new board cpu and pc wont boot....

[fasterthenmost]

hey all i am new here but not to computers but having an unusual problem. i got a new machspeed board for christmas (n2paplite) and an amd 2400+ athalon chip. I know i need ddr memory traded to get some from my friend. 128 chip just for now. i removed and re-installed everything with no problems. but now i get just a black screen. i can here the fan going and the cpu fan going as well. i got 2 system fans also if your wondering. the cdrom light is lit but screen stays black. i took the memory out and same thing. my question is should i get something on the screen even with no memory inserted cause i am not sure if the memory is the right speed. my videocard was working in the old tyan board last night but nothing in this one. i have a ati rage fury pro 32 mb i believe. the video card is 2x/4x and the board states it support 4x why wont my pc boot up. the only thing that is really in question is the memory but i thought i would still get a post even with no memory in. well i am off to the store to buy the right memory. cause i know my videocard was working last night in my other board so i will start there. cpu, board, fan, are all new christmas presents. i have tried to re-seat everything and clear cmos still nothing so i will go buy the correct memory and see how that goes. any thoughts would be a great help. one other thing i had moved the power supply to 230v instead of 115v cause at 115 power would not stay on. well post and help me out please anyone..... thanks in advance

 

[Zelmo3]

The computer won't POST without working memory, so that may be your problem.
I've also had trouble with a power supply that wasn't adequate for a newly purchased motherboard, which kept the comp from booting. That was with an Athlon 2500+ on an Abit nForce2 mobo. 300 watts wasn't good enough, so I got a new case with a 400W PSU. Everything's happy now.

 

[Harvey]

First, a request. Please find the Shift and Enter keys on your keyboard, and put some capitalization and spaces between paragraphs. I went damned near blind trying to read your post.

That said, the first thing I would say is setting your power supply to 230 volts on a 120 volt line won't work, and it could be dangerous. It's not as dangerous as the inverse (setting it to 120 on a 230 volt line) but you are trying to run it way out of its specified range of operation.

If everything else is known working, I would agree with Zelmo3 that the two most likely things are the memory and the power supply. If everything else works, you should probably get a beeping error message at startup if there is no memory. If you power supply is not new, are you sure it's AMD qualified for your chip?

Good luck.

 

[SilverLock]

First you need memory - but you should get a beep code indicating that you don't. If you are not getting a beep code then I would:

Get the memory
Reseat the processor

Try booting again.

 

[mechBgon]

"at 115V the power wouldn't stay on"

ding ding ding! Clue #1. Make sure your heatsink's attached like this and not like this. Also make sure you have thermal grease between the CPU core and the heatsink base, or else that you remembered to remove the plastic slip from the thermal pad. I guess I shouldn't assume you've got a Socket-A-compatible heatsink, either... what heatsink are you using (brand/model)?

What you've accomplished by switching to 230V on your PSU is to befuddle the system badly enough that its overheat-protection circuitry isn't able to save your CPU from overheating, so don't expect the CPU to have survived if your heatsink was on backwards. May I suggest taking a more analytical approach in the future but good luck anyway.

 

[fasterthenmost]

Ok well the update is i bought pny memory pc 2700 333mhz and its suppose to work at pc2100 266mhz as well. The power supply switch is on 115v. I tried two video cards and when i press the power button the fans will turn for a few seconds and stop and i get nothing on the screen and no noise from the tower.

I did have the heatsink on correctly and its suppose to support my cpu it is a speeze model 5r238b1h3g. yes i did have the grease and did remove the plastic.

Have a screwed the whole board and cpu by changing the voltage on the power supply to 230v? The fans and periphals were working and running at 230v but still nothing would trigger the monitor to come on??? Well i guess i messed everything would you guys suggest returning the motherboard and processor? I have another power supply to test it with but i don't think that its 400 watts. i will try to scrape some money together to buy one if you guys think that will fix it.

Thanks for all your help and to the people that just made fun of a guy trying to learn don't read the post if you don't have anything good to say. It seem like many people are having problems with this motherboard so its not just me, just a mistake I made in purchasing it.

 

[mechBgon]

Good to hear your heatsink isn't the problem I doubt that simply setting the PSU to 230V is going to have done lasting harm, because I had a co-worker whose PC was running that way on a day-to-day basis, and it did crash randomly, but once it was set to 115V it was fine. So keep your hopes up on that.

Try this next: strip the motherboard absolutely bare. No memory, no CPU, no video, no keyboard, nada. Just a bare mobo. Now threaten it with something sharp. :evil: Next, plug it into the power supply, and use something metal to make momentary contact on the Power On pins on the motherboard's header, as if you'd pushed the case's power button.

When you do that, the power supply's fan should start running and stay running. If it doesn't, then you've narrowed it down to a bad mobo or a bad PSU, and you can hopefully eliminate the PSU by trying it with a known-working PSU.

If it does work, then maybe the motherboard just isn't ready for the 2400+. Many of the new 2400+'s out there use the new Thornton core, which is more rectangular (it's a Barton with half the L2 cache switched off). The motherboard might need a BIOS flash to run with a Thornton in it. That's a speculation, because I've seen mobos that would run a Thornton even before the proper BIOS was installed (they simply didn't know what speed they should run it at). Can you give me a link to the mobo, or a brand + model so I can look it up?

 

[fasterthenmost]

The motherboard info can be found on this website - http://www.machspeed.com/

 

[RossGr]

Remove the mobo from the case, do a minimum necessary set up with the board on a non conductive surface. then try to boot. I sounds more like a case short then CPU fan issues.

Check that you do not have any extra stand offs in the case, all stand offs need to line up with a mounting hole in the mobo.

Good luck.

 

[Zelmo3]

Those new symptoms sound exactly like what happened when I upgraded my motherboard earlier this year. Tech support said it had to do with a bad ground between the board and the case, and that's when I got a new case with a heftier PSU. I'm not sure whether it was the better grounding in the case that fixed it or the new PSU with the extra little square connector, but between the two of them they eliminated the problem.