New System Problems...

[Keith O. McKeever, Jr.]

Well...I got my new system all put together and started immediately having problems...I wasn't even OC'ing it yet. Here are the system specs:


Mid Tower Generic Case w/ 400W PS
3 total case fans
Abit KT7A MoBo
AMD Duron 800 MHz Processor w/ Win FOP-38 Cooler
512 MB PC133 RAM (1 DIMM)
Jaton GeForce MX400 32 MB AGP Video Card
Creative Labs SoundBlaster Gamer 5.1 PCI Sound Card
Sony 3.5" Floppy Drive
Samsung 52X CD-ROM Drive
Hewlett-Packard 9350i 10/8/32X CD-RW Drive
Maxtor DiamondMax 45.0 GB 7200 RPM ATA100 Hard Drive


That is what I have but when I started running into problems, I took all the cards out except for the video card. This is what is happening, and this is weird. Because this is like my eighth or ninth computer I have built but the first time I have encountered this problem. I turn it on, the monitor does not come on and it does not seem to go through any 'normal' boot sequence. It just sits there being on (all the fans running and the HD spinning) but my monitor stays in stand by mode. Well, I thought it was my video card (maybe) so I pulled it and stuck in my old AGP TNT2 Ultra card. Same thing, so then I tried a PCI video card. Nothing. Not to mention, I cannot shut the system off by pressing the power button, the only way it will shut off is if I actually unplug the machine. Any suggestions? I am lost at this point. I have tried unseating and reseating the processor, the memory and the graphics card....any more ideas?

[Hoot]

Do you have a fan with a tachometer output plugged into the fan header #1?

Hoot

[Keith O. McKeever, Jr.]

I have the FOP38 fan plugged in there now and same problem.

[stool]

Try pulling and reseating the RAM and CPU. If you have extra RAM, swap it out for what you have in now. Just a couple of things for you to try.

[Keith O. McKeever, Jr.]

Well, one positive thing happened...I can now shut the system off with the power button...I didn't have the jumper the whole way down....

Reseated the CPU...Nada...

Reseated the RAM...Nada...

Cleared the CMOS...Nada...

I have some RAM in this computer I am using now that I can try...but I would have to tear this thing apart to get it out.

[Kryten]

have you got a spare monitor? or tried posting without it connected, also try pull out any uneccessary cards from the system, golden rule if it fails to post pull out the uneccessary stuff first before reseating anything.

[Tomas]

u tried clearing cmos??? And also try running without ram and cpu to check if u can hear any sign of life (beeps). If that dosent help and u can hear any beeps without cpu and ram ur mobo might be dead.

[David]

does ure mobo support 512MB DIMMS?
Are the DIMMS ECC, does the mobo support them?

[Lynx]

I have had the same prob with my KT7. It is the ram. for some reason that mobo is very picky about the ram. I went through three sets of ram before it worked.

[Keith O. McKeever, Jr.]

Ok, update...lucky for me there was a computer show going on so I went and picked up a cheap T-Bird 850 MHz chip...put that in and now it will boot so the only thing I can assume is that my 800 MHz was DOA.

But now I have new problems...I cannot get it to boot from the CD-ROM drive..time to play some more...oh and the only way I can get it to reboot is by unplugging the power cord...it will shut off with the power switch but when I reboot, it won't activate the monitor...

[!-=sky=-!]

the cdrom boot u have to set in the bios

first boot device should be cdrom then second boot device floppy
either way works then thrid should be hd

[Keith O. McKeever, Jr.]

Yeah, I feel like such a freaking moron...I build systems constantly at work and never thought to check the boot to sequence. Duh! Blonde moment. I have it running, I got ME installed I am in the process of going through the MSO 2K install, DreamWeaver, etc.

Still having one problem though, it seems to not want to turn on correctly. In order to make it turn on and bring the monitor out of standby mode, I have to unhook the power cable, wait 5 seconds and hook it back in. Not that much of an inconvenience but somewhat of a pain. WOW! What a difference stepping up from the machine I am using here (K6*2 400 MHz) to that one! I guess ATA100 and the increased processor speed would help considerably.

Also, my chip is running right now at about 39-40*C. Is that normal for a T-Bird?

[Tomas]

Keith O. McKeever, Jr. (Jun 09, 2001 03:36 p.m.):
Ok, update...lucky for me there was a computer show going on so I went and picked up a cheap T-Bird 850 MHz chip...put that in and now it will boot so the only thing I can assume is that my 800 MHz was DOA.

But now I have new problems...I cannot get it to boot from the CD-ROM drive..time to play some more...oh and the only way I can get it to reboot is by unplugging the power cord...it will shut off with the power switch but when I reboot, it won't activate the monitor...

Try setting it to agp first instead of pci. U will find it somewhere in bios

[-=sC(+)Pe=-]

sorry if anyone said this already... i skimmed through

make sure your dip switches on your mobo are all set to off so the machine will initialize soft menu and send you into the bios first boot... just a though

cause what you are describing to me sounds like that...

[Keith O. McKeever, Jr.]

Well, the good news is, as I have said, it seems to be running now. I have the OS installed. Got the sound card installed. I just picked up the modem and nic card yesterday so I should have them installed tonight. I am currently running it at it's system default setting which is coming up 850 MHz (8.5x100 MHz). I have a concern with the processor itself because at idle it is running between 39-40*C. Is that an acceptable normal temp? I figured by having the GlobalWin FOP-38 with the delta fan that it would run cooler than that. I am using the motherboard temp. sensor to give me this reading, are they accurate?

Also, I am still having the problem shutting down. For example, if you install something and Windows requires a reboot...it reboots fine. But once you shut down or if, god forbid, you have to do a hard reset...it will not bring the monitor out of standby mode and post. Any suggestions on this one? It has me baffled.

I should be running some test scores on it and getting a comparison vs. my old K6*2 system...which ought to be interesting. :)