SNG45 v2 posting problem

[weezerboy25]

I recently purchassed a SNG45 barebones but i am having a problem. The problem is that when i turned the power on to the computer the first time, all i saw was a black screen and heard my fans whaling and my leds all lit.

I then cleared the CMOS as that seemed the most reasonable idea which worked and i got to my bios setup. Once i set all my bios correctly, i saved and exited but when it restarted all i got was the same black screen with fans and lights going.

I have tried to run the system with the minimal amount of items connected to the system (one stick of ram and an agp card), every part (two sticks of ram, agp, soundcard, dvdrw, hardrive, etc.), and a combination of a few parts at once. All the items i am using are brought over from an existing computer which also used the same nforce 2 chipset as the sng45 so there shouldnt be a problem. I also checked every item in the old computer again to test it and it ran fine.

The only way im able to get the computer to load is to clear the CMOS again which lets me either go right to bios or to boot the harddrive. If i goto bios, no matter what i do even if it is nothing and exit it, the computer will just give me a black screen again. If i let the harddrive load it gets in fine. Though that is pointless because i need to alter my bios to change the cpu speed, memory timings, and all that stuff.

Also I tried two different monitors on it too. One was a digital flatscreen and the other an older analog CRT. Neither worked. I also tried an older ATI agp card on the system too (dont remember the model) but that gave the same results. Those two things rule out any graphics problems i guess. The only reason i tried that stuff was before i even cleared the CMOS.

The contents of the computer are as follows:
Shuttle FN45 motherboard
AMD 2800+
Radeon 9800 pro
SoundBlaster Audigy Gamer
Seagate 80 Gigabyte HD
Sony DNU-710A DVD+-RW
2x 512 Kingston Hyperx pc 3200 CL 2.0 memory

 

[weezerboy25]

Has anyone ever seen a similar problem on this or any other kind of MB?

 

[win32asmguy]

I had this problem with my SN45G 1.1 when I had it. It was a ram related issue. I had some BH-5, which booted fine in an epox 8rda3+ but would refuse to boot in the shuttle (except when resetting the bios to defaults like you are doing). I got some Kingston ddr400 valueram and it worked fine since.
BTW, I tried flashing it to all versions of shuttle bios's on their page with no luck. I'm pretty sure its a hardware incompatibility...

 

[weezerboy25]

Hmmm, I have kingston ddr400 (cl2.0) in it now. Maybe if i try going into bios and bringing the settings for my ram really low, it might be able to run. If that doesnt work ill try out some of my fairly cheaper ram from any computer in it and see if it works. Ill post any results i get in a few for anyone with a similar problem. Thanks asmguy

 

[weezerboy25]

You were right. I used some older memory in place of my hyperx and i was able to load and save the bios as many times as i wanted without clearing the bios.

Though that still poses the problem of getting my ram that i payed alot of money for to now work in this machine. i know kingston has a lifetime warrenty so maybe they have the same memory which is compatible with this MB and there able to swap them or something. Anyway, i posted here on what else i tried and some other info incase anyone with the same wants to take a look:

http://forums.sudhian.com/mess...0027&enterthread=y

Thanks for your help asmguy, it was really getting on my nerves not knowing what was wrong.

 

[win32asmguy]

I tried changing timings and memory speed around a bit when I was testing. At a completely random interval I was able to get the ram to post repeatedly and let me access the bios. It ran very well, ran at 230FSB at cas2, and up to 245 at cas3. However, I went back and switched the ram around again (physically) removed from the slot and it wouldn't boot again.
Kingston makes a variety of hyperx that is rebadged samsung TCCD chips. Those should match the performance of the BH-5 easily. Maybe they can swap yours out for a set of those?
Your shuttle looks to be a pretty slick setup, I hope you get it working!

 

[weezerboy25]

weird thing is that if i clear the cmos and keep my hyper x in there that it automaticly sets my memory to run at a full dual mode 400mhz with settings 2-2-2-6 which is just the way i run it normally (well i use a 5 instead of the 6 but close enough). and after i restart my computer the second time with it in, the bios then sets the cpu to run at a 2800+ so that leaves only 3 reasons why i want to get into the bios at all:

1. to disable the floppy (i could fix that by putting in a floppy)
2. change the aperature size of my 9800 pro from 64 to 128 (does that accually effect preformance that much as in its only using 64megs of the 128?)
3. lastly to change the boot set up to read from the cdrom first then harddrive (but then again that doesnt really matter that much either because the only reason ill need to boot a cd is to test a HD or install an operating system).

So my question is does anyone know exactly how the aperature size will effect preformance from the graphics card?

Also the spare memory i was using that let me set and save bios was a samsung stick so that hopefully tells me that the TCCD chips will work in place of the hyperx, im gonna fire off an email and a phone call to kingston to see if its possable for a swap, after the new years.

Thanks again guy

 

[Stark]

check out the bios optimization guide here.