System won't boot....help please

[SLPFirehawk]

Specs of system
Pentium II 333
256MB RAM
Asus P2E-B
Fujitsu 3GB HDD
Matrox Millenium II PCI
Netgear FA310 NIC

I went to reboot this system this morning and it wouldn't boot up. No beeps....hard drive does not spin up. I have replaced the memory, video card and power supply. Still no good. I have also tried a different hard drive and it won't spin up either. Does this sound like a motherboard gone bad? Any help would be great....

 

[Yonux]

Did you try to clear the BIOS with the mobo jumper (location should be in you mobo manual)?

 

[SLPFirehawk]

There are no jumpers to clear the BIOS on the particular motherboard I have, even though the manual shows it....any other way to clear the BIOS and CMOS?

 

[bacillus]

<< There are no jumpers to clear the BIOS on the particular motherboard I have, even though the manual shows it....any other way to clear the BIOS and CMOS? >>


disconnect the power supply & then temporarily remove the m/board battery.

 

[nihil]

check your power supply again to make sure everything is connected properly. try using another outlet (maybe you're not getting enough voltage). as far as the CMOS goes i'm assuming you can't access it so you can try removing the CMOS battery which will clear the settings on the chip. is it giving you a POST error by any chance?

 

[SLPFirehawk]

I am not getting any POST errors. I will try removing the battery to clear the CMOS.

Could another culprit be the IDE hard drive cable? I'll try replacing it this afternoon....other than that, I'm gonna have to say the mainboard is flaky.

Any other suggestions?

 

[Elledan]

Do any fans (CPU, PSU) or lights (keyboard, any diagnostic LEDs etc.) light up?

If not, try replacing the PSU. If this doesn't help, then it's likely the motherboard is dead, verify this by clearing the CMOS a couple of times.

Things like IDE cables etc. are highly unlikely to be the culprit.

 

[SLPFirehawk]

The CPU and PSU fans are working. When I first switch the computer on, the keyboard lights go on then off and the power light on the front of the computer is on....damn gremlins....


The monitor also switches on when the system is powered up.

 

[nihil]

it would probably be a good idea to make sure the power supply is providing ample power. if it's reading on the low side you probably have yourself a bad ps, either way try a new ps.

 

[AndyHui]

ASUS motherboards don't use jumpers to clear the BIOS. It's a set of solder pads that you need to short out instead.

 

[SLPFirehawk]

Okay...I've tried everything you guys have suggested, I still have a computer that won't boot. I guess I better start looking for some new hardware.....

Thanks for all your help!

 

[Jgtdragon]

Try take out your motherboard and make sure you screw in your screws properly. Sounds like a grounding problem. Happened to me this week. No video, all fans turn on, no beep, and keyboard light turns on then off.

 

[Yonux]

if you feel it may be the HD or other device, then unplug everything but leave the CPU, ram and Vid card. You should not need any IDE devices to post into the BIOS as long as you have ram, cpu and vid, you could also take out the ram or vid and see if you get those BIOS error beep codes, at least it would tell you of the MOBO is looking for them.

 

[SLPFirehawk]

Updates....
Removed mainboard and reinstalled, to check for grounding problem (twice), same problem
I also removed the RAM and the mainboard beeped the memory error.
I reinstalled the RAM and then removed the video card and the mainboard beeped the video error.

 

[inqztive]

Sorry to break the bad news to you. probably your CPU is dead.

 

[Whitedog]

Remove the CPU and see if it "beeps the CPU error"

just kidding

 

[Jgtdragon]

SLPFirehawk,
You find the solution? I am curious to find out what is causing this problem.