Help! My ASUS A7N8X Motherboard Will Not Boot Up Now!

[JonathanF]

I just received my ASUS A7N8X Motherboard, AMD Athlon 2800+ CPU, and an AMD approved TAISOL CPU Heatsink and FAN.

I also have two sticks of Kingston HyperX PC 3500 DDR RAM which I installed in the Memory Slots 1 and 3.

The Computer booted up the first time, but I noticed that the CPU registered at around a 1350 GHZ CPU.

I then went into the Motherboard's BIOS and changed the CPU External Frequency from the Default 100 MHZ to 133 MHZ, and I then rebooted the Computer.

The Computer now refuses to boot up now although I get power, but I have no Video.

I cannot get to the Motherboard's BIOS Setup Screen to change any of the BIOS Settings.

I tried to reset the Motherboard's BIOS by first turning off the Computer, unplugged the Power Cord, removed the CMOS Battery, moved the "CLRTC1" Jumper from "1-2" to "2-3".

I then waited a few minutes and placed the "CLRTC1" Jumper Back to "1-2".
I reinstalled the CMOS Battery, I plugged the Power Cord back in, and I restarted the Computer.

I tried this Procedure many times and the Computer powers up, but I still have no Video so I cannot get to the CMOS Setup Screen.

I even removed the Kingston PC 3500 DDR RAM, and I inserted my old Kingston PC 2100 DDR RAM, but the procedure still will not work, and I still have no Video and cannot get to the BIOS Setup Screen.

What can I do now?

Jonathan

 

[Nardman]

hey bro, I hope I'm wrong with this but it sounds to me like your CPU got fried. You may want to pull the HSF off and visually check the core for chips or (my belief) burn marks. The only other thing that I can think fo that it might be is your power supply. If you have any spare computer parts handy, those would be the places I would start looking. Best of luck man

 

[Nardman]

oh, and btw, don't remove the CMOS battery when you reset the BIOS...that could be another possible reason for your computer not booting, because if you remove the CMOS battery when you clear the CMOS I don't believe the settings will reset to defaults. To clear the CMOS, just power down, switch the jumper, try to power up, set the jumper back to default, and then power up again. hope this helps, peace.

 

[mechBgon]

My first two guesses are that either your power supply (yes I know what kind and wattage it is) may not be able to drive that much equipment at once, or you reversed your heatsink and installed it 180° backwards. The stepped end of the heatsink must go over the raised, solid plastic part of the CPU socket that the CPU doesn't cover. If you have that correct, then try unplugging all non-essential drives from the data and power cables.

And if you start more and more threads about this subject all over the place like you're prone to doing in the past, it will be time for a word with the Moderator. You've already got two going as it is (in the same forum, no less), and I have already told you once that it's not polite. A word to the wise is sufficient...

 

[nick1985]

try psu

 

[Literatii]

I think 90% of the people that first boot their a7n8x have the exact same problem. I know I did, although I'm running at 133, not 166. If you go to www.amdmb.com you'll get tons of responses on the matter.

IIRC there is a problem running at 166 with anything but the C bios (if you have the deluxe). But you should double check that. There is also an nforce2 troubleshooting thread around here somewhere.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Literatii
I think 90% of the people that first boot their a7n8x have the exact same problem. I know I did, although I'm running at 133, not 166. If you go to www.amdmb.com you'll get tons of responses on the matter.

IIRC there is a problem running at 166 with anything but the C bios (if you have the deluxe). But you should double check that. There is also an nforce2 troubleshooting thread around here somewhere.

Ah, that reminds me... JonathanF, did you set the CPUFSB jumper on the top pair of pins? This jumper's right by the motherboard heatsink, to the left of it.

 

[chizow]

The only disappointment I had with this board was the BIOS it shipped with. It actually locks the multi with T-breds, which causes all kinds of problems when first trying to boot.

My guess is this, the first time your CPU tried booting it was at the default multi of 13.5x. Since that 2800+ is set by default to run at 166mhz FSB, and the FSB jumpers are set at default 133/166mhz, it tried setting the FSB to 166mhz. Which should have been fine. The problem is, at defaults with memory to run by SPD, it tacks on an extra % increase to your memory frequency to your actual FSB!!! So I'm thinking it tried running the memory at almost 200mhz off the bat! When it couldn't do that successfully, it reverted to 100mhz FSB, giving you your 1350mhz total clock speed.

Same thing happened with my 1700XP, it booted up at 1100mhz (11x100mhz). Instead of adjusting the multiplier and FSB to run at 1.47mhz (11x133), it went by my RAM speed and tried doing 11x166! Coupled with the increase of the "SPD" setting, it was pushing my RAM to almost 200mhz FSB without allowing me to tweak at all. Luckily, I was able to get into the BIOS and adjust everything to run at 133mhz FSB before tweaking (AGP voltage, Vdimm voltage, Mem set to "SYNC", Ram timings etc.)

I don't know whats causing your system not to boot now. I've never had to reset my CMOS even with all the lockups I went thru OCing. As others have suggested, it may be your PSU. No video signal can also be caused by a video card problem. I would also think it could be your ram, but it looks like you tried a different stick. Hopefully nothing is fried. Try a different video card if you have one laying around. I keep an old Voodoo3 PCI around just for this reason.

Chiz

 

[mechBgon]

For the record, the A7N8X-Deluxe I built this week doesn't tack extra MHz onto the RAM speed. It's set to Sync by default.