Is my new MOBO dead? (1 Viewer)

[Vince Maskeeper]

Building a HTPC... Today the power supply showed up, as well as my case, video card, and hard drive. I had the MOBO and processor for a week or two (Epox ep-8kha+ and the Athlon XP 1600), and so away I went.
Mobo, processor, Radeon 32 DDR LE video, 2 sticks of crucial 256 2100 DDR ram...
The first power on, I got video and the memory test, I couldn't get the keyboard to work, and eventually got a blank screen. No hard drive or other drives were connected, so I figured the screen was a result of lack of anything to boot to...
Tried to restart, and have not gotten video since then.
Nada. Nothing. Blank screen.
Board powers up, everything comes on, but no beeps and no video. The LED reads FF, and sits there.
I tried connecting the hard drive, just to see if that changed anything, nada.
Tried re-seating video card, nada.
Tried swapping ram around, removing ram, going with one stick, nada.
Tried re-seating the processor, nada.
Changed the jumper from 100 host clock speed to 133 (which I think it should be 133 with Athlon XP 1600 and 2100 DDR ram), nada.
I'm waiting on a friend to show up with different AGP and PCI video cards so I can test to see if it's the card. It did work the first time, but never since.
I did find this:
http://www.overclockers.com/tips710/
But it sounds like the same thing, only they could get it to work by killing the power supply and restarting, which hasn't worked for me (I have unplugged the thing for 45 minutes and still nothing!)
Thought maybe someone might have an idea to try before I have to send this board back! I think FF on LED means it's booting - but unsure.
-Vince

 

[Drew Dockery]

I had a very similar situation and in my case it turned out to be a bad power supply. Is there another you can connect temporarily to see if this might be your problem?

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

Drew,

In your case, did the board power up? In my case the fans on the board (chipset fan, processor fan) come on, and this particular board has an LED.

It appears to be getting power. In your case did it get power and still not work, or did it not get power at all?

-Vince

 

[Andrew Pratt]

check to make sure you're not getting a grounding problem on the mobo to the case (take it out if you have to). All you need to get into the BIOS is a video card, memory and a CPU...with those three things you should always be able to boot and get into the BIOS settings...if not there's a problem somewhere thats stopping the POST process.

 

[Michael Silla]

When I first boot up my new computer I had the very same thing happen to me. My issue ending up being with the Video card. As soon as I replaced it, everything worked fine.

Hope this helps.

Michael.

Thunderbird at 1.2 GHZ

EPoX 8KHA+ with 256 MB PC2100 DDR RAM

Etc...etc....

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

Andrew,

Can a short kill the boot process? I would assume a short would prevent it from powering up at all. Seems that once it powers up, could be whole different issues? Might get the time tomorrow to take everything apart and try it without the case, and maybe with a different powersupply if I can scare one up!

Michael,

Thanks for the suggestion- I was seriously thinking in that same direction previously, but I tried a different AGP card and a different PCI card, neither gave anything.

I emailed Epox tech support, and their suggestions were the run of the mill type stuff, 99% of which I had tried previously. The only thing suggested by anyone that I have yet to try is removal of the board from the case and a different power supply. Will try both.

-Vince

 

[Jay H]

Hey Vince, I should receive the exact same MB soon, if you've read my problems with my Shuttle AK31 (another KT266a MB), I eventually exchanged it for the EPoX board that you got. I don't think just because the fans and board gets juice that your PSU is OK. I really think my problems with my Shuttle has to do with either the current of the cheap Enlight 300W PS. I have since also purchased a 350W Enermax. Since I already returned the Shuttle board, I cannot verify that this is the case but The ONLY two things that were not replaced was the CPU or the PSU and the POST processor would indicate that the video was bad, not the CPU. If I had the Shuttle still, I could test my hypothesis but I don't.

I did everything that you're supposed to do from leave the motherboard on the static sheet out of the case, remove everything but the CPU/RAM/Video Card and try it to no avail. Properly reset CMOS bios, remove PSU, wait 5 minutes, etc. etc.. Still no go. I really think the Enlight PSU is not putting out enough current or something for it to power the video card or something along the lines.

YMMV,

Jay

 

[John DeSantis]

Try booting with a standard video card.. just a plain pci run of the mill card. I needed to do this twice with systems I've built.

 

[Andrew Pratt]

Vince just because the fans spin up doesn't necessarily mean that the mobo has booted so yes a short might be the problem.

