When I power on the system, I get one short beep and 2 long beeps...none of the front lights work (hdd activity or power led...the power led is the one that I don't have a line for). The case has a power switch on the back also, however, I do have the power switch on the front working too. I might have to install a known working hdd in the system, as the guy who owns the system wasn't sure if it was a good drive or not. When I power it on, the monitor stays blank and the power light on the monitor blinks as if it's in stand-by Sorry if I sound like an idiot, this is the first time I have really gotten into working with a motherboard and don't know too much about them. The original goal was to take the "guts" from a working system and put them into this other case (I believe it's an alienware, but I am not 100% sure.) But the other motherboard won't fit in it, or else I don;t know how...it's a Dell that is set up in a horizontal case, not a tower.

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the case also has the front USB, sound, and another connector. Is there a way to use these with this mother board? I have found SOOOO many different links to pictures and to diagrams and such, but none of them work :( This really is mind boggling sometimes, huh?

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"Bios update date is 13 April 2000. It probably does NOT SUPPORT hard drives larger than 32 gig, or possibly larger than 64 gig" I have learned since compliling the info above that the bios update should support the recognition of hard drives up to 64gb for sure. Whether it can recognize them up to 128gb in Windows/137gb manufacturer's size is uncertain. These mboards use Award bios versions that had bugs in them - if the date of the update is newer than certain dates it can be loosely assumed the bugs were removed, but a date in 2000 may or may not have the > 64gb bug removed. It is impossible (because of the Award bios version and the chipset used on the mboard) for these mboards to support the recognition of hard drives larger than 128 gig (in Windows; 137 gig manufacturer's size) on their own. Your operating system must also support recognition of hard drives larger than 128 gig (in Windows; 137 gig manufacturer's size). For Windows, this is possible only with Win XP SP1 or later (you may have to change a setting to activate the support), or it is built into Win XP SP2, or other Windows operating systems about the same version age or newer than XP SP1. If you want to use a hard drive larger than that, you must use other means to support the recognition of the hard drive size. The best way to do that - use a recent hard drive controller card, and connect at least that hard drive to the card. Or you can use what is generically called "dynamic overlay" software available at the manufacturer of the hard drive's web site.

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how can I check the BIOS dates, if I can't get anything to come up on the monitor? It is an 80 gb drive that is to be installed...I guess I would have to use a smaller hdd?

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is there possibly something wrong with the video on the mobo? I have tried a working 16gb drive and also a 10 gb drive...

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k update: When I power on the system and let it sit for a few minutes, the hdd activity lights begin to blink...this with a known working hdd

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Read response 1 thoroughly! - You don't connect a case speaker to this mboard! - the 6513wu manual at the motherboards.org site is the best source of info (the link works). - if the links to the HP site don't work, - you may be able to find ones that do, using the HP info I dig up. If the 6513wu manual doesn't have the USB header info, Mitac mboards made at that time had an oddball USB header. If you want to connect to the case USB ports, or to ports on an adapter plate in a slot, the header can only be connected to if each wire has it's own individual connector - it won't work with most one piece double row 10 position connectors (unless it came with the computer or from Mitac or Compaq originally), or with ANY 4 or 5 in a row female connectors, that I've come across. The header is 10 positions, two rows, a pin in one corner is missing. One row is 1,2,3,4,5 - all for one USB port the other row is 6,7,8,9, no pin, all for the other USB port; 6 is beside 1. 1 - Ground (1st USB port - the other side of the +5v connection) 2 - Dat1 + (USB data) 3 - +5v 4 - Dat1 - 5 - Ground - (1st usb, for the outside metal shell, DOES NOT need to be connected. 6 - Ground (2nd USB port) 7 - Dat2 + 8 - +5v 9 - Dat2 -

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ok, I will mess around a little more. I cannot open pfd files on this computer, an issue that I haven't even begun to mess with. I will just make sure the other system he gave me is working ok and mess with the other for a while.

