M7NCD PRO won't power up

[wshort34]

biostar m7ncd pro version 1.1 motherboard
amd 2500+ barton (retail)
2 sticks of 256mb kreton pc3200 ram
evga geforce4 mx440 8x 64mb agp video card
wd 120 gig hard drive
36x cd-rom
floppy
aspire X dreamer case with turbo link lc350atx power supply
windows XP pro (if I ever get that far).

just assembled this machine but cannot get it to power
up, changed the jumper setting for the ps/2 mouse and
keyboard and see that they now get power but nothing else
seems to be powering up, no fans, nothing.
Case has front usb headers, have tried changing jumper settings and even unplugging the front usb but still nothing, power connector to motherboard seems to
be connected properly. the case is an aspire x dreamer.
I have a feeling it has something to do with the usb
stuff, but not sure, I don't have anything connected to
the machine, just have the cdrom, harddrive and floppy
installed and the agp video card, ps/2 mouse and keyboard.
I even pulled of the front of the case to check and
make sure the wires to the on off switch were still
intact and they were.
Have even tried a different power cord, but seeing as how it is supplying power to the keyboard and mouse
I'm assuming I either have a jumper not set right or
some connector not plugged in right, have changed the
power button connection but am pretty sure it is correct as it sits now.
Cmos jumper is in normal position
Documentation for this board is rather skimpy.
Anyone else have this problem?

[BipolarBill]

Remove the board from the case, place it on a soft, non-conductive surface near the case and plug in the ATX power. Leave in the CPU and RAM. Place the vid card in and connect the monitor. Connect the power. Nothing else needs to be connected. Press down hard on the vid card and use your screwdriver to short the POWER BUTTON pins. See if it POSTs.

[Bat25]

And...move the jumper for the keyboard and mouse back to where they were. Or you will be sorry, trust me. If your getting no power on your fans at all or anything else I think you have PWR/HDD Activity/Reset wires all wrong. The manual is correct on that board even thugh it is skimpy, recheck that guide and re-hook your case wires (front panel). I have set up 12 of those without issue (M7NCDP). Also do make sure you are using a good PSU. If you hook up PWR correct and HDD correct, and your heatsink fan is connected to CPU1 then it should start up. Check the back of the PSU for a reset switch too. Make sure evry standoff under the mobo is absolutely correct and you are not missing one, or extra one as this can short out a board. Basically what im saying is re-check your manual and do a "mini rebuild", and make sure you are reading the manual for your connectors right - or read the online PDF for the mobo.


Manual for M7NCDP here-

http://www.biostar.com.tw/support/manual/socket.php3?socket=a

[wshort34]

Thanks guys, actually it was a faulty floppy drive I had salvaged
out of an old machine, once I removed the cables to it, the box
came to life.
Had to fool around with the bios settings to get this thing to
run as well, still not sure it's really stable.
Left the fsb at 166 and set the memory timings to auto, seems
like that has been the most stable setting I've had yet for this
box.
Got to the 6th setup disk for win XP pro then it crapped out
with the stop C0000221 error meaning one of the files was
corrupted on the floppy. Been creating the boot floppies on
a win 98 machine and had to redo the first one 3 times, this
error occured on the last (#6) disk. The utility that creates the
6 startup disks only starts at the beginning and I'm too tired to
redo them all again, had to scrounge around for 6 floppies as it
was.
This has been the longest ongoing headache I've ever had
with a machine.
The changes I made to the jumpers were just to set them
to standby voltage, did that to all the usb and the ps/2 kb/mouse
one. (am using ps/2 KB and mouse). What were you refering to
when you said I would be sorry for changing the jumpers?
The reviews on newegg for this ram and motherboard seemed
okay, but I'm beginning to wonder if I've created a frankenstein
monster here.

[Bat25]

Well if you understand about standby voltages with the jumpers then your ok. There was no reason to move them, that's all. They come preset from Biostar on the right jumpers. No need to move them. Sounds like you are on your way to getting it up and running ok. I would not think you are creating a problem. Reviews were good because the board is good. I have built 12 Pro's, 9 Non-Pros, 5 M7NCG 400's. None of them gave me any trouble. Im sure you will be ok, I would just make sure your processor and ram are in "sync"- IE: 166/166. I start off by simply setting optimized defaults, then if the customers is using PC3200 ram I manually set expert settings, and that enables me to manually set ram to 166 to be in sync with a 333 FSB processor (166x2=333).

So let's say you have an XP2400 that runs @ 133 FSB (266DDR), and you have a stick of PC2700 that by default runs at 166 (333DDR). You would want to manually set the ram to 133 until you have the machine buned in if you were to overclock later. So you would be at 133/133. But you need manual timings (expert) and the % set to 100% of the FSB speed to get "sync".

Now, let's say you have an XP2400 (266 FSB) and a stick of PC3200. If you leave the bios settings to default, the FSB will run at 133 and the ram will be set to "SPD" and the resulting frequency would be 200 - so your running at 133/200. Not good. You you need to activate expert and set ram to 133 until such time that you would overclock.


Just make sure your FSB and ram are in "sync" and you will be fine.

