Bought mobo but looks dead :(

[mbekkali]

Folks, I have fried my old computer so bought new CPU (Athlon 2200+), mobo (M7NCG by Biostar) and RAM sticks (Kingston PC3200 2*512MB). Now, put everything together (no HD, no CD, no DVD, no floppy, just 1 RAM stick), power up, all fans (PSU, CPU, Case) start spinning and no response from monitor. What is the most common mistakes made by novices in assembling systems (I also showed it to more experienced person but he could not identify the problem). Given that I tested my CPU on other computer, does this mean that my newly purchased mobo is dead.

[RIPUS]

what is your PSU ?

maybe is not good or give not enough "juice". Try to put a friend one (if you can) with more power and you will see

[The_Punisher29]

No offense... Can you tell me why the heck you bought a Biostar mobo ???

[CPFitz14]

Hmm... First I'd take a look at all of your connections. Make sure that all of the power connectors are plugged in where they're supposed to be... etc.

Some motherboards are also finicky about having a fan plugged into the motherboard header marked CPU Fan. If the heatsink fan is plugged in via a 4 pin connector directly to the power supply, try using only a 3 pin connector, and plugging it in to the proper header on the motherboard.

If the case speaker isn't connected, connect it, and if it is, do you hear any beeps? If so, what are they? You should be able to figure out the problem by listening to the beeps and refering to your motherboard manual.

Hopefully something above will solve your problem. Good luck.

-CPFitz-

[LittlePiggie]

...what vid card are you using? have you tested it in another system?

[mbekkali]

I bought Biostar mobo because it was
(1) the only one that would fit into my microATX case
(2) with nForce2 chipset
(3) and can have 400MGz FSB
(4) and has built-in Nvidia 440MX GPU (and I am not a serious gamer)
(5) and costs only $104.

Moreover, all the folks at NewEgg (and Tom's Hardware) had decent reviews except (namely 5 stars, but that could be a biased estimate).

Now, I plugged in speaker and made sure (with my friend) that all connections are tight (during testing a speaker produced no sounds which could be the sign that all connections are fine) . Besides, we also tried my friends video card to check if my on-board video is somehow swithched off, but it did not help.

The only thing we have not tried is to switch my 300W PSU's to his 350W (by the way, suppose I make my system to work, will I be able to overclock it with my weak PSU?). Is it possible that a mobo came to me damaged?

[AcEmAsTr]

It is quite possible that the mobo is damaged or a manufacturers mistake somewhere, but dont always expect it to be what you think it is, my mobo now refused to boot, saying that the memory was poo, memoryy was fine, got new CPU and now it works fine....:Back to your topic:.... A 350w power supply was efficient for my old 1800+ v266b. but a 250w isnt powerful enough, so maybe you need to try his 350W


*Edited* P.S, Sounds like a pretty good motherboard for that price and spec. Post some benchmarks with it, may be worth getting one perhaps

[Dylruss]

My vote is grounded wrong, when I started replacing mb's a while ago that was my biggest mistake. Of course yeah it could be dead, but doa's aren't horribly common.

[mbekkali]

I have ordered a new 500W PSU (with dual fans) since anyway my 300W (with 1 fan) would be too weak to overclock anything above 2000+, and I plan to overclock my computer like hell (bought 2 80mm case fans and replaced heatsink with Volcano 9). I would need speed for scientific calculations and some small gaming.

[BIB]

What do you mean by not grounded correctly? Mine was out of case, will that have anything to do with it. I had the same problem, but mine refurb mobo turned out to be the problem. Cuz i tried all of my pieces in other system and it worked, then moved all the parts to my mobo and it did not.

[srs]

A lot of new boards come with 2 power connections now. Did the old power supply have the 2 connectors? I have seen some P4's run on one connector, but I wouldn't do it in my own rig.

[mbekkali]

Since I am changing CPU, PSU, MOBO, RAM, FAN, will my OS (windows xp pro) recognize the changes or I would have to reformat my HD and reinstall OS? I have lots of valuable data on this HD and it is the only HD that I have.

[LittlePiggie]

always reformat and reinstall after a mobo change.