Is my A7N8X DOA?

[Oceanus]

Frist, thanks for stopping in and for your help. I saw the big A7N8X thread, but that seemed to be more for working boards. I thought I knew what I was doing as this is my 5th build, but ... Just got this board from newegg and I cant get it to post or even beep. It's the not beeping that has me worried, this would be my first DOA anything, so I want to make sure I've tried everything before calling newegg for the RMA.

What little it does:
The green power LED on board lights up
The case power button 'turns on' and off (5 second hold)
Fans and drives will spin when connected to header/power

I have tried
check jumpers
cleared CMOS (including removal of battery per book)
swapped RAM, removed all RAM
swapped PSU
swapped CPU, removed CPU
removed MB from case and placed on nice anti-static mat
swapped the little pc speaker

Now please tell me what simple/foolish thing I have forgotten. Thanks again.

 

[mechBgon]

First of all, what's the rest of the system? The more details, the better our brains work on your problems

Also, is this literally an A7N8X, or is it the Deluxe, or the -X model (or the -VM)?

 

[Oceanus]

The board is a basic A7N8X (box tag says A7N8X-UAY if that matters).

CPU: XP 1600+, XP 2000+, T-800 (book says cpu must be >1Ghz, but all have same results)
RAM: (2) 256MB, PC2100 PNY (8 infineon chips) (tested one-at-a-time, pulled/swapped from working system)
Video: generic 32MB TNT2

haven't bothered to hook anything else up until it posts

thanks

 

[mechBgon]

Your TNT2 may be the problem. Some TNT2's are 3.3V AGP cards and cannot be used in a 1.5V/0.8V AGP slot like the new boards all come with. Also, some TNT2s have a jumper to choose between AGP 4x (1.5V) or AGP 2x (3.3V). Consequences of using a 3.3V card in a 1.5V slot range from frying the mobo to just lighting up a little "sorry, try again" LED depending on the motherboard. See page 10 of your manual; your board has a warning LED.

Also, if you can confirm that your card is a 1.5V card, then make certain it's fully bottomed-out in the AGP slot too (there are two rows of electrical contacts in there, so don't stop halfway).

 

[Oceanus]

I'll double check the vid card, but don't think it's that. This board has the idoit light and that didn't complain. I also took the vid card out, expecting the MB to beep/complain about not having a vid card.

 

[mechBgon]

You could be right, it might simply be a DOA board in the end Good luck with the troubleshooting.

 

[Oceanus]

Well tell me this, should a 'stripped down' (no CPU, no RAM, ...) beep? I think so. This one doesn't.

Thanks for the support mechBgon.

 

[mechBgon]

Yeah, you should get error beeps on an A7N8X standard if it doesn't have RAM, or CPU, or video, or any combo of those. The Deluxe would give voice messages that it outputs through the rear audio-out jack to speakers/headphones, but AFAIK the standard non-Deluxe doesn't have the speech feature and just uses beep codes. You could check that real quick, though, just plug headphones into the green jack and see if it's yammering about "System CPU Fail! :Q System CPU Fail! :Q" or so forth