8K3A+ Boot Problems / R U Up for the challenge?

[CtJester]

Hi there,

I am seeking advice from hardware gurus regarding an Epox 8k3a+ motherboard combo with an Athlon XP 1900 and Kingston 2700 DDR memory. Here's the scoop:

Mounted an Athlon 1900 XP processor, and Kingston (non ECC) 2700 DDR 256 MB memory (slots 1 & 2) onto Epox 8k3a+ motherboard and placed motherboard into Antec 1030 SOHO case powered by a 600 w dual fan power supply. After plugging the power into the motherboard and hooking in the power switch to the motherboard I proceeded to seat a Soltek Geforce 4 64mb video card into the AGP slot. Once this was done, I decided to verify that the computer will post without hard drives, keyboards, etc. I plugged the video cable into the video card, powered up the monitor and flicked the power on.

Instead of posting and telling me no hard drives, keyboard etc were found I received no video due to the C1 error message (memory). At said time I reseated the memory several times to no avail. Then, I got a wild hair and decided to reseat everything. So I powered everything down reseated the video (even though we aren't that far); reseated the CPU and memory. Upon firing back up, the LED display no longer fired up. Of course, still no video, (nope, we did not blow by the FF or anything else - simply no CODE LED whatsoever). The simple light LED on the motherboard lights up, of course all the fans (including CPU fan fire up); but the CODE LED does not come up whatsoever. I decideded to pull the DDR chip in slot 2 tried again to no avail and then swapped out the chip in slot 1 again with the same result.

At this point I am presuming that either my motherboard might be bad? I am also wondering is it safe to try and post without a processor mounted on the board? I am wondering if possibly the processor might be bad? What's the best way to prove either/or if I dont have a spare components to swap out for either?

I look forward to hearing any responses any of you might have and appreciate your assistance. Well there you have it, the challenge has been made - can you fix me? And make me the happiest guy in Kansas with his new toy? haha

Travis

 

[RemyCanad]

Make sure your motherboard is not grounded. On my Soyo Dragon Ultra there is a hole that you cannot use metal standoff on, and of course my Antec 1240sx does not allow plastic standoffs so I just didn't put on on there. I have no clue if yours has one or not.

Take out everything but your CPU and graphics card. Do you get any beap codes? Do you get any codes at all?

I would also reset the BIOS. You should always do that when you install a new motherboard.

 

[GAZZA]

I would go as far as to take everything out of your case including your motherboard and seat it on the antistatic bag it came it , leave cpu,memory and video card installed and then hook your psu up and try once more , this is a sure way to make sure your not grounding your motherboard.

If you still have no luck I'd suggeset you may need a new mobo especially if no LED code lights up.