AHHHHHH! JUST GOT RMA MOBO BACK FROM NEWEGG...SAME PROBLEM!!!

[niwi7]

HELP ME!!!!

I posted a million times up in this forum about 2 weeks ago b/c i had just recieved a MSI K7N2-ISLR motherboard, AMD Athlon 2600+ 333 CPU, and an X-Dreamer case....

i plugged everything in like i was supposed to and turned it on....the diagnostic LED's told me that it was initializing my floppy drive and controller and then it froze....obiously as you may remember i unplugged floppy, tried different floppy, different cables, tried booting with nothing hooked up except ram and cpu and gf card, tried clearing cmos, tried using a different CPU and while using that CPU tried changing the cpu jumpers to 100mhz and back

anyway....after doing all these things it still did not work so i sent it away based on the conclusion of many of you that i either shorted it out (b/c i had screwed it in wrong when i first got it...but now i know how to do it) or that it was defective...so i RMAed it to newegg and recieved my new one today

i was excited....i made sure i installed it correctly (with the screw extension thingies that ground the mobo) ....and plugged everything in again....optimistically boot it up...SAME PROBLEM!!!!! so like last time i unplug everthing except ram cpu and grafix card and it did not work still

so then i replace the cpu with my 1800+ and it still did not work so i put the 2600+ back in

now i am where i am now....i dont think it could be the motherboard b/c i rma'ed it....unles they sent me the same 1 but newgg is reputable so i doubt it plus i had thermal grease in some spots on the old 1 that spilled and they werent there on the new 1 (maybe sum1 wipd it off i doubt it)


and so....i thought of only 1 possible thing that could be wrong....is it possibly that my specific stick of pc1600 512 200mhz ram is not compatible with that mobo? i think its the only thing that can be wrong b/c for a computer to boot up it needs CPU, RAM, MOBO, GRFX CARD....i changed all these except the ram however i do not have an extra stick to try....im gunna see if my dads friends at work have 1 that i can try....do you think that could be the problem? i know that the ram works b/c i use it still in my old machine....maybe that specific cr@ppy brand is not compatible or soemthing...i dont know....im out of ideas at this point....a fun learning experience turned into misery

 

[Adul]

try another stick of quality ram. also try a different power supply.

 

[niwi7]

u think it could be psu??? hmmmmm lemme try my other 250 watter up in heree

 

[niwi7]

ok just tried 250w power supply which i know works....same problem

i think all signs point towards RAM--- whydya think?

 

[Adul]

Originally posted by: niwi7
ok just tried 250w power supply which i know works....same problem

i think all signs point towards RAM--- whydya think?

besides the ram and video card? nothing else.

 

[niwi7]

thanks for quick responses ill try and get my hands on some RAM

until i do...any1 else have any other input?

 

[zainali]

disconnect everything. take out the mobo and just put in the video, ram, and processor(+heatsink). plug it in to ps and turn it on. if this does'nt work then RMA it.

Now if this does work connect the cd-drive and the harddrive while the mobo is still on. then go into bios and manually detect both the drives.

 

[niwi7]

do you mean take it out of the case?>?

i already RMA'd i i doubt there will be 2 defective ones with the EXACT same problem both sent to ME

and i already ran it with nothing connected excpet what you mentioned and it did not work which like i said brings me to think the extremely old cr@ppy ram is not compatible (came with 1800 computer 2 years ago i think its generic)

thanks any1 else?

 

[mechBgon]

250W power supply? :Q Unknown-brand RAM? Tada, perfect excuse to treat yourself to a high-quality 350W+ power supply, maybe the 360W Enlight that Newegg has for $39 shipped. Or an Enermax 365-series, Antec, Sparkle Power... and some better RAM too.

 

[niwi7]

YO I CANT BELIEVE IT!!! i figured ahhh ill try and disconnect everything again to see if it works....and it worked! booted to the first screen!

now i just gotta figure out why its not gettin past the post screen when my hard drive is hooked up...only when nothing is hooke dup

still playing arou with it i will tell u when i run into a problem that im sure of thanks

 

[mechBgon]

What brand of hard drive is it? If it's a recent Western Digital, jumper it for Single Drive (usually this means pulling the jumper off the pins completely) and put it on its own cable, and see if that helps.

 

[niwi7]

yes it is lemme try that....but sh!t

before i try that-- here is my scenario

when i boot with hard drives hooked up it doesnt booot (old problem from be4)
when i boot w/ none hooked in it boots to the first screen then i hit delete to enter setup then i manually detect HDD then i reboot from the bios then it boots up about to load windows then i get a blue screen saying windows was not booted to prevent damage to your hard drive check to make sure your controllers, hard drive, are all hooked up correctly and you have no virus'

and mechbgon--- i have 350w turbolink not a problem i was just TRYING my old 250 power supply

the ram...well if i get this working ill get new ram next week

 

[DAPUNISHER]

There is a known problem with some WD HDDs and NF2 and the fix is to cut the first 2 wires (red stripped=reset and one next to it=ground) on the IDE cable or notify WD and they'll send you a moddified cable free of charge., so if it's a WD that may be your boggle citizen

WD tech support-We did identify a timing anomaly with a certain BIOS, where the drive is not recognized by the system on power-up. During the drive's power-up initialization, before busy is cleared, there is a very small timing window during which a reset may cause the drive to become inaccessible. This affects only an isolated group of WD hard drives. Western Digital has since optimized its hard drives' power-up initialization sequence to ensure compatibility. This optimization does not cause any functional changes with the power-up initialization

If it's not a WD drive then it's most likely because you have a MSI board

 

[niwi7]

its western digital 40 gb about 2 years old i also have an 80 gig but i dont boot from that and when i try it says PRESS ENTER TO REBOOT COMPUTER so i duno thats a f*cked up drive!... but i dont wanna go cutting wires...ill see if i have an old cable to experiment on

 

[zainali]

i think the probelms is in general with the nforce2. now go into the bios and connect the drives to the mobo and then in the bios search for the component . i have an 8rda+ and had the same problem.

