My new computer won't run....

SoulBlazer · Post by **SoulBlazer** » Fri May 30, 2003 10:46 am

If anyone reads this who plays UV, please pass the word that I'm going to be offline a while. Why?

Okay, I'm not a newbie when it comes to building systems -- I've done it twice before -- but I'm stumped here.

I'm not building a new system -- I just got from newegg a new motherboard (Epox EP-8RDA+), a new processor (AMD Athlon XP 2600), and a new case fan. Oh, and a new case -- the Chieftec Server Chasis.

So it required me to rip everything out of my old case and put it in the new one, along with the new processor and motherboard.

According to the book and my own past knowledge, I made all the connections right. The power supply is plugged into the motherboard. The cable leading from the on/off button is plugged into the Power On/Off plug. There's also a few attached cables from the same area of the case that plug into the speakers, reset, power light, and HD access plugs -- and all five of those are clearly marked. I also attached the power plugs into the USB3 area on the bottom of the motherboard, as instructed by the book, and made sure the plugs were right.

So everything SHOULD have power.

But when I plugged in the system and hit the power button -- nothing.

I've tried holding the button for several seconds, and I tried plugging everything back into the motherboard, to make sure it was right. STILL nothing. Should'nt something turn on, at least? Could it be a bad motherboard?

There's one other mystery -- the forth and last cable coming from the on-off button on the case is a blue cable with nine holes -- just like the power cable I plugged into the USB3 area. But unlike all the others, this one is unmarked, and it's use is mentioned NOWHERE in the book.

What should I try at this point? Can anyone think of anything I missed? I don't have anyone physicaly around who I can ask for help. Are ther other good boards on the net I can ask for help at?

Voriax · Post by **Voriax** » Fri May 30, 2003 11:03 am

hmm..9 pins? like two rows, 5 and 4 pins?

This is probably the new connector Intel uses. It combines those hdd led, reset & power on connectors. Take a look: http://www.intel.com/support/motherboar ... se9pin.htm

Voriax

SoulBlazer · Post by **SoulBlazer** » Fri May 30, 2003 11:10 am

Well, thanks for the quick response, but....

I think I said in my note that I have a AMD processor, not a Intel. And yes, it's nine pins in a five by four setup, but I tried plugging that cable into the USB3 area instead of the marked power ones and the same result happened -- nothing.

I'm really stumped here.

Voriax · Post by **Voriax** » Fri May 30, 2003 11:14 am

Ah, but if you read the article you probably noticed this: "...new ATX motherboard design guide specification"

So it's a motherboard feature, not just an Intel CPU one. That link was just the first that came up and first thing that came to my mind.

Does your new case have those traditional 2-pin hdd led/reset/power on
connectors?

Voriax

SoulBlazer · Post by **SoulBlazer** » Fri May 30, 2003 11:21 am

Yes, it does -- there's four cables all together coming from the area of the on-off switch in the case. One is a small one with only a Power Button plug, and it's marked as such. A second cable has the reset, speaker, HD led, and power led plugs, and all of those are marked. The third cable has what should be the power plugs -- they have the 5v and + and the - printed on them, and according my Epox book are susposed to be plugged into the USB area. The forth cable is the mystery one -- not marked at all, and no mention in the book. Besides, the way the plugs are set up, I can't pug in all of the reset/speaker/led's with just that one.

I do thank you for the help, though.

If you have more ideas, keep them coming! I wish I could post a pic, but I'm at work right now. Maybe the Epox website has a close in diagram of my motherboard?

Voriax · Post by **Voriax** » Fri May 30, 2003 11:30 am

Heehee, I actually did d/l a hi-res pic of your mobo from epox website

Then my guess is that this blue cable is redundant. As some mobos may have only that 9-pin connector the case manufacturer has provided both sets of connectors.

Now we come to the nasty part. Are you sure you didn't crack the cpu core when installing heatsink? I'm not 100% sure if that will cause total power loss, the fans might still start. And yes, it may be that the mobo is broken. No signal for the power supply to switch on...

You just need to get a working system and swap some components.

Voriax

SoulBlazer · Post by **SoulBlazer** » Fri May 30, 2003 11:37 am

A working system? What would I swap and how can I test things? I took me five hours just to take everything out of the old case and put it into the new one!

The strange thing is that my roomie has the exact same case (I really liked it). He's gone for a full week, and his system is locked by key, but I did take a peak inside and he does'nt have that 'blue cable'. So I guess it is new.....But his motherboard is different then mine so no help in trying to compare them.

Yes, I'm sure I was carefull in putting on the heatsink.

I can't call newegg for this -- should I try sending a e-mail to Epox? Maybe thier website has some additional information -- I'm really stumped.

Voriax · Post by **Voriax** » Fri May 30, 2003 12:02 pm

Well, if your roomie would be around you could remove his cpu and put yours into his machine..assuming he has AMD cpu. If your cpu works in his machine, that part would be okay.

Also you could remove the power supply from the new case and put it in some older, working system. Thus you could be certain power supply is okay...it's always pain in the a** to isolate broken component.

You could of course strip your new system to bare minimum...unplug just about everything..leave just the mobo and cpu. Then see if anything powers up.

Btw, which case you exactly have? Chieftec has a rather large selection.

Voriax

SoulBlazer · Post by **SoulBlazer** » Fri May 30, 2003 12:11 pm

Yeah, I'll have to wait till he comes back from his trip, though.

