Screen Blank but fans are runnin'

[Shadowed]

I know a fair amount about hardware issues but this one has me stumped.

Sys Info: Ok I have a 1.41 GHz AMD Athlon Processor, 256 MB DDR, GeForce 3 Ti 200 w/ 128 MB DDR, a 10/100 network card, and an ATX motherboard.

Problem: When I press the power button I hear the fans start up and the power LED lights, but the screen is blank, and there are no beep codes. The monitor is plugged in, turned on, and connected to my graphics card, and the speaker in the computer appears to be connected correctly. There is also a second LED on my system that used to light when the computer worked but it does not now.

Please help.

TNX!

[zergboy5]

HAve you recently flashed your bios. If you have then you caould of had a bad flash and it would leave you computer in this condition. Also, has maby you bios or video card come loose inside you case, that to can cause the problem your having.

[smelanson]

If it is the BIOS and the floppy drive ligt comes on then turns back off there is a way to fix it, put a bootable floppy disk in it along with the orgional flash for the board and the flash program, make an autoexec.bat file that will automatically execute the flash program and flash the BIOS. That is if it is tha BIOS. Here is what happen, at the very first of the BIOS there is a section that doesn't get flashed and it has basic instructions on how to boot the computer with a floppy and run an ISA video card so I would recommend also trying an ISA video card. This may not work with AGP or PCI.

[Shadowed]

I can't get it working yet but thanks for your replies.

I have not recently flashed my BIOS, so I don't think that is the problem. The computer just quit working one morning.

So far I have tried reseating all the cards, and RAM. I also have checked all the connections, and made sure they were all tight, not loose.

I still can't figure it out. If you have any other ideas please post them.

Thanks for the help so far! :)

[bluemoon]

What if you unplug all ide ribbons.?

[sixo]

I've had similar problems:

Sent: Tuesday, June 04, 2002 2:16 PM
To: Support
Subject: K7S5A


I have purchased your K7S5A motherboard, an AMD XP 1700, a PC-133 128MB
SDRAM chip, and a Diamond Viper 770 (TNT2) video card, and a Samsung
7200RPM 40GB hard drive.

Currently, I have installed the chip, the memory, and the video card. I
cannot get the video BIOS or the system BIOS to display on the monitor.

I have checked all the connections, power, monitor, etc. I have tried
multiple video cards (AGP and PCI), multiple SDRAM chips (all which work
in other PC's). I have tried putting the video cards in multiple PCI
slots, and the memory in both the SDRAM slots.

I have tried a different processor (Duron 950MHz), and it has worked fine
(the motherboard)

Unfortunately, I have not been able to get the motherboard to produce
any type of beep codes or anything. Does this motherboard produce any
type of output to help diagnose problems of these types?

Do you have any suggestions?

Greg Saxer


This is the reply I received:

Dear Sir/Madam:

The motherboard not booting the problem is very variety; please check the following step to trouble shooting,

System not booting problem not just motherboard issued, is part of. not booing is relate to motherboard, VGA , memory and CPU or power supply. You need try to isolate one at a time. To find the faulty of component you have.

If you just bought this motherboard please check your jumper JP4 is set pins
2-3 are short, sometime the new board after QA testing they will set the JP4 in the 1-2 (clear CMOS) mode. Please check your manual on page 13

1. Remove un-necessary the add-on card like sound card or Ethernet card or other device not relate with boot up.

2. Remove the un-necessary the data cable or power cable, only plug in the power cable connect to the motherboard. Some floppy power cable may cause not boot up, or you may have to check your ribbon cable make sure that you have the pin1 side of the cable matched with the pin-1 side of the connector (usually pin 1 has red wire), and try connect each device back at a time.


3. Only use one DIMM memory at a time if you have more than one, or you can try use your memory in other system to see can running or not, Different kind of memory or speed even the same size, it's may cause beep sound or cause the motherboard not booting at all.

4. Use your VGA card to another system to see is working or not and maybe just connect to slot not very well.


5. Check your power supply is working or not, or just not connect to motherboard very well.
6. If you have been install in the case, please double check has any short circuit between motherboard and case.
7. Remove all panels 1 cable except the power sw.

8. Make sure you all add-on card the gold finger is seat very well on the AGP or PCI slot.

9. Make sure you CPU and memory is working at another system.

10. Change different kind of power supply or unplug the power cord form power supply.

11. Please remove the system fan if you have one and power cord is connect direct to motherboard (some system fan may create noisy or use too must power then cause system not boot)

12. Make sure your power supply have ( special for +3.3V , you need enough current to support device you have)

a. 300W or above
b. +3.3V output have 28A or above
c. +5V output have 30A or above
d. +12V output have 15A or above you can find the information print on the power supply.


Please power off your system every time you try add or remove anything from the motherboard, it's may cause serious damaged if your not power off.

Or check this link about AMI beep code if you hear any beep sound from motherboard.
http://www.bioscentral.com/beepcodes/amibeep.htm

After you try isolate the faulty of components and you are sure your memory , CPU or VGA not faulty then you may need return your motherboard back to vendor for repair or more detail help .

"""""""" Please include all the previous correspondence or case number when replying """"""""

Regards,


ECSUSA Support Team


It seems pretty apparent to me that this is a standard email, but it does have some good suggestions.... I've already tried most of these, but I want to run a couple more tests, specifically try the motherboard with a different processor (again).

Hope this is helpful.

6-0

[cableguy69]

Lots of good ideas in sixo's reply. First thing I like to do is to take the board out of the case and assmble on a box. Install only the necessary things: hard drive, video, memory to the motherboard. If you have two sticks of memory, just use one. Clear the CMOS before you boot again and give it a try. If it doesn't work, it could be the power supply. How big is the one you're using? If it works, reinstall one thing at a time; sound, NIC, CDROM, whatever. If all is working, reinstall in the case. If it's not working now, then it's a grounding issue.

[Rocketmech]

There is also a second LED on my system that used to light when the computer worked but it does not now.

The 2nd light your referring to is the IDE or HDD Activity LED . With the power 'on' :
The Power LED would be a continuos on light. While the IDE activity led is on during activity only. Check to see its plugged in.

At this point I'd suspect a bad P/S, and maybe the HDD or Bios. Try clearing CMOS , see if it helps. Unplug your drives, the pc should post. Try another P/S. Otherwise go with Cableguy69 's suggestions for a min. hardware t-shoot.

[Shadowed]

Hey thanks a ton for all of your help!! :)

I got a hold of a different power supply and pluged it in, and it worked again, so far.

Since it turned on (just didn't boot up) I didn't think it was the power supply at first, but after you guys/girls mentioned it I thought I'd try replacing it anyhow, and it worked. So thanks a ton for all of your help!!

:D

[sixo]

Supposedly Required:
a. 300W or above
b. +3.3V output have 28A or above
c. +5V output have 30A or above
d. +12V output have 15A or above you can find the information print on the power supply.

Can anyone that is getting this motherboard to work please post their power supply specs?

Mine PS numbers seem to fall short of these requirements.....

mine is:
350W
+3.3V @ 14A
+5.0V @ 30A
+12.0V @ 12A

[Rocketmech]

My K7S5A has the following

Enhance Electronics, M/N ENP-0730 , 300w,
Spec's (http://www.enhanceusa.com/documents/ENP-0730.PDF)

Take a look at
http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/white_papers_and_tech_docs/26003.pdf


BTW, I have used 300w generic p/s 's with this board, but with a 3.3v/5v rail combined @ 180w.




*You might want to post a seperate thead concerning your problem .