on 2-3. *good*

- Check jumper setting for CPU (if applicable) , try to lower the CPU
frequency if possible(e.g. set a 500MHz CPU to 450MHz). *no jumpers on this board*

- Try to remove all unrelated hardware from the computer such as sound card,
modem, NIC, SCSI, and etc...., only leave the CPU, CPU FAN (Be sure CPU fan
is connected to CPU Fan #1 if applicable), Chassis speaker, and the ATX
power plug and the power on/off switch(PWRBT). For P4 users in addition to
the mentioned diagnostics make sure that your power supply is a P4
Certified, which contains both the main ATX (20 Pin), and the 12V(4 Pin
Square) connectors. also please make sure that both connectors are properly
connected and are generating the necessary power to the board. *tried a couple of power supplies*

- Try clear the CMOS via JP5 (make sure power is removed from the board) ,
move jumper cap from pins 1-2 to pins 2-3 and let it sit there for about 10
seconds, after that move the cap back to it's original place(pins 1-2). then
try turning the system ON again and check for beep. *done this a couple times*


- Check if the CPU fan is spinning when power is applied, if not, there's no
power coming in to the M/B. The power supply might be defective. Test your
power supply on a different machine, or try a different power supply on this
machine. This will determine if the power supply is good or bad. *good supply?, fans spining*


- Pull the board out from the case and isolate it on a flat non-conductive
surface (wood or plastic). And try steps 1~6 again. If theres still no beeps
then check & make sure the power is coming on and CPU fan is turning. If
fans are not turning it means power switch or the power supply could be
faulty. Try to replace the power supply first. *done this, no beeps*

- If the above mentioned steps fail, please try a different processor. it is
very much possible that your processor, is defective, or damaged during
installation *trying to get another processor to try this, I'll post when I do*

Seriously, thanks for all the help this forum is offering me! I don't think I would know what to do. Please keep it up. Besides processor, what should I try next??

Thanks everyone,

Jerky

 

[mechBgon]

Are you positive that your heatsink isn't reversed? It has a step in one end of the base which MUST go over the solid end of the CPU socket, as shown in figures 7, 13 and 14 of this PDF document. If the heatsink is on wrong, the CPU will overheat very quickly (1 to 5 seconds).

 

[SxRxRnRx]

I am having the same problem with 2 new motherboards and 2 new cpus. The only common parts are the vid card and RAM that would cause my system not to post. When I remove the RAM I get long post beeps with the Phoenix BIOS, but they are single long beeps that happen every few seconds (just like Jerky said he got). When I put the RAM back in, I get nothing. Also, between switching the motherboards and cpu's the system came up, but I had alot of video problems. Then it wouldn't post again! So I can't figure out if it is the video card or the RAM which is faulty.

Is there anyway to isolate those items without trying them on another system or testing replacements?

Could it still be a PS with an intermittent fault?

What are the primary causes of "no post" with no beeps?

Thanks!

 

[Jerky15010]

UPDATE - UPDATE problem fixed

OK first, sorry the delay in trying to figure out the problem- Jerky will be Jerky, PhD someday and work and school called.

This is what I did-

tested the memory in another computer- it worked just fine

got a replacement MB from NEgg to rule out dead one- still no post

replaced the heatsink and fan- no post for me

got a replacement for my amd 2100 from amd warrenty- it started up like dream with the new processor!
not sure if it matters but the original processor was a palomino (model 6) and the one I got yesterday that works is a thoroughbred (model 8).

So there you have it- it was the processor

Thanks for all those who helped and good luck to those still out there- hope my case can help

Jerky

 

[WeeWolf]

Just FYI for the other fellow wondering about the codes this is what Pheonix has to say about Award beep codes:
The only AwardBIOS beep code indicates that a video error has occurred and the BIOS cannot initialize the video screen to display any additional information. This beep code consists of a single long beep followed by two short beeps. Any other beeps are probably a RAM (Random Access Memory) problems.

That is taken right off of their site. So apparently there are different beep codes but they no longer feel the need to describe them all even though they imply there is only one other type of beep code.
Good luck