More probs with ASUS A7N266-VM

[pbaris]

For those of you that remember me, here is my post from mid-December...


Hello all -

I am building a new rig for Christmas...I have built 4 or 5 systems - no expert, but I know my way around a PC...I took the Anandtech recommended "value system": This Mobo, Antec SX600II case with the 300W ps, WD 80 GB HD (8 mb cache), Thermaltake Volcano 7+ sink/fan, 256 MB Crucial RAM, Lite-on CD R/W.

Put it all together, pushed the power button, and the case, PS and CPU fans all turned for 1 second - and then quit. Zip, zilch, nada. I have to turn the PS button off in back and wait for the green mobo led to go off to try again. I searched the archives, and have tried everything I could find...

1) double and triple checked the power button wires from the case to the mobo. I even tried reversing the wire directions.
2) Tried to reverse the reset sw leads with the power leads in case Antec mis-wired.
3) Double checked that the PS connector to the mob is properly seated and locked in place.
4) Bypassed Thermals variable speed CPU fan to put it directly onto the mobo.
5) Double checked that the PS is set for 115V and not 230V (yes, I got a PS supply once that somebody flipped the Switch on!)


TODAY: Got a new Motherboard from NEWEGG's RMA program, started slowly on cardboard...powered up the MB with no CPU/RAM. Case and PS fan started up perfect! Yippee! Added the CPU, still good, and got the beeps about no RAM. Added the RAM, and still good - posted fine and then said boot disk failure as expected. Added the HD, floppy and CD - still good posts and the boot disk failure message since no OS installed.

Put everything in the case, and still ok. Rebooted to start-up from Windows...and entered BIOS to just double check all the settings....and then downhill from there. The system locked up after like 3 minutes in the BIOS - I MADE NO CHANGES! NOTHING.

I tried to restart, and got no post, no video signal, nothing...case lights came on, CD light on for a bit, then off, Floppy light on all the time. HD light on for a bit, then off.

Tried ctrl-alt-del => nothing.
Tried the case reset switch, and the system started to reboot...again nothing - until I got some beeps - two different tones, alternating back and forth.

I reseated the RAM, reseated the CPU...didn't see anything wrong anywhere...

Took out the battery, and tried to clear the CMOS pins on the board....no luck...

If I power up after using the PS switch in the back, no sounds, nothing...if I use the reset sw after that, I get the alternating beeps.

The monitor light continues to show amber, like there is no signal at all - and yes, that is working fine.

Lost once more....

Thanks folks

Paul

 

[Killrose]

The floppy being on all the time is you have the cable reversed. Either at the floppy or the board connector. Is there a halt on errors in bios? Maybe if it is set to halt on "all" or "keyboard, floppy" that could cause you problems.

The part about it working out of the case is bothersome and points to a motherboard mounting stand-off miss posotioned in the case. Try and run the board with-out CD rom(s) and only one stick of mem (if you have more than one).

 

[pbaris]

Well - I disconnected the floppy, and the CD-ROM....no change. I disconnected the HD as well...No change...

I do get the 2 beeps all the time now - still no video signal at all...just an amber light on the monitor...

Any idea what the 2 beeps continuously repeating is all about? I haven't found that code yet...Reseating CPU and RAM has not helped at all either...I double checked - all the stand-offs are in place for holes in the MB...I do not see any contacts with the MB and case anywhere...

Thanks again

Paul

 

[Killrose]

You might have a bad line on one of you PSU rails. You said that when you first tried it out of the box it appeared to be functional, then once installing it , it failed like the last one you had. Your PSU has sat idle while waiting for the replacement board, allowing the capacitors to self discharge. Maybe the PSU overvolt protection is bad, grabbing at straws here, but some people claim that if you un-plug the PSU, then push the power switch back on while still un-plugged, it will momentarly discharge the capacitors, allowing a restart. I think its hogwash, but you could try it. Then get a new supply if it works.

 

[mechBgon]

If you look at page 32 of the manual (which I'm sure you already did) then we see that the Reset switch should occupy the two pins at the right end of the bottom row. There's a missing pin to their left, and then the Power switch goes on the next two, again on the bottom row. Is that how you've been doing it? Also, don't fret about the polarity, because they're nothing but momentary-contact switches. The power will flow through them equally well in either direction.

