HELP needed! MoBo replaced but no picture or beep codes!!

[daveqb]

i swapped my MoBo over from a KT133a Gigabyte board to the ECS K7S5A board.

i thought the board was in good condition, but .....................

i hit the power button, the CD-ROM light lights up (on for about 10 seconds then off then on)
the FDD light lights up & stays lite, but put a disk in & it doesnt try & read it.

theres no picture, have had the monitor flicker out of standby but not for long.

theres no keyboard lights at all,

the LAN cards' light flickers as per normal.

the fans are going

i unplugged all the IDE cables & the CD-ROM & FDDs' lights go on & off like a normal boot.

but above all theres no beep codes at all.
the speaker cable is plugged in , but no internal sound at all.

makes me things its set up ok, but cant get a picture or any beeps

i am beginning to think the board is damaged ????

anyone had this before ???
i have cleared CMOS too......

checked RAM & VGA in (often get caught there)

thanx for any help, bit of a rush to get my system up & running again , u know

 

[DieHardware]

Make sure the red wire on the floppy cable is on pin one of the drive(this goes for HDD cable too). Any beeps with the speaker connector plugged in the other way(180)?

 

[Buz2b]

You could have any number of problems not related to the MB being "damaged", but you will have to give more info so that we can try to help. What is the make and model number of your PSU? What cpu are you using? What RAM and how much? How many PCI cards do you have plugged in? How many IDE components? Are you trying to use a "preloaded" HDD or doing a fresh format/reload? What video card are you using?
First thing to do is unplug ALL devices except for the very basics: CPU w/HSF, floppy, one stick of RAM, video card. Next is to check and make sure the CMOS clear jumper is in the "Normal" position; many of these boards shipped with it in the "Clear" position a while back. Then you should remove and reinsert the video card and RAM a few times to insure a good solid fit. That board is notorious for tight slots and unforgiving if these items are not in 100% correctly. It sounds like you have the floppy cable in backwards or flipped over. Reverse or flip the cable 180 degrees and you should be fine. Double check your ATX power cable is in place tightly also.
IF these methods don't work then take the MB out of the case and set it on the anti-static foam that it came with. Then connect everything up (just the basics again) and try to boot again.
Don't forget to answer the questions I asked also.

 

[daveqb]

well i dont think its a failt in my existing hardware as it was working fine with my other MoBo in there 40 minutes earlier. either damaged MoBo or the way i put it back in.

ok to answer the questions.....

ok i thought it was Aopen , its a Hairong ATX300N, 1700+ XP, SDRAM Kingmax 1x256 module, 4 PCI, 4 IDE, the HDD has my existing OS on there, but i have unplugged that & left my blank HDD on no change, also had NO IDE devices attached, no change, GeForce2 GTS
all this ^ is on my sig below anyway....

thought of the CMOS thing as i cleared before i installed...... its not a freshly shipped MoBo it was runing in a system for about 3-4 months.
tried the Video card, its in nice & tight.....i'll go check the RAM now, but normally RAM gives u quick successive beeps

HAHA what a bastard!!
it was the RAM... i didnt check it toroughly as it normally gives you the beeps & also tried the speaker cable in both directions....


well ya all can stop thiking now


thanx everyone

(dont i feel dumb now )

 

[daveqb]

well most of it works, all except the FDD

the BIOS doesnt report my CPU properly , so was going to flash the BIOS, but cant because FDD dont work. the light comes on & stays on!!!

tried using my boot-cd & then using CD_RW with the files on their but they must be configured for A: drive letter, because it said after a few lines; error2 > file doesnt exist.

but FDD doesnt work, swapped in another, no change.

this board is beginning to worry me now ...............

 

[Buz2b]

If your FDD light is staying on then you have the IDE cable in wrong. That is the problem in 99.999% of these situations. Just unplug it from the FDD, turn it over and plug it back in. If that doesn't work, do the same on the FDD plug on the MB. Either way, that is what is causing the light to stay on. As to the "file doesnt exist" message, that is most likely the cause of the command line you put in for the flash. You must put it in with a space between the "amiflashxxx" and the "XXXXX.bin" commands or it won't find the file. You must also be sure that you correctly name the ".bin" file when you do so. Anyway, fix the floppy cable first, then you can decide if you want to flash the BIOS or not. BTW, if it is not recognising your cpu correctly that could be because of the setting for the cpu bus @ 100 instead of 133. You have to set that in the BIOS.

BTW, I did not see your PS listed at the AMD Recommended PS page. That doesn't mean it won't work OK, but it just improves you chances if it is listed and approved for your CPU.

