LED Light Trouble

[conbar6800]

Hello, I recently took apart my PC to clean and move the hard drives to make better room in the PC. After I put it back together I turned on the PC, it booted up but the H.D.D. light stayed on the whole time and the Power Light never came on. Of course the PC didn't show anything on the moniter so I decided to recheck the LED light plugs on the motherboard and if they were in the right place. I looked at the picture in the manuel and the picture on the motherboard of the way its supposed to be plugged in and I had it right. Because the H.D.D. light was just turning on and staying on I unplugged both Hard Drives and it still was staying on , however, I have it plugged in just like the manual said it was supposed to. I don't know what the issue is because the computer was working fine before I took out the motherboard.

Thanks for the help.

[sassie05]

You may want to re-check your connections again. It sounds as if you have switched the HDD and Power led connections.

Could you please tell us what you mean by this.......

Of course the PC didn't show anything on the moniter

Is there no output to your monitor?

[conbar6800]

I've done the correct connections to the motherboard like the manual had said and such the picture on the motherboard below the connections. The monitor isn't getting any output, but when I first built it the computer never got any output until I had the right connections to the power/reset/led lights but somehow even with the right connections I'm not getting anything except a computer running with the one hard disk led light running without any stoppage, no power light or anything on the moniter, could this be a motherboard problem or maybe a power supply? I don't have a system speaker so should I get one and see if the BIOS can give me some signal?

thanks again

[Whyzman]

I realize that it's a hassle, but I would suggest pulling the rig apart again. Reinstall with only a barebones setup (i.e., RAM, Video, Keyboard, and monitor), and see if you can get it to POST. Once there, if you've a floppy drive, install, and insert a Win98 boot disk (or similar) to get you to the A: prompt.

If all is well, then run memtest86

Add the harddrive and run the harddrive diagnostics. These can be downloaded from the manufacturer, usually on a floppy.

If you do not have a floppy drive you can use a bootable CD with the aforementioned software burned to it.

Personally, I always add a floppy drive due to its cheapness and ability to get in before other components can cloud the troubleshooting process.

Add the other components back in one at a time...

[Whyzman]

Oops, also welcome tohttp://www.pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif Forums!

[Sylvander]

"no power light or anything on the moniter"
Is the monitor showing no signs of life whatever?
Perhaps no power is getting through to it from the mains supply? [Fuse gone in the plug, or bad connection]
Try the monitor on another working PC.

Do you hear the single short beep as the POST completes successfully?
Do you think the PC goes on to boot successfully [unseen] from the HDD?
What signs of that happening?

If you Startup with a bootable floppy in the FDD you'll hear the unmistakable sound of the program being loaded from the floppy.

Use these for guidance...
Sylvander’s Diagnostic Flowcharts
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 STARTUP chart.

[conbar6800]

The moniter is working fine as it worked before I took the computer apart. As I don't have a system speaker I cannot hear any beeps, however, everything in the case seems to be starting up fine, just nothing on the screen and the only thing lighting up on the front of the case is the red H.D.D light, as i said before the computer wouldn't work if the LED connections were wrong, but I am sure they are all right
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q166/connorbarth/compproblem.jpg
heres a picture of it (sorry a bit badly taken) but as you can see the red H.D.D. light is on but its just staying on and the green power light isn't on, there isn't anything posting on the moniter and I have tried barebones setup but i get the same thing, and I swear I have the correct setup as shown here from the manual
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q166/connorbarth/123compstuff.jpg
however Im just getting that silly continuous red H.D.D. light which I think cause the computer to fail to post

thanks for the help

[sassie05]

Did you try disconnecting all the panel headers when you did a barebones? Briefly and carefully short the power switch pins with a screw driver to turn on the PC. Just a note: It should not matter if the leds are disconnected.

Try what Whyzman and Sylvander has suggested with a FDD.

[Whyzman]

The HDD lite shouldn't have anything to do with the machine making it through POST. Did you disconnect the LED and HDD for the barebones boot?

