Is My MB Bad????

[dsandez]

This one, an Abit BH6 with a 300A, PC100 RAM, and a working video card. When I turn the computer on, nothing happens (blank screen). All I have connected to the MB are these (3) things: RAM,300a,vid card. Also, I used another working 300a which changed nothing. Is the MB bad?? Or is the BIOS empty?
thanks, dsandez

[Imperion1]

Press and hold the insert key when you turn the computer on. If that doesn't work clear the cmos using the jumper. Then go into your bios and set all your parameters again.

[dsandez]

Hi, I cant even get as far as the BIOS settings. I know the monitor is getting power, but no display whatsoever....

dsandez

[Barney]

Is the memory in the right slot?Make sure it is in slot1.

Ronald

[dsandez]

yea, I now have all the slots filled with PC100 sticks of 16M each, all of which were tested good on other systems. I even put in (2) 128M and (1) 64M of PC133. Nothing. I replaced the CPU with another 300a. nothing. Other video cards (ISA). Nothing.

Someone at work mentioned to me today that sometimes these MBs come w/o the BIOS, so it appears dead. And you have to load the BIOS flash upon bootup. Is this common, or the first time you ever heard of this?

Am I missing some config somewhere? In my exerience, all you need is the cpu, ram, adn vid card to see the BIOS. I cant get that far...

thanks, Dsandez

[radman3d2]

Did you buy this new or used? I have never heard of a MB coming without a bios, but it does sound like a bios problem. Is it dead or does it beep at you? If it does not beep does the floppy drive light come on? If the floppy drive light is coming on it might be looking for a bios so put the correct bios on a floppy and see if it loads. Use the ISA video card until you can figure out how to get to the bios. Good Luck

[dsandez]

I pieced it together, so some parts are new (MB,AGP vid card) and some used (300a chips, PC100 RAM, ISA vid cards). No beeps, no nothing. Black blank screen. I have never heard of a MB w/o the BIOS. The chip is there, so it has to be there. Power from the supply gets the LEDs to light up on the floppy, CDROM, front of case. The CPU fan works, the floppy spins, the HDD makes its audibles, which indicate power to it.....

[radman3d2]

That's a tough one, unless the floppy LED stays on, then it is looking for a bios. Otherwise, start with a barebones system until you can get into the bios. I'd say the MB is not bad, but the bios is bad if nothing else and you could try and find or order a new ROM chip. If the MB is new and under war. I would sent it back.

[This message has been edited by radman3d2 (edited 12-07-2000).]

[jeffpapier]

This may help. Remove the AGP video card and use a video card in a PCI slot instead. See if your video works then. Your BIOS may have a default setting for a PCI Video slot and when you clear the BIOS, the AGP slot goes dead. You will have to find the setting and change it to AGP. SAVE>EXIT and exchange the cards. REBOOT

[dsandez]

I tried all kinds of video cards, as mentioned earlier. The thing was, I never got to post. Therefore, no ability to change BIOS settings. I actually found another slot1 board in my garage and put all my parts on it. And it did work (except for the HDD, which made a funny noise and gave an error 'write protect error writing to disk', or something like that). I have concluded that the MB is bad, dead. If it wasnt an Abit BH6 I would toss it. But now I think I will try to have it repaired if it is cheap enough.

[This message has been edited by dsandez (edited 12-12-2000).]

[darrelld]

[This message has been edited by darrelld (edited 12-12-2000).]

[wireman]

this sounds like what I just went through: I got noises,searching floppy and HDD but no vidio agp or pci. Luckily there's a Aopen repair depot near me and I bought a new bios chip with latest rev., plugged it in and everything came up fine. works like a champ now all scsi box. i bought the board out of box/display model and bios were corrupted. Buy a new bios chip worked for me! wireman

[dsandez]

I didnt even get anything. no searching for floppy, HDD, noises, nothing. It didnt get to BIOS post. Maybe if the price was right, I would consider racking my brain one more time. How much was your chip? Anybody know what they run? [Abit BH6]

-dsandez

[wireman]

I believe it was about $20 and shipping included (aopen),as a note though soyo wants $35 for a bios chip,$15 to reflash. www.mrbios.com (http://www.mrbios.com) www.badflash.com (http://www.badflash.com)
these can help if you have old chip (for part number) wireman

[AMD kicks]

This might sound dumb but check to see if you have the processor locked down properly all the way.

[dsandez]

been there done that, as mentioned earlier, with (2) processors, which work fine now on another board.

Question: Where can I get new BIOS chips at lower costs than full retail?