<< i dont think its a failt in my existing hardware as it was working fine with my other MoBo in there 40 minutes earlier >>

Also, just because your components worked fine in another system, the K7S5A is not that "other system" and has different requirements and quirks. It can be a real b*tch when it comes to Power and has a reputation for just that. If you are going to be running 4 IDE devices and 4 PCI, you could run into trouble. Maybe not, but keep it in mind. Many times (more than I could count) I have "seen" someone take out their components from their system, install the K7S5A board and put back all their items, only to find it wouldn't work. A vast majority of those situations were cured with a better PS. As I said, you might be OK but keep it in mind for future reference. Also, it never hurts to try the old PS, just in case.

 

[daveqb]

i tried the flippin the floppy IDE over (& over & over & over)
didnt try the connection to the MoBo, but i dont think it lets ya due to the little notch on the it.
i'll inspect that further when i get home.....

i was just trying to run the flash exe, to the flash screen up, & then enter the name of the new BIOS.

never flashed thru DOS before, just used online flash (gigabyte offers that)
flashed DVD-ROM's firmware before though.....

a point to note is that the bios is named 0230206.rom

should rename to bin bin for binary hey ??

never had this much trouble building a system before!

used the same board on my Mum's system, and it was one of the smothest installs i have ever done, everything worked first go (now thats a first)
maybe this is why i shouldn't start fiddling with my system in the early hours of the morning

i dont need to enter the BIOS name when trying to run the flash exe, do i??like aminf332.exe /020206.bin
it doesnt say that on the ECS page.

the PSU is the same one as i used before, havent got any old ones around here unfortunately,
thought PS so have unplugged fans & IDE devices, but doesnt make a different with the FDD

 

[Buz2b]

<< i tried the flippin the floppy IDE over (& over & over & over) >>

Well, then try a different cable. Or try removing and reinstalling the cable again; must be either that cable or the way the cable is connected. I'm telling you that when the light stays on, that is essentially the problem in almost ALL cases.


<< dont need to enter the BIOS name when trying to run the flash exe, do i??like aminf332.exe /020206.bin it doesnt say that on the ECS page >>

Yeah, well that is no surprise! MB manufacturer pages rarely list all the info you really need. You will need to enter the flash program name, followed by a space and then the name of the ".rom" file. (Sorry if I referred to it as a .bin file; confused with my ASUS board from long ago) You can take a look at the specific instructions, if you need to. That page pretty much explains it.

<< have unplugged fans & IDE devices, but doesnt make a different with the FDD >>

And it won't make a difference with the FDD. The FDD is totally different. The PS trouble will most likely show up either when booting or when trying to complete a boot. Other than that it might cause some instability. If you don't have another and all other efforts to solve the trouble don't yield any results, then you might want to talk to a local shop and work out a deal with them. I've done it before; just tell them you will buy their "pretty", ultra powerful 350-400 watt PSU if they will accept payment after you confirm that it will work. Or if they will swap it out for refund or other components if it is confirmed that it is not the problem in your system. Be creative and you will find most shops will work with you a bit.

 

[daveqb]

well the final chapter......
i am writing this post on my system with the K7S5A board installed.

it was the FDD cable, i tried a different one & got it going,
strange when i was just usign the very same cable, i guess i havent used the FDD for a while so maybe it had gone funny a while ago

then none of my boot disks would work, & the other system here i didnt bother installing a FDD, so back and forth with my FDD and cable trying to get a boot disk going. Funny now i look back at it, but wasnt then let me tell u.

its strange the Flashing procedure, the web site even had a screen shot of the flash utility & its UI. It showed you whrere to type in the name of your new BIOS after it had got going, really weird. must email them.

but BIOS all up-to-date now & OS installed & all. Just got it all back to how i had it with apps installed etc.

still one little glitch i have (probably PSU) , my Enermax system fan (92mm) doesnt kick on when i boot up if its RPM's are not on high, anything less then full speed & it wont start unless i turn it up (& then back down again) or flick it with my fingers to get it started.
i might try the connector cable so its not running off a MoBo header pin.

yeah one of the places i deal with is good to me, i once bought a 40 gig HDD with the option to bring it back if it didnt do the trick (it did though)
its the only place i can get that service, most suppliers dont do that at all!


anyway, thanx to all for the help, never had so much trouble with putting a system together (used this MoBo before) & the ironic thing it was MY system !!!



PS calling BIOS file a .bin did confuse me as i have downloaded BIOS files before from Giga-byte & they were called .bin so seeing it called .rom worried me, didnt wanna flash it with the wrong file.