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"....I can't get anything to come up on the monitor..." "It is an 80 gb drive that is to be installed...I guess I would have to use a smaller hdd?" "is there possibly something wrong with the video on the mobo? I have tried a working 16gb drive and also a 10 gb drive..." No video is almost always merely a symptom, and there's usually nothing wrong with the video hardware, or your mboard. Are you using the onboard video port? If it has a video card in a slot as well, connect the monitor to that - the onboard video is autodisabled if there is a card in a slot. If you have a video card, you could try removing the AC power to your case, removing the card from the slot, installing it again, but that's seldom the problem - you normally get beeps if the ideo card isn't getting a good connection if nothing else is wrong. You MUST remove the AC power to the power supply, either by unplugging it's cord or by turning off a power bar it is connected to, etc., whenever you are messing with any connection or component on the mboard. This is especially important for ram and AGP video cards. ATX mboards are always powered in some places otherwise. Using a hard drive of a size the bios can't recognize won't result in no video - at worst it boots and displays but the boot stalls forever, or it would boot normally but e.g. an 80 gb drive would be recognized as 64gb. The same stall can happen if you don't have the master/slave jumper set correctly on all the hard and CD drives. The most likely things are: 1. Incompatible ram. Trying ram in this mboard that works in another mboard , or trying any ram you buy or have lying around, may not work - it has to be compatible with the mboard and it's chipset. In the worst cases the mboard won't boot and often does not beep. See response 5 in this for some info about ram compatibilty, and some places where you can find out what will work in your mboard for sure: http://www.computing.net/hardware/w... Correction to that: Mushkin www.mushkin.com 2. A common thing that can happen with ram that worked fine previously is the ram has developed a poor connection in it's slot(s). This usually happens a long time after the ram was installed, but it can happen after moving the computer case from one place to another, and I've had even new modules that needed to have their contacts cleaned. See response 2 in this - try cleaning the contacts on the ram modules, and making sure the modules are properly seated: http://www.computing.net/hardware/w... 3. Failing power supplies are common and can cause your symptoms. Check your PS. See response 4 in this: http://www.computing.net/hardware/w... ..... Double check your connections to the mboard.

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"I cannot open pfd files on this computer, an issue that I haven't even begun to mess with." That's PDF. You need to install a version of the Adobe Acrobat Reader in Windows to read them - Windows never comes with that. Lots of mboards and programs have a *.pdf manual. There is often a version of Adobe Acrobat Reader on mboard CDs or program CDs you can install, or you can go to the http://www.adobe.com site and get it, but be aware the latest version is huge and un-necessary for most people - version 6.x is much smaller but still large, and almost all *.pdf's can be read with Reader 5 or higher, and 5.x is much smaller yet.

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If the hard drive you boot with already has 2000 or XP on it that was installed when the drive was on another computer, if the mboard chipset is more than a little different, Windows won't load - typically you see the first bit of Windows graphics then a black screen with a blinking cursor top left and nothing further happens. If you don't want to lose the data on the drive you can run a Repair Setup rather than running Setup the regular way.

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"That's PDF. You need to install a version of the Adobe Acrobat Reader in Windows to read them - Windows never comes with that." Acrobat Reader has turned into quite a hog these days. I suggest you try FoxIt Reader instead: http://www.filehippo.com/download_f...

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"That's PDF. You need to install a version of the Adobe Acrobat Reader in Windows to read them - Windows never comes with that. " I am working from another system, my own computer, which has reader 6.06 installed and updated. I just haven't messed around with anything to see why PDF's aren't opening. Sorry about the TYPO "If the hard drive you boot with already has 2000 or XP on it that was installed when the drive was on another computer, if the mboard chipset is more than a little different, Windows won't load" I have no idea what is on the hard drive. The ones that I was trying have Me and XP Pro on them. I put the HDD in the ME machine as a slave but it was not even recognized in My Computer, so I am beginning to believe that the drive is fried. He just got a box of odds and ends computer parts and it was in there. The parts were "supposed" to work, but everyone knows how that goes. As for what is showing up on the monitor...NOTHING. Nothing at all. No logos, no cursors, nothing. The monitor power light just blinks as if the computer was off and the monitor was left on.

