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Possible Mobo Problems - Round two

P

pru

Junior Member
I posted about a month ago with problems with my new system. I RMA'd my mobo and CPU, put together the system and had a sweet rig. That is, until last night.

Here are the specs:
1) Gigabyte 8knxp non-ultra
2) Intel 2.66 Ghz CPU 533 Mhz Bus
3) 2 x 120 GB Special Edition Western Digital Hard Drives
4) 2 x 512 MB Kingston DDR PC3200 Ram - (3-3-3-4)
5) Floppy Drive
6) Gainward GeForce4 Ti 4200 Video Card
7) Lite-On CD-R Drive
8) Antec True 430 Power Supply
9) CoolerMaster ATC 201-SX Case

Here's what happened last night:

I was playing Neverwinter Nights when the door bell rang. When I came back to my computer, the game had already quit. I tried to access the second hard drive (where the game had been installed) and the computer froze.

Troubleshooting:

1) I powered down the computer and powered it back up. The Gigabye splash screen came up and then the
computer tried to boot into WinXP where it hung.
2) I reset the computer and the PC hung at the Gigabyte splash screen.
3) I proceeded to disconnect all the cables from the mobo (secondary IDE cables for the CD-R, floppy, usb
cables, firewire cables). I get the same result as in #2.
4) I power down again, this time removing the primary ide cable that connects the hard drives. I get the same
result as in #2.
5) Next, I remove the RAM and get loud successive beeps indicating that the RAM has been removed.
I take this to mean that the RAM is ok so I put one dimm back in.
6) I power up again and wait. But, I get the same result as in #2.
7) I connect the Master HD to the Primary IDE channel and boot. This time though, I wait for 5 minutes or so to
see if anything happens. Well, I get past the Gigabyte splash screen and the message comes up that no
hard drives are connected to the primary ide channel.
8) I disconnect the master hard drive (maybe it's dead) and connect the slave hard drive to the primary ide
channel. I get the same result as in #2 but do notice that my mobo is no longer making the perfunctory short
beep for successful boot.
9) I take out the Ram again and boot up. No successive loud beeps to indicate that the ram has been taken
out.

This leads me to believe that the mobo is busted. What do you guys think? Any suggestions on further tests? (I'm planning on testing the RAM and HD's in another computer momentarily.)




 
Can you make it into the BIOS, or does it lock up before then?

Have you tried removing all cards except for the Video Card?

To POST, your computer only needs a CPU, RAM, and Video Card. Try removing everything else and seeing if it comes on normally every time. If so, slowly add parts again, booting every time to make sure there are no problems.

This should allow you to find out where the problem lies.
 
Ok, I've gone through a couple more tests.

I tested both hard drives and the ram in my hubby's computer. (My hubby's computer has pretty much the same specs as mine except he's got a Radeon 9700 Pro AIW and an Audigy.) Both the hard drives and the Ram look good.

I have disconnected all cards and cables from my mobo except for the Video Card, CPU, and Ram. The Gigabyte splash screen shows up but I don't get the single mobo beep to indicate success in booting. The computer hangs on this splash screen. Also, when I take out the Ram, the mobo won't boot but I also don't get the loud successive beeps that I'm supposed to get when ram isn't present on the mobo.

So, do you guys think it's my mobo?
 
Originally posted by: shootinyou
Have to tried the memory in a different dimm slot?
Click to expand...

Yep, tried that. I've gotten the same hang on the initial splash screen.

Also, I can sometimes get to the bios and sometimes it just hangs on the inital splash screen. So, on the one time that I got into the bios, I flashed it with a newer version of the bios. However, that got me the same results.



 
You might try removing your CMOS battery for roughly 30 minutes to force a BIOS reset.

alzan
 
Originally posted by: alzan
You might try removing your CMOS battery for roughly 30 minutes to force a BIOS reset.

alzan
Click to expand...

Hi,

Thanks for your reply. One of the first things I tried (although, I don't think I mentioned it in my previous posts) was resetting the BIOS. My mobo manual said to remove the battery for 10 minutes so that's what I did. However, that didn't change anything.

And, now that I've flashed the BIOS, I still don't get anything. Basically, all I'm getting now is a Gigabyte Splash screen (before the bios) without a beep. No beeps whatsoever. I'm pretty stumped.

 
Hey pru, have you can you see any burn marks on the board?

I was wading through a post on your board here it seems as some have had bad solder issues.

just a thought.

 
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