Help- seeking the wise among us

[RickG]

I'm building my fourth system, the only difference with this build is that this mobo does not have onboard video. I usually start with just the cpu, drives, and memory, then load the drivers and OS utilizing the onboard sound/video, etc. When everything is tested out, I proceed to the video cards, sound cards, etc.

Can't do that with this one, and I have hit a snag. Loaded up the box, fired it up and no video. The fans are turning the drives are lighting up, but no video. Also odd is no beeps.

Trouble shooting time
- switched video cables - nada
- switched monitors - nada
- removed the agp 9800XT and replaced it with an older agp geforce card - nada
- removed the agp 9800XT and replaced it with an even older PCI card - nada
- cleared the CMOS - nada
- removed and reseated the CPU and the Memory - nada

All parts are new:
AMD 64 3200
1GB PC3200 ECC Reg High Performance Dual Pack (2 x 512MB)*
Biostar IDEQ 200P
WD SATA 120 drive
Samsung SM352 DVD 16x + CD-RW 52x24x52 Combo Drive
Mitsumi 7-in-1 USB 2.0 Media Drive

*I know, I know, your going to say that the AMD 64 3200 does not need ECC. This particular board's documentation also says so, that is if you want to run at 333. If you want to run at 400 it requires ECC. I had never heard of that issue, but who am I to argue about the specs for their product!

Unless someone out there smarter than me throws a thought my way, my next steps will be:
- Verify the setting of the Frequency Selection jumper (forgot about that when I was fighting this last night)
- Try some older memory, vanilla memory

After that, I'm lost. I guess it will be off to fill out the RMA forms!

 

[Confused]

Welcome to the forums

My first guess will be to try some non-ECC memory

Also, what PSU are you using (brand, supposed wattage etc)


Confused

 

[thorin]

Are you sure that both the vid card and monitor are funcitoning? Have they been tested in other systems?

Thorin

 

[Monoman]

I would say insure the PSU is a high quality one as that has been the story of my life lately and AMD chips are fairly power hungry!

 

[RickG]

Power supply for this SFF is an Enhance 200W. I questioned this myself as I have never built anything with a PS less than 300W. The Biostar people pointed out that due to the limited expansion on such a small system, that 200W would more than handle anything I put in it. They also pointed out that major builders (such as Dell) supply their desktops with 180 - 200W -was that suppose to be comforting? ;-)

Did I trust their power source to push this system, No. Thats why I tried several older, lower power vid cards. Tried disconnecting the optical and floppy - still no joy.

Yes, I know that the second monitor and both of the older vid cards are working.

This is the first "barebones" build I have done. I am hating every minute of it! I want to select each part myself, but this is for the wife. She want this little SFF and the LCD, and I admit, it is a good looking little box and fits right where she wants it. Just a pain in the ass to put together and now this!

 

[Monoman]

IMHO it's way to small and thats your problem. I have a dual system with a crappy 450w PSU and it isn't enough power for the system.. If I were you, I would get myself a nice 450w+ PSU with at least 35a 5+ rail and 25a 12+ rail, also ensure the 3.3v rail is fiarly high too!

Mitch

 

[RickG]

Switching PS with this SFF box is not an option. It would have to be external, which would defeat the purpose of the SFF. I agree it is a low power supply, but even a 200W supply should boot a hard drive and an old PCI vid card!

I think the problems might be beyond the PS. If all esle fails I might grab a 350W supply from one of my other boxes and give it a shot just to rule it out as an issue. If it is the problem, than this POS can go back!

 

[mechBgon]

Registered memory? ECC may work either way, yeah, but Registered ECC is for boards that are made for registered memory. Also, the onboard memory controller of the A64 non-FX is apparently only able to run PC3200 with one or two memory modules, and will downshift to PC1600 (!) if you add a third module, so your best bet is to stick with two modules. If two 512's aren't enough, Corsair does make some TwinX 2GB kits (two 1GB modules of non-Registered, non-ECC PC3200).

edit: 180W PSU... eeek :Q

 

[JBT]

I would say it has to do with the memory of your system like mech said non FX A64's don't use registered ram and the motherobard probably doesn't support it either.

 

[snidy1]

It's the PS, you need more than 200W.

 

[RickG]

Okay, I will take some memory chips home and check if that is the problem. The switch will remove the 2 x 512MB /400/ ecc/reg memory and change it to 2 x 256MB / 333.

I will let you know if that works.

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: snidy1
It's the PS, you need more than 200W.

Yeah, the only reason Dell's are 200w is they have really high ratings on each of the rails.

 

[Monoman]

I would still bank on it being the PSU as the memory issue would make the computer beep if you have the speaker plugged. From there you could deduce it being the ram as the error code would tell you this but seeing how you get nothing EXACTLY like I did and I have to say I think it's the PSU

Mitch

 

[Markfw]

I vote for the memory as the problem also. I would recommend PC3500 CAS2, Kingston Hyperx or Mushkin level II (2?)

Edit: Just noticed that 200watt psu. The Athlon64's run very cool, but they do required quite a bit of power. I would DEFINITLY upgrade that, even if it boots after changing the memory.

 

[RickG]

All those that said memory problems.... take a bow. My screwup was on the ECC vs. ECC/Reg memory. This Mobo's documentation claims 333 speed with standard memory and 400 with ECC. Well I got ECC/Reg instead of ECC.

Last night I put in the borrowed chips - Micron (2 x 256MB) 333/2.5
Clean boot and OS install. Box is running stable at 333.
I still need to update the drivers/OS, but I ran the system through a couple basic burn-in tests to check stability. CPU/Chipset&Memory/Drives were tested, I was shocked that the system was stable with the small size of the PS. Running nice and cool too. I have not yet run through the heavy video benchmarking/testing as I need to download some updates for some of the programs first. That will be the true test of stability.

I will be swapping the borrowed Micron chips for some 2 x 512MB PC3500 233 - Level One Black from Mushkin, that is as soon as I can get them these other chips back.

As this is not going to be one of my toys (it's mainly for the wife/kids), I won't try pushing the system too hard. I will have to try "some" overclocking just to see what it will do, I just can't help myself ;-)
I'm just not expecting much out of this little SFF unit.

--->>>>> THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP <<<<<------

Rick

BioStar IDEQ 200P
AMD Athlon64 3200
ATI Radeon 9800XT
2x120GB SATA in Raid 1
Samsung SM352 DVD 16x + CD-RW 52x24x52
Mitsumi 7-in-1 FDD/USB 2.0 Media Drive
Windows XP Pro

 

[Cerb]

One thing to note, that many people seem to forget here:
The A64, like the AthlonXP, does not need a lot fo power!
It needs good power. It needs to not have major voltage spikes and drops during the bootup, when it's pulling a ton of power, FI. A good 200W supply is just fine--as anyone with a Shuttle XPC. A 300w or 350w will also do...it just needs to be a good one, like a Fortron, Antec (Channel Well?), Enermax, etc.