GA-F2A68HM-H Assistance Please

[mbramble]

My grandson purchased components to put together his first home-built PC (and his first experience at such a task, ever). It didn't work so he has now dropped it off in my lap.....

Motherboard: GA-F2A68HM-H
CPU: Athlon X4 X60K
Memory: Some DDR3 1600 4096 MBx2 (don't have the name at the moment)

With the CPU and memory mounted, power supply connected, case switches/lights and a speaker connected, 1TB hard drive, and a USB keyboard connected ---

--- when depressing the case power switch, the fans come one, the drive light flashes and that's it. No sound from the speaker and the keyboard num/caps lock lights don't come on when their buttons are depressed. The case reset button does nothing. Holding the power switch down for 5 seconds powers down the fans. That's it!! NO beeps from the motherboard connected speaker.

I have checked all the power supply voltages and they all are correct. I have tried just the motherboard with no CPU or memory installed and just the CPU. No beeps on the speaker at all.

Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

Is it more likely a bad CPU -- or a bad MB????

Thanks!

 

[eton975]

A few pics, if that's OK? Did you install a graphics card? The CPU has no onboard graphics capability, so you won't get any video output without one.

He did install these:

right?

 

[mbramble]

He did get a graphics card and it was originally installed. I removed it when we were getting no indications of anything apparently working, trying to get down to a barebones box to try and isolate the problem.

He id install 2 of the standoffs to flat spots on the case. The other 4 MB mounting holes are mounted over 'bumps' in the case. The two standoffs made everything level.

Thanks for you reply.....

 

[eton975]

Seriously, I need you to tell me AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE about the build and if possible provide pics. There are so many things that could have gone wrong here.

 

[Unico]

The OP won't be able to post pictures until his post count gets a little higher. I'm still working on that myself.

• Try assembling the motherboard outside the case on a piece of cardboard. You still might have a short somewhere.
• You connected a speaker. Was this an external speaker, or internal off connector 10 on the motherboard?
• Check the processor for bent pins.
• Clear the CMOS. See page 14 of the manual.
• After that I'd try a different power supply.

 

[mcveigh]

Good advice so far. Also make sure memory is FULLY seated in the slots.

Try what Unico said. put it on a piece of cardboard. Then start with the bare minimum.

motherboard-CPU-Ram-powersupply. (also need a speaker somewhere).

try that and report back.

 

[mbramble]

I set the MB up on a piece of cardboard with only CPU, memory, speaker and PS. I reset the BIOS as directed. I also ensured the memory was seated correctly.

When I power it up (by shorting PWR SW pins on MB front panel header), the PS fan and cpu fan come on. That's it. No POST beep from speaker (attached to SPK header on MB - an internal speaker from and old PC I have).

I then used the power supply from that old PC and no change.

 

[tcsenter]

Try with one module installed but try each memory slot. Some boards NEED to sense FAN on the designated CPU_FAN header, else they won't boot if you connect the CPU fan to the SYS_FAN header. Make sure CMOS jumper is in Normal position. One company used to ship some boards with the CMOS jumper set in the CLEAR/RESET position.

 

[mbramble]

I actually did one memory module in each slot and then the other memory module in each slot. The CPU fan was plugged into the CPU fan header. The BIOS Reset requires that you short the pins together, there is no jumper.

I think I'll just have my daughter get with Amazon Prime and return the units for replacement.

Thanks for all the suggestions.....

 

[alexruiz]

OP mentioned the reset button does nothing.
Make sure that ALL the connections to the front header are done properly.

Also, what power supply and what case?
While the PSU voltages might seem to be OK, a generic "500W" unit will go out of spec in no hurry.

Finally, what video connection to the monitor?
VGA, DVI, HDMI?
Can you try a different video cable and/or different video output?

Edit: For the buzzer (speaker) Are you connecting it the right way? Those ones are polarized.

 

[mcveigh]

I have to say mrbramble, you seem pretty tech savy, and have done all we suggested. I say RMA that sucker.

 

[mbramble]

Thanks Seth. I was a Navy electronics tech for 20 years. I put my first computer (actually an expansion box for my Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 1!! It allowed you to have 64K of memory (instead of 16K) and use 2 5-1/4" floppy drives instead of a cassette deck!!) together in 1979.... I have built probably 15 PCs for my own use since then. Bought my first complete store-bought unit last year. I have never had a problem with any of those boxes booting up. Had quite a few problems getting various flavors of Linux to run on them, though!

It's just that I wasn't in on the beginning of this one and was trying to help out my grandson (who was getting his assistance at putting it together via phone calls from a friend who had built exactly 1 box, and not by himself.) I thought it was pretty much a lost cause but just wanted to make sure I was thinking clearly about the symptoms and results (or lack thereof) that I was seeing.

My daughter was over just now and I told her I would bring the box back to her house and take out the MB and CPU and box them back up for her to send out.

Thanks very much for everyone's assistance and ideas....

Mike