Im in no-boot hell

[diypc]

I bought this system a year and a half ago and it only worked for a week before it died. Now I have time to fiddle
with it and I am not having much luck.
SYMPTOMS Doesnt boot-up. Leds come on, cpu and power supply fans come on, but no video and no beeps.
WHAT I HAVE TRIED- followed as much advice as i could find on this site including: hooked up only cpu, powersupply and speaker to the motherboard outside of case on cardboard. still no beeps. cpu heat sink not getting
warm after an hour or two of "running" but the video card does warm up.
I EVEN SWAPPED IN A NEW MOTHERBOARD AND CPU BUT NOTHING CHANGED.

What else could keep it from booting up? How can I check the power supply for proper voltage? Is there a way to safely check the speaker? What am i doing wrong?

Thank you

SPECS- soyo sy-6ba+IV mb, promise RAID ata66, 2 maxtor drives, 1 western digital drive, 500mhz pIII cpu, 3dfx video card, turtle beach montego II sound card, 128 mb of sd100 RAM, DV raptor capture card.

[mjc]

Do you have a digital multi-meter?

You can check the voltage by inserting the probes into the back of the ATX connector...
Red lead
+12V yellow
+5v red
+3.3V orange

The voltages should be close to those values. (no more than about 10% (max) off)

Black lead to any one of the black connectors

Alo try swapping a different video card, preferably a PCI card (that will let you know if there is a problem with the AGP slot)......

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[Mini-Me]

Hello!
http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

I have had this problem with some machines when custom-building.

The two major problems I have found that can cause this are:

1) RAM stuffed or unreliable
2) Video-card incorrect for native DOS

With respect to the above: (1); can you take out ALL memory from the motherboard, and replace it with anything that is KNOWN to be good.
This will allow you to establish if the RAM is causing the machine to lock-up before it even gets to the POST(Power-On-Self-Test).

With respect to (2); remove the video-card. Plug in ANY VGA compatible PCI bus or ISA bus card(ONE OR THE OTHER, NOT BOTH!!! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/tongue.gif ).

Switch on and see if you get any boot-up text on the monitor.
If you do, then the original graphics card is suspect.
If you still have no boot-up at all, then replace the original video-card, and take a good look at the RAM and the way that it is seated.
Is the memory pushed firmly down in the sockets?

Generally, most video-cards(old ISA ones, PCI ones or the newer AGP ones) will identify themselves to the computer as a graphics card.
This allows the computer to assign to the card, I/O ranges for the VDU(Video Display Unit).
Pretty much ANY video-card that is at lease VGA(Video Graphics Adaptor) compliant will work with no setup or drivers needed upon powerup.
Naturally, this does not mean that they will work in Windows, but for the boot-up process, just to see if your video-card is stuffed...

I had a P100MHz machine that did this EXACT SAME THING your machine is doing. It turned out to be damaged RAM.
Switch it on, it would not boot, would not beep, nothing on the screen.
LED's came on, hard-drive spun-up, p/supply showed correct voltages.
I replaced all four RAM sticks(this was in the form of the older 72pin SIMMS), and the machine returned to life!!!
:O


G.


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Windows is the most dangerous computer virus on the Internet.

[Mini-Me]

ADDITIONAL: If you swapped the CPU and motherboard, you might have just stumbled across the answer!!!

It is indeed possible that the CPU is dead.

Also, while I think of it, it might be prudent to check:

* The jumpers on the motherboard to make sure that they are set too the correct CPU speed.
* The system BIOS, if you have an ATX type m/board, with on-board graphics. If you do have a m/board with on-board graphics, there should be an option somewhere in the BIOS that will let you disable this feature so that you can use a seperate video-card instead of the on-board one.
An on-board graphics card, is the likes of an S3 or SiS or similar chipset, that controls the monitor, intergrated onto the m/board so you don't need a seperate video card. This can most easily be confirmed, by looking at the sockets at the back of the computer case. If there is a 15-pin "D" shaped connector(3 rows of pin-sockets, offset from each other), roughly the same physical size as a 9-pin serial "D" plug type mouse, then you most likely do have intergrated graphics.

If you have two graphics cards trying to operate in the same space with the same resources at powerup, ESPECIALLY if they are graphics cards, this could be your problem.

Good luck!
http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

Keep us posted.


G.


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Windows is the most dangerous computer virus on the Internet.

[diypc]

I tried a known good piece of ram and no luck there. My board doesnt have built in sound so there shouldnt be a conflict.

