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m7ncd boot problems

N

NovacaineX

Junior Member
Hello everyone, i registered for the forums just to get your expert anandtech advice. Alsirhgt heres my problem, My girlfriend just bought a new pc, everything is brand new except for the hd and cd-rom, here are the specs:

Biostar m7ncd motherboard
512mb PNY pc2700 ram
Athlon XP 2200+
Geforce4 mx440 pci video card (she obviosuly doesnt play games heh)
30gb Maxtor hard drive
starlogic (generic?) 250W power supply
and a Mitsumi 52x24x52 cd burner

All seemed well at first, but it has an issue. When you turn it on Sometimes it boots, sometimes it doesnt. Probably about 1 out of 3 tries it works, the times it doesnt the hd powers up, the fans power up, leds everything, but the monitor, keyboard, and mouse get no signal. But when it does power up it works fine, no stability issues, no blue screens, nothing. This also happens if i just tell windows to restart, or hit ctrl-alt-del, it'll shutdown fine than all of a sudden, no signal. Hitting reset a few times doesnt help, have to fully shut it off and back on.

So i figured i'd take out everything unnecessary, same problem, reset cmos, same problem, try other video cards, same problem. I have no idea what could be causing this, if anything were wrong with it than why would it work great on the times it boots? Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.
 
Since there isn't any overclocking and it isn't just a cold boot issue, I'd start with generic 250W powersupply, but since it was purchased recently I'd take it back to where it was purchased and have them fix it 😉 You could check to be certain that pci is the first display device in the bios, but I think that is a long shot.
 
Yeah PCI was selected as the display device, but i dont see why it'd bethe powersupply, i tested it in anothe rpc and it worked just fine, the other pc was an old pentium 3 500 though. could 250W not be enough to power the new board? but if that were the case than why would it boot 1 of 3 times and funciton properly?l
 
Since the Athlon Thunderbird models, a 300w power supply has been the minumum. I'm not saying that a 250w power supply wouldn't work, but it is below the minumum requirement.

In the few instances I've seen with the problem you are having, it was motherboard related. Good luck!
 
Originally posted by: NovacaineX
Yeah PCI was selected as the display device, but i dont see why it'd bethe powersupply, i tested it in anothe rpc and it worked just fine, the other pc was an old pentium 3 500 though. could 250W not be enough to power the new board? but if that were the case than why would it boot 1 of 3 times and funciton properly?l
Click to expand...

Intermittent booting is a prime symptom of an underpowered PSU. Try running the system with a decent-quality 300W or 350W PSU, I expect that you will be surprised.

I installed one of those Biostar M7NCD boards for someone last year, it was one of the smoothest builds that I think I've ever done. I don't think that the board is the problem, unless it is defective.

There is *one* other little thing to check, though. Sometimes, even on new motherboards, the CMOS battery is low, due to sitting in a warehouse for a long time. It also wouldn't hurt to try replacing it with a new, fresh one. WalMart (or any other store), carries CR2032 or CR2016 batteries for like $3, so it would be cheap to try that solution. (I don't remember which type it takes, probably CR2032, they are thicker than the CR2016 ones.) If the CMOS battery is low, sometimes the system won't boot, I've noticed that with a myriad of motherboards over the years.
 
Biostar M7NCD Pro is the best board I have had 🙂
PS and cmos are good places to start.
Good Luck. Let us know how it came out.
 
Well i put in a new CMOS battery, no luck. Bought a new powersupply (antec 350W) no luck. IT actually killed the other power supply eventually so i'm thinking its a defective motherboard. the pin at the end of the yellow wire on the power connector was all black on the fried psu. Not sure what would cause this, i just hope it doesnt happen to the new one as well.
 
Originally posted by: NovacaineX
Well i put in a new CMOS battery, no luck. Bought a new powersupply (antec 350W) no luck. IT actually killed the other power supply eventually so i'm thinking its a defective motherboard. the pin at the end of the yellow wire on the power connector was all black on the fried psu. Not sure what would cause this, i just hope it doesnt happen to the new one as well.
Click to expand...

now ..if the mobo was not installed correctly(intermittent grounding/shorting) ..the mobo could possibly kill the "starlogic (generic?) 250W power supply"..but I'd be more inclined to believe the "starlogic (generic?) 250W power supply" killed the mobo..as always..check your connections and ..ymmv 🙁
 
well with the new powersupply the system still works great, it just only boots when i turn it on and off 3 times ( i've got it down to a science by now). It seems to me if there was anything wrong with the motherboard of memory or processor than the system would be unstable and crashing etc.
 
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