Cant even boot up my Asus A7N8X, need help ASAP!!!

[RPS13]

Ok, I just put together my computer today and cant get anything to display on the monitor nor any beeps to tell me whats wrong. I have connected eveything correctly and still no luck, heres the specs:

-AMD Athlon XP 2100+
-Asus A7N8X Deluxe Model
-Antec True 430 Power Supply
-VisionTek GeForce 4 Ti4200 128MB
-Kingston 256MB PC2100
-Samsung 20GB HDD
-Sony CD-ROM
-Lian-Li Aluminium Case
*All parts are brand new*

Can anyone tell me whats wrong?

 

[flawedexistence]

Could you possibly be shorting out the mobo on the case? If any portion of the case is touching the mobo, you're shorted! I've done this myself.:disgust::disgust:

 

[RPS13]

Yeah I checked, I even took the board out of the case and setted it up but still no luck, anyknow else know whats wrong?

 

[chizow]

Make sure everything is plugged in nice and tight, and have power to them. In fact, you should probably just disconnect everything other than your PSU, video card, and a stick of ram to narrow down the problem. If your board doesn't POST at that point, I'm pretty sure its your RAM. Kingston Value Ram is scraping minimum PC2100 specs, and the 1001.G BIOS is known to act funny when reporting RAM speed by using SPD (serial presence detect).

Chiz

 

[HdwGuy]

Since everything is now I will recomend you check the power supply switch for 115/220 if it has one and make sure it is in the 115 position. A friend of mine once put a new system together but could not get it to boot he later ( 6 hours hair pulling time) found his mistake. Changed switch and the computer booted up fine.

 

[chizow]

Pretty sure the Antec's are hard-rigged (there's a steel tooth locking it to 110 or 115) depending on which region it is sold. My 480 TrueBlue was at least, but definitely a good idea to check.

Chiz

 

[mechBgon]

Also, it could also be you have the AGP card only halfway into the slot. There are two rows of contacts in there, unlike PCI, so rock the card while applying firm pressure just to make sure.

Nice to see you picked a quality PSU that's up to the task, by the way. Nice foundation If you plugged in the black/blue fan-RPM from the PSU into your mobo, however, try unplugging that, because the RPM is pretty low and some boards get by the very low RPM signals.

I suppose you could set the CPUFSB jumper to the 200MHz setting as an underclock just to see if it will POST that way. This is the jumper to the left of the northbridge, and page 21 of the manual shows the settings.

 

[RPS13]

Thanks everyone for the help, as for the Power Supply its on 115V but still no luck. Anyways I'll go out and buy new RAM and hopefully it works, I'll be back if it doesnt work again.

 

[Pjotr]

If you have checked all possible options, clear CMOS, follow the manual. If this doesn't work, it's time for RMA. It is a common problem still on A7N8X.

 

[JoeCat]

I had the same problem when I changed my MB this past weekend, Chaintech 7njs. You didn't say what OS you are using. I have WinXP, do you? If you do you will have to do a "Repair and Install" and than get a new confirmation ID. Windows is not reconizing your new hardware. I spent 2 hours with a Microsoft tech yesterday.

 

[kursplat]

Yeah I checked, I even took the board out of the case and setted it up but still no luck, anyknow else know whats wrong?

back to basics. pull the MB from the case and set it up on the box it came in (i've had problems with shorting out on the bag and the foam pad). just install the cpu WITH COOLER . no drives hooked up. you should at least get some beeps from it (if not you need to try the cpu in another comp ,or it could be the MB ). if it beeped add a stick of ram and the video card. it should now post ,(no? then pull the video card and see if you get a single "post" beep), let you into the bios and if you let it go maybe tell you there is no floppy (bios option). if it's still with us add thing one at a time in a resonable order.
good luck

 

[RPS13]

Hey guys,
If I do RMA my Asus A7N8X Deluxe Motherboard, how do I do it, I havent RMA anything before. Do I send it to the company I bought it from, or to Asus? Also can I still RMA it if I opened all the packages inside the box?

Thanks in advance.

 

[RPS13]

Ok guys, I got brand new Samsung 256MB PC2700 and swapped it with the RAM I had on, but still no luck, so it cant be the RAM. I also just tried the board on the box with just the CPU and RAM, still nothing, not even a beep. I'm starting to give up now, I think I should RMA the board, or should I try buy a new CPU and test that before I RMA it?

Thanks in advance.

