Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!

Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!

  • Congratulations strongm on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

Athelon Thunderbird CPU on ASROCK K7VM4 No Screen 2

Status
Not open for further replies.

1quickdraw

Technical User
Jan 15, 2003
111
Last year I had a Matsonic M/B w/ 900MHZ Athelon thunderbird CPU and the M/B finally died (it was about 2 1/2 years old. I recently bought an ASROCK K7VM4 M/B with onboard audio and video. I attached the Athelon Thunderbird CPU. I get nothing on the monitor nor do I get any beep codes. The fans come on and everything seems to function except I get nothing but a blank screen (not even a raster). I am puzzled. No beep codes or anything. Any ideas? Or is my CPU toast? I do not know how to test the CPU. I did test the power supply and it seems o.k. Any thought are appreciated.
 
MMA1123:

Thanks for the advise. The book does show setting for the multiplier, however, it also says the system will work well without the multipliers. I did try jumpering it per the manuel and there was no change. I can find no other jumpers for the CPU speed.
Thanks again for the response.

 
Anyone else with any thoughts? I have double checked the jumpers and still get no post. Not even a raster. Please advise. I'm hoping I don't have to buy another CPU.
 
Try the jumper for the ram,that will lower the fsb frequency.900 mhz don't have a high fsb frequency. I have 3 asrocks MB and they are very picky about the fsb.
 
Page 7 on your manual , look on the jumper that corresponds to the fsb(#11) thats if I have the same manual.
 
mma1123
You do apparently have the same manual and I have tried each setting. There is no setting for 133MHZ. The lowest setting is 200MHZ. I have tried all three settings and it makes no difference. As I said I have double checked all the jumpers and even tried different settings to no avail. I'm not use to this, usually when I put the hardware together everything works and I get a post and can then format H/D and it's the software I have trouble with or the hard drive. I am totally stumped. I do appreciate you taking the time to check your manuals and the research you put into this.
I am back to square one wondering if CPU is gone! I don't even get beeps. Thanks again mma1123. If you come up with anything else, please advise.
 
On the lighter side mma1123, how do you like ASROCK mobo's? So far I have used two and have had very good luck with them (up till now, but I don't think the problem is with MOBO in this case) but I could be wrong. Anyway, thanks again for your responses.
 
1quickdraw
Did this motherboard ever post? did you have the Duron 900 running on it OK?
Take back to bare minimum state: Pull off all front panel and USB header wires.
Pull out IDE cables incl floppy
Pull out extra cards ie: modem etc
Just leave: CPU with cooler, 1 stick of good memory and PSU connected.
Clear the cmos, set the CPU FSB jumper to 100 (your Thunderbird could be either 200 or 266 front side bus) thats either 100 or 133 jumper setting on the motherboard.
reseat the main power plug to motherboard.
Momentarily touch pwr (power header pins) together with a small flat blade screwdriver.
If you have no joy in this bare state you have fewer components to isolate the problem to, the first would be the power supply (I know, the fans spin) but it is not unusual to have a bad PSU still kicking out power on one or more of it's rails.
Next unfortunately would be the CPU itself.
Then lastly the motherboard
Doesn't sound like ram to me but ram is usually one of the most unreliable of all PC components.
Martin


Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.
 
paparazi
Thank you for responding. I have tried everything you asked except clr cmos. I just did that as well and still have no post. Unfortunately I can not set the FSB to 100MHZ as there is no setting for it on the jumpers. 200 MHZ is the lowest it will go. I have tried every setting. I tested the power supply and, according to the tester, it is good. I know it is possible the power supply could still be bad and I will replace it first before buying another CPU. I wsa hoping the CPU was good. It did come off a matsonic mobo that went south. Nothing burned on the mobo at least not that could be seen. This MOBO is self contained excpt for the modem, which I did remove when I disconnected the drives. It is a brand new MOBO and therefore I have not been able to post with it yet as this is the first attempt at getting it going. The MOBO is not complicated with only a few jumpers so unless the mobo came from the store bad, and I can only find that out with another known good CPU, I am fearing, as you speculated, the CPU is gone. The CPU is a AMD Athelon Thunderbird about 3 1/2 - 4 years old. I guess it's time to start shopping for another Athelon.
Thanks for all your suggestions. I do appreciate you taking time to try and help.
Thanks again.
Steve
 
Still, anyone with any other thoughts, please feel free to let me know.
 
1quickdraw
200 is the correct setting for Duron/Athlon's with 200front side bus so thats OK.
That leaves the one concern over the Power supply? and unfortunately the other which is the CPU.
We use this motherboard and as you say it is simple, there isn't a lot to go wrong.
One last thought and just in case the board is not mounted properly in some way, remove the motherboard from the case and test whilst out of the case.
Attatch PSU, remove and refit CPU heatsink and fan (just in case) note recess in the base of the heatsink needs to be mounted over the raised part of the CPU socket (use a small amount of paste on the raised core only)
remove and refit the ram (again just in case)
reset the cmos clear (again just in case)
NOW! momentariy touch the power pins.
Fingers crossed XXXXXXXXX
This is the last ditch effort
Martin

Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.
 
You do have DDR memory installed on this motherboard, correct? What speed is it as a caution from the manual states "PC1600 (DDR200) is supported ONLY when using FSB200 (Duron) processor."
 
I'm afraid it is the CPU. freestone: As I said I have tried each setting on the memory jumper and none of them worked. DDR is the only memory that this board accepts. Except for the fans turning and the lights on the fron panel coming on it is dead in the water. Well thank you all for your time and input.

I'll be upgrading to the better AMD 1800+ for this baby.
eWiz here I come.

Thanks again.

Steve
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor

Back
Top