What's this no response stuff?

[Jza]

My bro comes home from school to turn on the PC...but it had no video. The monitor is fine, has power and stuff. He has an EPoX 8K7A mobo w/ a GF2 GTS.

When he turned on the PC we did not hear any "beeps." The screen continued to be blank. I switched out his GF2 for my old V3 PCI card, that didn't work either. I'm not able to test to see his GF2 video card is broke b/c I have no AGP slot. But if it was just the video card not working, would we still hear the beeps?

We get the FF code in the digital display, so i dunno...plz help!

 

[sohcrates]

try pulling out all cards except video card

also might wanna try clearing the bios either with jumpers or by taking out battery for 30 minutes or so

 

[Jza]

What do you think is causing this? Faulty mobo is my best guess...cuz i put in my V3 PCI but that didn't work either. What does it mean when there are no beeps at all?

 

[sohcrates]

i've seen no beeps at all plenty of times.

doesn't necessarily mean anything is really broke.

just do what i suggested above

 

[Jza]

I'm kinda a n00b, but I don't want to get into more trouble than it is in now.

By clearing the CMOS, it just resets it or what? What procedure do i go to do this safely?

 

[John]

I have had the same thing happen to me a couple of times on my 8KHA+ & P4B266-C. I just kill the power and try again and it seems to work like a champ.

 

[sohcrates]

clearing the bios (aka cmos) simply resets it to the default values

sometimes the bios gets confused , and clearing the bios can do wonders

most likely, you'll have to go back in and make sure your cpu speed and ram speeds are correct after it's reset. no problem at all

*easiest* way is simply take the little round lithium cmos battery out of the mobo for about 1/2 an hour...should pop right out

make sure power is unplugged to computer as well

pop it back in l8r and see if she boots up

 

[Jza]

Ok, i set the jumper to "clear CMOS" setting...pressed power button but nothing happened. So then i put it back to the default jumper setting and it gets power but my situations remains the same.

Do i need to leave the clear cmos jumper on for a while too or did i do it right? I'm gonna take out the battery in a bit...

 

[sohcrates]

<< Ok, i set the jumper to "clear CMOS" setting...pressed power button but nothing happened. So then i put it back to the default jumper setting and it gets power but my situations remains the same.

Do i need to leave the clear cmos jumper on for a while too or did i do it right? I'm gonna take out the battery in a bit... >>



procedure can vary from board to board..i always just do the battery approach. if you have your mobo manual, that may tell you the proper way to clear with the jumpers

like i said above , though, if clearing bios doesn't work, start pulling cards out..then move on to pulling drives, IDE cables, and power cables out...then rebuild it all if it starts to boot properly.

 

[Dreadogg]

ok so he came home from school tried to turn on his pc and no go? did it work the day before? I have also experianced flaky startups with the epox 8K7A but not this bad! I would say check to make sure that all the power buttons and leads are hooked up correctly and then try clearing the bios if that does'nt work I would put my money on the board being fried! I really dont think it has to do with the video card! Someone must have broke in your house and tried messing with your pc and probally fried the board!

 

[Jza]

Ok, i've done everything you have suggested Socrates...situation remains the same :|

Thanks for the help, but I have come to conclude that it's either the PSU or a fried mobo...kinda hard to tell, but i'm leaning towards the mobo being broke because of:
1) Everything is receiving power
2) PCI slot did not work when I put in my V3 after taking out his GF2 AGP
3) Fair amount of dust, likely to cause a short on mobo

*sigh* what next?

 

[sohcrates]

well, personally, *I* wouldn't give up all hope just yet.

i cannot tell you how many systems i've recovered from a death-like state by ripping them apart and re-building them.

i'm not sure how much of that you've done yet...but here's what i do

unplug everything.....mouse, keyboard, all cards, all ide cables, all power cables

re-seat ram, dust everything a little bit...see boot up with only that and see if you get any beeps. heck, take out ram too and see if you get any beeps

if there's some life, add video card and see if you see the bios or get a keyboard error

i've seen keyboards that don't let systems boot before...crazy stuff

anyway, rebuilding the system is key....but that's just me

 

[Dreadogg]

by far before you give up reseat everything or maybe just wait till tommarro maybe the guy will sneak back in and fix the problem!

 

[Jza]

I unplugged keyboard+mouse also and didn't change. Code is still FF.

