Hi, forum - Newbie here!
I wonder whether there's anyone out here in Internetland who can help me with this problem which is quite simply driving me crazy:
Up until a couple of months ago I was perfectly happily using this combo for running music apps in my studio under WinXP Professional, SP2:
Asus NF7-S Motherboard (not overclocked)
AMD Athlon XP2800 333hz fsb CPU
2 x 512mb PC3200 DDR SDRAM
GeForce MX440 64mb AGP 8X Video Card
2 x 200Gb SATR Seagate Hard discs
1 x CD-Writer
1 x DVD-writer
Emu 1820 digital audio system
300w power supply
One day I was working on e-mails on the Admin PC in the studio (they're not networked, and the Music PC is completely isolated from the Internet), and turned round about an hour later to see the monitor had gone black on the Music PC.
I'd been working on the Music PC earlier, and had just left it idling on the desktop, with no apps open. XP is stripped down to the max
on this PC to maximise resources for the Music apps, and has worked very, very well for ages.
I re-booted the PC, thinking it had just crashed, and was immediately concerned that suddenly there was no POST check.
A dozen off-ons later I realised something was up, so I disconnected all the hard- drives, the CD & DVD drives and the Emu Audio System, and still nothing. The power LED's on the NF7-S mobo still came on, and the CPU fan still worked, but there were no helpful beeps...
So... I reset the BIOS. Still nothing. I swapped over the monitor and graphics card from the Admin PC. Nothing. I took out the RAM and re-seated the two modules singly, swapped them over then put them both back in. Still no POST check.
Speaking to a friend in the building who knows plenty of stuff, he agreed with me that it seemed that the problem was probably
either the CPU or the MOBO going down (unless both sticks of RAM or the power-supply had gone, of course...), and the logical
likelihood was that it was the CPU, so I went out and bought a new AMD Athlon XP3000 Socket A 333hz fsb chip and put it on the NF7-S motherboard... and no POST!
What was up with this? Logically, the only other things it possibly could be would be either the Motherboard, the RAM or the Power
Supply. Being a bit impulsive to speed things up and get through this sudden pain-barrier faster, I bought a brand new Gigabyte 7N400 Pro 2 Dual Bios board, installed it all, put the new CPU in, the sticks of RAM and the graphics card, and guess what? NO POST CHECK.
Trying hard to ignore the sudden itching in my brain, I double- checked everything the micro-switch System Jumper settings on the Mobo, swapped over the graphics card and monitor again, and still no POST.
There are no beeps from the Gigabyte Mobo, except a single one when I power down by holding the power switch in for seven
seconds, but the RAM led lights up, and the CPU Fan sparks up, and switches on and off regularly like you'd expect from a CPU under no load.
Then I put the old CPU in to see what would happen. No POST.
By now I was starting to feel a little crazy. Was it the power supply all the time? I've had a couple of badly behaved supplies before, and I know they're pretty sophistimicated little pieces of engineering, so maybe, just maybe...
So I bought a spiffy new 450w dual fan ATX power supply, put it in. No POST.
I bought a new matching 512Mb stick of DDR Ram and installed it on its own. Nothing.
Finally I sent the new CPU away to be tested by the shop I bought it from, and after a pathetic four weeks (that's another story,
Maplin fans), they finally reported they'd found the CPU to be working.
So... I've actually replaced the entire computer with new components, and I've still got no POST check. Just what the hell is
happening here???
Can anyone understand what this is doing to my head?!? What am I doing wrong here? I'm sure I've done everything by the book in
isolating all the elements and replacing them. I've studied at depth all available literature on the new GA-7N4-- Pro 2 Mobo in case there's some little jumper I've missed, and am happy that setting the CLK_RATIO dip switches to OFF (Auto/Default), and the
CLK_SW to ON (Auto) is correct.
I hooked up the power cables to the SATR drives (but not the data cables), and they fire up fine.
If anyone can make any helpful suggestions, I'd be very grateful.
I've got to admit I'm completely beaten on this one, and don't know what to do next. I've built my last three computers, and this is the first problem I've ever had. Have I got two dead motherboards - one old and one brand new dead out of the box? Was I lied to by the Service Dept who claimed to have tested the CPU?
Help!
PETE
p.s. - No, I don't know anyone else with a working Socket-A setup I can try swapping components with to isolate the duds...
