Hmm...CPU or mobo...which is probably broken!?

[grifterspawn]

Just bought an Epox EP-9NDA3J and a Venice 3000+ cpu, also bought an OCZ 430watt PSU, the cpu fan turns on, but the drives dont, and the error msg is FF (obviously it doesnt even post). Think the cpu or motherboard are the culprit? Running Corsair pc3200 in it, any advice would be nice, not sure which thing to RMA lol.

 

[overst33r]

did you take out the CMOS battery for a minute or so, then try it? Hook up the bare necessities.

 

[neutralizer]

Did you notice smoke coming out of the CPU when you turned it on. FF on Epox means that everything is working and something I forget. But somehow I have a feeling its the mobo. Do you have another one to test it out?

 

[Mrvile]

Ok here's a few steps to take:

First, try each stick of ram by itself. If nothing happens, it's probably your motherboard (both sticks dying is unlikely). On the motherboard, first thing to do is to make sure both motherboard molexes are plugged in (the 20-pin and the 4-pin). Then, pull out the CMOS battery for a minute (like mariok said) and put it back in. If that doesn't help, rehook everything back up, using only the necesities (CPU, ram, vid card). If you can, try the CPU on another motherboard - this will instantly tell you if it's the CPU or not.

 

[Jiggz]

If the drives are not running then it could be more than just the cpu or mobo. With the cpu fan running it tells me the mobo is turning on the psu but that doesn't mean the psu has output on all its output wires. So check the case fans (assuming they are connected to the mobo) if they are turning. Also try connecting a case fan to each one of the output wires to see if all wires have "juice" on them. If they all have juice then the drive must be bad. Now for the mobo not posting, the only way to figure out is to replace one or the other. It's easier to replace the cpu so try that first.

 

[grifterspawn]

I did the battery thing already, Ive tested both this OCZ PSU and an Antec 330watt Truepower one, same thing every time, doesnt power up any hard drives or cdrom, but powers up the cpu fan. I'll try taking everything out and testing it barebones, and no I dont have another A64 board or cpu to test unfortunately, and I doubt both PSU's dont work since I was using the 330watt up until a few days ago withotu a problem.

 

[Buz2b]

Originally posted by: grifterspawn
Just bought an Epox EP-9NDA3J and a Venice 3000+ cpu, also bought an OCZ 430watt PSU, the cpu fan turns on, but the drives dont, and the error msg is FF (obviously it doesnt even post). Think the cpu or motherboard are the culprit? Running Corsair pc3200 in it, any advice would be nice, not sure which thing to RMA lol.

Did you put the entire system together and try to boot? Best not to do that. Just install the MB, CPU w/fan, only one stick of RAM, Vid Card and Hard drive or floppy. Use a boot disk and see if you can boot to it if using a floppy. Don't hook up any other fans, optical drives, etc. After resetting the CMOS, as has been suggested, try again to see if you can get any reaction such as getting to the BIOS. If it still won't boot, try reinserting the CPU carefully. Also make sure the power switch wires are installed properly. Actually better to just "short" the pins (connect them) using a screwdriver as a power switch. That way rules out the switch as defective.