AK31 trouble...

[WackDaddy]

I assembled the following system:

AK31
XP 2100+ w/ Volcano 7+
512mb Corsair PC 2100
Leadtek ti4600
60gb Maxtor
40gb Seagate
CDRW and DVDROM
350w PSU

Everything seems to come on fine, the fans spin up etc, except I get no display. I am running the same setup with an 8kha+ as I type but when I swap it for the AK31, that's when I get the problem. Any ideas?

EDIT: I should have added this in the first place but I was tired. * When I first assembled the system, it seemed to boot fine but I heard a squealing sound so I shut it down and opened the case. I couldn't figure out what it was so I closed the case and booted again but, no video this time. * I now think the squealing was from the internal speaker being connected backwards.

What I have tried:

-Barebones boot
-Swapping out all parts except ram and cpu because I don't have others to try
-Clearing CMOS

 

[LiLithTecH]

About the only suggestion I could give is to clear the CMOS.
Also you may want to make sure you have the latest Bios.

Shuttle's have gathered a rep for being bad out of the box.
It not unusual for slot to be dead on them. And their Support sucks.

I stopped using any Shuttle board for that reason.

 

[Workin']

Did you try the basic troubleshooting techniques?

Assemble a bare-bones setup - mobo, CPU, 1 stick of RAM, and graphics card. If it works, then start adding parts until it doesn't. Then you found the problem.

Also, clearing the CMOS is a good idea.

And contrary to LiLithTech's experience I have never had a bad Shuttle board out of many dozens. Maybe you need to use hundreds or thousands to find a bad one?

 

[WackDaddy]

BUMP, not sure how to update the BIOS if I have no video.

 

[LiLithTecH]

Do you have another, non-AGP (PCI) card you can try?

It would be a bit tough without a display...(my bad)

 

[WackDaddy]

Yes, I have tried a PCI vid card and still nothing.

 

[habba]

I'm not so sure the AK31 ver2.0 handled up to an XP2100

 

[Workin']

I now think the squealing was from the internal speaker being connected backwards.

If you mean the speaker that's mounted in the case, it's not possible to connect the internal speaker backwards. It doesn't matter which way you connect it. The squealing came from something else... dying?

 

[WackDaddy]

Hmmm...on the shuttle site it claims to support it here. Perhaps it is only with the latest bios? I don't have any way to update it. I would try a lesser CPU but I don't have one. Hehe anyone want to lone me one? As far as the speaker...I didn't know that... and the sound didn't stop until I turned the connector around so I thought for sure that was it. Perhaps it was one of my drives? They all seem to work fine on my other board.

 

[MiloMinderbinder]

I regret to say that over the last week I've become something of an authority on the problems of the AK31 and power supplies. What's wrong with the AK31? Well, the short answer is that this board has some serious problems and I don't know what they all are. The long answer is .. well, that's the long answer, too. Actually, there's a ton of background on this problem (some useful) at:

http://www.amdforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=88037&pagenumber=1

What I know the problem is not:
- it's not related to particular PS vendor (some Enermax supplies worked, some wouldn't)
- it's not related to PS power output (my 230W supply ran for 6 months, a new 435W unit wouldn't POST)
- it's not related to power supply DC voltage (working and non-working supplies measure identically)
- it's not related to supply sequencing (pull the reset line and it still won't POST)
- it's not related to loading on the PCI, AGP, or memory bus (working and non-working configurations were identical)

My current suspicion is that the clock generator on this board is very sensitive to supply ripple. I have not looked at the supply on a scope, so this is utter speculation, but I do know that the processor was not getting a valid clock when it didn't POST.

My advice to you would be to make friends with the technician at the local PC shop, buy him/her lunch, whatever .. but see if they'll test your motherboard on all the open stock and bench supplies that they have. Find one that works and buy it. That's what I ended up doing after going through 5 different supplies on my Rev 3.1 AK31.

Good luck,

Scott