Put a system together and get nothing

[malbojah]

Ok, I put a AMD XP2000 into a PCChips KT266A w/ 256mb Crucial DDR. I put everything in, set the CMOS to normal, and power it up. I get power to the fans and thats it. I have a DVD/and CDRW installed, but neither work (tray won't even open. I get no noises from the hard disk, no video, nada.....what am I missing.

RECAP:

PCCHIPS KT266A
AMD XP2000
Crucial 256 DDR
NVIDIA Geforce 2/ or ATI Radeon 8500 AIW
IBM Deathstar 20GB
DVD/ CDRW

Power to fans only. Need help

 

[FlyingPenguin]

Your first mistake was not using that PCChips mobo for a door stop. They're junk.

Assuming the mobo actually made it out of their factory in running condition (highly questionable), I'd say you either have a bad PSU or your reset switch is stuck on.

Even if the mobo was fried but the fans were running (common occurance with a dead mobo) the CD tray should eject when you press the button. If it doesn't, then I have to assume there's no power on the 5 volt bus (12 volt bus runs the fans, so I assume that's working) or the reset switch is shorted out (tray will not eject while the reset ;ine on the data bus is held down).

Of course the mobo could be dead and holding down the reset too.

Do you have a digital multimeter? If so check the 5volt and 12 volt buses at one of the hard drive power plugs. Make sure voltage is within 5%.

I'd recommend you disconnect ALL wires from the mobo (ribbons, headers, everything) except the mobo power, the CPU fan and the power switch, disconnect all drives from their power plugs, pull cards except the video card and see if it works.

You sure you don't have a metal standoff under the mobo in a place where there's no hole? Could be shorting a solder pad to ground.

Hope this helps...

 

[mechBgon]

Speaking of standoffs, the mobo should be mounted on top of standoffs like shown on this page. The symptom where the drives won't even eject made me think of a mobo that's flat on its back on bare case metal.

Some other brainstorms:

1) is the PSU of decent quality and adequate wattage?

2) is the heatsink on this way (yes = good)

3) is the video card compatible with the motherboard (AGP 4x on up)

4) if you have PS/2 keyboard or mouse (round plugs), make sure they're in the right holes. Purple for keyboard, green for mouse.

5) If none of that helped, how about try the mobo outside the case on cardboard, with only the essential items plugged in to start with: video card, power supply, CPU/heatsink/fan, and one memory module. No drives, no keyboard, no mouse, no case wiring other than the power button's wire.


Good luck!

 

[malbojah]

Originally posted by: FlyingPenguin
I'd say you either have a bad PSU or your reset switch is stuck on.

It's an Antec Truepower 430W, and I pulled the reset wires off the mobo

Even if the mobo was fried but the fans were running (common occurance with a dead mobo) the CD tray should eject when you press the button. If it doesn't, then I have to assume there's no power on the 5 volt bus (12 volt bus runs the fans, so I assume that's working) or the reset switch is shorted out (tray will not eject while the reset ;ine on the data bus is held down).

Do you have a digital multimeter? If so check the 5volt and 12 volt buses at one of the hard drive power plugs. Make sure voltage is within 5%.

12v came in at 12 even, 5v and comes up as 5.05v

I'd recommend you disconnect ALL wires from the mobo (ribbons, headers, everything) except the mobo power, the CPU fan and the power switch, disconnect all drives from their power plugs, pull cards except the video card and see if it works.

Already did that and no difference

You sure you don't have a metal standoff under the mobo in a place where there's no hole? Could be shorting a solder pad to ground.

Positive, took all the unused ones off when I installed the mobo.

 

[mechBgon]

Besides my other brainstorms, I had a couple more, hope they're not insultingly obvious Make sure the drives didn't get the TruePower's Fan-Only plugs by mistake, and if you have the PSU's fan-monitoring wire plugged into the mobo, try leaving it unplugged since some mobos freak at low RPM readings. Been there, seen that.

 

[malbojah]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
Besides my other brainstorms, I had a couple more, hope they're not insultingly obvious Make sure the drives didn't get the TruePower's Fan-Only plugs by mistake, and if you have the PSU's fan-monitoring wire plugged into the mobo, try leaving it unplugged since some mobos freak at low RPM readings. Been there, seen that.

Drives are all unplugged, no plug for fan monitoring, no difference. It's either a bad CPU or bad board. And I don't feel like pulling the XP2400 out of my main system anytime soon.

 

[malbojah]

It's the CPU, just swapped it with my other system and it boots right up.....anybody got a cheap XP to sell??