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Yeah!! I got something on my monitor. I cleaned the RAM and reseated it and finally, something. I am getting a keyboard error, (the keyboard might have problems, it had stopped working before and I had replaced it with a new one, but I pulled it out to work on the other computer and it worked on it....) Its also throwing a time & date error, which is really no big deal, just gotta set it and see what happens, it may just need a battery. I choose f10 to go to setup and it asks me for language, then the black screen comes up and at the top it says parity check 2_ and that's all it does. I hit f1 to boot and it does the same thing. What does that mean?

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"it may just need a battery." If you're not getting a "cmos checksum error" or similar every time you cold boot, your battery's ok, assuming the clear cmos jumper on the mboard is in the "normal" position. If the battery is dead or too weak, or connected backwards or isn't touching it's contacts properly, you will get a "cmos checksum error" or similar every time you cold boot or after the power to the computer has been turned off and then turned back on, and the time and date and any other custom setting in the bios Setup will be set to defaults. Coin shaped batteries usually last 5 years are more. The + side on a coin shaped battery is usually on the top side where it is obviously visible. "it says parity check 2_ and that's all it does. I hit f1 to boot and it does the same thing." That sounds like a ram error. Try re-seating the ram again. Make sure the latches at the ends of the slots modules are in are against the ends of the modules. If the slot the ram is in looks dirty, use something such as an artist's paint brush to clean it, and/or you could use a piece of thin cardboard with cloth or paper towel wrapped around it and a little alcohol to clean the contacts of the whole slot, but usually that's not necessary. If that doesn't help: 1. Most likely a ram compatibilty problem. If you have more than one module, try one at a time - remove the AC power to the power supply when you remove or install it/them. 2. A lot less likely - at least one module is ECC ram. Some mboards can use either ECC ram or plain unbuffered ram. Some mboards can't use ECC ram. ECC ram is error checking a.k.a. "parity" ram that has an extra chip that does extra checking for data errors, so the ram module usually has an odd number of chips rather than the usual even number. For any given module size or PCxxx rating it's more expensive, so most people don't buy it. 3. In any case. If a mboard can use ECC ram there is often a setting in the bios Setup for that but it is off by default. If that is on and if ANY of the ram is not ECC, you will probably get an error message. If you don't have any ECC ram, or if not ALL the ram is ECC, turn that setting OFF if it is on. See the 6513wu manual's ram information, clear cmos jumper info, and bios Setup settings information if it's in there. Or See response 5 in this for some info about ram compatibilty, and some places where you can find out what will work in your mboard for sure: http://www.computing.net/hardware/w... They will tell you where the lists of compatible ram are whether you can use ECC ram or not, or ECC modules will not be listed if the mboard can't use it. If there is no listing for Mitac 6513wu, use one of the Compaq model numbers I mentioned in response 1 to find the list of modules.

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There is a button for the clear cmos, no jumper... I have tried the RAM one stick at a time, I have tried cleaning it and the connector on the board too.

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Removing the mboard battery serves the same purpose as clear cmos. It is easy to test for incompatible ram. Make sure you have speakers connected to the line out port on the mboard so you can hear mboard beeps. If they're amplified, turn them on (you don't need amplified speakers for this mboard). Remove the AC power to the case/powersupply. Remove all the ram. Restore AC power. Try to boot. If nothing else is wrong, you will hear a pattern of beeps that indicate no ram is installed, or a ram problem. E.g. for an Award bios or a bios based on one, that's often a beep of about a halfsecons, silence for a half second, a beep of about a half second, silence for a half second, continuously.

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