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My computer won't start - please help

N

nlh

Member
My motherboard just came today, so I started putting my computer together. I wore my anti-static wrist bracelet, followed all of the instructions as best I could, and installed my processor, heatsink/fan, case fan, drives, graphics card, and nic. I follow the power-on procedure, and nothing happens. The case fun moves a little, the LED on the motherboard goes on and stays on, but absolutely nothing else happens.

What can I do?

The system:
Asus A7V333 motherboard
AMD XP1800 processor
Geforce 4 TI 4400 128mb
Enermax 400w Dual Fan power supply
Alpha PAL8045 Heatsink with Vantec Tornado
Delta 80mm 80cfm Case Fan
512mb Crucial DDR pc2100 RAM
40gb Maxtor Quantum Fireball
Floppy and CD drive connected to their own IDE cables

I thought I did everything right - the only light to power on is the one inside, on the motherboard.
 
First, is the CPU fan plugged into the cpu fan header ? If not, no boot. Is the ATX PW switch from the case plugged into the motherboard correctly ? Try these, then reply back.
 
The CPU fan is in the right header, I double checked just now.

The Power stuff - this is all panel stuff, correct? This was confusing - the motherboard labeled the headers differently than its manual did. For example, there are two rows of headers, and the motherboard seems to 'say' the speaker connection goes on the bottom row, while the manual says the top row. I'm wondering if I need to try a lot of combinations before I find the true one. I followed the manual's setup, and I've had no luck.
 
It sounds like you may have the "power panel" cables setup wrong. If you have just the wrong combination, you can blow the motherboard. I don;t have the manual in front of me right now, so I can't be more specific. However, the ONLY one you need to plug in is the the ATX power switch. After you get that right, the rest you do one at a time while the power is off (unless you are sure they are right). You MUST get them on the right pins !! Look one more time at the manual, and I am sure you can figure it out. I can't find a PDF with the manual on the ASUS site, but if I find more, I will let you know.
 
I've been trying to find the right Power SW spot, but it just isn't working. I've checked the manual so many times, too.

When I have it in the 'correct' spot, one of the fans moves a little.. a little have spin, maybe, but that's it. Then I get nothing. So I turn off the power supply, take out the cord, put on my bracelet, and try something new. When I move the power sw away from the 'correct' spot, nothing happens - no fan action. I have no idea what is going on, and this is so frustrating.

Thanks for the help so far, though. I feel like giving up.
 
Okay, I think I might pee in my pants. It just booted up after I stripped it down to CPU, heatsink, RAM, Hard disk, and Video card. Now to narrow down the problem.
 
Now I have a new problem. I set the BIOS (1533mhz) chip speed, etc.

Now, after reloading, if I let it keep booting, it tries to boot to Windows 2000, then errors with a 'STOP' message. Should I put in my Windows XP disk and boot from CD-ROM?
 
OK. The history of the "OS'es" is missing from this thread. What OS do you want to run long term ? Have you done a clean install of that OS after changing the motherboard ? (re-formatting the HD, and install from scratch ) You should re-format and start from scratch after any major hardware upgrade (motherboard allways, sometimes video, depending) So, to try to anticipate your answers and guess, IF you want to run Windows XP, YES boot from that CD, delete partition, and re-create the partition, reformat, install XP.
 
Well, every item is brand new in this machine. Anyway, I'll be running XP Pro, and I decided to boot from CD, then format the partition with NTFS (not the quick version).

Anyway, I have one question. When booting up, the voice POST system says 'No CPU installed', but there has to be a CPU installed for it to run, so I'm assuming it's just an early warning that happens because the fans didn't power up yet. (?) Also, after looking up that message in the manual, it says it means 'install P4', which I find odd, considering this is an AMD chipset and board. 🙂

Oh well, I'll just disable voice and use the beeps. Very nice to have this running, it's an upgrade from a Celeron 400.

Hopefully everything goes smoothly from here on in.

Thanks for the help, too.
 
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