my box no workie

[GreetingsNerdlings]

my system was working fine (6 months or so) until i installed a burner, and now the thing wont post. here's what ive got:
-shuttle ak31 3.1 mobo
-1G athlon
-ati all-in-wonder
-512k generic memory
-lite-on dvd-rom
-plextor burner (the one that started this mess)

so after i installed the burner, the thing woudnt boot anymore. all i was getting is fans and leds, and after slimming down the system to just cpu, mobo, memory, video, and keyboard, still, the same thing; no beeps, no video, just fans and leds. now here's the kick in the pants. i cleared the cmos, and viola, it started up again. piece by piece i started to rebuild it without any problems. got it up and running just fine. satisfied, i left it for 2 hours, moved it back to my desk (unplugged it and plugged back in) and when i tried to turn it on, again, no post. again, i took out all extraneous hardware, tried to clear cmos, and this time it didnt work. i had to clear cmos about 10-15 times to get it to finally post again. and once it did, i tried reinstalling hardware, and it died again. i have been reading a number of posts elsewhere about other unsatisfied shuttle owners having suimilar problems, but i read here on charles' site that if a mobo works for a while, it is rare for it to die. and now that it selectively boots based on its mood or possibly planetary alignements, i'm thinkin it's one of these rare mobo breakdowns, or me just having no idea what im doing. anyway, any help or suggestions are much appreciated. btw, power supply is an enermax 350W, i tested voltages and im getting ~12v and ~5v. oh ya, also tried taking the lithium (not for me, the battery) out for 3 minutes to really clear the cmos. that didnt change anything.

[ski]

Did you check the CMOS battery voltage, or try a different battery?
Also, make sure the memory and video cards are securely inserted, and try the memory in different slots.
If no luck, then either swap out components or have them tested.

[Fruss Tray Ted]

HEY!!! MY MOM TAKES LITHIUM EVERY DAY!!!

So what's the matter with that!!!

I guess it's the fact that when probed she's reading 2,190 VOLTS!!! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif WAYYY TOO many batteries IMO.

It sounds like connections to me also plus some settings may not be right once you assemble it all together again. And yet another possibility is a defective component, maybe the burner itself.

If you can get the pc running with basic components including a CD-ROM, then try putting the burner in place of the CD-ROM making doubly sure that the jumpers are the same as the player's are.

Set to master if on any one of the master connectors at the end of the cables. Set to slave if on any of the middle connectors on any of the cables. But HDD's have other settings occasionally as well but one thing at a time.

I have put cables backwards once before (my first try at DIY) but it just wouldn't work and did not have to reset BIOS as a result.

Keep us posted,
FTT



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I've got it made in the shade, if the tree don't fall...

[kayofcircles]

I have nothing useful to add other than moral support, and to say "Welcome to the forum, GreetingsNerdlings ." You made a good description of the problem. Unfortunately, it rather shoots down all my ideas. Thought of RAM too..like ski ..but when we had that problem, we couldn't get the system to boot until we replaced the original RAM. Thought of loose connection..something that got dislodged slightly (and I remember a post here months ago..it doesn't have to be dislodged much to not be making proper connection)..but you say that you did get it back after moving to desk..so not sure if that applies. And thought of heat..but fans are all working, right?

Hang in..we have good techs..and someone will be familar with that mobo.

[GreetingsNerdlings]

hey guys, thanks for the support and the warm welcome. here's the next chapter in "the little mobo that could". i tried moving the memory around to differents slots, and made sure it was properly seated, i reseated the video card, that didn't change much. yes, fans all work. i have yet to test the voltage of the cmos battery since i just got it to post. now, how i got it to finally post again is probably an answer best left to the electrical engineers out of you. what i did, and i'm not entirely sure if this is what got it to post but its the only thing i did differently. i noticed that whenever i remove power from the board for a while (ie toggle the power supply switch off) and leave it for a bit, when i go to toggle it back on, the fans and an led on the board switch on for a half second. i thought that was odd, and it had been doing it throughout this ordeal, though i never thought that it could be some sort of possible symptom. so i thought maybe there was some sort of charging or discharging problem on the board whenever i powered down. so, what i did, that actually got it to post was i toggled the power supply switch on and off a few times after resetting cmos, then turned it on, and lo and behold, POST. now that i've temporarily got it on, im going to try to hookup the floppy drive (at this point ive still only got the bare minimum attached: mobo, cpu, video, keys, mem) and flash with an updated bios. im not sure if thatll solve my problem, or if theres a possibility that ive got some sort of charge instability on the board, or possibly the cmos battery (thats supposed to be 3V correct?). well, im gonna try and flash that bios now, ill be back with results.

[Bartman12]

Let me ad my 2 cents worth...

I believe this problem has something to do with the power supply giving a shortcut somewhere. This could be eather in the power supply or on the mobo. By taking the power supply off the mobo, you reset it, that's why it works again when you put the power supply back. How to solve this? Not a clue...if you have a 2nd power supply there you could try changing hooking that one up and see if it works. It's not because it still gives power that there can't be a shortcut somewhere...if the problem is the mobo...you'll have to replace it.

Off course...it could be something completely different too. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

[gwallen4]

I wouldn't be flashing your bios until you have a stable system!!

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Sandman

[kayofcircles]

My husband is in charge of the "guts" part of computing, but I "think" that fan/light business you mentioned is a mobo "test" thing and is normal. Sort of a way for the mobo to check itself, and "not" fry the chip. Can you easily buy a new CMOS battery?...they're usually not that expensive and wouldn't hurt. Except for one older system, all of the ones we've worked on take that CR 2032 camera/watch/calculator battery sold in many stores. And you seem be proficient in the testing voltage dept..did you check the power switch itself?

Probably too late on this...but I agree with gwallen4 . Flashing the BIOS now doesn't seem like a good idea.

[GreetingsNerdlings]

well, it seems like the problem has been solved, sort of. i've got all my peripherals installed and its running without any problems. i can even shut the thing down and it comes back on, which is good. the bios flash went fine, although i did find it odd that the mobo came with the bios write protection jumper set to disabled (which i hadn't noticed before). after the flash i started added hardware piece by piece, with shut-downs and unplugging the atx connx from the mobo (and toggling the power supply off). during a couple of the installs though, i ran into the same problem i was having before, no post, just fans and leds. the way i got around it was pretty shady. its something i noticed before, and wrote about in an earlier post, but reallly can't believe that it worked consistently to take my box out of the doldrums. it seems as though if the thing wasn't posting normally, all i would have to do is toggle the power supply switch on and off a few times and it would boot normally. it would only stop posting after i had removed the power supply and tried to turn it back on, so, i imagine that perhaps it is some sort of charging/discharging problem with the mobo. perhaps i also need a new cmos battery. but since its working fine now, i can probably live with it in its current state. anyway, thanks for the help guys.

[kayofcircles]

Glad you got it up and running. Please feel free to come back if we can "help" any further...lol.