Date: 11/02/05 (Computer Geeks)    Keywords: no keywords

Ok, I am baffled, my regular-smart friends are baffled, and I can't reach either of the two professionals I know. Thus, I turn to you all for help. The general problem is a new motherboard I can't get to work.

The setup:

Ok. Last week I purchased:
- a Mercury KVT600X-L Via Socket A ATX Motherboard, which came with an AMD Athlon XP3000+ Socket A CPU, and
- a Thermaltake TR2 M1 CPU cooler.

I also have two units of Kingston RAM (333mhz DDR; 512MB each) that I know to be functional.

Finally, yesterday I got ahold of a GeForce FX5200 8x AGP video card. This will become important later. My old mobo had some form of Radeon 4x AGP video card...can get the specifics on that later if necessary. (I'm posting this from work; the parts are at home.)

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So, the problem.

Three days ago I take apart my old box, pop the CPU in the motherboard, attach the cooling unit, and screw the new mobo into the case. I hook everything up nicely like it was before. Attempt to power on -- nothing happens. I go to the manual first, and subsequently inspect the board, take out extra jumpers that were left over, fiddle with a couple other things, and okay, I get power. (If you're curious, I have an Antec 400w power supply -- again, I can get the specific model if necessary.) Lights go on, shiny new cooling fan goes on, and...nothing else happens. No beep code or anything, but also no display.

I looked around online for a bit and got a couple other suggestions:
- Clear CMOS: Tried it. Didn't do anything -- still no beep code, still no display.
- Use a minimal configuration: Tried that. Currently I'm down to one unit of RAM and the old Radeon video card (since there's no onboard video). Still no beep code, still no display.
- Try popping the battery: Ok, I get a beep code once doing this -- 1 long and 8 short, which apparently means a video card problem.
- Search online some more and realize my old video card is a 4x APG card, and this mobo requires an 8x. Great. I power down the system/unplug electricity/etc., take out the old video card entirely, and try again, to see if I can replicate (figuring the system shouldn't distinguish between an incompatible video card and no video card). Power on: no beep code. No display (obviously). Give up in frustration.

Two days ago I borrowed my boyfriend's 8x AGP video card (sorry, I don't have the particular model available right now) -- also known to be working just fine -- and tried to use that instead with the new mobo. Still powers on just fine; still no beep code. Still no display. The fan on his video card spins, though, so apparently the AGP slot on the new mobo isn't entirely dead since it's able to send power to the video card. Unplugged everything, returned the video card to my bf, and left the system alone after that.

Last night I'd finally gotten my own 8x AGP card (the GeForce described above) and tried the mobo again with this new video card; still no beep code, still no display. Here's where it gets interesting...

I decided to take the new mobo out and put my old one (which was fluky, but still semi-functional) back in. With my old video card and one unit of RAM, the (old) system makes it through POST, and I get a display that works fine right up to the "no OS found" message (since I don't have hard drives connected at this point). If I take out the video card, I get a 8 short beeps, followed by 1 long and 2 short. This is fine. If I take out the RAM, I get 3 long. So, we've determined:
1 - my RAM is fine.
2 - my old video card is fine.
3 - my monitor and analog cable are fine.
4 - the case speakers work.
5 - the power supply is good. (And worked fine with my old system, which had 3 hard drives and 2 CD drives...so I don't think a single new motherboard should be stressing it all that much with the other components disconnected.)

So, still using the old mobo, I replace the old video card (Radeon 4x) with the new one (GeForce 8x). Now, I can't get a display, but I also don't get a beep code saying something is wrong with the video card! In a fit of frustration I disconnect the old motherboard and put the new one in, and try to see what that does when I don't have a video card or RAM in it. 3 long beeps, apparently, meaning it seems to be at least starting POST. (Don't know why I didn't think of doing that earlier). But it still doesn't beep if I don't have a video card connected, as long as there's RAM in it.

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That, I think, is the whole saga, though I'll be happy to provide any additional details as requested. I just don't think the CPU is dead (since I can reliably get it to give a beep code under certain specific circumstances), I can't seem to prove that any other parts are dead, and I don't know why we can't get the damn thing to work. Ideally what I'm looking for is a solution to make it work, without having to buy a bunch of other parts (I'm already about $200 into this, and can't afford much more). I would be happy with a solution that can prove once and for all whether certain parts are dead, though, since then I could at least get a refund or exchange for working parts.

In short, this sucks, and I await your wisdom. :D

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/computergeeks/809051.html