I have a hunch that my speaker is bad because i have never heard it work. When i first bought the system it was disconnected (weird) and now when i try to get it to make sound it just makes a tinny soda can popping sound when 5v is applied to it. I am going to get a new speaker tomorrow and see what happens

[diypc]

new speaker= no sound. Please help!

[fixrupr]

Have you checked power supply per mjc’s post?
At this point, it seems that the only possibility is power supply.
Check for damaged wire or connector, or just replace it.

[diurnal]

Go in to control panel/ sounds/ and click on something that has a icon. Then hit the play button. If it looks like its playing its the speakers. IF its black out or not playing it its a driver issue.

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Sledgehammer will save the day!

[fixrupr]

diurnal,
Am I missing something here? Just how does one get to control panel, when it won't boot?

[diypc]

i just checked my barely used antec 300w power supply and the results seemed within the 10% limit.
results:
orange=3.4v
red=4.6v
yellow=11.11v

so i have a brand new motherboard, cpu, a working power supply, and have tried two different speakers and i cant get a beep or video signal to come out. So far the only thing that could possibly be wrong is the memory and i have tried another known good stick of pc100 ram with no luck (though it was a different type- it had an even number of chips instead of the original's odd number- dont know if that matters). What the heck else is there to check?
Thanks for the help guys

[mjc]

Find the "clear CMOS" jumper and use it to clear the settings, or failing to find it try pulling the battery....

Also do have the manual?

It may be worth downloading if you don't....

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[fixrupr]

Back down memory lane?

Following quote from Crucial.com

When choosing among ECC, parity, and non-parity memory, you need to match what is already in your system. You can tell which kind you have by looking at one of the modules currently in your system. Count the number of black chips on one module. If the number of chips can be evenly divided by three or five, you should buy ECC or parity (whichever is offered for your system). If not, you should buy non-parity.
For example, if one of your modules has nine chips, you should buy ECC or parity. If one of your modules has eight chips, you should buy non-parity.


The second “known good” module may not be compatible.

[Mini-Me]

Hello!
http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

I'm sorry that you have had no luck yet.
http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif

With respect to RAM: Are you using ALL EDO or ALL FP RAM???
There are TWO MAJOR types of RAM available in the 72pin SIMM package for use with a Pentium 75MHz - 255MHz class machine.
FP and EDO.
They CANNOT co-exist in the same memory bank.

In a standard Pentium type m/board, there are four RAM sockets, labelled "BANK 1" or "BANK 0" and "BANK 2" or "BANK 1"
Each "BANK" has two RAM sockets.

You can use FP and EDO RAM, but you must make sure that each "BANK" has a matching pair of the same type of RAM...

Putting FP and EDO type memory in the same bank, is a big no-no.

Putting different sized RAM sticks in the same bank, even if they are the same type(FP or EDO) is not recommended...

Putting FP RAM in one bank, and EDO in the other is generally O.K., but check with the m/board manual.

Get yourself at least TWO STICKS of RAM that are(ideally) the same type and size, and plonk them into the first bank.

For example: 2 x 8MB EDO in bank 1.
This will give the machine 16MB(total) of RAM to work with.
If BOTH RAM sticks are EDO or FP, then you should be O.K.


G.


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Windows is the most dangerous computer virus on the Internet.

[bassman]

UUUUMMMMM, Mini-Me????



SPECS- soyo sy-6ba+IV mb, promise RAID ata66, 2 maxtor drives, 1 western digital drive, 500mhz pIII cpu, 3dfx video card, turtle beach montego II sound card, 128 mb of sd100 RAM, DV raptor capture card.

http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/cool.gif

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Quotes from "Lifes Little Instruction Book" by H.Jackson Brown: 409)Wage war against littering! Frank's Place (http://www.members.aol.com/frankscompsrvice)

[Mini-Me]

Whoops!!!
http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/tongue.gif

Forgot that this was mentioned earlier.
Please dis-reguard previous message...

BTW: Ref Speaker - I don't think that this could cause the problem.
If you have a multimeter, then you can set the range to low-ohms(200 or less range), and put the probes across the speaker(disconnect from m/board first).
It should read 8 or 4.(most likely 8)
If you get no reading at all, then the speaker could be open-circuit(blown), which would be why no sound comes from it, but I have never known a computer to fail to boot due to a crook speaker.


G.


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Windows is the most dangerous computer virus on the Internet.