This one has got me really scratching my head!
I've bought a new MSI KT6 Delta motherboard, Athlon 2800+ & 512Mb PC3200/DDR400 DIMM, and am trying to get them to work. Every time I boot up, it gets a small way into the boot process and then powers itself down - and won't power up again until I pull the power cord out of the back of the power supply. This motherboard comes with a useful diagnostic backplate that shows that it's failing after the initial memory test and at/before "decompresing BIOS image to RAM for fast booting".
I've had replacement DIMMS, a replacement processor (which did at least get me 1 stage further in the POST), and now a new motherboard.
I have now tried Motherbaord A with processors X and Y and DIMMS M and N, case 1 and 2; motherboard B with processor Y, DIMM N and case 1. In each combination it stops at exactly the same place. Either I have another duff processor (in a differently duff way to the original), or another duff DIMM (M and N come from 2 different suppliers, so they could both be duff in the same way, but would be a bit of a coincidence).
I've tried clearing CMOS on m/b A, not yet on B. I have nothing connected to the m/b other than the 2 power connections, the on/off switch and the processor fan. (I originally started out on m/b A with everything connected - 2 hard disks, floppy, 2 DVD drives, graphics adaptor, all the other case connectors, audio leads etc - and gradually disconnected everything to see what would make the error go away - and nothing did!)
Don't think it's PSU, unless the PSU in both cases is faulty (possible, but an amazing coincidence). The one in Case 1 is a new 400W job that came with the case; the one in Case 2 is about a year old, bought to replace the one in Case 2 that had blown up when the motherboard (since removed) in that machine fried.
Video is off-board.
This has had me tearing my hair out - I've never had a problem like this that hasn't been caused by a bad cable connection (or cable upside down) or somesuch - but there aren't any cables connected.
Process of deduction says that:
So... I've about to try processor #3- but if that doesn't work...... any bright ideas what else might be the problem?
(Going off topic, but one other point, in passing - do not, under any circumstances be tempted to deal with Refresh Computers. They are cheap, but are the most unresponsive and downright useless PC vendor I have ever dealt with (and I've previously had the misfortune to buy from both Jungle.com and Watford Electronics!). I've had to resort to threats at literally every stage to get any response at all out of them - including getting them to supply the original order. Never again! Aria and Dabs (as usual) have, in contrast been a pleasure to deal with)
I've bought a new MSI KT6 Delta motherboard, Athlon 2800+ & 512Mb PC3200/DDR400 DIMM, and am trying to get them to work. Every time I boot up, it gets a small way into the boot process and then powers itself down - and won't power up again until I pull the power cord out of the back of the power supply. This motherboard comes with a useful diagnostic backplate that shows that it's failing after the initial memory test and at/before "decompresing BIOS image to RAM for fast booting".
I've had replacement DIMMS, a replacement processor (which did at least get me 1 stage further in the POST), and now a new motherboard.
I have now tried Motherbaord A with processors X and Y and DIMMS M and N, case 1 and 2; motherboard B with processor Y, DIMM N and case 1. In each combination it stops at exactly the same place. Either I have another duff processor (in a differently duff way to the original), or another duff DIMM (M and N come from 2 different suppliers, so they could both be duff in the same way, but would be a bit of a coincidence).
I've tried clearing CMOS on m/b A, not yet on B. I have nothing connected to the m/b other than the 2 power connections, the on/off switch and the processor fan. (I originally started out on m/b A with everything connected - 2 hard disks, floppy, 2 DVD drives, graphics adaptor, all the other case connectors, audio leads etc - and gradually disconnected everything to see what would make the error go away - and nothing did!)
Don't think it's PSU, unless the PSU in both cases is faulty (possible, but an amazing coincidence). The one in Case 1 is a new 400W job that came with the case; the one in Case 2 is about a year old, bought to replace the one in Case 2 that had blown up when the motherboard (since removed) in that machine fried.
Video is off-board.
This has had me tearing my hair out - I've never had a problem like this that hasn't been caused by a bad cable connection (or cable upside down) or somesuch - but there aren't any cables connected.
Process of deduction says that:
- the problem is unlikely to be the motherboard - as two separate motherboards give the same problem (barring remarkable coincidence)
- unlikely to be the PSU - two separate PSUs, ditto
- more likely but still unlikely is the DIMM - 2 separate DIMMs tried which exhibit the same problem, each sourced from a difference supplier
- The only common item left is the processor - which is a replacement, but from the same vendor as the first faulty one
So... I've about to try processor #3- but if that doesn't work...... any bright ideas what else might be the problem?
(Going off topic, but one other point, in passing - do not, under any circumstances be tempted to deal with Refresh Computers. They are cheap, but are the most unresponsive and downright useless PC vendor I have ever dealt with (and I've previously had the misfortune to buy from both Jungle.com and Watford Electronics!). I've had to resort to threats at literally every stage to get any response at all out of them - including getting them to supply the original order. Never again! Aria and Dabs (as usual) have, in contrast been a pleasure to deal with)
but they said that they were working on it.