 

[chizow]

Very unfortunate

Try disabling the onboard SATA RAID. Also as mech mentioned earlier, make sure the AGP card is firmly seated in the slot. Also make sure the card has not migrated over into the AGP Pro slot area (should be a yellow sticker on top of it). It wouldn't hurt to try a different CPU or if you have an old PCI video card laying around to trouble shoot. Also, if you can test the chip on a different mobo that would help as well. From your post it sounds like you are getting no video signal at all and obviously no POST beeps. What is your monitor LED doing when you power up? Staying Amber, or is it coming on and then back off?

As for RMA, it really depends on where you bought it. Newegg would probably exchange it no prob, as for other vendors I'm not sure. You should check their RMA policy and then contact them. They will probably charge you shipping at least 1 way, and may hit you with a 15% restocking fee, regardless whether or not you replace the item.

Chiz

 

[Ranger X]

My A7N8X setup wouldn't boot because I didn't have a separate (unshared) power cable connecting to the HD. Before, it would stall at "Detecting ID Drives ..." . Other than that, my setup worked perfectly.

 

[Stack]

Hmm, I was setting up my new A7N8X Deluxe and it stopped POSTing. It was previously posting, and I had just set up HDD1 to be the third boot device. After exiting, it won't post anymore.

It seems weird to me that it was POSTing an all of a sudden it stopped after a change. I reset the CMOS and it still won't POST.

I guess I will go through some of the recommendations above and see if I can get anything to work.

My setup:

AMD 2400+
Asus A7N8X Deluxe
1 512MB Crucial Dimm
PNY Gefore2 TI64
Antec SLK3700AMB Case (SL350 PSU)

 

[Stack]

Well, it seems as a last resort, I removed my MB from the case and put it in the box. Being only connected to power and video, it will post. I am guessing that it was either shorted on the case, or my video card was not properly inserted. My hunch is the later. Time to start putting it all back together and see if I can figure out what was at fault.

Thanks for all the informative posts above. Very good debugging stratagies.

Stack

 

[mechBgon]

Good luck Stack and welcome to the Forums

 

[order]

Stack, Something that I once saw was a lack of spacers on the case. It'll stop the board from booting. You might try ensuring that all the spacers are inserted correctly. Just a thought.

 

[Stack]

I got my new setup up and running. I am not sure what was wrong. After pulling the motherboard out and putting it on the box with only power and video, it worked fine. I put it back into the case and started to connect and install everything again. I tested to be sure it was POSTing with each step, and nothing was blatantly obvious as the culprit. I have a feeling that my video card was not properly inserted into the AGP slot, although the red LED didn't come on and I didn't get any other warnings.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions that you posted above.

Stack

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Stack
I got my new setup up and running. I am not sure what was wrong. After pulling the motherboard out and putting it on the box with only power and video, it worked fine. I put it back into the case and started to connect and install everything again. I tested to be sure it was POSTing with each step, and nothing was blatantly obvious as the culprit. I have a feeling that my video card was not properly inserted into the AGP slot, although the red LED didn't come on and I didn't get any other warnings.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions that you posted above.

Stack

 

[Richard98]

You may also want to check the connections to the floppy drive. I had the power connector to mine plugged in improperly and I got nothing when I turned on the system; guess that it shorted out everything.

 

[RPS13]

I gave up on my first Asus A7N8X Deluxe Motherboard and bought another one yesterday and set it up on the Anti-static bag and booted fine to the POST. When I placed the mobo in my aluminum case and booted it up, it didnt do anything, not even a beep. I even grounded the mobo and myself correctly. What might have cause the mobo to go bad?

Thanks in advance.

 

[kursplat]

RPS13
go back to the begining of this thread and start all the trouble shooting .........
good luck

 

[HowAboutBob]

Originally posted by: chizow
Very unfortunate
As for RMA, it really depends on where you bought it. Newegg would probably exchange it no prob, as for other vendors I'm not sure. You should check their RMA policy and then contact them. They will probably charge you shipping at least 1 way, and may hit you with a 15% restocking fee, regardless whether or not you replace the item.

Chiz

Thats true, but you should never pay an RMA if the board is damaged.
RMAs werer meant to discourage those customers who have changed their mind about a purchase, and the product is fine.
However, If the retailer find nothing wrong with it when they test it (or if they discover that you damaged it somehow) they will charge an RMA.
Fair is fair.
And they should pay for shipping if the product was damaged.
If not, you should reconsider purchasing from them in the future.

Now for reality.
As Chizow stated, all of this is spelled out in their RMA policy.