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NEW SYSTEM WON'T POST -- Help please!

T

TOOLBoy

Member
Hey all, I just got some new components to build a new system. Here are the new components I bought:

XP 1800+
Abit KR7A-RAID
512MB OCZ PC2400 DDRAM
Intel NIC

And here are the old components that WORK that were in my old system and are now in the new system:

2x WD Caviar 7200RPM drives
52x CDROM
24x Burner
GeForce 3
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
Floppy
300w Power Supply

OK, I put together the new system and tried to turn it on. The power turns on, the fans spin, but there's no POST. The LEDs on the motherboard show that power is going through it. The yellow LED shows up when I plug it in, and the green one turns on when I turn on the power button.

First thing I did was check that the cable was plugged in tightly... yep. I tried clearing the CMOS. No luck. I put in the video card without a screw to make sure all traces were in the slot. No POST. I tried another video card next, a GeForce 2 I had before my GeForce 3. Still no POST. I tried taking out all the cards except the video card, still no POST. I tried taking out one of the sticks of RAM, no POST. I replaced the one still in there with the one I took out, no POST... I even tried different DIMM slots for each stick of RAM, with no POST.

Then I tried my old 1GHz Thunderbird in the motherboard. I was almost sure that it had to be the processor... but it wasnt. Still no POST!

This one has me stumped! Do I have a bad motherboard or something worse? Please help =)

TB
 
Go here, Link, and check your psu. Most 300W won't work with the XP cpu's, you usually need at least a 340W (though there are a couple of 300W'ers on the list). Most likely it's power related.
 
Take the mobo out of the case and put in one stick of RAM and the vid card and see if it posts.

I don't know about that particular board, but some require that you have a fan plugged into the CPU fan header on the motherboard to post. If you bypass that and connect your HSF to a drive power connector, the system won't post. Just a thought.
 
In a recent post of mine with the same problem, it was also suggested that I leave the power on for 5 minutes and see if any of the parts get warm/hot. In my case, the CPU/HSF stayed cool to the touch, leading me to RMA the board because it appeared to be shorted. I also did this out of the case and on an insulated surface to make sure my case wasn't the cause of the short.
 
Rusty: Do I *HAVE* to have one of the AMD approved PSUs or is it like an AMD approved HS/F where it really doesn't matter?

I went back to the store that I got the mobo from today and they tested it and it was defective and they are going to get more in tomorrow and they will hold one for me... but will I still have problems if my PSU isn't up to par? Like maybe it will fry something or it won't even post?

Thanks!
 
I would trade in the 300W for a 350W if possible, if not you should probably be OK. When you get your board running check your 5V rail and make sure it's near 5.0V.
 
The deal with the powersupply is that it needs to be able to supply 30 amps on the 5-volt rail. Very few 300 watters do that and that makes the processor unhappy. The 340 watt supplies are where you start seeing 30 amps.

I'd stick with what you have for now but just keep the above in mind if you start having flaky problems. Some 300 watt supplies seem to work fine, others not.

 
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