New System will not post 4

[treywalker]

I am having severe trouble with my new system. When I start it up it will go for 3-4 seconds (fan, hard drive, etc. all running) and then it shuts itself down. No beeps, no bios, no monitor output, no nothing.

I have searched everywhere and tried everything suggested, but to no avail. I have to assume that something is not working and that I need to replace it, but I don't know what. Any help is appreciated.

Here's what I've tried so far...
I went jumperless - no change
I took everything out except for the CPU, speaker (to hear beeps) and power supply. - no change
I took the MB off of the chasis (in case of a short) - no change
I plugged a fan into the the CPU fan slot (seems some mb's need to think there is a CPU fan) - no change
I've tried every combination of having things plugged in or not plugged in - no change except for what is mentioned below

One thing I can do to make it work differently is to take out the CPU. No matter what I have plugged in, if I take out the CPU it will start up as mentioned, but it will not shut itself off. Still no beeps, no bios, no monitor output, no nothing. But at least it doesn't shut itself off.

System Hardware:

Asus A7N8X MB
Corsair 512MB PC3200DDR
Athlon XP 2400+
Albatron geforce4 Ti4200 Video Card
Western Digital Harddrive
Samsung DVD/CD-RW
Swiftech Heatsink & fan

Please, somebody help me!!!!

 

[treywalker]

FYI to anyone that reads this post. Its not the same for everyone, but my problem has been solved. Turns out that the newer motherboards (our friend drusky had a problem with a gigabyte board and mine is an asus) are particular about their CPU fans.

My heatsink had a 4 pin connector, so I couldn't connect it to the mb. When I started having this problem I read that the fan needs to be plugged into the mb. So, the moron that I am, I just plugged in an 80mm case fan thinking that it would pick that up and solve everything. Wrong!

After hours upon hours I finally gave up and decided to ship the mb and CPU back to be replaced. Luckily I just happened to drive by a computer store on the way home and thought I'd try one last thing. I bought a coolermaster heatsink and fan with a 3 pin connector. BINGO! Everything worked great after that...well, it still took some tweaking to get things working properly, but that story is for another day.

Good luck to all of you!

 

[Grenage]

Good to hear you got it sorted mate

 

[ANFPS26]

Thanks, treywalker, for letting us know that your problem is solved! Please come back and let us know if your
problem is fixed and what fixed it!!

 

[ceh4702]

It seems like someone should make an adapter to go from the molex 4 pin ATX plug to a 3 pin header plug for like $1.95 or some similar price. I wonder if Radio shack sells plugs like that? Just a few wires and a plug that need to be wired together. Seems a waste to have to purchase a new cooler. I bought a case fan from

http://www.newegg.com

a while back and it came with both types of plugs. I think that it came with the standard 3 pin plug and adapter to go from the 3 pin header plug to the 4 pin molex plug. You would probably need the opposite. If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[Cindy1]

I do have some if it's what your thinking about. On one end is a molex 4 prong adapter and on the other is an adapter to a 3 prong cpu fan. I don't know where I got them though.
Cindy

 

[treywalker]

OK, this is hard to explain, but I'll do my best. The 4 pin connector on the fan actually only has 2 pins. The other two are missing. Correct me if I'm wrong on this, but isn't the 3rd pin on a 3 pin connector used for the speed of the fan?

Anyway, if the adaptor goes from 4 to 3, but there are only 2 then it would leave the third pin open. I would guess, and that's all it is is a guess, that the motherboard wouldn't like this because one of the connections is open.

If anyone tries this please let me know the results. I'd love to use my swifttech heatsink and fan!

BTW...thank you to all of you for helping me work through my problems!!!

 

[spamiam]

Ok..eh..similar problem but its definately not a fan that's the culprit. Here's the situation: The computer has run before and for a good 2 hours or so with no problems (Asus A7N8X VERY FAST ) suddenly a reset occurs and a restart is not following. I take a look for a possible overheat and wait a good hour just in case. I try to start it back up and all I get is the green light and nothing else. The green light just stays on and that is all. What could my problem be? I've tried everything. One trick I heard was to use a jumper instead of the power switch (tried it to no avail). Another was to reset the cmos (same result). I've used over 4 psu just for good measure (no results). I've unplugged everything but the fan, cpu, ram, and video card (no result). I know a lot of people have had the same problem and if you think different than just check out Asus's forum which is very crowded with complaint posts. I'm planning on sending this board back for replacement if I can't get it to work like any of these other lucky people that have meraculously gotten theirs to work. I'm very dissapointed with Asus for not giving more information on this problem. Thanks in advance.

