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General discussion

new motherboard/good power/no boot.

Sep 25, 2004 8:44AM PDT

config:
GA-7VT600-L mainboard (manual here: (http://america.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/FileList/Manual/manual_7vt600_e.pdf)
Sapphire ati radeon 9200SE
AMD 1.3 Duron
IBM Deskstar 40 GB HDD (w/ windows installed which i plan to wipe)
256 DDR RAM
Enlight 300W PSU

When i hit the switch all this is going on at once: Monitor switches from the "No Signal" message to a black screen, then goes to sleep which makes me think that it is at least getting some kind of signal, if not a valid one. All fans run and LED's light up. HDD makes light 'click' noise, spins up and reads for about a half a seccond, clicks again, reads for about a full second, then stays spinning but does nothing else. CD-Rom light blinks on and off for about 10 seconds. PC speaker clicks or pops (NOT 'beeps'...as thought it were getting little shots of random voltage) in time with fist the HDD and then in time with the CD-rom light.

The cd rom will spin up a cd if present but no activity in the floppy at all.

Ive got no ideas that have worked. Any new ones would be appreciated.

thanks in advance
-bj-

Discussion is locked

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The power supply is ... slim.
Sep 25, 2004 9:16AM PDT

Try it with less parts such as CPU, Heatsink/fan, motherboard, no RAM, no cards, not video, no drives and go for beeps.

The clicks and pops is typical of an overloaded supply. The test above will help narrow it down.

Also, some are first times and put metal mounting posts on the case and short the board out...

Bob

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Re: The power supply is ... slim.
Sep 25, 2004 11:15AM PDT

all right. with just the video card and nothing else i get continuous long beeps, corresponding to a DRAM error. With RAM in no beeps, just the same old pops.
Additionally, i'm not sure i understand your last comment concerning the metal mounting posts. the board is on the posts that my old mainboard was on. is this bad?

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Re: The power supply is ... slim.
Sep 25, 2004 11:32AM PDT

That's still a clue that the power supply is not suitable. A "new" power supply of 300 Watts might deliver enough to start such an unit, but a few year old supply will be up to 50% of it's former capacity.

And yes, you can not make any assumptions about standoffs. There is no standard and you must remove "extras".

bob

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Re: The power supply is ... slim.
Sep 25, 2004 12:15PM PDT

I replaced the video card with an old TNT2 and viola..it fires...perhaps the radeon requires more power...regardless we can consider the problem solved...thanks for the help

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Re: new motherboard/good power/no boot.
Sep 29, 2004 4:09AM PDT

1. Do you have a blank display while these things are going on?
2. Does your mother board has a built in video adapter in addition to your video card?
If yes, check the settings of your display (control panel, display, settings, then advanced).
If number 2 above applies, check the default adapter and driver the system us using, you need to activate your video card, i would like to say that you need to install your video card using the card's install CD but it will be a practice of futility if you see nothing on screen.
If you have an on-board adapter, after the computer boots (with the manner your computer is acting, it is booting, the FDD LED will not light-up, unless you specify in the BIOS set-up to perform a floppy seek during start-up), transfer the monitor input terminal to the on-board display adapter, if a display appears, then, you really have to configure the display adapter to use the video card instead of the on-board display. It can be done by using the video card installation CD, then, dis-able the default display adapter until you see that the video card's adapter is selected as the driver and adapter to use. Shutdown, transfer the monitor terminal to the video card adapter, boot. See if you will have a dispaly, the first thing the system will do is to show your video cards parameters, monitor goes off for a split second, then continue its normal boot sequence.
If you do not have an on-board display adapter, there is a great possibility of video card problem.