Need help please!!

[matt012]

I had some parts from another system, and got some new parts to put together a full system. I am having trouble with the core hardware. The hardware is as follows: a brand new MSI motherboard, AMD Athlon 1600 processor, brand new Kingston 256MB DDR 400 ram, brand new 450W power supply, and Nvidia 64MB video card. What is happening, is that it doesn't always want to start up right, which happens most of the time. Once in a while I am able to start up and get into bios and do what I want. But the rest of the time, when I turn the system on, the fans and everything with start, but nothing happens, the monitor does not get a signal, and the hard-drive light stays solid on. I have tried the following to figure out what it is: I have tried starting without the hard-drive plugged in, changed the video card, and it used to have a different power supply, but still, the same happens. I need some help!!! I am thinking that there is a possibility it may be faulty ram, even though Kingston is supposed to be good ram, I had a faulty stick not long ago when I built a system for someone. I don't have another stick right now to try though. Any help is very much appreciated.

[rmackie]

What speed is your ram? Can you post your settings in BIOS (unless you are using defaults) ...what is your FSB speed? Provide more information to pinpoint a problem but for now let's see.....

Run memtest (google search) for about 20 minutes or longer to see if the ram is causing errors. If it doesn't detect any errors it could be several other things.

1.) Heatsink/fan not seated properly.
2.) Faulty power supply
4.) BIOS update (FLASH) needed
5.) Bad CMOS batteryProcessor's
6.) Corrupt BIOS chip

Good luck...let me know what you find!

Raymond Mackie
rmackie@microtailors.com
www.microtailors.com

[rmackie]

[QUOTE=rmackie]What speed is your ram? Can you post your settings in BIOS (unless you are using defaults) ...what is your FSB speed? Provide more information to pinpoint a problem but for now let's see.....

Download "Memtest"

http://www.memtest.org/download/1.40/memtest86+-1.40.tar.gz

install and run for about 20 minutes or longer (24 hours would be even better) to see if the ram is causing errors. If it doesn't detect any errors it could be several other things.

1.) CPU's Heatsink/fan not seated properly.
2.) Loose connections or faulty power supply
4.) BIOS update (FLASH) needed
5.) Bad CMOS batteryProcessor's
6.) Corrupt BIOS chip

Good luck...let me know what you find!

Raymond Mackie
rmackie@microtailors.com
www.microtailors.com

[Sylvander]

Download a copy of my diagnostic flowcharts from here
www.erniek.eclipse.co.uk/downloads/sylvanderdiags.zip
and print them to leaf through.
Begin on the START UP chart.

What you need is to hear the single short beep that indicates successful completion of the POST.
I suspect you have no single short beep and NO POST.
The ususal technique is to start up with only the bare minimum of hardware connected [CPU, CPU fan, 1 stick of RAM in slot 0, video card & monitor, keyboard].
If you get successful POST [a beep (followed by the video card enabled and the display showing text)], shut down, add 1 item & restart.
At some point you may add an item and find the POST no longer completes.
This identifies a problem with that item.

[matt012]

I am not new at working with computers. I have done a start-up with the minimum amount of hardware and it doesn't change anything. The memory is DDR400 as I had said before. I think I may look at some settings in the bios again when I get a chance and can get it started up enough to get me there. I think the FSB is set around 200mhz, i think that is as fast as it would let me go before.

[ski]

If you cleared CMOS, and nothing is o/c'd in BIOS, then place the MB on a piece of cardboard.
If that works, then make sure that no metal standoffs are installed where there is no MB hole, and there are no loose metal objects under the MB.
If those are ok, then install paper washers made from a minila folder between the MB and the metal standoffs and their screws.

If no luck with the MB on cardboard, then install the RAM module(s) in a different slot(s).

If no luck, then reduce the RAM's speed a notch in BIOS.

If still no good, then you will have to swap out the MB, CPU, and RAM.

[matt012]

I set the bios to "fail-safe defaults", and after that it has been working fine. Must have been one of the settings for FSB or something. Thanks for the advice though. :)

[ski]

You're welcome, and thanks for posting back with the happy outcome.