New Motherboard..won't boot.

[inabsentia]

ASRock K7S8X motherboard, XP 2600 Barton CPU, Radeon 9200 Graphics Card, 768 mb 2600 DDR Ram (512mb & 256), 120gb Hard Drive, 20 Gb hard drive, CD Writer, DVD Writer

My Asus A7x8 motherboard failed at the weekend (I know it was the board as I checked ever other single option spearately and they all worked fine). Got a new board last night and installed it...It powers up (Fans start, power gets to all drives) yet it doesn't 'wake up'. No Beeps, no BIOS Screen..nothing.

I'm thinking that I may have wired the system panel connector wrong, as the cables don't really tie in with what the the board manual says.

I've got the following cables
(These are two pins)
HD LED
POWER SW
RESET SW

Then I have two individual cables 'Power led'

The diagram of the connecting pins from the motherboard manual is here

http://www.aauk.biz/b.jpg

...anyone tell me what goes on where?

Or maybe I'm missing something more obvious...I set the FSB jumper to 333 mhz (which is correct for the Xp2600 Barton), I've checked all leads are correctly seated, tried one stick of memory, then the other as well as both...still nothing.

I'd appreciate any thoughts here!

[DallasDon]

for starters, I would clear the CMOS, and let the BIOS redetect all hardware. Refer to the mobo manual , make sure the power is off the mobo.

Regarding the panel connectors, the "old school" method of testing a new board would be to make the momentary contact (two Mississippis) between the PWRBTN and GND pins with a screwdriver.

It is a momentary contact, to tell the power supply to turn on the computer.

The PWRBTN/ GND and RESET/GND can be reversed and work, as they are momentary contact.

The PLED and HDLED simply won't light up if they are backwards, just reverse them if they don't work.

Also, if you are trying to Migrate an existing Windows to a new mobo, a repair install is probably a minimum requirement. Search the threads for "New Mobo, Keep windows"

[inabsentia]

Originally posted by DallasDon
for starters, I would clear the CMOS, and let the BIOS redetect all hardware. Refer to the mobo manual , make sure the power is off the mobo.

Regarding the panel connectors, the "old school" method of testing a new board would be to make the momentary contact (two Mississippis) between the PWRBTN and GND pins with a screwdriver.

It is a momentary contact, to tell the power supply to turn on the computer.

The PWRBTN/ GND and RESET/GND can be reversed and work, as they are momentary contact.

The PLED and HDLED simply won't light up if they are backwards, just reverse them if they don't work.

Also, if you are trying to Migrate an existing Windows to a new mobo, a repair install is probably a minimum requirement. Search the threads for "New Mobo, Keep windows"

OK, I cleared the CMOS (Power off, plug out, jumper on for 3 seconds, jumper off)


I'm pretty sure all those connectors are ok now, as both the green 'on' led and the red 'reset' led are working, and the on/off switch works fine.


I've checked, re-checked and whatever you do after re-checking has been done to everything. It's as if everything is about to start, I hear the Hard Drives spin up, but it doesn't seem to kick into gear...I'm not getting any POST beep, and no error sounds, so there must be 'something' stopping it

The video card is seated correctly..I've tried the card in this other machine (That I'm on now) and it identifies just fine, so it's not the card.

As for the Windows problem..I've got a brand new Windows installation on the hard drive. I was about to re-install Windows when the previous board failed. I've since re-installed it using this machine..I've done nothing with it..I just checked it booted ok, and I've left installing anything on it until I get the PC running.

[jmichna]

I had an instance where I switched out only a new cpu and new HS/fan. Should have been a no-brainer. Knew everything worked fine before starting.

Strangest thing, it would not power up, like your situation... would not complete POST... I tried many, many things.

Finally, I pulled out (that is, disconnected power and data connections) EVERYTHING except CPU, CPU HS/fan, 1 stick ram, and vid card (no HD/floppy/optical/sound card/NIC, etc. connected at this point).

Turned on the power switch, it powered up and POSTed. Shut down, connected HD, powered up... it POSTed. Connected the next piece of hardware, wash... rinse... repeat... until every single piece of hardware was added back. Hasn't had a problem since then.

I don't know why this worked (some theories, but really only speculation). If you're out of ideas, you may want to give this a go.

[HfdWolfPack]

backwards floppy cable? backwards floppy
power connector?

[inabsentia]

No, afraid not..No floppy in the machine at all!