need help system will not start-up.

[brandon727]

ok first the system will power up the fans come on and i hear the cr/dvd rom clicking but it won't start-up. now i used my roomates(on it now) computer with all my cables and monitor and it's works so it's not those.

now let me get into what i did lol. i was just trying diffrent things out and i hit the 115 switch over to the 230 on the power supply that system shut down but did reboot jsut in set-up mode it said i needed a disk to start up i lost mine so where can i get one i am running windows server 2003.

ok then after i switched the power supply back i went into the bios to try and fix it. yeah i know stupid me i don't know jack about computers, i only messed with some of the speed settings but i might have hit something else.

also the ribbion from my harddrive came undone during the process not sure when.


i doubt i really described it to much but is thier any help based on this info.

system p4 2.0
powerman power supply not sure how much it says 225 max
wd 80gb hd
nec cd/dvd rom

 

[Lord Evermore]

You switched it from 110 volt to 230V while it was ON?! Are you daft?

It's possible you've just destroyed some components. Technically setting it to 230V and plugging it into 110V won't damage anything usually (setting it to 110V and plugging into 230V usually causes sparks and maybe some lava), but who knows what it might do if you switched it live, and even if you did it while it was off, there's always a chance it did some damage when you turned it on.

I'm not sure how safe it is to give you advice that involves removing components for testing, but it's up to you whether you screw it up any further. Don't blame anybody here if you plug something in backwards and kill yourself. While working on it, remember to ground yourself by touching an unpainted part of the case once in a while.

It's not really clear whether you're getting any video output. You said after you put it back to 110V you were able to go into BIOS setup, and then after that it wasn't working.

If you're getting video, it may be that you've just corrupted the BIOS configuration. Shut it off and unplug it from the wall. On the mainboard is a coin cell batter (like a watch battery). Remove it, carefully, make sure you don't damage the socket (the metal connectors are usually shaped to make it spring-loaded to hold the battery), and let it sit for a minute, then put it back in, plug in, and turn it on. Everything should be auto-detected.

If that doesn't work, if you still have no video, shut it off, unplug it, and remove the memory modules. Make note of which way they are facing, as you have to put them back in exactly right and carefully, though it takes some force to make them latch in. Keep the memory out, and plug it in and turn it on. If you don't get any beeps, then the mainboard is probably damaged. If you get some beeps that you didn't get before, then it's at least working enough to know the memory was removed. Shut it off and put the memory back in. If you still get no video, then the video card may be damaged.

If you've got video, but you're getting an error about needing a system disk, then you may have damaged your hard drive.

 

[mechBgon]

After hot-switching it from 115V to 230V, you should also drop it into about 3 feet of water to make SURE it's dead :evil:

Ok ok Here's another factor to look at: make sure your WD 80GB hard drive is jumpered for Single Master, if it's the only drive on its cable. That's easy, just remove the jumper cap from the pins and leave it off, and that's Single Master. WD drives that aren't jumpered correctly may make your motherboard and it won't POST, won't detect the drive, or stalls out during POST. Single Master is different from regular Master, so attend to that.

 

[Lord Evermore]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
After hot-switching it from 115V to 230V, you should also drop it into about 3 feet of water to make SURE it's dead :evil:

Ok ok Here's another factor to look at: make sure your WD 80GB hard drive is jumpered for Single Master, if it's the only drive on its cable. That's easy, just remove the jumper cap from the pins and leave it off, and that's Single Master. WD drives that aren't jupered correctly may make your motherboard and it won't POST, won't detect the drive, or stalls out during POST. Single Master is different from regular Master, so attend to that.

Why would his hard drive suddenly be jumpered differently from the way it was working before?

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Lord Evermore

Originally posted by: mechBgon
After hot-switching it from 115V to 230V, you should also drop it into about 3 feet of water to make SURE it's dead :evil:

Ok ok Here's another factor to look at: make sure your WD 80GB hard drive is jumpered for Single Master, if it's the only drive on its cable. That's easy, just remove the jumper cap from the pins and leave it off, and that's Single Master. WD drives that aren't jupered correctly may make your motherboard and it won't POST, won't detect the drive, or stalls out during POST. Single Master is different from regular Master, so attend to that.

Why would his hard drive suddenly be jumpered differently from the way it was working before?

Was it working before? <-- me. It doesn't help that he's rather sparse with the punctuation

 

[Lord Evermore]

I just kind of assumed he wasn't building a brand new P4 2.0. And if he changed the power setting while it was on, presumably it was working.

Maybe he shouldn't be given any more advice. He managed to change the power setting and somehow also knock loose a hard drive cable and screw up the BIOS settings.

 

[brandon727]

yo thanks for the help and the kind words lol.

my rommate fixed it he jsut reset the bios by jumping the pins at the motherboard.
i must be super lucky cause everything is intact. now i know not to ****** with ****** but that is what i do untill i learn it,

can you point me in the direction to see how to work the bios i am running a biostar p4vma-m ver 7.8 mobo.

hey lord everymore i blame no one for my experiments, i got this set-up for under 100 bucks so if i need all new ****** so be it.

 

[Lord Evermore]

Locate Biostar's website and you can download the manual, it will give you information on how to change the settings.

If you want to learn real details on the settings, try here.

 

[brandon727]

who am i giving advice to that i need to stop. cause i will

oh and i do think i had the hd wired wrong cause one it wouldn't start it just took everything out and redid it. my roomate said something about some wires being jumped wrong but they where for the front power button and the lights, the hd jsut has the 80 pin ribbon coming from it and i put that back to where it was.

 

[mechBgon]

The BIOS probably auto-detects your CPU and memory and can be left alone after the reset, to generalize a bit. If you want to recon how stuff goes together and all that, try my newbie computer-building guide. It has lots of photos and descriptions of how/why things are done (sorry, the video clips are busted): http://www.mechbgon.com/build/index.html

 

[brandon727]

thanks for all the help, is their any rep on this site ifso i will hook you up.

 

[Lord Evermore]

Originally posted by: brandon727
who am i giving advice to that i need to stop. cause i will

That was "given advice" not "giving advice".

 

[brandon727]

True. I tend to just skim the forums, but no worries it's working now. I am reading the posted links, thanks.