If you read up on the A7N266-VM like I think you did, then you already know that the CPU/RAM jumpers next to the AGP slot are depicted upside down in the manual (although I think they now insert a correction page). I don't know what CPU you're using, but if it's a 100MHz-based one such as a Duron, you're going to want to cap the right-side pins on the upper jumper and the left-side pins on the lower one. That will set the CPU and RAM to operate synchronously at 100MHz speeds. If the upper jumper isn't on the rightmost pair of pins, it'll try to force the CPU to the 133MHz bus.

edit: now I feel a bit silly... the jumper setup I described just now is the same with the manual flipped over as with it right-side up Think I need some coffee here! :Q

Did you use the shim again or leave it off? Those sound a bit risky to me, I hope you bailed it.

I know you're already aware of the heatsink and clip issues I brought up last time. That fan makes me wonder, though. Try powering up the board without the fan plugged into anything, and particularly not the motherboard. Naturally, you don't want to run it that way too long, perhaps 20 seconds or so. Frankly, after Thermaltake threatened to sue a Forum member here for posting test results which showed that Thermaltake's Orb-series coolers don't cool very well, I've made sure never to recommend their stuff, and certainly not buy it. Makes me think of how Suzuki sued Consumer Reports for publicizing that the Suzuki Samauri was prone to rolling over.

Let us know what happens.

 

[Kenazo]

Good luck. I've got this board too, so far it's working great, but it was showing some artifacts on screen while i was installing winxp, which kind of worries me, other than that, all is good.

 

[pbaris]

Uuuggggghhhh - I am getting really frustrated now...I tried to start over from scratch....First with the board, no CPU, and just the chassis fan - fan ran. Then added the power to case fan....case fan ran. Then added the CPU with heatsink and fan attached (not powered though, and NO SHIM) - no luck. It looked like the heatsink had been making food contact with the chip, because the Arctic silver was "well smeared" there... So - added RAM - still nothing...

Tried the thing with the PS that Killrose mentioned...a couple of times. Cleared CMOS again, removed battery...

The power switch and reset pins are correct Mech...and I am using an Athlon 1400, so the default settings should work fine, no?

It is so frustrating since I had everything in the case, and was starting to relax and load the OS - and WHAM...

Will Newegg tech support help out since I bought the case, RAM, CPU and the MB from them?

Could I have killed/messed up the CPU somehow, or do we have a second bad board here?

I feel like I want to send everything back to Newegg and start over at this point!

Thanks again

Paul

 

[mechBgon]

Wait... 1400MHz Athlon, now is this the AthlonXP or the older Athlon?

 

[pbaris]

AMD1600+/266 ATHLON 1.40G XP is the "exact" description...

 

[mechBgon]

Is that the same CPU where it kept cutting out on you after spinning fans for a moment? If you did that too many times in a row before deciding to back off and investigate, it could've damaged the CPU. As I said in my original post, that's an indication that the CPU is overheating due to lack of contact with the heatsink (shim too thick, is my guess). Do you have another CPU you feel like trying in there?

Like Killrose says, there's also the possibility that you got a bum PSU. If you have another known-good 300W+ PSU to try, that might be a good plan. Ditto for the RAM, as unlikely as it might be.

Since it's the AthlonXP, it's designed for the 133 bus that the board comes pre-set for, and worst-case scenario with the jumpers is that it might get underclocked, so that clears that up, it ought to be fine.

 

[pbaris]

I tested the PSU with Antec's PS tester before I sent the MB back to Newegg....so I am thinking that is not the problem. But who knows at this point!?

Yes, it is the same CPU as before - so I guess it is possible that I messed it up somehow - but the shim was extremely thin - and actually was thinner than the 4 little foam bumps on the corner of the CPU...I really believe that there has always been very good contact between the CPU and the heat sink...

The thing that really sucks is that I don't have another CPU or anything to test it with...I left everything at the ex's place...so I did not really want to go buy new parts just to see if they work on this machine...


Strange....I had the bios screen up for several minutes, and then was going through it, and went to reboot to start the OS install - and WHAM - nothing...

