Did I short circuit my motherboard, and more?

[rickjames]

I recently started a thread discussing my first pc build, and how the monitor would not come on. But at the time of the post, I did not realize that I was supposed to use risors for the motherboard, so I failed to mention that I had it fastened with 2 thumb screws directly to the case (yes, obviously I am an idiot). The board is properly seated now, and of my 4 512MB sticks of Corsaid DDR, only one will allow you to get to the BIOS (1 out of about 10 times), and even then, you can not use the keyboard.

So my question: Does it sound like I have short circuited my motherboard? And if so, is it possible that I damaged my CPU as well? I'm pretty bummed about this since I've been saving for a long time for this new computer, and now that I have it, I've killed it.

Parts involved in the crime:
EPoX nForce4 Ultra motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 3000+
ATI X800XL video card
4 sticks of Corsair ValueSelect DDR
Enermax ATX 12v power supply
Zelman 7000 CPU cooler

 

[grohl]

ouch

 

[CrispyFried]

You may have, but if you can get into the bios at all its a good sign. Your CPU is OK if it can do that. How do you get into the bios with no keyboard? Or do you mean it POSTs 1 out of 10 times?

I wonder if you damaged one of the the power supply rails and thats all or part of the problem. Do the fans and drives spin up when you power up?

 

[rickjames]

Well maybe it isn't the BIOS. I guess it's called the Post screen(?). I forget what is on there, but I do remember that the screen was displaying the temperature and/or fan speed. I honestly forget.

All of the fans do spin up, yes. And on the motherboard, there are 3 LED lights to indicate if the CPU, DRAM, and Chipset are getting power. They all light up. There is also a LED display and it typically gives about 4 or 5 different error codes. I've looked up the codes, and some indicate memory errors, others just say "Reserved" (in the motherboard manual).

 

[hippotautamus]

It sounds more likely that a ESD went through your memory, lol. Try sticking another DIMM in there and see if it posts more reliably.

 

[CrispyFried]

The error codes dont bode well. Check how to reset the bios in the manual, theres usually a jumper to do that. Your keyboard is usb? Have you tried other usb ports? Or a different keyboard?

Try fireing it up with just memory and the vid card. If you have an old vid card use that instead of the x800 in case the voltages are funny.

tbh your mobo is probably toast, but hope springs eternal..

 

[rickjames]

I have tried resetting the BIOS yesterday, but nothing different happened. I will try again.

The keyboard is not USB, but the older kind (P2, serial? i forget what they're called)

When I start the computer, I have only been using the memory (using different configurations of the 4 modules), and video card. You're not saying try to boot it without the CPU are you? I'm assuming you just mean boot it with no drives or other peripherals attached, etc.

 

[the wombat]

You sure everything is plugged in correctly? That was a problem I had on my first build. One of the power cables was loose so it would boot up and then shut down. You should try and disassemble everything and put it back together.

 

[rickjames]

Yeah, everything is definitely plugged in correctly. I've even had atleast 5 or 6 people (my company's network admins and database programmers) look at it, and they didn't know what was wrong. But if something wasn't plugged in right, they certainly would have noticed (or would they!?)

 

[CrispyFried]

They should, its hard to plug things in wrong genrally. If you can borrow a usb keyboard do it and see if you can get into the bios. Or at least freeze the post screen (hit pause) and see whats listed. It may give enough info to see whats up. It may be just the ps2 port is bad and the memory sticks are fried.

 

[rickjames]

I've just booted the machine (only motherboard, one stick of ram, and video card), and as I mentioned earlier, it will post once in a while. Well this time it posted, but the keyboard won't work (only have a ps2 keyboard right now, shouldn't this work though? it works on my other machine.)

I will type the info I saw on the screen in hopes that someone on this board can tell if there's any info here that would indicate where the problem is. (And if my CPU seems ok). Ofcourse, when I turned the computer off, and then back on, it would not boot. Even after 10 attempts.

What caught my eye was "CMOS Checksum error" and the fact that
my system and power fan show 0 RPM, yet they really are spinning.

Here is what the screen showed:

Main Processor : AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processer 3000+
CPU Real Clock : 1800MHz (200x9.0)
Memory Testing : 524828 OK

CMOS Checksum error - Defaults loaded
Warning! Now System is in Safe Mode
Please resetting CPU Frequency in the CMOS Setup

IDE Channel 0 Master : None
IDE Channel 0 Slave : None
IDE Channel 1 Master : None
IDE Channel 1 Slave : None
SATA 3 : None
SATA 4 : None
SATA 1 : None
SATA 2 : None

---------------- Magic Health ----------------
CPU Fan: 2345 RPM CPU Temp 34 C/ CPU(V) : 1.52V +5V: 5.1V
System Fan : 0 RPM System Temp 28 C/ DIMM(V) 2.51V 5VSB:5.10V
Power Fan : 0 RPM Chip(v) 1.50V +3.3(V) BAT(V): 3.10V

 

[CrispyFried]

CMOS checksum error usually means the battery has died. It does seem a bit low at 3.1v.. wonder if you killed it when you had the mobo shorted.

If you can get it to fire up, press reset and see if it posts again but without the cmos checksum error. If it does that would indicate a dead battery.

As for the ps2 port, it may be dead. Throw a usb kb on it and see.

 

[rickjames]