Did I just fry a brand new MOBO?

P

Positively Negative

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hi Guys,

I received a new mobo for my folks. It seems to be one of those micro boards but it fit pretty nicely in this case.
I installed the cpu, put thermal paste on and then screwed the heatsink on.

So the moment of truth arrives .I plug the 24 pin power cable into the mobo and also that 4 pin cpu cable.
When I boot up the fan spins but there is no start up beep from the mobo itself. If I remove the RAM I and try again I then hear non stop beeping . I have switched RAM and I'm certain it is not the RAM as it was working fine.

Is there a chance I may have shorted the board while handling it? I remember trying to take care but fck me I think I've become part of the horror fry stories :(:(:(

I've cleared the cmos jumper cable aswell. I've also seated a extra graphics card but still no display on the monitor and no initial motherboard beep.

I am busy doing this all from the outside of the case, does the board HAVE to be screwed down?

any advice pls
 
Pic?

Btw it's fine having it outside the case for testing.
 
Is it only a new motherboard, or other parts as well?

Sent from my Nexus One using MyBroadband Android App
 
biometrics said:
Pic?

Btw it's fine having it outside the case for testing.
Click to expand...

Yeah I thought it should be fine . I checked online how guys do Breadboarding.

Kroks said:
Is it only a new motherboard, or other parts as well?

Sent from my Nexus One using MyBroadband Android App
Click to expand...

Bought a new mobo about 2 weeks ago. Last week the PSU got water in it and it exploded. So today The new 400 W PSU got delivered with the thermal paste for the cpu.

I fcking am gutted. I thought I could help save my parents a few grand. Now I've just wasted over R1000 and no solution. jesus
 
Beeping is actually a better sign,if it remained quiet without RAM you should worry

Take it out of the Case
Put it on a table and start from scratch
Board,Processor,1 stick of RAM,PSU,screen connected,and power up using a screwdriver to jump the two terminals for the Power SW
 
Have you got the old mobo, does it work?

You have to many variables, go back to the last known working setup (or as close to) and upgrade from there.
 
PsyWulf said:
Beeping is actually a better sign,if it remained quiet without RAM you should worry

Take it out of the Case
Put it on a table and start from scratch
Board,Processor,1 stick of RAM,PSU,screen connected,and power up using a screwdriver to jump the two terminals for the Power SW
Click to expand...

That's what I basically did since this morning. I had the board and installed the CPU, applied thermal paste, screwed the heatsink on. I now have the PSU out the case and mobo aswell. The 24 pin power is connected and the other 4 pin cpu aswell. Then the HDD LED , speaker, reset and power switches are connected aswell.

When you say jump with a screwdriver? I'm scared ... won't that cause a short. Ahh fark I honestly probably shorted the fcking board and I never knew it. jesus why the fck are they so sensitive. fcking technology needs to improve in these regards and have built in anti static everything!!!! :( :( :(
 
biometrics said:
Have you got the old mobo, does it work?

You have to many variables, go back to the last known working setup (or as close to) and upgrade from there.
Click to expand...

Nope..that's what the original problem was. the old mobo just died. we took it in to a pc store, no beeps on startup and no display. they wanted to charge us R3000 for a new pc. I got angry and told my mom I will try and save them by getting a compatable mobo for the CPU and ram. I now have that board but it's strange, I am back to the same sheet I had with the old fried board. Fan stars up but no beeps and no video.

Eish man
 
Positively Negative said:
That's what I basically did since this morning. I had the board and installed the CPU, applied thermal paste, screwed the heatsink on. I now have the PSU out the case and mobo aswell. The 24 pin power is connected and the other 4 pin cpu aswell. Then the HDD LED , speaker, reset and power switches are connected aswell.

When you say jump with a screwdriver? I'm scared ... won't that cause a short. Ahh fark I honestly probably shorted the fcking board and I never knew it. jesus why the fck are they so sensitive. fcking technology needs to improve in these regards and have built in anti static everything!!!! :( :( :(
Click to expand...

Thats how the power switch in your case works,it shorts the two terminals sending a power-up signal :P - flat screwdriver,short the two terminals ( DO NOT SHORT ANYTHING ELSE )

The case ( or however else you may be trying to start it could also be shorting the setup )

Go step by step as per my instructions,take pictures at each point,describe every connection as it's made. If it's beeping it stands a chance of being saved as it means the chipset is still useable

Also,post board,cpu and RAM models as these might be incompatible
 
DEAR mother ... it's working :D

Thanks so much guys. It seems the one RAM slot on the mobo is faulty or I may have shorted that one.
I have 2 gigs which is more than enough for my folks requirements. So I am SORTED :D

Thanks for the advice... shot PsyWulf!
 
Great to hear that you got it working.

Mobo's aren't as sensitive as you might think. I've manhandled a board or two back in the day and was surprised that they still worked.
 
I installed a CPU heatsink skew on an AMD Athlon 2200+ a few years back. Fried the CPU and motherboard. Don't worry. One suspect RAM slot is not so bad.
 
