System won't POST, am I missing anything?

R

RedShark

[H]ard|Gawd
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Aug 8, 2003
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Hello,

We have here an Asus P4P800 with a 2.4GHZ Pentium 4, 4x512MB Corsair DDR-400 RAM, a BFG 6800GT AGP Video card, and an Antec 430w TruePower. All these parts are ca. 2003.

Yesterday, the machine worked fine. We moved it to a different room, set it up, and now it won't POST, though all devices appear to be powered. In particular, we get no video at all, and it does not attempt to boot Windows (no disk activity if we leave the disk plugged in).

Here are the configurations we've tried and the result:
- Mobo + CPU + Power = 1 long + 2 short beeps
- Mobo + CPU + Power + Video = 1 long + 2 short beeps
- Mobo + CPU + Power + Video + 1 stick of RAM = No beeps
- Mobo + CPU + Power + 1 stick of RAM = No beeps

This is an AMI BIOS, and the 1 long + 2 short beep suggests a video card problem (provided this is accurate: http://www.bioscentral.com/beepcodes/amibeep.htm). I'm not 100% sure this mobo uses an AMI BIOS as I don't remember, but other posts on the Internet suggests it is. I had upgraded the BIOS in the past to a fairly recent version--much newer than the stock version. This system has no history of instability and worked fine until we moved it.

Other steps we've taken:
- We've tried several RAM configurations, different slots, different sticks, etc, but the result is the same in each case according to the above table.
- Cleared CMOS by removing the battery and fiddling with the jumper.
- Checked various cables, e.g. ATX power cable, to ensure all pins are making contact.
- Checked power supply voltages with a voltmeter with the video card and RAM in to ensure they were reasonable. We read 12V on the yellow lines and 5V on the red (relative to ground).
- No bulging capacitors, smoke, or scorch marks :)

About the only thing we've not tried is removing the motherboard from the case, but this seems like such a long shot at this point.

My guess is either the video card or motherboard with a smaller chance of power supply problems, but I'm interested in hearing your input as to any other things we could try. We don't have a spare video card or the capacity to test the card we have, so that's still a variable. We will likely buy a cheap AGP card to test unless anyone has any other suggestions.

Thanks for any help.
 
I had same problem with an Asus A8N-E about 2 weeks ago. Had to call tech support, tried everything you tried and got exact results you did, then got an RMA for the board.
 
Bumping once, since I'm desperate :( This board is definitely out of warranty so I imagine my options with tech support are limited, though I've not called them.
 
It looks like your video card is shot with no beeps when you have a stick of RAM and the video card. I wouldn't 100% rule out that it could be your RAM, but my first instinct is video card.
 
Thanks for the tip. Would you expect the machine the machine to beep at all if the video card were removed? We tested the machine with Power + CPU + Mobo + RAM, but got no beeps there, either. We expected to get the 1 long + 2 short in that scenario, but it doesn't beep at all.
 
Yes, I would expect the machine to beep without the video card. I know you said you didn't want to remove the board but I would just because it can help you catch something missed. Use a telephone book to lay the board on and use a screw driver to jump the power switch. I have had a lot of experience with this same scenario and have run into unexpected things like stuck reset buttons that caused the system not to post. When I unplugged the reset switch to test the components out of the case I caught little stuff just like this and more.
 
So, to confirm, it sounds like all we really need to test is Power + Mobo + CPU + RAM? If we can get beeps in that scenario, then try it with video? I just wanted to confirm that this is the smallest possible configuration that we need to make progress. Currently, Power + Mobo + CPU gives us beeps, but when we add the RAM (in any of several configurations) we get nothing.

We will try removing the board to test this. The machine is already essentially taken apart so it won't take much more to get the board out anyway--we just wanted to avoid dealing with that if there were any other options available :)

I will post back once we have something to report.
 
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