Need HELP with new system

[Mourningshadow]

Ok so I had a bunch of spare parts lying around and decided to put together a system for my girl cause hers is the suck. Only problem is once I installed everything and hit the power button all I got was beeping coming from the Mobo and my speakers, of course I thought it was bad RAM as it is the same beeping I have had when there is no RAM or fried RAM in a system, but I switched the RAM with my system and have the same problem, The RAM I had in there also worked fine in my system so it is not the RAM, can anyone think of anything else that may be causing this? right now I am leaning towards a bad PSU though everything comes on when I turn it on, fans, lights etc. heres whats in it, Mobo- Epox 8k3a+ CPU - AMD Athlon XP 1600+, RAM 256MB Corsair PC2100 DDR, Video card, ATI Radeon 7500, HDD Maxtor 20 gig 7200rpm, PSU - Mustang 350w, and a PCI fax modem. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.


Aaron

 

[Kappo]

I would put the vid card, CPU, and RAM in it and make sure everything is seated really well. See if you can get to the bios. If you can, then start adding pieces one by one until you find the problem.

If you cannot, you can safely lay blame on either the processor or motherboard. I have never had an instance where the PSU caused my system to beep. You may also try looking up beep codes for your BIOS and see what it is beeping about. (ie, 1 long for processor, 5 short for ram, and things like that).

 

[Looney]

What's the beep sound like? Incase you didn't know, the beeps are what's known as POST codes, and they can tell you what's wrong with it. If it's long, and exactly repeating beeps, then it sounds like it's memory.

And just because the ram worked in another system, doesn't mean it might not be the ram. What kind of ram was it (name?)? It might not be compatible with it. But like i said, what do the beeps sound like? The beeps will help you diagnosed what's wrong.

 

[TeMpT]

There are also MOBOs that beeps and not boot if the CPU isn't plugged in right, the fan's are not connected, etc. I'd verify that ALL the wires are plugged first (the CPU fan being key) and just plug in the Vid card. See if you can get a POST screen first.

 

[Mourningshadow]

The beeps are long and exactly the same, which is why I thought it was the RAM, it is crucial PC2100 RAM and I know it's compatible, I also tried putting the RAM from my system in there and had the same problem. I am thinking perhaps it is something wrong with the video card, so going to try switching that out, thanks for the help everyone.

 

[pyrojunkie]

I would recommend checking out the CPU in another motherboard if possible. Also make sure the CPU fan is plugged into the CPU fan connector.

 

[Mourningshadow]

Ok I am stumped now, I think I have tried everything, tried different RAM, made sure the original RAM wasn't fried, switched out the PSU with mine, switched out the Video card with mine, switched out the CPU with mine, made sure all cables and the CPU were inserted correctly. The only thing I can think of is that there is something wrong with the Mobo so gonna have to find a replacement if I can't figure it out. The sad thing is I have the feeling it is something really obvious and simple and I just havn't thought of it.

 

[Willoughbyva]

Might try resetting/clearing the cmos and make sure the ram settings are good, might even underclock to get started. Try it with cpu and fan, memory, and video card first and then go from there. I think for that cpu it would be 133mhz for the memory, so try less than that if nothing else works.