 

[niwi7]

WOW punisher u r correct--- i booted with JUST the 80 hooked up and it went thru to the post screen


so ill find an old wire and try and cut the first 2

i have an even bigger problem rite now though--- the processor i bought is an AMD Athlon 2600+

i put it in the system and the damn thing shows it as an AMD Athlon 2000+ @ a 100 MHZ FSB!!! at 1250 mhz

what is this BS about??

 

[niwi7]

i cant believe this


how the h3ll is it showing an amd 2000!!!

i just cant believe my luck

i get one of the FEW rare hard drives that my mobo doesnt work with and then my chip gets detected as 2000+ @ 1666 mhz or something...wtf i cant believe this

i got the cpu from newegg and on the box it said AMd Athlon 2600+ and it was retail NOT OEM so WTF

 

[fell8]

You'll have to set the FSB manually. Lots of people are having this issue with many different MBs.

 

[compudog]

RELAX!!! The multiplier setting on the mobo is not set correctly. Not sure on the MSI board, but it may be a BIOS or jumper setting. READ THE MOBO MANUAL! It will explain how to set for your cpu. Most mobo's will default to 100MHz FSB for safety sake after resetting BIOS.

 

[Ketchup]

Originally posted by: niwi7
HELP ME!!!!

I posted a million times up in this forum about 2 weeks ago b/c i had just recieved a MSI K7N2-ISLR motherboard, AMD Athlon 2600+ 333 CPU, and an X-Dreamer case....

i plugged everything in like i was supposed to and turned it on....the diagnostic LED's told me that it was initializing my floppy drive and controller and then it froze....obiously as you may remember i unplugged floppy, tried different floppy, different cables, tried booting with nothing hooked up except ram and cpu and gf card, tried clearing cmos, tried using a different CPU and while using that CPU tried changing the cpu jumpers to 100mhz and back

anyway....after doing all these things it still did not work so i sent it away based on the conclusion of many of you that i either shorted it out (b/c i had screwed it in wrong when i first got it...but now i know how to do it) or that it was defective...so i RMAed it to newegg and recieved my new one today

i was excited....i made sure i installed it correctly (with the screw extension thingies that ground the mobo) ....and plugged everything in again....optimistically boot it up...SAME PROBLEM!!!!! so like last time i unplug everthing except ram cpu and grafix card and it did not work still

so then i replace the cpu with my 1800+ and it still did not work so i put the 2600+ back in

now i am where i am now....i dont think it could be the motherboard b/c i rma'ed it....unles they sent me the same 1 but newgg is reputable so i doubt it plus i had thermal grease in some spots on the old 1 that spilled and they werent there on the new 1 (maybe sum1 wipd it off i doubt it)


and so....i thought of only 1 possible thing that could be wrong....is it possibly that my specific stick of pc1600 512 200mhz ram is not compatible with that mobo? i think its the only thing that can be wrong b/c for a computer to boot up it needs CPU, RAM, MOBO, GRFX CARD....i changed all these except the ram however i do not have an extra stick to try....im gunna see if my dads friends at work have 1 that i can try....do you think that could be the problem? i know that the ram works b/c i use it still in my old machine....maybe that specific cr@ppy brand is not compatible or soemthing...i dont know....im out of ideas at this point....a fun learning experience turned into misery

Hmm, so let me get this straight, you are running a CPU with a 166 MHz FSB with RAM that is only rated for 100 MHz (of course these speeds are 333 and 200 DDR respectively). Am I the only one that sees an obvious problem here? Because somehow, I doubt the board has a memory divider that low.

 

[compudog]

Good call ketchup79. I read that part, but it didn't register. niwi7, you need to run PC2700 with a 333MHz FSB CPU.

 

[niwi7]

lol u guys i KNOW that however the pc1600 works as you can see now

anyway

there are 2 jumpers that hafta do with cpu setting on the mobo

1 is only 2 pins with a jumper on both of them and when the jumper is on it is for 133/166 MHZ and when its off its set for open 100 mhz and this connector is ON (for 133/166)

the other connector has 3 pins....when the jumper is on the top 2 pins it is in user mode 133 mhz and when its on the bottom ones its on safe mode 100 mhz and its on the top ones

then in my bios it says Amd Athlon 2000+ 1666 MHZ 133 FSB

 

[niwi7]

ok i changed the jumper with the 3 pins to the opposite setting and now it detects it as a 2600

ok thank god! i was so freaked out sorry bout my noobishness


now....any1 have any idea on how to fix my hard drive problem????? maybe ill buy a new one

 

[Booty]

I was just about to post the same thing, but figured I'd read through the whole thread to make sure someone else didn't catch it first. Niwi7, I think you need to take a little more time with your builds, pat attention to the details, read the manuals, and make sure you know what you're doing... especially before flipping out.

 

[JustAnAverageGuy]

boot to your windows CD and "repair" your installation.