Asus A7M266 No post or anything...Plz Help

[ismael]

have an odd problem i've never encountered. hoping someone here can help out. i have an asus a7m266 with the athlon thunderbird 1.4GHz and 256MB crucial. also includes dvd, usb keyboard and mouse, and original geforce 256 prophet agp card. system has been working fine for some time now. but all of a sudden one day while fooling around with winamp 3, it just shutdown on it's own. and will not start at all. i mean, when you press the power button, you can see the fan on the cpu spin quickly, then stop. that's all i can get out of it, will not even begin to post. i thought the powersupply was done, but the green led on the motherboard is lit. if the p/s was gone, it should not make the fan move a little when power button is pressed or allow the green status light on the motherboard to shine. so must be something else. tried removing graphics card, still no go. odd problem to me, since it seems as though the powersupply still functions, but i can't get it to start posting. i don't mind replacing any of the parts such as the motherboard, processor, or powersupply if necessary, but i first need to know what needs replacing. built lots of computers, but never had a problem quite like this. have two hard drives and 300W generic powersupply, as well as running windows xp, as if they matter. would appreciate some honest helpful suggestions or insight. someone must have had this problem before. thanks, all.

 

[Gretzky]

i had the same problem as you. My problem was fixed when i reset the cmos jumper and took out the motherboard battery for acouple mins.

 

[Peacekeeper100]

I would agree. First try unplugging the computer, reset the CMOS.

 

[ismael]

thnx for replying, guys. how do you reset the cmos on this motherboard? never had to do it before.

 

[Smilin]

Just start looking for the jumper. It should be a simple, 3 pin setup and the words "nvram", "clear", "reset" or some variation should be near it. The jumper typically is positioned near the system battery or near your bios chip.

If clearing the bios doesn't do the trick, I would investigate a bad processor first. If the mobo is bad you can usually get at least a post with some errors (beep codes for missing memory or something). If you get nothing at all it's often the processor.

I have one of those motherboards myself (In a semi-retired state). They honestly kinda suck. They used the KT266 (not kt266a) chipset which has even worse performance than the original DDR chipset, the 760 from AMD. I've had some dreadful problems with mine.

 

[ismael]

thanks, i'll give that a try. hope the processor hadn't burnt up, but prices are very good right now compared to what i originally paid for it when it first came out. and, since it's my girlfriends computer, i can stick a duron in it, which is all she needs (she only surfs the net and plays solitaire with some winamp in the background!), and which will run cooler than that hot-ass thunderbird 1.4GHz. whew, that thing was like hot coal! should draw less power with the duron, also. i'll post back and let you guys know if that was the problem, so you can update you track record strange, as many computers as i've built and been thru, never had a processor die. anyway, thanks again for replies....

 

[boran]

Originally posted by: Smilin

I have one of those motherboards myself (In a semi-retired state). They honestly kinda suck. They used the KT266 (not kt266a) chipset which has even worse performance than the original DDR chipset, the 760 from AMD. I've had some dreadful problems with mine.

sorry but the Asus A7M266 uses the AMD 761 northbridge and the via 686b southbridge, thus the 760 chipset ....

and mine is working just fine....

 

[ismael]

well, guys, tried some of everything. cleared cmos, no go. took motherboard out of case, no go. removed heat sink and checked processor, looked good (although i never had one die, so who knows?), so i reapplied thermal grease and put heat sink back on, albeit with a different fan (delta that cools better). still no go. but i did notice a difference after changing the fan. the original fan pulled low enough juice to be plugged directly into the motherboard, and so it was. now, with this original fan, when you pressed the power button, the fan would at least turn a little, and then stop, as the system would not enter post. but with this new delta fan (which, of course, had to be plugged directly into the powersupply), when you press the power button, the fan would not even turn. the light on the motherboard is still on, but the delta will not even turn, where as the original fan would at least spin a little when you press the power button. all this happened outside and inside the case, so rules out shortage.

so, with this in mind, i'm wondering if you guys have anything else in mind. i'm thinking powersupply, since the computer just shut off during normal operation and the delta fan (which pulls more juice) behaves differently than the original fan. and this is the only reason i can think of that will keep the system from even entering post. never had a motherboard or processor die, so wouldn't know the symptoms of such. so i'm depending on you guys here in the forum to lend me your experience and expertise to resolve this matter. i'd like to fix the system, but if i can't pinpoint the source of the problem, i'll have to build another computer altogether, as my friend is really missing her system. if you need any more info for a proper diagnosis, just post and i'll reply promptly.

thanks in advance, guys....

 

[KGB]

Definitely try another power supply.
Borrow one from another machine just to try (must be at least 300W) to get a POST.
If you can POST, purchase a new PSU with advice from here.

 

[ismael]

thnx, kgbman, definitely going to try that. will post back with results...