Here is my case:

CHIEFTEC Server Chasis (Aluminum Workstation Tower with Plastic Front Cover) SILVER w/acrylic window **Now with 2 x Front USB2.0 and 1 x Firewire IEEE1394 ports**
Specifications:
Material:Aluminum
Form Factor:ATX
Bays:4 x 5.25", 2 x 3.5", Internal: 4 x 3.5".
Expansion Slots:7
Fans:2 rear Mounted Fans
Power Supply:450W AMD approved Power Supply, Powered by Foxconn (Austin)
Dimensions:473 x 205 x 522 mm (D x W x H) Weights Only 18LBs! Model#: AX-01SLD U2F 450W

http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage.asp ... 202-04.JPG

Voriax · Post by **Voriax** » Fri May 30, 2003 12:30 pm

Strange...

I'd still suggest disconnecting everything possible and checking if there's *any* life at all anywhere..if there is then connecting things back one by one.

Of course, perhaps someone else has better ideas?

Voriax

Mustang · Post by **Mustang** » Fri May 30, 2003 5:55 pm

If your old computer had a ATX power supply, try swapping the power supply and see if it powers up any fans in the new case. If it does than the new power supply is bad, if it doesn't than it is either the motherboard, the power switch, or the cpu. Does your motherboard have any led lights that come on when the power supply is plugged in? You can try testing each wire from the power supply when it is plugged in with a Multimeter to see if any power is passing through the power supply.

SoulBlazer · Post by **SoulBlazer** » Sat May 31, 2003 9:30 am

Thanks to everyone who posted in my previous thread for help. My roomie came home a little eariler then planned, and he's even better at building systems then I am.

Right away he saw my problem -- the cable plugged into the power switch on the mother board was the wrong way.

Once that was flipped, the system started up.

Just to remind people, I'm not building a new system -- I just got from newegg a new motherboard (Epox EP-8RDA+), a new processor (AMD Athlon XP 2600), and a new case fan. Oh, and a new case -- the Chieftec Server Chasis. Since it's important to this thread, I also have a Seagate Barracuda as my primary HD.

I thought after that everything would be fine -- but it turns out that Windows XP refuses to load! I get past the first screen (the bios screen, I guess), and then tries to load Windows, but reboots. Repeat as many times as desired. Sometimes I can see a flash of a blue screen, but it's so quick I don't know if anything is printed on it.

I suspect a motherboard problem because of the tests my roomie and I did:

We tried only having the motherboard, the fans, and the video card hooked up. That seems to be fine. Add in my hard drive, though, and the same problem occures.

I know Win XP will require me to re enter my code after installing new hardware. Of course, I can't even GET that far. But I asked my roomie if I could try the Seagate HD in his computer. Sure enough, the Windows config screen came up. And the HD and Windows was working perfectly before I disconnected everything to install the new processor, CPU, and case.

I also have a second older HD in my systsm, a Maxtor, which still has Win 98 on it. As a experiment, I installed only THAT drive, and sure enough, Win 98 came up!

We also tried changing the jumper setting on the back of the Seagate HD from cable select (I think) to master.

Both of us were totally stumped, so I finally dragged the system into a local repair shop for them to do a dignasotic on it.

Is this type of motherboard just not comptiable with my HD? Could the motherboard have been damaged? We worked on this for hours today, and could'nt think of anything else to try. The fact the old HD works just fine, and my Seagate works on HIS computer, is very suspecious.

Thanks in advance.

Supervisor · Post by **Supervisor** » Sat May 31, 2003 9:41 am

The important thing is you got it working. Enjoy.

SoulBlazer · Post by **SoulBlazer** » Sat May 31, 2003 9:44 am

Uh......no? The computer is in the SHOP now? Did you READ my note?

Sorry, don't want to sound annoyed, but I'm ****** at my PC at this point.

Voriax · Post by **Voriax** » Sat May 31, 2003 12:24 pm

Ah, mysteries of computers. Remember, IBM = It's Black Magic

I really doubt that you board would be unable to accept that old drive. Did you go into the bios during the boot phase and let the board autodetect the hard drive correctly?

Especially as other drives work fine but just one doesn't...did you try connect that barracuda as slave? Boot from that maxtor with win98 and just check if the barracuda works as slave.

Voriax

sparrs · Post by **sparrs** » Sat May 31, 2003 3:58 pm

Originally posted by SoulBlazer
Is this type of motherboard just not comptiable with my HD? Could the motherboard have been damaged? We worked on this for hours today, and could'nt think of anything else to try. The fact the old HD works just fine, and my Seagate works on HIS computer, is very suspecious.

Thanks in advance.

Just an idea; are you using cheap RAM? I know the nforce2 chipsets are finicky on what RAM and memory timings you use.

I suggest visiting this site if the ppl at the shop dont know the answer http://www.8rdafaq.com/Epox_nForce2/index.php

Take it slow, and go through all BIOS options, esp. Memory timings as I think the Epox board had some issues when setting RAM to SPD.

If you can , try another stick of RAM as well.

HTH

kevin

Mr.Frag · Post by **Mr.Frag** » Sat May 31, 2003 8:49 pm

Since you sound like you installed cleanly on an non-SCSI hard drive in your new machine ...

Do you have your SCSI devices properly terminated? Are you installing from an IDE attached CD or a SCSI attached CD?

If the OS doesn't see a device to install to, it's not going to work.

Are your bus speeds set normally? Is this board onboard SCSI or a separate controller? Did you tell XP to load the controller driver?

A million questions.

Don't give in to the urge to put your foot through the case no matter how much you want to, had a buddy do that when I told him to re-boot, next thing I hear is a great big boom over the phone... He ended up in the poor house replacing parts simply because he hadn't terminated this SCSI devices properly (which is a VERY common problem).