However, when I remove IDE connectors from the mobo I at least get to see the POST. Initial startup after making changes doesn't help, I have to hit the reset button to get it started.

After I hit reset, the LED cycles through 26, 52, and 6F/7F

^i'm still wondering if it's PSU or mobo related

 

[mchammer187]

if it is attached to a printer that is on thant that can cause problems

also make sure that you are not using a netgear NIC


i dont think a faulty PSU would cause those problems

 

[Jza]

ok, all IDE cables and power connectors are hooked back up. Initial startup again is no post, no beeps, blank screen, FF code.

Using the reset button enables me to see the POST and hear a beep. But I cannot enter the BIOS, it just sits on the post screen...when I hit DEL it doens't go into BIOS

However there is a msg on the screen stating "CMOS checksum error - Defaults Loaded"
Hope i didn't break anything clearing bios or removing battery for a few min last night.

Why does it only post AFTER i hit reset?
ahh, frustrating

 

[sohcrates]

i'd keep the IDE's unplugged for now

cmos checksum errors are almos always cured by clearing the bios...seeing as how you've already done that, though, i'd highly suggest doing it again

if you ever get into the bios, then that's a good start.

if plugging in your IDE cables causes it not to start up after that, then i might blame a bad IDE cable or a bent pin on the hard drive or something

clear bios again and repot back (and remember to unplug power from computer while clearing). battery out for at least 30 minutes.

 

[Jza]

omg, i'm sooo stoopid. The reason it didn't go into BIOS was the keyboard was still unplugged !!!

Ok, all IDE cables and power connectors are still hooked up. I got into BIOS and loaded optimized defaults 2x...then booted.

w00t, WinXP appeared! Went back into BIOS and tweaked a little bit, and still worked fine...got into Windows and everything, no error codes on LED.

So my problem is: it just doesn't work when I power on...it MUST be reset before it works
Very odd...

 

[sohcrates]

well, glad your back up...somewhat

i've seen freaky stuff like that before...having to reset it before it comes on.

never *have* found an easy solution to it though!

might wanna make it a second thread...make the title "computer doesn't boot until i reset it" or something....get some fresh blood in here!

 

[XPTEX]

Don't know if this will help but thought I'd post it for ya.

From viahardware:

Why must I switch on and off and then on again to make the system boot?

If you have pencilled the L1 bridges on your processor in order to unlock the multiplier, then a poor connection can often cause this symptom. Try re-connecting the bridges and using conductive paint rather than pencil lead.

Otherwise this is due to corrupted data in the CMOS - particularly after a BIOS flash or after overclocking. This can be resolved by clearing the BIOS as follows:

Power off the system
Remove the power cable and then clear CMOS data using the jumper. Move the jumper from default 1-2 to 2-3 for several seconds then back to 1-2 again.
Power on the system and hit Delete to enter BIOS setup screen.
Set correct CPU speed in SoftMenuIII and your other settings. Save and exit BIOS setup screen

Similar symptons have also been reported with an Antec 400W power supply and IBM 60
GXP hard drives fed from the same cable. It seems the power supply was shutting down after detecting a high current flow. Putting the drives on separate power cables resolved the problem.

 

[bjc112]

I'm having the same prob with the comp i am working on now.... same problem...

I'm betting its the motherboard... i removed everything but.... the CPU and MOBO.. and its more likely its motherboard than processor...


but what about the PSU...?


edit: did the IDE cables too... no go.. its gotta be the motherboard.... check this post out too...Trouble in Paradise

 

[Dreadogg]

If that board is the Epox 8KHA and not the Epox 8KHA+ I would seriously think about flashing the bios! That board has had many issues especially with not booting properly! here is link to thier site where you will find one long list of bios flahes MEGA BIOS FLASHES and I hope you all know that I was just playing around in my earlier posts!

 

[Jza]

omg, it seems fixed...i left the house for a few hours & had the PC off during that time. Came home to power up and it booted up fine, wtf?

This is some crazy stuff. It's an 8K7A, the popular board before the 8KHA+ came around. I think I should probably FLASH the bios...but i'm scared

We tried to flash a bios once but broke the damn board :-/

 

[Dreadogg]

yes that board is really flaky I installed one for my good friend and I've had nothing but headaces with it mostly startup problems! You'll have to flash the bios just grab the newest one!