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

Just for ref, here is what Epox had suggested, and my replies:

6. Lastly if problems still persists, if possible try swapping out components (memory, video card, cpu, or power supply)

Have tried 2 different RAM chips (only have 2 sticks of DDR) and have tried starting it with no ram at all (figured I'd at least get an error or a beep or some video to the screen)- no luck.
Have tried 3 different video cards, the Radeon I planned to use, a GeForce AGP and an off brand PCI card. No luck-- I also put the Radeon in my old desktoppc (with Abit mobo) and it seemed to work fine... I didn't let it run past the power up screens- but it displayed video.
Unfortunately, I don't have access to an additional slot A type processor to try that. Is there any way to test the Mobo with a volt meter to make sure it's doing what it's supposed to be doing on the processor slot? I did try starting the board without the processor, and it powers up and displays 00 on the LED.
I did try a different power supply, no luck- still powered up, went to FF but wouldn't give video.
-Vince

 

[Andrew Pratt]

whats the return policy?

 

[Drew Dockery]

Vince,

in my case the board DID power up like yours is, so I assumed that meant the power was good, and it wasn't. I also had an "approved" PSU. Since you tried another one though my guess is that it is actually the board that is bad. It *could* be the cpu, but that's sems a lot less likely, plus with it seemingly working that one time I really suspect the board is the problem.

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

whats the return policy?

Guess we're about to find out. Newegg says they have 30 day returns on mobos- and this was retail so I should have 1 year warranty beyond that to have it repaired.
The processor might be another story. Newegg says 7 days for refunds, but is not specific about EXCHANGE. I don't want to return it for a refund, rather swap it out for a different one.
The problem, of course, is that I can't say for sure if it's the mobo or the processor. What would be ideal would be to have them allow me to return both, have them test each, and exchange the non-working component with a working one, and send me back both. Really doubt they'll do that.
But have requested a RMA and we'll see what they say. Too bad- I was really hoping I had just missed a button somewhere
-Vince

 

[Jay H]

Well, Whaddya know, I bought mine through Newegg too. For their retail CPU policy you can exchange the processor after the 7 days is up, I asked them that. They don't have an exchange policy but they have a decent return policy. If you want a different motherboard (not simply a new one of the same kind) you basically have to return the old one (say it's defective and they'll waive the 15% restocking fee) and reorder the new one. You're responsible for shipping both the return and of course, the new replacement.
If you're going to replace the board, they'll ship you a new replacement overnight (make sure you mention this cause their email RMA response usually says "Express Saver"). Except they wont ship until they receive your returned item which is a minor bummer..
Jay

 

[Tom Garvey]

Vince,

Any update?

I noticed in another thread you were going to get the Airboard Wireless keyboard.. Did you? How is it? Can you tell me about it's programmabilty?

Thanks

 

[Jay H]

Yeah, how's it going Vince, after the first week and a half of owning my 8KHa+ I think it's real nice, seems stable and I've gotten decent benchmarks on it (Dhrystone/Whetstone using Sisoft's Sandra) and things are peachy over here.
My next upgrade besides my Fan cooling modification project is getting another hard drive, my 4gig is about 1.7gigs short of being full and I know I'm installing some games after xmas..
Jay

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

Sorry guys, have been knee deep in other, non-htf, stuff!

I noticed in another thread you were going to get the Airboard Wireless keyboard.. Did you? How is it? Can you tell me about it's programmabilty?

Not yet- it's in my next batch of orders which should be placed next week. Going to order the DVD drive, Sound Card, Airboard, and IRman all next week. Will be happy to post any notes, or answer any questions once I have it.
So for now I have a super dooper 1.4gig, 512megs of DDR ram, 32 meg DDR video, 60 gig hard drive, windows 200 running, paperweight.
-Vince

 

[MickeS]

Vince, I had the same problem a while ago, after attaching a USB-port to the mother board... everything but the mobo worked. I replaced the power supply, stripped it of everything, took it out of the case, it was still dead. This was a three year old PC, and I've done many installations and stuff in it before, but now it just died. I had to go and buy a new computer.

Did they tell you what might have happened, or did they just assume it was a bad board? Like I said my mother board worked just fine for 3 years. Could it have been static electricity?

/Mike

 

[Samuel Des]

There appears to be quite a few issues with that board. I've heard a lot of similar complaints. A few were resolved by power supply; others by other fixes; but it all seems kind of suspicious. I haven't heard much better about Shuttle boards. Anyway, please keep us informed as to how the HTPC project is going overall, too.

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

There appears to be quite a few issues with that board. I've heard a lot of similar complaints. A few were resolved by power supply; others by other fixes; but it all seems kind of suspicious. I haven't heard much better about Shuttle boards. Anyway, please keep us informed as to how the HTPC project is going overall, too.

Weird- as there might be an issue with the specific board, I know EPOX is an A list manufacturer of mobos... certainly head and shoulders above Shuttle. In my case, I'm using the same powersupply for the new board, and everything is A-OK, so I think I just got a dead board before (or possibly dead processor)- which does happen from time to time.

-Vince