new build - help

[mach1219]

do these motherboards only accept certain brands of ram?

 

[mach1219]

I guess i could pull the ram out of my new PC and try it, but i think im barking up the wrong tree here, how could i have 4 bad sticks of ram, and the same ram worked not long ago in a different computer.

i guess i have nothing to lose. Maybe ill try one stick at a time first

 

[mach1219]

Pulled a stick of known good ram (PC2-6400) from the new PC, tried, it , still nothing.

this is so strange. I must be missing soemthing. how can i go through two new boards and a new CPU and nothing? The first new board may have required 667 ram speed minimum with a 800 GHz cpu, (i saw that in the asrock mObO manual, and i was trying to use 533)but thats not the case with this second board. The guy at the PC store even said it would work.

any other suggestions?

I researched asus support page and it states different versions of bios are compatible with different processors, yet if i cant get the post screen, i dont know which version of bios i have preinstalled

 

[skunksmash]

Pulled a stick of known good ram (PC2-6400) from the new PC, tried, it , still nothing.

this is so strange. I must be missing soemthing. how can i go through two new boards and a new CPU and nothing? The first new board may have required 667 ram speed minimum with a 800 GHz cpu, (i saw that in the asrock mObO manual, and i was trying to use 533)but thats not the case with this second board. The guy at the PC store even said it would work.

any other suggestions?

I researched asus support page and it states different versions of bios are compatible with different processors, yet if i cant get the post screen, i dont know which version of bios i have preinstalled

make sure ALL mobo standoffs are correctly positioned, also remove any that are not required...... i had this ''non-post'' issue a while back with a machine i built, one of the standoffs was misplaced & it was causing the board to short when i powered it up....

just give that a check...

 

[mach1219]

thanks, but thats not it

 

[lemur]

So you tried to video cards and are now using the onboard video. And you've tried a different monitor.

Well - check out this diagram. I hope it helps!

Video Card Problem - Troubleshooting a Video Adapter and Computer Monitor

 

[mach1219]

No, i never tried video card. Woudl not the built in video work on a brand new motherboard? I did try a card on the first new board, didnt work. Might as well try it on this one, and i know the card is good so ill give that a shot.

Ive been through all those troubleshooting trees, Nothing helps. They always come down to a bad processor or motherboard, and i have changed them both, still nothing

 

[lemur]

Yes, PLEASE try the card. I thought you already had. I'll bet this is the problem!!!

 

[mach1219]

Tried the video card. nothing still.

I hooked up the new monitor to my other computer to confirm its working.

this is insane. If i did this for a living i think i would go nuts

 

[lemur]

It's not the video card. Not the monitor. Not the memory. Not the psu. LED on board lights up, drive spins. Bad mobo or bad bios. Everything else has been eliminated.

 

[mach1219]

I disconected the hard drive. its empty anyway. Am i correct in that you should be able to POST without any drives connected, just from the motherboards BIOS, right?

 

[Dwarf]

Disconnect ALL peripherals from the motherboard except for keyboard, mouse and monitor. This includes card readers and other devices connected to internal USB/Firewall headers and any cards installed in the expansion slots. Check, and double-check, ALL connections to the motherboard. The PSU should only be connected to the motherboard at this point; it should be unplugged from the drives. Make sure that the monitor is plugged in and switched on (I've had a similar problem before, and it took a while to realise that the mains plug was not correctly inserted on the rear of the monitor ). Start by just having 1 stick of RAM installed.

Let us know if you get anywhere with this.

 

[mach1219]

Ive tried all that. Thats where i tried from the beginning.

Is it possbile i got shipped a bad CPU?

maybe i should swap in my old one that i suspect was bad just for soemthign else to try

 

[Dwarf]

For reference, here is a link to the main Asus page for the motherboard: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.

 

[Dwarf]

Which processor are you using?

 

[mach1219]

Pentium dual core e5200

 

[Dwarf]

It is possible that the current BIOS revision does not support this processor. You said that you had an alternative CPU that you could try. What is this one?

 

[archie123]

I disconected the hard drive. its empty anyway. Am i correct in that you should be able to POST without any drives connected, just from the motherboards BIOS, right?

YES right , if its not posting your in trouble , the board or the bios is corrupt

 

[mach1219]

Ok, i took it to the local PC shop and they swapped out CPU's and confirmed it was bad.

They would have sold me the same one (E5200) for $89 + tax. The one i got from newegg was $68 shipped. Since i still had a P4 at home, that i wasnt sure was bad or not and their price was so much higher, I declined, and figured i would just try my P4 and if that didnt work, get an exchange from newegg on the bad E5200 they sent me.

I came home, put the P4 in, nothing. So it appears my P4 is bad, and the new chip i ordered is bad. This means the first new main board i tried was probably good, but since i coudlnt get it to work with either CPU, sent it back as bad.

what a mess. what are the odds.

Now i think i may just pay the higher price from the PC shop and buy the CPU from them, as im tired of dealing with mailing parts back and forth from newegg.

at least i know the overpriced mother board i bought from the PC shop is good.

In the future, i may think twice to just pay the high price the local shop charges to avoid this nightmare of getting bad parts in the mail

 

[Dwarf]

Oh dear. At least you have confirmed your suspicions about the CPU. Do you have the P4 installed now? You might need to restore the BIOS to its default settings. Remove the battery, wait for a while and then reinsert it. Try booting now. Do you get a display? If so, what BIOS revision is showing?