My ASUS A7N8X Motherboard Will Not Boot Up Now!

[JonathanF]

I just received fron Newegg my ASUS A7N8X Motherboard with the Revision 1001.G BIOS, an AMD Athlon 2800+ CPU, and an AMD approved Tailsol CPU Heatsink and FAN.

The Taisol CPU Heatsink and Fan are approved on the AMD Website for Athlon CPUs up to 2700+.

I also have two sticks of Kingston HyperX PC 3500 DDR RAM which I installed in the Memory Slots 1 and 3.

The Computer booted up the first time, but I noticed that the CPU registered at around a 1350 GHZ CPU.

I then went into the Motherboard's BIOS and changed the CPU External Frequency from the Default 100 MHZ to 133 MHZ, and I then rebooted the Computer.

I was going one step at a time with the CPU External Frequency from 100 to 133, and then hopefully to 166.

The Computer now refuses to boot up now although I get power, but I have no Video, and no Keyboard indicator lights.

I get no Beeps or any Sounds of any kind, but I do have power.

I cannot get to the Motherboard's BIOS Setup Screen to change any of the BIOS Settings.

I tried to reset the Motherboard's BIOS by first turning off the Computer, unplugged the Power Cord, removed the CMOS Battery, moved the "CLRTC1" Jumper from "1-2" to "2-3".

I then waited a ten minutes and placed the "CLRTC1" Jumper Back to "1-2".
I reinstalled the CMOS Battery, I plugged the Power Cord back in, and I restarted the Computer.

I tried this Procedure many times and the Computer powers up, but I still have no Keyboard Response or Video so I cannot get to the CMOS Setup Screen.

I even removed the Kingston PC 3500 DDR RAM, and I inserted my old Kingston PC 2100 DDR RAM, but the procedure still will not work, and I still have no Video and cannot get to the BIOS Setup Screen.

I switched Video Cards and also reseated the CPU with no changes.

I tried booting up with no RAM or any Daughter Cards and it did not make any difference.

What can I do now?

Jonathan

 

[Hamburgerpimp]

The only thing I can think of right now is a fried CPU. Did you take off the HS and look at the CPU. Are you sure your HS is in contact with the core? I would check that first.

 

[Hamburgerpimp]

I see this is a double thread. Oops.

 

[NicColt]

>The only thing I can think of right now is a fried CPU.

the A7N8X has C.O.P. so I doubt that's it. Is your CPU fan running ?

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: NicColt
>The only thing I can think of right now is a fried CPU.

the A7N8X has C.O.P. so I doubt that's it. Is your CPU fan running ?

you actually think that thing works?

strange.... you really can only try other parts until you figure out what the problem is.
you got another computer you can use RAM or CPU from?

that's all really.

 

[RanDum72]

you actually think that thing works

Yes, they actually do work.

 

[caboob]

...removed the CMOS Battery, moved the "CLRTC1" Jumper from "1-2" to "2-3"..... HAHAHAHAHA!!!

you dont need to remove the battery. just move the jumper. I am surprised though that the system didnt revert to default FSB speed.

 

[Dogmeat]

I had almost the exact same problem last month. Mine worked fine for 2 weeks, then the vid got wiggie, then it wouldn't post at all. I couldn't get into bios either.

After going component by component I narrowed it down to being the M-Board and RMA'd for replacement. In the meantime, I bought another one to get going and have had no trouble since. Now I have a spare - actually 2 spares as I screwed up and ordered 2. Bottom line - I think your board was next to the one I had on the assembly line when the cheep parts were being installed. RMA and try another.

 

[HowAboutBob]

Interesting.
I bought the same board. I left my memory settings at default. Timings by SPD.
I assumed that I do not have to mess with them although I skimmed through docs, and I did not run tests yet.

I have:
Asus A7N8X
Athalon XP 2100
512 MB Crucial
Winfast geForce 256
Adaptec SCSI card (2835, I think)
Two Seagate 26 GB (Wide SCSI)
IBM 6 GB (Ultra Wide SCSI)
Plextor 40 max (SCSI-2)
Conner 2GB TBU (SCSI-2)
Zip drive 100 MB
Win98

I bought two 60MB Maxtors (ATA-133 7200rpm) and will install WinXP Home.
I ditched the Seagates because they are old, clunky and slow (by todays standards).
I will keep the IBM to boot into in an emergency.

I had no problems installing (except for some stupidity... I had the Case power switch connector on wrong!)
Of course I had to wait for the entire OS to reboot and reload all devices one at a time, and had to manually accept most of them!
Except for the video card driver, which it refused to locate. Sigh.
So I picked it up from Leadtek's website.

However, I occasionally get a corrupt screen somewhere during the boot process.
Its all black except a quarter inch line at the top.
Yes its after my desktop loads (dungeon siege background and it looks great!).
And I can still see my mouse! Wierd stuff.

More timings later this week, then on to the XP install!

Ok, back to you.
Yeah, I agree that it sounds like an overheating problem.
I used Arctic Silver between the CPU and the heat sink (Thermaltake Volcano 7) even though I do NOT plan on overclocking.

Did you buy a new heat sink or use the stock one?
Are you sure that the copper is mounted directly over the CPU die?
Are you absolutely certain that you removed the tape covering the wax on the heatsink before you attached it to the CPU?
Are you sure that the fan is clipped on correctly? If it is off center towards the CPU "hinge" (for lack of a better word), then it is not touching the CPU die at all (See your Athalon CPU instructions, assuming you did not byt OEM - "white box", if this is unclear).

Don't be insulted by my questions... its the little things that we forget.
Bob

 

[Pjotr]

It is a common problem with A7N8X (I had one too!), some boards just die after a BIOS Save and Exit usually and are not possible to wake up, even with clearing CMOS. RMA it.