System:
Asus A7N8X-DX
Athlon XP 2100+
512 Kingston PC2100
ATI Radeon 9000 (NVidia Vanta and NVidia Geforce4 MX420 also)

 

[gargouille]

Hi grenage,
Following your posts I think you and I are on parallel paths (translate=we're both builders).
R.e. your comment about replacing PSU's: the best investment I've made in testing equipment has been a $15 Antec (not shilling here) power supply tester that also has leads to test with a meter and an onboard LED that establishes the fitness (MOL) of a power supply. Sure, I know most good techs can do the same thing with just a meter, but this thing goof-proofs it so much I really appreciate it.
For spamiam, think you're right on target to suspect the mobo, and I likewise feel you have a bad one...just a kick in the behind to wait on the RMA to process.

 

[spamiam]

I have faith in this board and I'm just having it replaced. I really hope that I don't get the same problem again but it's worth the risk for the A7N8X which is and will be the best amd board on the market for a while. Good luck to those who attempt to get their boards working and from what i've seen, the biggest problems are as follows:

1) shorts of some kind on the board (shim inproperly placed or board and case connection)
2) overheat caused by lack of fan or poor placement.
3) memory not supported.
4) video card not supported or improperly placed.

Good luck.

 

[jamielaxsw]

I have the same problem. My a7n8x was working fine. I decided to reinstall my volcano 9 heat sink and fan because temp was running a little high. Not a bad temp but I wanted just to make sure sink was right. Well after I reinstall everything I got no boot nothing but fans working. Stand-by light on motherboard lights up but no boot. I have tryed everything, reset cmos w/jumpers and battery, tryed another cpu, another power source, moved memory around, made sure everything is set correctly but no luck.
I called Asus Tec support this morning and was told that they would call me back but as of tonight no call. I will try again tomarrow and then return the board. If I do get threw I will post what my problem is..

 

[Grenage]

Thanks for the heads up Gargouille, I'll have a look around for one of those

 

[paparazi]

Just had a two day nightmare with this board the
Asus A7N-8X Deluxe.
I am in the enviable position of working in a PC custom build shop so swopping out components is a breeze.
Basically my board wouldn't boot set at anything higher than 100fsb (underclocked)
Everything was changed and I mean everything including 3 lots of memory (all differant brands and speeds) 3 CPU's etc etc Flashed the bios. No joy!
I wanted to use this motherboard because it is supposed to be the BEST socket "A" motherboard available at the moment??
Anyway I swopped it for a Leadtek Nforce2 and all has gone without a hitch, it runs like a dream and I have saved myself £40 in the bargain, the leadtek hasn't got dual lan (just 1 lan) and hasn't got serial ATA, but then I am running an IDE 120gig Diamond max plus 9.
It would appear that this board isn't as good as some make it out to be, and from the numerous problems I have seen posted it would seem to have been rushed into production too quickly.
Martin Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[jamielaxsw]

Its 6pm and Asus Tec Support has not returned my call since I called them yesterday morning. This afternoon I called and got a RMA # and sent the motherboard back. They say they will let me know in 5 to 10 days whats up with board. I'll let all know what they say..

 

[b4mule]

OK have had this problem for a few weeks, spend the last few days web tralling for an answer, looks like its the battery. The MoBo batterys shipped are pretty weak, only put out about 3v (the speced value) but most batteries of this type put out about 3.3v. If you have a multi meter check your battery, get another one and test it.

