A8V won't post

[slpaulson]

I just tried installing an Asus A8V with a 3500 Winchester, and it refuses to boot. My motherboard came with the 1007 bios, which I've been told should support Winchester CPUs. When I boot it says CPU test failed over the speakers. I never get any video. I've tried running with just a 512 stick of crucial in dimm b1, and with only a stick of Samsung in b1 with the same results. I'm thinking maybe this is a problem with my power supply because I've heard of a few problems with Antecs and A64 boards lately. My powersupply is an Antec True 380 from a Sonata. I've been running this with just the bare essentials, without a harddrive or soundcard or any other pci devices plugged in. I've also tried clearing the bios.

Steps I've tried.
1. Reseating the cpu and heatsink.
2. Ran the motherboard outside of the case to make sure it wasn't shorting.
3. Tried to update to a newer bios using the EZflash feature. Hitting alt-f2 does nothing. I tried to get this to work about 20 times, but it never goes to the bios flash utility like I'm told it should.
4. Tried a different video card. I've tried an ATI 9800pro and a Geforce ti4400.
5. Tried different ram.

Any suggestions?

I guess my only options I can think of are trying to get a new bios chip from Asus and trying a new power supply, which I've been thinking of doing anyways.

 

[razorweb]

I am in the exact same boat as you, except i have a 3200+ winchester instead of 3500+ winchester. i think asus just makes a crappy board. i had problems with their k7m back in the day. don't expect any help from their tech support, they could give two craps about you. let me know if anything solves this problem, i am probably gonna return asus and never buy from them again, as i promised myself when my k7m crapped out on me.

 

[Rhin0]

Originally posted by: razorweb
I am in the exact same boat as you, except i have a 3200+ winchester instead of 3500+ winchester. i think asus just makes a crappy board. i had problems with their k7m back in the day. don't expect any help from their tech support, they could give two craps about you. let me know if anything solves this problem, i am probably gonna return asus and never buy from them again, as i promised myself when my k7m crapped out on me.

Well if the tech support won't help and the Bios is the newest that really sucks!!! Kinda makes you think twice about ASUS huh? Most people I know JACK to ASUS. I've seen a lot of bad luck with ASUS Mobo's. I myself prefer the ABIT stuff but had to look to ASUS for a video card this time around. Ended up with an eVGA though since ASUS couldn't meet demand.




And I chose something other than Antec to avoid potential conflicts with my Abit A8V, they make a good PSU though.

 

[mechBgon]

This is probably a dumb question, but you do have your ATX12V cables plugged into the mobo, correct? Also, if you have the fan-monitoring wire from the TruePower380 plugged into the motherboard, unplug it. I've seen boards that get by low-RPM fans and won't POST.

 

[slpaulson]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
This is probably a dumb question, but you do have your ATX12V cables plugged into the mobo, correct? Also, if you have the fan-monitoring wire from the TruePower380 plugged into the motherboard, unplug it. I've seen boards that get by low-RPM fans and won't POST.

Yeah the 12V is plugged in.

I don't have a fan monitoring pin from my power supply plugged into anything. Maybe my cpu fan's rpms are too low, I guess I'll try plugging in a higher rpm fan and report back. I doubt it will work, my old a7n8x would boot fine w/o a cpu fan plugged in, but it's worth a shot.

I've also heard of some newer A64 motherboards having problems booting with an older Antec True power supply. I just emailed Antec and asked them if the A8V is one of them. I guess they acknowleged a problem with MSI's neo2 and Abits AV8.

 

[slpaulson]

plugging a higher rpm fan into the cpu fan header didn't do anything....

 

[mechBgon]

On my Asus A7N8X Deluxe, as with your A8V Deluxe, the board will POST and run without any RPM signal to the CPU FAN header. However, I had some low-RPM case fans that, if plugged into the mobo on any fan header, caused the mobo to freak out and not POST most of the time. One of those things.

If you have the system down to the bare essentials for benchtesting on cardboard and it won't POST with just one module in DIMM_B1, with proven-good parts like the Ti4400, then about the only other brainstorms I can think of would be to ensure the PSU's 115V~230V slide switch is set to 115 volts (since your profile says you live in the US). And make sure your keyboard's in the purple port, not green.

If that wasn't the issue, it's down to the CPU, the motherboard and the power supply, and you can see what Antec says about the power supply, plus test the PSU to confirm it can power some other system.

 

[slpaulson]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
On my Asus A7N8X Deluxe, as with your A8V Deluxe, the board will POST and run without any RPM signal to the CPU FAN header. However, I had some low-RPM case fans that, if plugged into the mobo on any fan header, caused the mobo to freak out and not POST most of the time. One of those things.

