New built system dead and gets nowhere on start

[DaveOddie]

Hi,

I just bought an AMD 2000+, Asus A7N8X (not deluxe), 2 sticks of cas2 memory (256 mb mounted in slots 2 & 3) a Systek case, Western Digital 80 Gig disc, floppy, DVD drive, fan etc.

The only thing carried over from my old system is a Hercules Geforce 2 MX 32mb AGP 2x/4x graphics card.

I put it together tonight and you can imagine my feelings when not much happened on power on.

There is just no signal being sent to the monitor.

I checked the graphics card by putting it back in the old system and it works OK.

The green LED on the motherboard is on permanently (which is as it should be according to the instructions). The red LED is out - so its not complaining the card is badly seated. The CPU fan spins OK so there appears to be power ar the motherboard.

I don't get any audio diagnostics as I can't get the case speaker to give a peep despite trying the connector both ways around.

The only pecular thing I can see is that the light on the front of the case for the floppy is permanently lit when the box is powered on. I don't know if this indicates a problem or is just because the case cables are badly labelled and its acting as a power on LED !!.

The only thing that works is when I press and hold the front power switch for 4 seconds the system powers down as it should.

Has anyone any idea what might be wrong?

Could I have damaged the CPU on installation and that be causing it?

I am pretty sure I got the discs and DVD connectoed OK. The HDD I left the jumper as default which is C select or something which I assume is OK (as opposed to master).

However I would have expected at least something from the BIOS on the screen.

All jumpers are in their default positions.

The only other thing I can think of apart form a damaged CPU is the graphics card is maybe a 3.3v card and not 1.5v which is all the ASUS supports. It does fit in OK so I am assuming this is not the case. There is no mention of the voltage in the spec sheet - just that it is AGP 2x/4x.

Anyone with any ideas on what is a likely cause?

Dave

 

[Willoughbyva]

Probably the light on the floppy being on all the time means the cable is hooked up backwards. I think for western digital dives you need to set it to single if it is alone on the chain.

What I would do is remove everything except the cpu, fan/heatsink, video, and memory power it on and see if it will post.

 

[RustyNale]

Welcome to AnandTech, DaveOddie.
Couple of quick questions for you. What psu are you using? It should be one that is on AMD's approved list. Try using just one stick of ram--put it into slot 1, if that doesn't work, try the 2nd stick in slot 1. Are you sure you installed your cpu correctly? Attached the hsf to the cpu correctly and attached the hsf wire to the motherboard connector?

 

[olds]

I agree that the floppy cable is probably backwards. Did you try to start it without the HS/F installed?

 

[DaveOddie]

Originally posted by: RustyNale
Welcome to AnandTech, DaveOddie.
Couple of quick questions for you. What psu are you using? It should be one that is on AMD's approved list. Try using just one stick of ram--put it into slot 1, if that doesn't work, try the 2nd stick in slot 1. Are you sure you installed your cpu correctly? Attached the hsf to the cpu correctly and attached the hsf wire to the motherboard connector?

Thanks for the reply. The PSU is specified as AMD/P4 compatable. The fan on the HSF is spinning and it appears to be set square on top of the CPU.

On reading the other replies I suspect I have the cable on the floppy on the wrong way around but the complete lack of output from the video card is worrying.

I have never had anyting on the screen so unless I damaged the CPU on installation I would have expected at least a brief flicker of information if the heatsink was not on properly before it died.

That led me to think of a video card compatability problem. The board only accepts 1.5v cards and the GeForce 2MX fits in the slot so I assumed it was electrically compatable. This card works in my old system which is an Intel BX system with a Gigabyte 6BXC motherboard. The card in that old system is an old ATI Expert 98 card that won't fit in the Asus motherboard. I suspect the ATI is 3.3v and given the GeForce 2 card also works in the old system I am wondering if that is also 3.3v. Its not on the spec sheet of the card. Any ideas?

Dave

 

[DaveOddie]

[qI think for western digital dives you need to set it to single if it is alone on the chain.

What I would do is remove everything except the cpu, fan/heatsink, video, and memory power it on and see if it will post.[/quote]

Thanks for the info. I will try tour suggestion of just the bare minimum having checked the floppy cable.

I am pretty sure its on correctly at the motherboard end and the kink is at the floppy end so is it possible to fit floppy cables the wrong way around? I thought the cable connectors were shaped to prevent this?

Dave

 

[mechBgon]

If you see the numeral 1 on the circuit board of the floppy drive, next to the ribbon-cable plug, that's indicating that the red stripe on the cable goes at that end of the plug. The motherboard manual shows the floppy plug on page 26, and it says that the red stripe should be on the bottom where you plug the floppy cable into the motherboard. Hope that helps a bit

I remember having a new motherboard with very stiff connectors in the AGP slot. I thought I had a dead board for a while. I pushed really hard on the video card and what do you know, it was only into the first row of contacts! After getting it down into the second row, I was up and running.

The AMD heatsinks are not symmetrical and reversing them is easy to do. Here's an illustrated guide showing how to get it on in the right direction: click That's in PDF format (Adobe Acrobat reader, a free utility you can get from Adobeif you need it).

It's possible that you have an iffy power supply, which is why you heard that question. If you have any other 300W+ power supplies around, especially from a recognized brand like Enermax, Sparkle Power, Antec or Powerman perhaps, then you might want to try them too.

The video card is recent enough that I don't think it would be an issue. Good luck with the troubleshooting

 

[DaveOddie]

I have it sorted now, so thanks for the input.

It was an earthing problem with the motherboard beiong seated not quite correctly.

The new system is up and running, disc partitioned and O/S installed.

Dave