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Guest
|  Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 7:06 pm Post subject: ic7-max 3 wont boot... |
| Hi,
New to the forum but in need of a bit of assistance. Sorry if this
isn't the right place...
Recently installed a new 320GB Sata HD to my machine, and also an extra
512MB ram
My system is now as such
Motherboard : Abit IC7-MAX3, latest revision of BIOS so i could install
SP2 on the Prescott based CPU
RAM: 1.5GB DDR400, no problem there, been running this for ages, new
ram exactly the same, no problem to start with as running for a week on
and off fine
Hard Drives: 200GB, 250GB, 320GB, all running fine for at least a week
also,
PSU, only 350Watts but still ran ok for a while,
Video Card: Winfast FX5700 256MB
All this was running fine, I got in last night and turned on my machine
to a clear whirring from my fans and that was about it..., no screen
came up with the obligatory Graphics Card RAM check or POST and
everything just pretty much sat there at the same noise level until i
rebooted and tried again.
However, I had to hold the power button in for the 5 seconds to reboot
which is a little weird, as this normally happens when it is in the
operating system but i know i turned it off the other night and i don't
have any hibernation settings enabled.
I tried resetting the ccmos but it didn't help, reading the users
manual today, i will try the power removal from the board and battery
as well and see what that does. It also said something about holding
the "insert" key??? not sure what that is about.
It seemed to be trying to access my DVD drive as well but kind of like
how it does when its first booting up, i couldn't even open the drive
up to see what was going on at first, it finally opened but nothing was
in there.
So i unplugged this thinking that it was shorting the system somewhere
but that didn't solve it.
Also tried to remove the graphics card but didn't resolve anything and
as its the only way to check whats happening via the monitor i will
have to leave it in.
I'm a little stumped, other machines in my house are working still, so
nothings come through and blown my my machine from what i can tell, but
its strange not to even get anything coming up on the monitor at all.
Any help would be appreciated, i think its my motherboard though...
Any thoughts at all??? |
| | Back to top | |  | Richard Hopkins
Guest
| | Posted: Fri Nov 17, 2006 11:54 am Post subject: Re: ic7-max 3 wont boot... |
| <bondsan> wrote in message...
| Quote: | New to the forum but in need of a bit of assistance. Sorry if this
isn't the right place...
|
No worries, this is as good a place as any!
| Quote: | All this was running fine, I got in last night and turned on my
machine to a clear whirring from my fans and that was about it...,
no screen came up with the obligatory Graphics Card RAM
check or POST and everything just pretty much sat there at the
same noise level until i rebooted and tried again.
|
Okay.
| Quote: | I tried resetting the ccmos but it didn't help, reading the users manual
today, i will try the power removal from the board and battery
as well and see what that does. It also said something about holding
the "insert" key??? not sure what that is about.
|
That means the insert key on the keyboard. If you hold it down while
powering-up the board, any customised settings in the Softmenu will be
ignored and the system will POST at default speeds and voltages.
| Quote: | I'm a little stumped,
|
Impossible to guess with confidence at this stage, there are a number of
things it could potentially be, the name of the game now is to work through
a few things and see if we can narrow down the causal factors.
Firstly, do you see the green "standby" LED illuminated when the computer is
in the power-off state? Does this then turn red when the board powers up?
Next thing to do is pull your system apart. Take all the components out,
gently brush/vacuum off all the dust and crap that's built up over time. You
can take the OTES duct off to give the components under there a dust too.
Then put your motherboard on top of a non-conductive surface, like a stack
of paper, and build up a minimum system configuration on it. Graphics card,
one stick of memory, processor, PSU and that's it. See if you can get either
a POST or some error beeps out of it.
If you can, great, you know those components are good. Add memory one stick
at a time and see if one of them causes the non-response. Once you've got
all your memory in, add the soundcard etc. etc and sooner or later you'll
find out what the problem is.
If you can't get anything at all even in this bare configuration, start
swapping those components. I'd start with the power supply first as it
sounds as though your existing one was under a fair load given your
component selections.
| Quote: | ...its strange not to even get anything coming up on the monitor at all.
|
What's stranger is that you're not getting any error beeps or similar.
Complete silence is unusual.
| Quote: | Any help would be appreciated, i think its my motherboard though...
Any thoughts at all???
|
As things stand, your motherboard is by no means the likeliest culprit. If
it worked fine one day, it's unlikely to have spontaneously blown in an
irreparable manner.
If I had to guess I'd peg the likeliest culprit at this stage as the power
supply. The exact failure mode you describe (fans spin up, no POST, no error
beeps) can be explained by a low +12volt rail - albeit among other things.
As such, if you have access to another PSU, you should definitely try this
while you are at the "bare system" testing stage.
That should get you going, post further with your observations and we'll
hopefully be able to point you further in the right direction.
--
Richard Hopkins
Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
(replace nospam with pipex in reply address)
The UK's leading technology reseller www.dabs.com |
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