Please Help: Serious problems with Abit KA7 **Update, I think I fixed it for now =)**

[KennyH]

I just purchased a KA7 from a reputable person on here and am having a terrible time with it. I can get it to POST only once and then I have to clear the cmos to get it to post again. I am using the board, ram and video only. I have tried three different video cards, three sticks of ram and still it is not stable. I tried to boot an old install of win2k and it gives the splash screen and then the monitor will go black and lose the video signal. I have tried both pci and agp video cards and neither helps out. Please help me guys, I am at a loss

 

[KennyH]

Update, when I get it to post, I try to go into the bios and that is when the monitor goes black and losses the video signal. Please help me :|

 

[andrey]

Have you tried different brand of board, something else besides Abit?

 

[Geekbabe]

What are you using for a power supply ?

Do you have the board mounted in the case, if so have you tried reseating the board ?

 

[KennyH]

The board has been in and out of the case, makes no difference. I can it to POST and when I try to enter the bios the motherboard will lose the video signal. What the hell? I have never ever seen anything like this before.

 

[Insane3D]

Ok..list your complete setup. What CPU are you using? What vidcard? What memory? I will try to help you, I remember how finicky my KA7-100 used to be.

 

[KennyH]

Ok, here it is.

Slot A 500
256MB Infineon
TNT2 Ultra

That is what I am trying right now and it will POST and tell me the cmos checksum error. I try to go into the bios and it losses the video signal. Please help.

 

[Insane3D]

Ok..try this. Clear the CMOS..then hold down the "Insert" key and turn it on. Keep holding down the key until the bios screen comes up. When it does, try to get into it again. I would also try your memory in different slots and try to reseat the CPU. My old Slot A Athlon would be so picky sometimes. It would not boot, and I would need to remove the CPU and reseat it to get it working again. See if any of that works...

 

[KennyH]

Yeah, it will POST but when I try and go into the bios by pushing DEL the motherboard losses the video signal and the monitor cuts off. I have never seen anything like this in my life

 

[Insane3D]

Did you try the "delete" key thing? It will force the bios to use the defaults...

Also, the KA7 has a bank of dipswitches if I remember correctly. Make sure these haven't been altered from the default positions. The manual is pretty clear about how they should be set..

 

[KennyH]

I have tried to get the manual off line but the damn abit ftp is down do you know them (dipswitches)?

 

[Insane3D]

One sec..let me try from here..I'm at work. I have a KA7-100 at home and I could look at it if I was there.

 

[compuwiz1]

Again, what kind of power supply? What might have carried an Intel rig, may not necessarily work here.

 

[Insane3D]

Ok..I can't get to Abit's FTP, it seems to be down. I checked out a review of the board and the switches are for FSB settings. If these are set wrong, it wouldn't matter how many times you cleared the CMOS. It looks like they all should be in the up postion. There should be a single capacitor near the bank of dips. All the switches should be in the postion closet to the capacitor, away from the edge of the board.. Does that make sense?

 

[KennyH]

Yes, they are all off and set for 100mhz FSB. I am using an AMD approved Forton-Source 250W PS that I purchased from Outside Loop.

 

[compuwiz1]

This is not looking good. I'd try a different PSU, as the one you have may be defective.

 

[KennyH]

Yeah, tell me about it. I have tried three different PS's: Two Deer 250Watters that run my bro's Duron 800 just fine and neither of those help either. What should I do? I was told the motherboard was in good working condition and I never even got it to boot past the bios.

 

[Insane3D]

Other than reseating the memory in a different slot...I am out of ideas.. I will keep trying though. Maybe the board was defective, or it got damaged in shipping or something? I just promised my brand new KA7-100 to someone too...

 

[KennyH]

Oh well, I hope I can get some if not all of my money back

 

[Insane3D]

If that deal doesn't go through for some reason, I'll PM you. $100 shipped with a TD2 GFD and a GW heatsink.

 

[KennyH]

For some reason the thing works only when dips 6,7,8 are on and the others are off. I also reflashed the bios and everything looks to be ok now. Wheeewww!!! What a scare.