Do you have onboard video or a video card? If you're not sure, where is the video cable connected on the computer? Also, if you're not sure a photo would work...

For the barebones you need to disconnect things. It appears that you've no floppy, so you would need to keep your CD hooked up but change the boot order in the BIOS so the CD is being looked at to boot first.

[conbar6800]

I have both an onboard video and a video card, and I have tried both with failure, and the moniter works, the strange thing is that all of this worked 100% fine before I decided to move the harddrives down. I can't get any BIOS display on the screen but I did reset CMOS, so It should set it back to cd boot first, ill give it a try.

As long as the start and the reset switches are correct then it should work right?, then the computer should work correctly however its just not giving any BIOS display or the display that shows video card information along with my onboard video not working.

Ive dissconnected my video card when running onboard and it doesnt work, Ive worked it down to just RAM, video, keyboard, and moniter and still the same problem....do I need to run a cd that uses a temporary driver?

[Whyzman]

You might want to check the button battery for contact...or, just replace it. Although you don't have a speaker to let us know it's making it through POST, it would appear you're getting hung-up early on...

As you point out, you should be getting something on-screen...

It would be nice to have some sort of beep code so we would know where to look. However, if you cannot get into the BIOS by tapping the Delete button early on...it would appear that it's not tapping into your CMOS for the BIOS code...

[conbar6800]

hmm so i should just take the battery out, and tap the start button a few times to clear everything out, ill give that a shot, anyway just to make this a bit easier i have a video of the boot-up, as you can see that it startsup with that H.D.D. light on and no power light, and the moniter has nothing onscreen and a blinking blue light on the power button like its plugged in but no video signal however ive used both onboard and the video card.

http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q166/connorbarth/?action=view&current=MOV00279.flv

[Whyzman]

Without beep codes it's really difficult to say where you are in the boot process...

Removing the battery for 10-20 minutes, or jumpering as directed, will clear the CMOS... If jumpering, be sure to put the jumpers back into the run position.

Tapping after removing is not necessary...sorry for the confusion. Tapping the Delete key is how you get into the BIOS/setup. My concerns are with the motherboard battery making good contact...or, that it might be dying or dead and needs to be replaced.

I would suggest that you pull and reseat the RAM several times. I would also suggest that you pull the Video card and only use the onboard video which is probably the default position once the CMOS is reset.

Make sure all PCI cards, if any, are removed for the barebones.

[conbar6800]

hmm I exchanged the battery and cleared the CMOS by jumpering but still the same thing, i've also reseated the RAM many times but still the same issue. If I had a system speaker I could get a Phoenix BIOS beep code but unfortunatly I don't...

[Sylvander]

You really NEED to fit an internal speaker...

Then connect only PSU, mobo, CPU+heatsink+fan, internal speaker.
No RAM, no on/off switch, no keyboard etc.

Then if the mobo gets the PSU to power up [when you short the on/off pins], and if the POST runs, it will test and warn [with beeps] that the 1st RAM test is failing.
That would tell you that the POST is indeed running.
Then when you fit the RAM back in place those warning beeps should cease.
So now you know the POST is running and testing and getting at least to the 1st RAM test.
Then we could analyse a generic Phoenix BIOS POST [I have a list of the steps for that] to see which following tests might be failing [usually the video tests].

You'd need to know what the default video settings are in the BIOS Setup, and provide a suitable hardware setup to match those settings, so the video will pass all tests and work.
Then the video would be enabled, the single short beep indicating successful completion of the POST comes a number of steps after that, and then the BIOS attempts to boot from a drive, and your off and running.

The full generic Phoenix BIOS's POST steps...

