Problems booting new system - suspect motherboard

[beamerxl]

I just finished putting together a new system for my brother. The motherboard is an ECS N2U400-A, processor is an AMD Athlon XP 2600+ Barton 1.9Ghz, 2 sticks of Kingston 512mb PC3200 RAM, Geforce 6600, 430W power supply. The system booted up the first time and I went straight to CMOS, tweaked a few things, and then saved and exited... except the machine didn't restart. The monitor flipped to "No Input Signal." Hmm... I tried turning it off and back on, nothing. After several tries I reset the CMOS using the on-board jumper, and it started up again, this time with several error messages...

"Display switch set incorrectly [I never messed with this in the CMOS]
CMOS checksum error - Defaults loaded
CMOS battery failed.
Override enabled - Defaults loaded"

Those messages may have been present during the first boot, I honestly didn't check before going to CMOS.

This time around I didn't mess with CMOS, I just hit F1 to continue, and it seemed to be fine... it checked the CD drive for a boot disk, etc. I didn't install anything though cause something still didn't seem right... the first BIOS screen wasn't reporting my hardware correctly. It said my processor was only 1150 Mhz instead of 1900, and the memory was only running at 200 Mhz. Anyway, I shut it off and booted it up without changing anything, and again, it wouldn't start... "No Input Signal." I reset via the jumper and it worked again... once. Every time I reset it with the jumper it would boot once and then die on me.

I tried swapping out the CMOS battery with a good one, didn't make a difference.

Next I tried getting into my CMOS and loading the "Fail-safe" defaults. This actually showed signs of success.... the machine would boot multiple times without me having to reset the jumper. However, when I went back into CMOS to change things to how it should be, it went back to "No Input Signal." I have yet to try a troubleshooting approach using these fail-safe defaults and changing values one at a time, but that will be tomorrow's mission.

Anyone have any ideas? I don't know why it's misreporting my hardware values. It also reported that the processor was running at 59C with the case closed... I don't think it should be, I already had two fans in there and added a 3rd after I saw that. I haven't checked the temp after adding that third fan though.

I'm wondering if maybe the board is defective. I hear that CMOS battery problems out of the box is a sign that it might be. Either that, or maybe there is just some setting that I am overlooking that is causing this. It wouldn't be a driver issue, would it? Should I try installing XP and getting some drivers installed, or is that going to be a waste of time?

Any ideas, comments, or solutions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[mechBgon]

1) is the PSU a good-quality brand, and what else is it powering (all cards, all drives)

2) what heatsink/fan are you using, and did you get it on there like in the third photo on this page? If it's a retail AMD heatsink and you have to remove it, then you should scrape off all the melted thermal patch and use quality thermal grease from then onwards. The thermal pad is a one-use-only item.

3) did you get your ATX12V cable plugged in, and if your 6600 takes a auxiliary power cable, is it hooked up as well?

4) next try, raise the memory voltage to 2.7 volts and don't make any other changes, just save & exit like that. Next, set the memory to run at a 1:1 ratio with the CPU's bus speed, synchronous operation is your friend if you want peak performance. YES this means it will run slower than DDR400 speeds, but it will perform better in meaningful situations like gaming.

 

[beamerxl]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
1) is the PSU a good-quality brand, and what else is it powering (all cards, all drives)

2) what heatsink/fan are you using, and did you get it on there like in the third photo on this page? If it's a retail AMD heatsink and you have to remove it, then you should scrape off all the melted thermal patch and use quality thermal grease from then onwards. The thermal pad is a one-use-only item.

3) did you get your ATX12V cable plugged in, and if your 6600 takes a auxiliary power cable, is it hooked up as well?

4) next try, raise the memory voltage to 2.7 volts and don't make any other changes, just save & exit like that. Next, set the memory to run at a 1:1 ratio with the CPU's bus speed, synchronous operation is your friend if you want peak performance. YES this means it will run slower than DDR400 speeds, but it will perform better in meaningful situations like gaming.

1) The PSU came with the case... so probably not :-/.

2) Here's the heatsink. Not the greatest, we were working on a budget, but it should be sufficient. It was attached backwards, didn't know it had a specific direction. I had some Arctic Sliver 5 on it, but turning it around and adding that third fan has brought the closed-case temp to 29C, which seems more realistic. Thanks .

3) Yep, the ATX 12V is in, as well as the aux video power cable.

4) I can't find anywhere to change the Memory voltage. For memory frequency, I have the following options: "By SPD, Auto, and percentages ranging from 50% to 200%." Currently it's set to By SPD, which is resulting in the 200 MHz speed.

 

[mechBgon]

1) agreed

2) yeeps! :shocked:

3)

4) choose 100% or Sync


Try it at its designed bus speed and see if it can handle it, now that the heatsink can keep it cooled down properly.

 

[beamerxl]

Progress Update:

When I load with Fail-safe defaults (which, from what I can tell, aren't even any different from the regular defaults when I boot after jumper reset), the error messages do not come up.

After doing the Fail-safe defaults, I can change everything I need to except for memory and FSB settings. I can set the FSB up to 200 Mhz and everything still works swell. If I crank it up to 233, it does the No Signal Found thing again. At 200 Mhz FSB, however, BIOS reports my processor as 2300 Mhz when it's only supposed to be 1900 Mhz.... I don't want to overclock, I just want the damn thing running. Memory still reports 200 Mhz at 200 Mhz FSB.

It should be able to perform better than this though. The processor is labeled at 333 Mhz FSB, the motherboard says anywhere from 233 to 400, RAM is DDR 400... not sure what the problem is here.

Edit: Oh, and even in "expert" mode, it won't let me push the FSB beyond 233.

 

[mechBgon]

Your CPU might've taken some damage from not being able to contact your heatsink squarely when the heatsink was backwards (meaning, overheat). I also would get a quality power supply such as an Antec, Enermax, or Fortron.