Does anyone know what the continuous 2 beep pattern means? It is not the repeating single beep for no ram. But a high pitched beep, then a lower pitch, and then it repeats. That does not happen all the time though....sometimes NOTHING.

I am starting to think that I am going to have to suck it up and pay $50 for some local guy to do a good diagnostic on the system...As much as I hate that....

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: pbaris
I tested the PSU with Antec's PS tester before I sent the MB back to Newegg....so I am thinking that is not the problem. But who knows at this point!?

Yes, it is the same CPU as before - so I guess it is possible that I messed it up somehow - but the shim was extremely thin - and actually was thinner than the 4 little foam bumps on the corner of the CPU...I really believe that there has always been very good contact between the CPU and the heat sink...

Ah, but there's the trick: the pads compress when the heatsink's clip is engaged. The shim doesn't. Now, if you were to take a straightedge across the shim and core to verify that the core is taller than the shim, that would be reassuring. Still, the only situation I've seen that causes the system to cut power right away is an overheated core, and the usual reason is that the heatsink isn't making contact.

For what it's worth, I installed my new Thermalright SK-7 a couple weeks ago, got it on in the right direction, and had a kick-off regardless. The cause? The issue illustrated in figure 14 of this PDF. I had the heatsink a little too close to the cambox.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Does anyone know what the continuous 2 beep pattern means? It is not the repeating single beep for no ram. But a high pitched beep, then a lower pitch, and then it repeats. That does not happen all the time though....sometimes NOTHING.

What you're describing is the police siren sound of the CPU overheat alarm most likely and you need to heed Mechbgon's advice and if necessary get another hs/f combo to try with it. BTW, DO NOT waste your money on letting some goober at the local shop test it as they charge you regardless of wether they fix it or not and will likely gouge you regardless:frown:

 

[mechBgon]

Hehe, yep, for the price of one hour of their time, you could buy yourself a Duron to test with. I'm leaning toward CPU at this stage. Of course, it could be a bum PSU also. Remember, it took a few minutes of idling for it to conk out on you. If you have a different PSU to test with, try it out. I did look up the beep codes but they don't name a high-low-high-low one in the manual (page 33).

Edit: if you do get a Duron to test with, remember to pop the jumpers to the 100/100 position so it's not OC'ed! :Q Or pick up one of those $50 OEM 1700+'s...

 

[pbaris]

Okay guys - that was frustration talking last night when I said I would take it to a local flunkie...I guess I would only do that if they would just check the CPU quickly...I am going to just go buy another AthlonXP and be done with it. I don't think the PS is the problem. It came up clean once, and everything seemed to be working fine all along the way...I probably toasted the CPU before.

Now - should I buy a retail unit with a stock HS/F or buy OEM and get a different HS/F combo...suggestions? Which HS/F?

Thanks - and let's try for round 3!

Paul

 

[mboy]

I built one for my pops over xmas with an XP1600 as well. Took me a while to get the power wires in correctly as it was not very clear on the mobo and in the manual. After I cleared that up, 2k pro installed fine and it is a mighty nice little setup for my old man for another office rig. If u in northern, NJ area, I will take a look at it and help u for free

 

[DAPUNISHER]

@Newegg You can grab a OEM 1700+ t-bred for 49.99$ and a HAC-V81 copper base Coolmaster with adjustable fan speed for 15$ and be good to go with a superior HS/F to the stock for 13$ less than the retail 1700+ would cost you. BTW, I heard that warning siren when building my niece's system@christmas based on the A7N266-VM and it was because I didn't adjust the clip on the coolmaster(equivalent to stock) I was using for it and it wasn't making good contact with the core, adjusting the clip resolved the snafu. Good luck and let us know how you make out

 

[pbaris]

Okay gang - I ordered a replacement CPU and the HS/F that DAPUNISHER recommended. I am positive I have the hs/f currently installed properly - but who knows if at some point in this whole debacle I messed it up...so we will see what is up...

If I burned the CPU, will it have a scorched core or anything? Should I try to RMA it back to Newegg (I bought the 1-year extended warranty for $5...so I guess I can wait to see if the new one works, and if it does, at least I can try...!)

Thanks again gang...now we wait for the UPS man to arrive Friday or Monday (more likely!)

Pb