Mother board or CPU issue

[piratedo]

This morning I powered up a newly built PC to verify all the was working okay. Once tested (I actually installed XP on it and left it running for a burn in) I powered it down and moved the Asus A7V266-E, AMD XP 1600 and the 256mb DDR Ram to replace my ECS K7S5A XP 1400 with 512mb PC133 which has been running for months.

The ' new Asus' system would power up but not POST or give any video. Power was on ~ fans all working ~ light on the MB was on but NOTHING ... no boot. I verified all the settings / Dips ... Thinking I might need the newer PS I move the 400w to the Asus and replaced a 250w. Still nothing. Attempted to build my old system on the new case and it did not boot either. Even rebuilding the orginal system does not work. I have verified all the settings ~ tried jumperless and Jumper. I was careful with static, installing CPU, etc ... Heat sinks are good ... has thermal grease and seated good on the CPU. CPUs are in correctly and seated good.

I have built hundres of systems over the years but I am at a loss. Now I have two systems that will not boot and cannot figure out why. I have tried swapping cases, PS, CPU's, Ram, ... I have tried removing everything but the basics ... different video cards ... even assembled all the parts outside the case on a cardboard box ... Resetting the BIOS does not do a thing either.

I cannot believe I could have burnt up the MB or CPUs. But it is always possible. There are no burn marks or smell. Do not think I could have crushed the CPUs ... Was wondering if perhaps the 400w PS fried something?

I have orderd a new CPU and MB just to see ... I will test it on another PS as well.

Anyone have any ideas??? :confused: :confused: :confused:

[Mm9004]

nope.

I assume that the Thermal Grease was applied correctly if you're that much of an expert. More likely it was something like "Crushing the CPU" try a different one.

Revert to bare hardware and see if it will boot. At that line of configuration, it should boot. If not, replace all hardware piece by piece until you get to the culprite.

[Ammok]

Right, you got power to the board?

and now nothing will post.?

One, dead cpu's

Two, you said they were working and you "moved". What do you mean by that exactly, move the inards around from case to case?

did you make sure the mobo standoffs were in place and that you havent shorted the bottom of the boards out?

[piratedo]

Yeah thermal grease was applied correctly :) Tried different CPU and no avail. Took it down the bare parts on cardboard ... still nothing. Waiting on new MB and CPU to arrive to see if MBs are blown or both my XP CPU's. Tried to test with my orginal board and it will not work either now ~ with either CPU, PS, or Ram

I do not think I crushed the CPUs and boards did not ground out that I was aware of. But unless there is just something screwy with both BIOS it must be the nut behind the keyboard :(

Yes I moved components from one box to the other. I did not want to take down my working box until I tested the parts I wanted to replace. The ASUS board was given to me by a buddy. Then I moved the Asus board, ram and PS to my ECS system to replace those parts. I was going to re-OS and set up a raid the the ASUS board but it would not boot. Nor would the ECS board on the other system. And so far no combination of parts from either of those two systems will boot either system.

I have been reading formums about how particular the ECS board can be ... thought (hoped) someone else had this problem and found out what it was ... beside blown parts. Perhaps the bios reset or got wiped ... anything but blown part s ....

Whoa is me :eek:

[Greg Harper]

Have you tried to boot from the floppy?That is if you have a bootdisk, if not go to bootdisk .com and make one. The first ecs board I had did a similar thing and it gave me fits till I got the bios straightened out. I don't know about the Asus but if ou tried to use the same hd in both boards without changing drivers it would lock it up too. My first guess would have been a vid card problem but with swapouts I'd guess a screwed up bios chip now.
Try clearing bios again after unplugging and letting the unit sit a while and jumpered to clear. I really doubt that you fried two mobos and two chips at the same trial.

[piratedo]

mobos do not even post so I do not think the floppy would work. Currently do not even had HD attached ... just MB, CPU, Ram and vid.

Yeah I was wondering about mixed up bios chip with swapping cpus and ram. Do you think with jumperless mobos that doing such a thing could occur? I was wondering if that would be possible. I did attempt to boot Asus using jumpers but it did not work.

I have disconnect both mobos from ps and removed batteries. I then left the jumper on to clear the bios several times. I have attempted it for up to 15 minutes before attempting again.

Can you think of a way to check bios chip ... wonder is it can accually get wiped out ... didnt the old chips just need light ... such as remove a label off the top to erase them?

Just grasping now .. hoping to find something to try. I, too, cannot see me blowing 2 mobos and / or 2 cpus ~ but it could have happened.

[Greg Harper]

Outside chance that the bios could have gotten messed up that much but if you can't get the board to post with nothing else attached and outside of the case it sure points towards the mobo being gone. Try cpu's in a friends comp to clear that posibbility and then you're down to psu's and mobo's.
One other thing, you mentioned that you change the jumpers around on the Asus. Is it possible one of them is set wrong? Try to power up the board by shorting the power switch out. It sounds like there's got to be a ground out somewhere. Look for bulging capacitors on both boards to rule out that.
I know it seems we're grasping at straws here but all the usual causes have just about been covered.:t

[Greg Harper]

Btw, in most bios chips there's a reserve that can't be wiped out and a way to post from it if you somehow wipe out the original.
Check the web for threads.There were several on here about it. It's been a while since I've flashed one so I'm not sure of the procedure. I don't know of any bios chips that are light sensitive but I have fried one or two myself goofing around with them.
Good luck and keep us posted:t

[Ammok]

I would try both your cpu's in another known good system. If the parts are blown, you got a really bad psu there and it will blow more stuff, I'm thinking.

If both cpu's are dead, I would not touch any your current stuff until I had identified the source of the destruction.

If they are alive, whoopeee, maybe you screwed up bios or something, but there is something bad around those parts, you gotta nail it.

[piratedo]

Waiting for a buddy to bring his system by or the new Mobo / CPU to test those parts. My other systems are PIIIs, PIIs, and a few K6s. So I cannot swap them out.

I am concerned that ~perhaps~ there is something with the new PS that caused it. Meanwhile I shall keep keep hoping that I did not crush the CPUs or burn up the Mobos by anything I did. I am going to kick myself if that is the case. There are no bulging capacitors or any signs of a short on either Mobo or CPU. I did recheck all the dips on the Asus for both setting it to jumperless or manual.

The way it all happened ... and with all the forums on the ECS MB having this issue I want to lean towards it (bios, cmos). But that would not explain the Asus doing the same thing (sigh).

I think I am going to attempt to find the thread Greg mentioned to see if I can do something with the cmos / bios.

I was thinking of the early Eproms and EEproms and an Eprom burner when I mentioned the light source for wiping them. On the old 8086, 8088, and even 286's they had eproms that you could put the bios on and even burn your own. People used to have new eproms burnt to include some of the dos commands for a faster boot up. To wipe them you removed a sticker on the top to expose the element inside and hit it with a strong light source. I do not think they even use eproms like that anymore.

I will keep everyone informed .... :rolleyes: hopefully I can get my PC up and running soon.

[piratedo]

New MB arrived and I think the problem is with the CPU's ... I must have fried them both. :( :(

XP 2000+ gives the (English siren) alarm that it is overheating the second I turn the power on.

XP 2100 does not do anything ... just as on the other motherboards.

Waiting for a new CPU to arrive to further test.

[Ammok]

Well, sorry to hear that, but it happens to us all, but two at once is not good. Be careful with the new one.:)