New computer won't load bios.

Oskar_Hanberg · Post by **Oskar_Hanberg** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 9:35 pm

My dad just bought parts for a new PC, we assembled it and thought everything would run smoothly, wrong. the HDD and motherboard gets power, and the motherboard is able to power the mouse, and the motherboard led lights up., but thats about it, there is no signal to the monitor, and the pc speaker isn't making any beeps to inform of errors (I've tried turning the connector both ways, but no luck.), and the keuboard leds are not active.
I was thinking it would be something with the HDD jumpers (Its IDE) but it gives the same result with the HDD completely disconnected, and the same also happens with no RAM present. Any help greatly appreciated. Here's what he bought new, the rest is a WD-caviar 80Gb IDE and an old Hercules PCI graphics card (64MB.)

Asus M2N nForce 430 MCP 4DDR2-DIMM 3PCI 3PCIe SATA Raid Audio GB-LAN Socket AM2 ATX

AMD Sempron 3400+ 1.8GHz 256Kb Boxed (with cpu-cooler!) Socket AM2
SDA3400CNBOX

Corsair Value Select VS512MB667D2 512MB DDR2 PC2-5300 667MHz CL5
512DDR2CV667

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 9:41 pm

My guess is the PCI video card is not operational at all.

Oskar_Hanberg · Post by **Oskar_Hanberg** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 9:44 pm

Deathlike2 wrote:My guess is the PCI video card is not operational at all.

Thanks. So if we try and remove the Card, the pc should give signal to the keyboard and error beep about missing video card? (provided I put the connector the right way.)

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 9:48 pm

Assuming there are beeps for that very thing yes. I do suggest rtfm and make sure everything is put in correctly, including the extra power the processor is supposed to get from the PSU. Also, make sure your PSU uses a 24-pin connector... a 20-pin to 24-pin covertor is not guarenteed to be reliable (24-pin to 20-pin is much more reliable).

Joe Camacho · Post by **Joe Camacho** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 9:50 pm

Is it correctly seated in the case?

Oskar_Hanberg · Post by **Oskar_Hanberg** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 9:58 pm

Ok. He tried removing the Graphics card but there were no change what soever, and he assures the power-connectors are put in correctly, one strange thing I was wondering about, there were no screws delivered with the motherboard. We used old ones, but with my motherboard there were small "paper rings" that came with the screws, are those necessary for the mb to operate properly? Because now there are none on his motherboard.

Joe Camacho · Post by **Joe Camacho** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 10:01 pm

Oskar_Hanberg wrote:Ok. He tried removing the Graphics card but there were no change what soever, and he assures the power-connectors are put in correctly, one strange thing I was wondering about, there were no screws delivered with the motherboard. We used old ones, but with my motherboard there were small "paper rings" that came with the screws, are those necessary for the mb to operate properly? Because now there are none on his motherboard.

Might be, remember you can't just use screws, you also need to ground the motherboard with plastic screw-things or the like.

At least that was what I was told when I was into the build-pc thing.

Oskar_Hanberg · Post by **Oskar_Hanberg** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 10:05 pm

Joe Camacho wrote:
Oskar_Hanberg wrote:Ok. He tried removing the Graphics card but there were no change what soever, and he assures the power-connectors are put in correctly, one strange thing I was wondering about, there were no screws delivered with the motherboard. We used old ones, but with my motherboard there were small "paper rings" that came with the screws, are those necessary for the mb to operate properly? Because now there are none on his motherboard.
Might be, remember you can't just use screws, you also need to ground the motherboard with plastic screw-things or the like.

At least that was what I was told when I was into the build-pc thing.

You mean the "distances" (Don't know the word in english) that are screwed onto the case, that the motherboard "rests" on?

Joe Camacho · Post by **Joe Camacho** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 10:09 pm

Oskar_Hanberg wrote:
Joe Camacho wrote:
Oskar_Hanberg wrote:Ok. He tried removing the Graphics card but there were no change what soever, and he assures the power-connectors are put in correctly, one strange thing I was wondering about, there were no screws delivered with the motherboard. We used old ones, but with my motherboard there were small "paper rings" that came with the screws, are those necessary for the mb to operate properly? Because now there are none on his motherboard.
Might be, remember you can't just use screws, you also need to ground the motherboard with plastic screw-things or the like.

At least that was what I was told when I was into the build-pc thing.
You mean the "distances" (Don't know the word in english) that are screwed onto the case, that the motherboard "rests" on?

Might be, I remember computers wouldn't boot if they were just screwed into the case, in the worst cases they would crap on us. Try using a couple of those instead of the screws.

Oskar_Hanberg · Post by **Oskar_Hanberg** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 10:12 pm

Ok. Will continiue investigating this tomorrow, thanks for now

kevman · Post by **kevman** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 10:59 pm

The mainboard is probably grounding out against the case somewhere. And that somewhere is probably near where it screws in. Be careful that nothing but the ground points are touching it.

Remove the board from the case and try to boot it sitting on the table.

AntoineWG · Post by **AntoineWG** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 1:50 am

Try different memory. If it boots, set the timings in the BIOS manually for the memory you want to use, save the changes and swap the memory back.