[wshort34]

Yeah, I finally got the memory in sync with the FSB, default
settings gave me all kinds of weird timings, seems to be fairly
stable now (knock on wood).
What brand of memory have you been using with success on
this board (pro)? I've got the kreton value buy PC3200, 2 sticks
of 256mb so I could take advantage of the dual channel.
Reviews on newegg seemed favourable so I took the chance
and bought it.
Would think the SPD would come up with some sensible settings
but not the case here.
Would like to get it up to 200fsb with memory running at rated
speed but have no idea of what the memory settings would be
with this memory.
Right now I'll settle for a stable machine that I can at least load
XP pro onto and get moving here, guess the barton 2500+
should be a substantial improvement over my current P-III 750
coppermine (bx chipset) and the limitations of win98.
My only other concern is with the case power supply, the case
is an aspire x-dreamer with 350 watt P4 approved power supply,
I kind of got sucked into buying it for the side and top fans and
clear case side and front usb and sound ports, didn't see it on
the AMD approved power supply list and that makes me a little nervous.
Well thanks for the vote of confidence in this board, once I get
it up and running I'll have to check what bio version I have and
if necessary update to the latest one that is supposed to provide
more stability at 200fsb settings.

[Bat25]

I have used Buffalo Tech, and TwinMos with winbond bh-5 mem for the overclocked boards mostly, and for the regular non-oc'ed board I have used Kingmax PC 27003200/3500 ram (red), and Giel Value ram (with blue heat spreaders). All worked fine only sometimes needing a timing tweak. Yes, the 2500 is a huge improvement over what you had. I did see the Kreton thread at newegg too, but I passed on it. But that does not mean it won't run like a champ on your board. When you do decide to crank up your ram and FSB, make sure you set AGP Freq. to 66 - this will lock AGP/PCI @ 66/33. Then disable fast writes, and disable CPU throttle (It's set at 50% by default and needs to be disabled for OC'ing). All that is left after that are your timings and voltages. SInce you have PC3200 you should not have to bump violtage for it to run @ 200 with relatively loose timings. But I would bump it to 2.6 anyway - just a notch, and you may need about 1.725-1.8 Vcore to initially get it to boot at 200/200. that is... manually setting your FSB to 200, then either alowing "SPD" on your ram (resulting in 200 FSB) or manually set ram to 100% again of your FSB speed, then tweak your timings.


If you were to OC this would be what I would do. Start @ 166/166 manual, then go to 175/175 (keep your multiplier @ default or manual @ 11x). You may need 1.675-1.7 Vcore to get a boot. If ok, runs some games and 3Dmark, or P95 for a day. Next day raise vcore to 1.7 and go for 185/185, then 192/192 (same day and you may need 1.75 Vcore initially to get a boot - monitor your temps). Then if it runs smooth try for 200/200. You may need 1.70-1.75 vcore - you might not need that much. Try and see.

During the time you do this leave your ram timings to something like cas 2.5, 9-4-4. (9=tRAS) After you get to 200/200 (XP3200 level) you can tighten the timings some, and possibly lower vcore for better temps. Temps at 1.75 vcore should be about 45c idle and 55c load with a stock heat sink. I would get a T-Take silent boost or Vantec C-7040 for better temps if you overclock. And by thee way your case and PSU should be just fine.

If you have an ulocked Barton XP2500 (pre-week 39 production) then you can actually use your multipliers too, and a perfect burn in for that chip is 12.5x166 (XP2800) level, then a straight leap to 200/200 after a couple of days at that speed. Int hat case you would likely still need some vcore boost.

*Ok, if you have a typical locked barton you should eventually be at 200/200 (XP3200) and don't worry too much about tight timings, but optimal for nforce2 would be cas 2 ~11-3-3 (tRAS11 seems to work really well with nforce2). but with that Kreaton ram you may be looking at 2.5~11-4-4 and vcore @ 1.7 (you might get lucky with vcore). Good luck, and I bet if you just "dial in" the timings just right your ram will run fine.

[Bat25]

By the way. P95= Prime 95, it is a burn in ultility that overclockers use to stress the system for a burn in period between adjustments.

Prime95 (http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm)

memtest86 likewise is s memory stressor and tester that is also usually done between each adjustment.

Memtest86 (http://www.memtest86.com/)

*Usually, if you can run ok with your ram in sync then your ok, and you can sometimes just use 3D mark as your total system stability stressor after your overclock, it also gives you a good indication of your drivers are loaded ok and you are pretty much conflict free. 2001SE Build 330 is really good app to test total system stability.


MadOnion 3Dmark SE2001 (330) (http://www.futuremark.com/download/?3dmark2001.shtml)

*just going to 200/200 you should only need a 3 jump clock speed fix EG: 166/166 * 185/185* *200/200 - if you were attempting a much higher clock I would suggest P95, but in this case I would have it to 200/200 within a day or two, and run 3D mark between each test, and memtest86 between each test and clock change.

[wshort34]

Thanks for the tips, finally got windows XP pro to load and
install, been occupied installing drivers, sp1 etc, machine has been
running stable now for over 28 hours.
This thing sure cranks thru the seti work units, 4 hrs or less,
will probably move my Benq DVD burner over along with the
DVD software shortly to see how well it does with some heavy
duty compression and reencoding.

thanks again

[Bat25]

No Problem. Hope all goes well-