Cant remember off hand where I found this answer so I'll get back to you on that, but in the listings I found at least 6 people with the same problem and the same solution. Worked for me to

I think maybe flashing the bios drains the battery..... So I will be interested to see how long this new battery lasts before it needs to be replaced

cubye

Nick

 

[AmbitiousFish]

hey, well im getting somewhat the same problem...hers my specs

AMD XP 2000+
ECS K7S5A pro mobo (fairly happy wiht it too)
512 DDR at CAS2
CoolerMaster CPU Fan at 5200RPMs and copper heatsink
60gb Maxtor hd (slave)
3gb Samsung (primary)
52X CDrom
350watt PSU
GF4 MX440-SE

I recently completed building this machine and it was running fine for about 2 weeks. everything was smooth and stuff. and recently my friends comp crashed and we tred formating in MSDOS and it had and error so we did in it in windows on my machine. while bootup i reached my hand inside and slightly touched the area near the Mobo PSU connector and heatsink (they are very close friends) and it just shut off on me. i was like whatever and tried booting up again and....NOTHING HAPPEND!!! no post, no beeps(no speaker)my harddrive starts up, my samsung has a built on led and it is blinking, my fan spins, and CDrom drive starts reading, but my indicator light on my monitor stays orange. Im sure its no my Vidcard, im suspecting my CPU becuase i borrowed my friends AMD 1800+ and had no problems booting.

and also the little center part on my CPU is chipped on one corner (it was liek that when i got it) but it werked for 2 weeks. my friend recently chipped mor off than i have on his and it workign still. (im using it right now!!) can anyone give me any help in here? im saving to replace my CPU and i rather start modding my case with that cash. thanks.

 

[Cindy1]

Fish,
Strip the system down to just the cpu, power supply, motherboard and video. Don't hook up the drives and don't install the memory. Try and have memory with you that you know is good, it doesn't have to be alot. Now turn it on, and listen for the continual memory beep. That will tell you if your memory is good. Then attach the keyboard and mouse and you should at least get video.

I Just looked a little closer to your specs and noticed you have a 3gig primary?
60 slave?
Either that is a typo or that is the reason why the computer died after 2 weeks. A 3gig hard drive is very small and after 2 weeks it probably maxed out.

TRY THIS FIRST!!!!!!!

1.Take your 60 gig hard drive and make it your primary master and the only drive on that cable.

2.Make your cdrom secondary master and the 3 gig hard drive secondary slave. The smaller hard drive will slow down the faster drive. If you look at the cables the new hard drives are thinner and have more ribbon to them then the old ones or the cdrom cables.

P.S. Don't be nervous that chip on the cpu is pin 1. Did you ever turn on the computer without the heatsink?
What was that error message you mentioned in the beginning?

Good Luck,
Keep me posted
Cindy

 

[AmbitiousFish]

actually ive been runing that 3 gig with just windows 98 on it...nothing else. so in case of a crash and reformat is needed i wont lose my data. it works fine on it. and my memory is good...i tested it on a friends with just about the same specs and it worked, i have a good 5200rpm fan on my copper base heatsink, when it did work it never went above 98 degrees F. adn it used to boot, but recently it just didnt post anything, it jsut stayed blank. i 98% sure its my cpu, im getting a new one this saturday...i just want to know what would have caused it so i wont make the same mistake again. ( i dont have a speaker on my mobo..no beeps) thanks anyways..

 

[AmbitiousFish]

well anyone who tried to help..thannks alot, i just got home and bought a new amd xp 2000+ and its up and running agian....anytips on not screwing it up again? please post

 

[Tatted]

using DDR3200 ram in the system ?...if so the clock on the processor needs to be slowed down the system is trying to push the processor to the ram speed.

yeah I have my A+, Network +, SAIR, MCP and MCSE, but the real question is, buddy can you spare a dime?

 

[spamiam]

No offense, but Certifications mean nothing. His processor front side bus isn't just going to magically jump up to catch his ram's maximum clock. He has nothing to worry about if he hasn't raised the fsb or multiplier. One has to raise their fsb to utilize the 400mhz clock of pc3200 or (DDR400) *cough*idiot..ram. So if you do raise your fsb to 200x2 (400) then it only makes sense to lower your multiplier (which i think the idiot Tatted was trying to say) so that it doesn't overheat unless you have an excellent cooling system. Good luck and remember.. Certifications are way over rated.