Code_Beeps_POST Routine Description
02h Verify Real Mode
03h Disable Non-Maskable Interrupt (NMI)
04h Get CPU type
06h Initialize system hardware
07h Disable shadow and execute code from the ROM.
08h Initialize chipset with initial POST values
09h Set IN POST flag
0Ah Initialize CPU registers
0Bh Enable CPU cache
0Ch Initialize caches to initial POST values
0Eh Initialize I/O component
0Fh Initialize the local bus IDE
10h Initialize Power Management
11h Load alternate registers with initial POST values
12h Restore CPU control word during warm boot
13h Initialize PCI Bus Mastering devices
14h Initialize keyboard controller
16h 1-2-2-3 BIOS ROM checksum
17h Initialize cache before memory Auto size
18h 8254 timer initialization
1Ah 8237 DMA controller initialization
1Ch Reset Programmable Interrupt Controller
20h 1-3-1-1 Test DRAM refresh
22h 1-3-1-3 Test 8742 Keyboard Controller
24h Set ES segment register to 4 GB
28h Auto size DRAM
29h Initialize POST Memory Manager
2Ah Clear 512 kB base RAM
2Ch 1-3-4-1 RAM failure on address line xxxx*
2Eh 1-3-4-3 RAM failure on data bits xxxx* of low byte of
memory bus
2Fh Enable cache before system BIOS shadow
32h Test CPU bus-clock frequency
33h Initialize Phoenix Dispatch Manager
36h Warm start shut down
38h Shadow system BIOS ROM
3Ah Auto size cache
3Ch Advanced configuration of chipset registers
3Dh Load alternate registers with CMOS values
41h Initialize extended memory for RomPilot
42h Initialize interrupt vectors
45h POST device initialization
46h 2-1-2-3 Check ROM copyright notice
47h Initialize I20 support
48h Check video configuration against CMOS
49h Initialize PCI bus and devices
4Ah Initialize all video adapters in system
--------------------------------------------
4Bh QuietBoot start (optional)
4Ch Shadow video BIOS ROM
4Eh Display BIOS copyright notice
4Fh Initialize MultiBoot
50h Display CPU type and speed
51h Initialize EISA board
52h Test keyboard
54h Set key click if enabled
55h Enable USB devices
58h 2-2-3-1 Test for unexpected interrupts
59h Initialize POST display service
5Ah Display prompt "Press F2 to enter SETUP"
5Bh Disable CPU cache
5Ch Test RAM between 512 and 640 kB
60h Test extended memory
62h Test extended memory address lines
64h Jump to UserPatch1
66h Configure advanced cache registers
67h Initialize Multi Processor APIC
68h Enable external and CPU caches
69h Setup System Management Mode (SMM) area
6Ah Display external L2 cache size
6Bh Load custom defaults (optional)
6Ch Display shadow-area message
6Eh Display possible high address for UMB recovery
70h Display error messages
72h Check for configuration errors
76h Check for keyboard errors
7Ch Set up hardware interrupt vectors
7Dh Initialize Intelligent System Monitoring
7Eh Initialize coprocessor if present
80h Disable onboard Super I/O ports and IRQs
81h Late POST device initialization
82h Detect and install external RS232 ports
83h Configure non-MCD IDE controllers
84h Detect and install external parallel ports
85h Initialize PC-compatible PnP ISA devices
86h Re-initialize onboard I/O ports.
87h Configure Motherboard Configurable Devices
(optional)
88h Initialize BIOS Data Area
89h Enable Non-Maskable Interrupts (NMIs)
8Ah Initialize Extended BIOS Data Area
8Bh Test and initialize PS/2 mouse
8Ch Initialize floppy controller
8Fh Determine number of ATA drives (optional)
90h Initialize hard-disk controllers
91h Initialize local-bus hard-disk controllers
92h Jump to UserPatch2
93h Build MPTABLE for multi-processor boards
95h Install CD ROM for boot
96h Clear huge ES segment register
97h Fix up Multi Processor table
98h 1-2 Search for option ROMs. One long, two short
beeps on checksum failure
99h Check for SMART Drive (optional)
9Ah Shadow option ROMs
9Ch Set up Power Management
9Dh Initialize security engine (optional)
9Eh Enable hardware interrupts
9Fh Determine number of ATA and SCSI drives
A0h Set time of day
A2h Check key lock
A4h Initialize typematic rate
A8h Erase F2 prompt
AAh Scan for F2 key stroke
ACh Enter SETUP
AEh Clear Boot flag
B0h Check for errors
B1h Inform RomPilot about the end of POST.
B2h POST done - prepare to boot operating system
B4h 1 One short beep before boot