Also, make sure the fan is plugged into the motherboard, not into a power supply adaptor. Most of the time, computers will shut down to protect themselves if the processor fan isn't running fast enough.

It is also probably that the BIOS is set to not recognize PCI video cards by default. Throw a PCI Express card in there and see if it POSTs. Usually there is an option in the BIOS to allow a PCI card to be the default video card.

And like somebody said, make sure the motherboard is screwed in correctly. Most of the time, there are little metal standoffs (usually hexagonal with a screw hole on one end and a screw on the other) that screw into the back plate of the case. You usually need one everywhere there is a screw hole in the motherboard and nowhere else. Don't worry about the paper rings. The holes in the motherboard usually have an exposed metallic ring around them are made to be grounded to the case. Always use the screws with the teeth on the bottom of the head so they lock into place and don't loosen from the vibration of the fans. The same goes for hard drives and cards with active cooling fans.

franpa · Post by **franpa** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 3:44 am

AntoineWG wrote:It is also probably that the BIOS is set to not recognize PCI video cards by default. Throw a PCI Express card in there and see if it POSTs. Usually there is an option in the BIOS to allow a PCI card to be the default video card.

imho, most motherboard BIOS's don't have an option to enforce one or the other... they normally have an option for preference, so if you have a pcie and a pci card in then one will be the primary and the other is secondary... but if only one video card and its pci and the BIOS is set to pcie then it should still bootup fine and dandy.

kevman · Post by **kevman** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 6:09 am

I agree. And without RAM, or even a CPU, the computer should still beep (You DID hook up the speaker correctly, RIGHT?).

Oskar_Hanberg · Post by **Oskar_Hanberg** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 8:26 am

kevman wrote:I agree. And without RAM, or even a CPU, the computer should still beep (You DID hook up the speaker correctly, RIGHT?).

I tried putting the connector both ways, no beeps what so ever.

Nightcrawler · Post by **Nightcrawler** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 1:54 pm

I'm also leaning toward the motherboard is probably grounded/shorted to case somewhere.

Here is the failsafe way. Remove your board from the case and hook it up outside and see if you have the same problem. In the past, I've set it on top of the bubble wrap it's packaged in. This way, you're guaranteed you're not shorting or grounding anything.

If your speaker is hooked up correctly, there are FEW problems that can occur that the computer wouldn't have a beep code for. They beep for no video, they beep for no RAM, they probably beep for failure of CPU fan sensor. Beyond that, if you've got a working power supply, the board is probably shorted.

And of course check and double check you stuck the speaker on the right pins. Sometimes, they are poorly labeled on the board. For future reference, most Abit boards today have a little 7 segment display right on the board to do away with all this crap. If it won't boot, it displays a number. Works well. Easy to solve problems like this. Keep them in mind in the future.

Oskar_Hanberg · Post by **Oskar_Hanberg** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 2:06 pm

the graphics card is pretty big.. is it safe to put it in the slot when the board is positioned on the table, also, it wasn't delivered in bubble wrap, but putting it on top of the anti-static bag should be enough, right?

whicker · Post by **whicker** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 1:19 am

If there are no beeps and the speaker is connected properly, it might be a good idea to see if your board actually supports that particular CPU.

Without RAM or a video card, it should at least still beep.

casualsax3 · Post by **casualsax3** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 2:21 am

I suspect you mounted the board wrong and it's shorting somewhere.

Nightcrawler · Post by **Nightcrawler** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 1:16 pm

Oskar_Hanberg wrote:the graphics card is pretty big.. is it safe to put it in the slot when the board is positioned on the table, also, it wasn't delivered in bubble wrap, but putting it on top of the anti-static bag should be enough, right?

Yes. Just be gentle with it. It'll be fine. The anti-static bag should work fine as well. Anything that will insulate the bottom.

bobthebuilder · Post by **bobthebuilder** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 6:44 pm

I the same problem, but it was resolved with a new power supply.

Oskar_Hanberg · Post by **Oskar_Hanberg** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 7:29 pm

bobthebuilder wrote:I the same problem, but it was resolved with a new power supply.

Thats the crap with buying many new parts at once.. its close to impossible to isolate the part that is actually causing the problem.. + He bought it from an online store, so its going to take ages to send back anything.. haven't heard anything new from him yet, but I'll report back as soon as he tells me what's new.

Firon · Post by **Firon** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 6:04 am

When something fucks up, I just buy parts locally and test them until I find which one is fucked. Then I return the shit I bought and buy what I really want online for a lot less.

Oskar_Hanberg · Post by **Oskar_Hanberg** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 12:59 am

The problem was quite simple.. I forgot about the 4 pin extra power plug to the cpu,

Thanks for all your help though

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 1:11 am

Deathlike2 wrote:Assuming there are beeps for that very thing yes. I do suggest rtfm and make sure everything is put in correctly, including the extra power the processor is supposed to get from the PSU. Also, make sure your PSU uses a 24-pin connector... a 20-pin to 24-pin covertor is not guarenteed to be reliable (24-pin to 20-pin is much more reliable).

Yes, I said this a week ago.