Hello all. I'm new to this forum and fairly new to system building. After buying some new goodies to upgrade my system I'm scratching my head. New mobo is Abit KW7, CPU AMD XP2400+, Mem 512 Mb Geil 333 pc2700, Vid Card FX 5900, HDD Maxtor DiamondMax 7200 2mb cache. After putting it all together, with the floppy and CDRom from the other machine, it powers up, but won't do anything. HDD and FDD access lights are on continuously, and the CDRom will only work if I unplug the IDE cable. As soon as the IDE cable is attached the CDRom loses power Could this be a faulty IDE controller on the Mobo? Any help would be greatly appreciated. :good:
1.Try and use a set of IDE cables from another computer that you know has working HDD / FDD / Optical Devices. 2.Make sure you have reset your CMOS on the motherboard, refer to your manual. 3.What powersupply (PSU) are you using? and what make is the powersupply, because by the sounds of things you have built a new system except for your case / psu / fdd / optical drives. - If your powersupply is not powerful enough this could cause major problems with your hardware, it is also likely to damage it. Please post back with the Brand of the PSU what the Wattage is on it, and list if you can the "Rails" this is a sticker somewhere on your powersupply unit that will look something like this: +5.5V +3.3V +12V -5.5V -3.3V -12V under neith these it will list the the Amps per Voltage rail, your overall Wattage is not important it's what Ampage it can distribute throughout the computer.
Thanks for the reply. I did use a new case. It has a 400 watt psu. The case is a Benz. PSU came with it. I've been scouring the manual, and apparently, SATA is enabled by default. But I can't disable it as I can't get the PC to boot Don't know about the rails you mentioned as I'm at work at the minute. *edit* Should I connect both the 20 pin atx connector and the 4 pin 12v connector. Using AMD XP2400+ Thoroughbred. Just remebered, when I power it up the GFX card fan does about 2 spins then stops. Full specs. Benz case with 400 watt PSU. XP2400+ 512Mb Geil PC2700 1 80Gb Maxtor IDE 1 Optical drive 1 FDD 1 FX5900XT 1 10/100 NIC Onboard 6 channel audio 4 extra fans (2 of which are built into case panel)
Yeah, if the 4-pin 12V auxillary connector is on the motherboard, you should connect it. Abit is a pretty good company, but there might be some odd mobo/PSU combination that requires both power connectors on the mobo to be plugged in. Now, it does sound like there's not enough power getting there, especially if it's some off brand PSU. I don't know if you've felt the PSU's weight, but a good indicator of a quality PSU is that it's fairly heavy. This means that there's a very good chance that a lot of components have been used to make the PSU and should deliver some clean juice. Wattage really amounts to jack squat. I've seen 420W+ PSU's that have amperages that are about the same as my 350W Sparkle unit has. Amps are what really count, not watts.
Thanks for the replies guys. I'll connect the 4 pin power cable when I get home. I always thought that was for a P4 chip. Never thought to check the mobo to see if there was a socket for it. (You need a smiley for D'OH). Just checked the online manual for the mobo and it quite clearly states, and I quote, "This motherboard provides two power connectors to connect the ATX12V power supplier" Maybe a sticky in the forum for idiots like myself that says, "Read the god damn manual you bonehead". I'll post back and let you know if it blows up.
Initially, yes it was only necessary for the P4, but AMD incorporated it into their design requirements for awhile, however, they later made it optional. We could make tons of stickies for everything, but there's so much info out there. If its something that we continually see as an issue popping up, yeah, I can see a sticky. Of course, the best rule of thumb before messing with anything is RTFM: Read The Fscking Manual.
Most people dont read the stickys....they are in to big of a hurry to get the problem they have solved. your floppy light stays on and the cdrom does not work, if there is no disk in the floppy you have the cable connected upside down, they plug either way. if you have a old cheap cdrom cable they may also be able to plug up-side-down. most of the better ones will not if it has the notch, or the blank pin hole in the center...but if you have one that will plug either way it could be the problem. They pretty much covered everything else. I agree about the cheap power supply comment,people buy cheap cases off ebay or odd sites and think they have a 400w power supply and it does not put up near that spec. when they burn out, and they will...they are bad about taking your motherboard with it. I have seen some that caught fire.
OK. Plugged in the extra power connector, checked all the IDE cables. I bought brand new rounded ones. They will only plug in the right way. Still nothing. I am now completely baffled.
did you earth yourself before assmbling your new system as im sure you now static is v.dangerous to computer components. try resseting your cmos by the step below: 1) locate the battery on your motherboard 2) look for a jumper close to it (usually yellow) 3) move that jumper across to the next 2 pins for 5 seconds 4) move it back 5) start your system WARNING! never do this with the system turned on as it will wreck your board There are more things to try below: 1) try is reseating your ram by removing it and replacing it then again resetting your cmos by the step above. 2) is there any beep when the board powers up?? if so how many? if there is look for a reference to this in your manuel these beeps can tell you what the errors are. 3) try the board out of the case to ensure the board is not shorting on anything in the case. 4) check all connections just in case 5) post back wether any of the aboe works or not. hope it helps Dave :good:
I stripped the whole thing right back to it's component parts last night, and still nothing. The GFX card does not power up, so I tried my old GeForce 4 Ti4200 and the fans spin up a treat, so it looks as if the new card may be dead. Still doesn't explain the issue with the IDE drives tho. Taking the whole lot back to where I bought it from today for them to bench test it all. Hopefully I can get to the bottom of it. *edit* Just rebuilt it with the old mobo. IDE drives work fine :| GFX card is still dead tho.
check the back of the board that you have the problems with, does it have a burned spot, if riser was not lined up right you may have shorted the board and killed the video card too. it is very important to check the way the motherboard will line up with the case's mounting risers. also like posted above you could have hit it with a static charge killing the mobo and video card.
Well, how stoopid do I feel. Took the gear back to Microdirect to be checked. I must say. Great bunch of guys down there. They assembled the mobo, hdd, and GFX card on the bench with one of their PSU's, CPU and Mem. It posted first time. Even the GFX fan was spinning .So I asked if they could try it with my PSU. So he plugged in my PSU, and yup, you guessed it. Posted no problem. Turns out, that with their CPU and Mem it's fine. With my XP2400+ and mem it won't post. Looks like CPU or Mem or both are knackered . Strange tho, as they both worked fine the night before. Ah well. Going shopping next week for even more new bits. I can highly recommend www.microdirect.co.uk for ordering online, or if you live in the Manchester area, well worth a visit. Really helpful guys.
