KT7-RAID woes

[rewap]

Old problem (solved): I just got a new motherboard, Abit KT7-RAID. Installed it. First time boot, after mem test, it gives an error about CPU not properly configured, even though right above it it detected my Duron 800 fine. I hit DEL to enter BIOS, I get a blank black screen with a blue bar on the bottom. I clear the CMOS and reboot. This time I get CMOS checksum error - defaults loaded instead of the CPU error. If I hit DEL to enter BIOS, I get blank screen with blue bar on bottom again. Trying to clear the CMOS again gives the same thing. This is a brand new motherboard. Anyone I have any ideas before I try to return it?

New problem: I can only seem to get into the BIOS 1 out of 1000 tries. 999 out of 1000 times it does the blank screen with blue bar thing. I wanted to upgrade the BIOS. I've tried FreeDOS, DR-DOS, and MS-DOS. All these boot disks boot fine on another system, but on this kt7-raid, it's not working. It sees the floppy, reads it, begins running what's on it, but just stops there. It does not get to the prompt. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[sohcrates]

well, clearing the cmos is the correct approach.

i might suggest trying to flash your bios though...can you get far enough along that you can flash from a floppy disk?

 

[rewap]

Okay, that was the strangest troubleshooting I have ever done.

I tried to get pass the the error message to flash my bios. I press F1 to continue. Nothing happens, I keep pressing it until it starts beeping. I started mashed my keyboard out of frustration, it hit the DEL key, I get into the BIOS setup now. Set my CPU, exit, boots fine now.

I don't know if I should be scared, amazed, proud, or what.

 

[sohcrates]

<< Okay, that was the strangest troubleshooting I have ever done.

I tried to get pass the the error message to flash my bios. I press F1 to continue. Nothing happens, I keep pressing it until it starts beeping. I started mashed my keyboard out of frustration, it hit the DEL key, I get into the BIOS setup now. Set my CPU, exit, boots fine now.

I don't know if I should be scared, amazed, proud, or what. >>



Proud of course!

And who says hitting things with a hammer isn't a viable option?

 

[rewap]

I'm getting a different problem now. I can only seem to get into the BIOS 1 out of 1000 tries. 999 out of 1000 times it does the blank screen with blue bar thing. I wanted to upgrade the BIOS. I've tried FreeDOS, DR-DOS, and MS-DOS. All these boot disks boot fine on another system, but on this kt7-raid, it's not working. It sees the floppy, reads it, begins running what's on it, but just stops there. It does not get to the prompt. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[sohcrates]

what happens if you try to boot it w/out a floppy disk in and w/out trying to get into the bios?

how far does it load?

 

[rewap]

<< what happens if you try to boot it w/out a floppy disk in and w/out trying to get into the bios?

how far does it load? >>



It looks for a bootable CD. I don't know why it didn't check hdd first as specified in the bios setting. Anyways, I put a bootable CD in and it works fine.

 

[sohcrates]

<< It looks for a bootable CD. I don't know why it didn't check hdd first as specified in the bios setting. Anyways, I put a bootable CD in and it works fine. >>



so you can load on OS on there ok, but you still can't get into bios?

everything else works ok though?

 

[worms]

Bad RAM or hot CPU.

 

[DinoGucci]

from my experience that a hot CPU. get a fan on it with thermal grease. make sure everything is ok. leave one stick of ram for now in bank 1 and try to set it up and see what goes on. that should do it.

 

[rewap]

RAM and CPU were pulled from a working system though.

 

[rewap]

I think I found the problem, not enough power. I unplugged all my hard drives (3x), one of my cdroms, and a fan. I can boot to the floppy now. It's a 300w P/S too, but a generic one.

 

[rewap]

I was able to flash my BIOS to 7N, but I still can't get into my BIOS. Same blank screen with blue bar. My key mashing trick doesn't seem to be working.

EDIT: scratch that, mashing did the trick again.

 

[Legendary]

Throw a 350W or a 400W in there, if you can, and then plug all your HDs back in...see if that does it. 300 just doesn't do it anymore it seems.

 

[rewap]

Okay, I get into BIOS. All the pages seem to be fine except for the PC Health page. I can see the temp and fan speeds there, but it locks up my BIOS. I have to hard reboot. Now I can't get into the BIOS again.

 

[worms]

Generic 300W P/S is adequate, but maybe she's broke. If it seems to work better w/o all the drives, etc. try removing EVERYTHING. And I mean EVERYTHING. See how it works with just a video card and a keyboard. Then try it with the floppy drive added in and see if it'll boot.

 

[rewap]

Okay, took out everything except for cpu, cpu fan, ram, and vid card. Everything seems to be working now. PC Health page in BIOS no longer freezes up. This is quite dissapointing seeing how it was a complete working system that I had put this motherboard in. Sigh.

 

[rewap]

Figured it all out. Took everything out and put everything back in piece by piece. It turns out that the thing that was causing all the trouble was a third case fan connected to the fan 2 pin thing next to the cpu one. I guess it doesn't like to have something there unless you're running dual fans on your cpu. I used a three pin to molex connector, hooked it up, works fine.

 

[worms]

You may have one component that failed and is causing an excessive power drain or introducing some non-power related problem. But my bet is that the P/S is dead.

If it's any consolation, I've been an intel man all my life. When I joined this forum I was forced to switch sides and was *very* upset when, after only one day of use, my new Athlon attacked my trusty 350W P/S chewed it up and spit it out on the floor in a smouldering heap of fans and capacitors. I think it's just an AMD thing.

Just kidding of course (about the AMD thing - the P/S story is sadly true). But I must say I've really been in the AMD bashing mood ever since they brought back the insulting frequency deception crap that nearly sunk them only a few years back. God how I hated those flakey KT9000's. They ran as hot as a 9000MHz CPU but actually only had a 25MHz clock. But I digress...

edit: Whoops, I guess I digressed too long. You've already fixed the problem. Your fan story sounds fishy though - maybe the M/B isn't getting enough power after all? Is your P/S 2.03? If not, the CPU might jump up and thrash it within about... 1 day.