Ps Help! no video from soyo K7ME

[gordita]

I bought a brand new soyo K7ME board from the For sale forums and also an Athlon 1600+ proc.
well, i went today and bought the HSF and a case to go with it.
assembled the components (512MB crucial PC2100 DDR, 6 gig IBM IDE hdd and a 2x IDE burner)
boot up the system, no video.
cpu fan does spin.
i don't know what to do.
I know the memory, hdd and burner work becoz they are from my other working PC.

could this be the soyo or the 1600+ ??

i cannot install another video card in the soyo bcoz the one i have is a pny Ti4200 AGP and it does not fit in the agp slot.
I also bought a nvidia Riva agp but that also does not fit.

the only thing left to try would be to replace the 1600+ with my 1800+ from my 2nd PC.
if that dosen't work, it means its the mboard.
the FSB jumper on my soyo was for 133

pls help if someone has any suggestions.

I did not apply any thermal paste when I put the HSF on the cpu.....don't know why...just didn't.

 

[mechBgon]

Couple things...

• Confirm that your heatsink is installed in the correct direction, muy importante! How to tell
• Be aware that SOYO mobos usually will not POST if they aren't finding an RPM signal on the CPU_FAN header. You can override that by holding down the INSERT key on the keyboard before & during power-up, so you can get into the BIOS and disable F.O.C. (Fan-Off Control). Or plug an RPM-sensing fan into the CPU_FAN header.

Hope that helps

EDIT: thermal grease is very important, don't try to run your CPU without thermal-interface material.

 

[gordita]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
Couple things...

• Confirm that your heatsink is installed in the correct direction, muy importante! How to tell
• Be aware that SOYO mobos usually will not POST if they aren't finding an RPM signal on the CPU_FAN header. You can override that by holding down the INSERT key on the keyboard before & during power-up, so you can get into the BIOS and disable F.O.C. (Fan-Off Control). Or plug an RPM-sensing fan into the CPU_FAN header.

Hope that helps

EDIT: thermal grease is very important, don't try to run your CPU without thermal-interface material.

thank u so much for the info.

yes, I had the HSF the opposite way. I changed that. does this mean I fried the cpu?
this time, I also applied the thermal paste and the HSF is installed the right way.

cpu still does not boot up.
then I tried the INSERT key thing and it had no affect on the boot process.
I don't know what else to try.....

 

[mechBgon]

Yeah, the CPU is probably a goner. It takes them about 1-3 seconds to reach an overheat condition with a backwards heatsink (and no thermal compound doesn't help either). If the board doesn't have emergency-shutdown capability, which a board of that era probably doesn't, then the CPU goes *poof* and now you have a great excuse to upgrade! See? Cloud... siver lining... yeah.

edit: let me go see what CPUs this model will work with. Sometimes with the older ones, you've got to be picky about what core the CPU has.

 

[gordita]

I do have the 1800+ from my second PC that I could throw in there and see....
maybe that might be the ultimate test....

 

[mechBgon]

Could you double-check your board's model name for me, gordita? I'm not sure what I thought your board model really was but Biostar's site doesn't list a K7ME or anything close to that. Here's what you need to refer to, anyway: link to Biostar's SocketA CPU-compatibility chart

 

[gordita]

its a soyo K7VME microATX

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: gordita
its a soyo K7VME microATX

Ok, that makes sense, except Biostar has no listing for it ~ whoa! I take back what I said about it not having thermal shutdown... the KM400 chipset is new enough that the mobo ought to have that capability. So now I don't know what to think. How's the "reality check" test doing with the 1800+ in there?

 

[gordita]

http://www.soyousa.com/kb/kbdesc.php?id=16

does this mean that the athlon 1600+ and the 1700+ are not compatible?

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: gordita
http://www.soyousa.com/kb/kbdesc.php?id=16

does this mean that the athlon 1600+ and the 1700+ are not compatible?

 :light:
:Q

Ok, I see where I went wrong... I had Biostar on my brain and forgot it's a Soyo. LOL @ self! Now, the 1600+ and 1700+ both came in Palomino-core models, but from the 1700+ onwards there were also Thoroughbred-core models. So while it's certain that all 1600+ are Palomino, a 1700+ could be either type, and some mobos might support just one of the two possible types of 1700+. But from their chart, it looks like your mobo would take almost anything on the market, to make a long story short.

 

[gordita]

i put my 2nd cpu in and the soyo detects it as a 2100+ !!!!
installing xp pro right now.
I had to log on to my newegg account to see what i actually had as a cpu and I indeed bought a 2100+ TBRED.
so I'm all set I think.

does this mean my 1600+ is fried or the soyo does not detect it???

 

[mechBgon]

My guess is that the 1600+ has gone to The Great Socket In The Sky. Oh well... it's nothing money can't fix, right?

 

[tcsenter]

Also check:

- CMOS Jumper is in correct position (pins 1-2)
- Jumper for 133MHz FSB is all open (no jumpers)
- 4-pin ATX12V auxillary (i.e. "P4") power lead is connected
- CPU cooling fan is connected to "CPU_FAN1" header
- CPU cooling fan speed is at least 3500RPM
- According to Soyo, all power to the motherboard must be disconnected when performing the CLEAR CMOS operation (unplug ATX connectors or toggle ATX power supply switch)

If all else fails, remove motherboard from chassis and place on flat non-conductive surface, leaving all cable connections in place, then try powering-up to the board. I've noticed that in some cases with those raised stand-offs 'built-in' to the mounting tray (example), one or two of the stand-offs may not correspond with a mounting point on the motherboard, resulting in non-protected areas of the motherboard's underside making contact with the mounting tray.

I bought a couple packs of those self-adhesive rubber/urethane/vinyl bumper or spacer pads that you stick on the bottom of stuff, like these thingies, to stick on the stand-off points that do not correspond with a mounting point on the motherboard.

 

[tcsenter]

Oops, too late. Guess you found your problem. lol!

 

[SportSC4]

gordita, can you check to see if your soyo board always idenitifies your 2nd cpu as a 2100? I recently put together a similar setup but with an unlocked amd 1700 (pre-thoroughbred) and sometimes it (winxp) says it's a 1700 and other times as a 2200 (I changed the FSB to 166 instead of the default 133).