If you have the system down to the bare essentials for benchtesting on cardboard and it won't POST with just one module in DIMM_B1, with proven-good parts like the Ti4400, then about the only other brainstorms I can think of would be to ensure the PSU's 115V~230V slide switch is set to 115 volts (since your profile says you live in the US). And make sure your keyboard's in the purple port, not green.

If that wasn't the issue, it's down to the CPU, the motherboard and the power supply, and you can see what Antec says about the power supply, plus test the PSU to confirm it can power some other system.

I know the power supply is good because I was using it in my computer with my A7N8X. It's still on 115V.
I'm going to hear what antec says before I jump the gun on anything. Otherwise I'd guess it's more likely I got a bad motherboard than a bad cpu. I've found out there's quite a few people with this same problem... Some of them were able to fix it by flashing their bios using EZbios. I PMed a few people who had the same issue and I am hoping one of them writes back to tell me if they got theirs fixed. I wish I knew somebody at home who has a decent power supply. I also looked at the bottom of my cpu to make sure I didn't get any thermal grease between the pins, but under a magnifying glass I didn't see anything.

 

[Stilbo]

I am also having this problem too, on a new build.

My A8V Deluxe will not Post. I'm half hoping its a short, so that will mean none of the components are defective. I have had the system together for 2 days now, but it seems I will get one attempt only to boot up, then after that hitting the Case Power switch does nothing. On one of these attempts, I was able to see the BIOS screen (but couldn't get in since my keyboard inputs wouldn't take - possibly a new Keyboard issue as this MS "Internet" version says to install Driver diskette first, so I substituted that with a generic PS2 one).

Here's is what I have connected up so far.

A8V (rev.2, 1007)
FX55
Exos AI using H06 Waterblock
SilenX 520w PS
2 x 512MB OCZ Plat. DDR PC3200 rev2 CL 2-2-2-5
Asus GeForce 3 Ti200
Case: Antec Plusview AMG 1000 ( I am using 9 standoffs that came with it).

I haven't tried using a single stick of RAM yet, or in attempting to Boot with the MB outside of the case on a cardboard box, but I figure thats what I will try next.

 

[phr0m]

try booting up with one stick in slot b1 and see if it will post. I couldnt post in dual channel origianlly either for some reason,but once i got a new psu it worked fine.

 

[Stilbo]

phr0m, just tried that now, and no response at all. Going to try the cardboard box method next. Thanks for the quick response!

 

[rjdonohue]

I am brand new to this task and I am having a very difficult time.

My specs are :
athlon Winchster 3500
Asus A8V deluxe AMI 1007
Corsair memory 1G
SeaGate 200 G Ultima ATA (not SATA)

I followed Seagate's direction to create the Disc Wizard (2 floppies) and used these to format and partition the hard drive.

Thereafter I could not get the computer to recognize the HD. ("No Device" "Bios not installed")

Then I created a bootable disc containing the A8V Bios 1009 (original was 1007), loaded AFUDOS to this same disc and booted from it.
The program flashed the Bios and indicated DONE.

From this moment on, I cannot get the computer to boot at all. Yes, it turns on, but no screen.

I very much appreciate your video program for newcomers like me. It is excellent. (I wish I had known about it 2 days ago.)

Any suggestions from this point?
Asus support says that they may be able to get back to me tomorrow.
(I wonder if they are aware of the tremendous negative publicity they are getting fom this problem MOBO. Some product mgr. needs a good kick in the rear!)

Thank you

 

[Stilbo]

UPDATE: Problem fixed!

Turns out my brand new PSU was bad, the SilenX iXtrema Pro 520w. I learned this after a day (and week) of computer hell, and finally swapping in my Enermax E465P-VE to see if that would work. Worked good as a charm first try - with MB on a cardboard box - and then with the MB back in the case. There was never a short. Computer now boots fine, recognizes the FX55, etc.

What was so vexxing was that the MB LED would always come on with the SilenX PSU, plus I was able to power up my EXOS-AI each and everytime using their proscribed "jumper" method. So, did the PSU not have enough juice? At 520w, it is rated higher than my Enermax, but obviously there must be a defect in this particular unit. When I look back on my days of troubleshooting, I remember now that I was always able to get just one good boot from the Comptuter, then nothing, even after clearing the CMOS. I had erroneously concluded that my board was shorting somewhere... but it turns out this was not the case at all.

I will still recommend SilenX since their unit's are very quiet. I am willing to give them another try on the basis that I got stuck with a bad apple.

 

[slpaulson]

If anybody is interested, zipzoomfly says the motherboard tested fine. Trying to do an RMA through zipzoomfly has been quite an adventure. I doubt I'll do much more business with them, but that's another story.

Since then I've bought a new power supply, and I'm hoping that's the problem. I will probably be getting my motherboard back Monday or Tuesday.

 

[slpaulson]

A new power supply ended up fixing it. I'm not sure if there's some compatability issues with my old antec power supply or what.