MSI K7N2 Boot problem

[DarthRacer]

MSI K7N2 Boot problem w/ATI cards

I just built the box as listed in my sig.
I'm having a strange boot/POST problem.

When I power it up, all the fans are running, the optical drives initialize, but I get no POST confirmation beep and no video. The HD access light stays lit and the MSI diag LEDs show it halted at memory initialization.
I can get it to boot OK after I hit the reset button.

I RMA'd my first RAM chip and the replacement does the same thing. I'm using one chip in slot 1. Tried all 3 slots.
Nothing is OC'd yet and the RAM settings are set to default.
I'm not using a floppy and it is disabled in BIOS.
I have flashed the BIOS to the most current version.
I have cleared the CMOS to default settings which did not help.
I set the "safe mode" jumper to 100Mhz FSB and that did not help.

Can anyone help? I'm stumped.

 

[wonkanoby]

is the wd drive jumperless stand alone master as i assume it has no slave

 

[DarthRacer]

Actually I've added a WD 13G slave that has some old data on it. All jumpers are set correctly.

 

[wonkanoby]

well try it with main drive alone and jumperless

 

[DarthRacer]

I tried one drive and it did not work. Still stumped.

 

[wonkanoby]

what are the psu max amps 3.3 5 and 12v

 

[wonkanoby]

is the drive a bb model

you are changing the jumper ,removing it as i said if no slave

 

[hafa]

You might also try removing any pci cards and all drives and see if you can get the bios to reliably POST. If it does, re-install the cards/drives one at a time until the problem comes back. If it does not, you may have a bad MB

 

[wonkanoby]

antec case but is it an antec psu

post max amps 3.3 5 and 12v make and model of its side

 

[DarthRacer]

Here is my PSU - I'm at work and can't read the specs right off the PSU at the moment:




Specs page:
http://www.antec-inc.com/specs/sl400_spe.html

 

[wonkanoby]

that should be enough

its an ati vga card is it on latest bios as older had cold boot problems with ati

 

[DarthRacer]

that should be enough

its an ati vga card is it on latest bios as older had cold boot problems with ati

Dude, thanks!! I'll try that ASAP.

 

[DarthRacer]

Flashing the vid card BIOS did not help.

I tried memory from another manufacturer - did not help.

I tried disconnecting the optical drives - did not help.

My last two options before I think its the mobo is:
Try booting with no HD
Try a different vid card.

 

[wonkanoby]

what exact model is the wd drive is it a bb model?

 

[DarthRacer]

Drive is a Western Digital Special Edition 80GB 7200RPM IDE HD, Model WD800JB

 

[wonkanoby]

i did not mean the vga bios but the boards bios by the way

its older bb drives i know a problem with

 

[DarthRacer]

Update

I've posted this at the MSI forums also, but here it goes:

I bought a new ATI Radeon 9600XT 128 MB last night and popped it in.
I have the K7N2 Delta-L with most current BIOS and nforce drivers.
Here's what happened after install.

1) No POST on cold boot- no video or error beeps.
2) Tried using the reset button to no avail.
3) Reset CMOS - still no POST .
4) Set safe mode jumper to 100FSB and I got it to POST.
5) Set AGP fast write to no and FSB back to 133 - No POST unless I hit reset. Some progress.
6) Set AGP 8x support to OFF - I can cold boot with no issues.

Why will this only work with AGP set to 4X?? I'm going to try and increase the AGP port voltage to see if that works.

 

[RoskO (_!_)]

Imagine that, I am having the same issue. One way I have "fixed" the problem is to do the wire trick. I have an XP Tbred B chip, 2100+ and everything was working fine with it overclocked with the wire trick. I got a Barton 2800+ and popped it in with no wire, it has the EXACT same symptoms you are posting about. No matter what I do, it will not post. The only way I can reliably get my system cold booting is to do the wire trick, and use my old XP chip. Barton wont work, XP wont work without wire in. I have no clue why, but oh well. ****es me off.

 

[DarthRacer]

I got mine to cold boot by changing the AGP port voltage to 1.6V.

 

[Inwo]

I'm having the same problem. Maybe the latest run of motherboards has been poor?
I just built a box with MSI K7N2 Delta with a Radeon 9800 Pro, 1 gig twinx ram and a Barton 3000+. It worked fine for a while, then suddenly the monitor lost signal and it won't even POST anymore. I did get it to post once somehow, got into the bios and everything looked right, so I tried to load windows and got a read error on the CD for the install, the computer locked up and back to the same no signal for my monitor. The strange thing is prior to this apparant graphics card failure I was able to play graphically intensive games such as BF1942 for hours steady...
I replaced the graphics card because it might have been time for a new one or something along those lines anyway, but got the exact same results.
I took the CPU off and put a fresh coat of arctic silver 5 and put it all back together, now all I hear is a long steady beep while all the fans whir and hard drives spin.
I'm completely out of ideas as to what it would be. If you guys have any suggestions I'd be happy to hear them, this P2 400 is slooooow