B5h Terminate QuietBoot (optional)
--------------------------------------------------
B6h Check password (optional)
B7h Initialize ACPI BIOS
B9h Prepare Boot
BAh Initialize SMBIOS
BBh Initialize PnP Option ROMs
BCh Clear parity checkers
BDh Display MultiBoot menu
BEh Clear screen (optional)
BFh Check virus and backup reminders
C0h Try to boot with INT 19
C1h Initialize POST Error Manager (PEM)
C2h Initialize error logging
C3h Initialize error display function
C4h Initialize system error handler
C5h PnPnd dual CMOS (optional)
C6h Initialize note dock (optional)
C7h Initialize note dock late
C8h Force check (optional)
C9h Extended checksum (optional)
CAh Redirect Int 15h to enable remote keyboard
CBh Redirect Int 13h to Memory Technologies
Devices such as ROM, RAM, PCMCIA, and
serial disk
CCh Redirect Int 10h to enable remote serial video
CDh Re-map I/O and memory for PCMCIA
CEh Initialize digitizer and display message
D2h Unknown interrupt
The following are for boot block in Flash
ROM
E0h Initialize the chipset
E1h Initialize the bridge
E2h Initialize the CPU
E3h Initialize system timer
E4h Initialize system I/O
E5h Check force recovery boot
E6h Checksum BIOS ROM
E7h Go to BIOS
E8h Set Huge Segment
E9h Initialize Multi Processor
EAh Initialize OEM special code
EBh Initialize PIC and DMA
ECh Initialize Memory type
EDh Initialize Memory size
EEh Shadow Boot Block
EFh System memory test
F0h Initialize interrupt vectors
F1h Initialize Run Time Clock
F2h Initialize video
F3h Initialize System Management Manager
F4h Output one beep
F5h Clear Huge Segment
F6h Boot to Mini DOS
F7h Boot to Full DOS

[conbar6800]

Hey thanks for all your help, weirdly enough I put another old motherboard and ran it just to see what would happened and it worked normally, after that I put back in this motherboard, and strangely enough it worked fine!, I have tooken this one out many times and back it but it just happened to work after booting up the other motherboard one time.

Thanks much!

[Fruss Tray Ted]

It's amazing what one can do by repeatedly beating inanimate objects with a 3 pound hammer!!! :eek:

Other times it's difficult to tell just what it was you did that made things right again... Maybe the offering of honey instead of vinegar?

The LED may have been hooked in reverse as they are polarity sensitive? Who knows? Good to hear you got it resolved tho! :)

[Whyzman]

Well, it is a computer after all! :rolleyes:

[sassie05]

A suggestion; install an internal speaker.

[Racerjerry]

After messing around inside my computer trying to recover data from an old hard drive for a friend, I too was confronted with a HDD light remaining continuously ON. All I could think of was that I fried the mobo in a stupid hot swap attempt (never again - I swear). A little education from previous posts reminded me that it is not only the hard drive(s) that could cause the problem (Thank you guys). After donning my anti-static wrist strap I immediately yanked all the drive cables from the mobo and attempted a boot. Naturally, the screen registered a boot failure, but the HDD light went out. HOPE AT LAST!
Reinstalled bare cables one at a time, each time attempting a reboot - same results - still good. Reinstalled drives one at a time, each time rebooting. This revealed the problem was isolated to the CD drive. In my case, the difficulty was that the CD drawer had hung up ever so slightly when closing, causing the HDD light to remain ON. One three pound hammer + one full day of sweat & tears = Happy Man! Racerjerry

[Whyzman]

Welcome tohttp://www.pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif Forums!

Sounds like a barebones boot and single item put-back has its merits! ;)

Being an isolationist isn't necessarily all bad...especially, when troubleshooting... :D