@PN: I had to change the default RAM timings on my Socket 754 Albatron mini-ITX board to get it to work properly. Just look carefully at those three motherboard reviews that I sent to you previously to see if this might help.

Installation of hardware on the Albatron KI51PV-754 motherboard was smooth enough, but we did experience a problem getting it to boot up at first with the standard memory PCSTATS installs in each test platform. The issue had to do with running the memory at DDR-400, for whatever reason the 'performance' DDR we selected just wouldn't play ball. I'm not sure if the problem lay with the motherboard or processor, but four sets of DDR memory were tested, all with the same result. To fix this issue, the DDR operating frequency was altered to DDR-333, and thereafter the Albatron KI51PV-754 platform operated without incident.
Click to expand...

Refer to the section on memory tweaks on Page 3 for more details ...
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2050&page=1

Which PSU did you buy?
 
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@vinodh:
I once started up my PC with an AMD Althlon XP 2400+ without a heatsink for a few seconds, because I wanted to feel how hot the CPU gets :D ... and I burnt my finger tip within the first 2 seconds :(
At least my CPU was still fine after that.

Nowadays when I assemble a PC myself, I always run HWMonitor before I do a stress test, to ensure that the temperatures are OK.
 
Pada said:
Nowadays when I assemble a PC myself, I always run HWMonitor before I do a stress test, to ensure that the temperatures are OK.
Click to expand...

You don't have to, nowadays the CPUs will shut down when they overheat.
 
Positively Negative said:
I received a new mobo for my folks. It seems to be one of those micro boards but it fit pretty nicely in this case.
Click to expand...

Positively Negative said:
DEAR mother ... it's working :D

Thanks so much guys. It seems the one RAM slot on the mobo is faulty or I may have shorted that one.
I have 2 gigs which is more than enough for my folks requirements. So I am SORTED :D
Click to expand...

Fsck it. Send the MB back for a replacement, I honestly don't think the damage is you're doing!
 
Yotch said:
@PN: I had to change the default RAM timings on my Socket 754 Albatron mini-ITX board to get it to work properly. Just look carefully at those three motherboard reviews that I sent to you previously to see if this might help.



Refer to the section on memory tweaks on Page 3 for more details ...
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2050&page=1

Which PSU did you buy?
Click to expand...

Yotch mate,
this seems to have been the OVERALL underlying issue. Since I have 3 sticks of DDR II ram from the old pc which did work fine, I was switching and fiddling non stop until finally a 512 stick worked long enough for me to get into the BIOS and configure successfully. I will definetely check those mem tweaks to find out WTF is going on! It seems both RAM slots work randomly at will and it's a lucky strike but for now the 512 is working fine. I will need to install the 2 GB stick I have for better performance.

BUT now I have another issue. Windows somehow got damaged and needs a repair but I can't freaking boot off the CD!!!

I set the options to boot to CD first but get the following error : 'DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER'

I have 2 XP cd's which I have used many times to boot from. The Bios and CMOS picks up the HD and the DVD RW fine but it cannot boot off the cd giving the error above :( Just when I think I have saved the day. lol. I have set the dvd rw to slave and HDD to master but still the same error. If the DVD RW somehow shorted when the original issue happened, It's not a huge deal and we can buy a new one. But I think it must be a bios setting I am missing? I have checked the manual but had no luck.

Any tips ? Thanks again for all the help forumites!

EDIT - seems to all be working now somehow. What a fcking MISSION. Checkdisk ran a scan and sorted some issues out.If I have further issues I will report back.
Thanks again guys!
 
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My board can also boot from a flash drive if I configure this in the Bios. You should be able to download the full manual from Albatron's website if necessary - this might help with some of the more complex settings. I thought that your motherboard needs notebook RAM? Just check that it does support 2GB DIMMs. It might also not recognise two DIMMs with different capacities. One of my 512M DIMMs does not seem to work in my motherboard although I think that it is still functioning. At one stage the Bios seemed to be losing settings so I was considering replacing the battery but the problem seems to have disappeared for the moment. Apart from the initial problems with RAM the board seems to be very stable. I have also booted into Ubuntu from time to time for various purposes.
 
Last edited:
Pada said:
@vinodh:
I once started up my PC with an AMD Althlon XP 2400+ without a heatsink for a few seconds, because I wanted to feel how hot the CPU gets :D ... and I burnt my finger tip within the first 2 seconds :(
At least my CPU was still fine after that.

Nowadays when I assemble a PC myself, I always run HWMonitor before I do a stress test, to ensure that the temperatures are OK.
Click to expand...

I had a close one recently with a celeron cpu and a stock cooler (the ones with those horrible plastic fasteners). Those things are not designed to be removed and replaced more that once or twice before those plastic fasteners start to fail. I fastened all four, started up the system, checked the BIOS and noticed the CPU temp go sky high. After shutting down, I noticed that one of the fasteners had popped out.

I fixed it by getting some screws from a case fan and screwing the heatsink bracket directly to the motherboard. That PC is till running fine. Learn something new everyday...
 
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