Need some motherboard help!!!

[Jeepsta]

I decided that modding my case was going to be my adventure this week and it sure as hell turned into one. I successfully got both fans added to the case without too much of a hassle. In order to add the fans, without risking component failure, I made sure to remove all components so I just had the bare case.

Today I proceeded to rebuild the system. I made sure I put everything back just as it was before (I built this computer so I know what I am doing :D). As it turns out, on a test boot the system just hangs. I dont get anything...no beeps...nothing. :mad:

I proceeded to disassemble once again and removed everything but the essentials (motherboard, CPU, and RAM). With nothing else plugged into the motherboard I powered the system only to hear some beeps. I am still not sure what they meant. So I then add the video card and power it on again. Nothing but silence :confused:

I am at a loss right now as I havent a clue what to do. It doesnt seem to like the video card. I have checked that manufacture's website and cant seem to find any info on system beeps.

Anyone got any ideas on what I can try next to diagnose this?

Specs:
ASUS K7M Motherboard
AMD Athlon 500Mhz CPU
2x 128MB chips of RAM
Voodoo 3500 TV/AGP Video Card

Note: I tried an old ISA video card that I had lying around and it just did the same as the other card.....nothing. :confused:

Anyone??

Zach

[Daedra]

heres what my motherboard book says on beeps, of course it could be diffrent for each motherboard though...

one short beep - No Error During Post

Long Beeps in endless loop - No Ram installed or detected

One long beep followed by threes short beeps - Video not found or video card memory bad

[Jeepsta]

Well thats a start since I dont have my manual handy and ASUS website doesnt seem to have any info on it. Thanks for the info.

/me goes back to tinkering with his now dead computer

[kettch]

bummer. Is it atx or at style?
i had a problem with my brand new $2500 system i built from scratch. I could get it to boot the first time, but i shut it down after i knew it worked, and installed thermal paste under the heatsinks. WHen i started it up, it wouldn't even power up fans. i spent a frantic 2 hrs praying all the time that i hadn't leaked thermal paste somewhere i shouldn't have. I finally went to bed and the next day after about 15mins it came on when i hit the power button. I have no idea what made it stop working, or what made it work again. So atx power supplys are weird.

However, I once had an experience with a newer power supply in which the motherboard, and/or the power supply was not properly grounded. On another occasion, one of the screws in a cdrom drive was too long. Screwing it in all the way caused it to rest lightly against some inner component, causing enough of a short to keep the computer from starting. Once the screw was taken out and replaced, (that happened by chance that i took it out, lost it and got a short once by accident) the whole thing worked, even the cdrom drive.

Hope that helps!

[Jeepsta]

As it turns out it was one of those freak things. Thanks to the info provided by Daedra, I found out that the beeps were in fact a failure to find video. When the ISA card was seated it, for some reason, didnt show up on the monitor.

After dinner, I decided to mess a little more with it and tried it one more time with just the motherboard, CPU, RAM, and Video. Sure enough, it booted. It wasnt beeping at the post screem because it was searching for they IDE HD that I didnt have hooked up so it sat there for a bit trying to find it.

/me wipes sweat off his head

So everything is back to normal. Now its time to start wiring everything back up. Guess it just goes to show you that computers are strange sometimes and to never panic.

Thanks for the help and advice,

Zach

[FoBoT]

Originally posted by Jeepsta:
<STRONG>Thanks to the info provided by Daedra, I found out that the beeps were in fact a failure to find video. When the ISA card was seated it, for some reason, didnt show up on the monitor</STRONG>

that isn't that unusual thing to happen, something probably wasn't seated quite right

you did the right thing to remove all but the minimum and then just put in, pull out one thing at a time

good job! :)

[Jeepsta]

Thanks FoBoT :D

I learned that when I built it and couldn't get it to boot. It was a surprise to realize that the video bios for my graphics card is actually loaded before the motherboard bios. Interesting. :p