Re: New M2A-VM HDMI, Can't get it to start

I'm starting to lean torwards "there's something wrong with the board"
-- just put in my Ubuntu CD to run a Memtest and that also said there
was an I/O error reading the disk. The drive never gave me any
problems before and I've used that CD to install Ubuntu with no issues
on two other PC's this week.

On Thu, 27 Dec 2007 13:55:21 -0500, Fred Poe <fjp@xxxxxxx> wrote:

On Thu, 27 Dec 2007 13:50:51 -0500, Fred Poe <fjp@xxxxxxx> wrote:


As I had the screen paused to read off the BIOS version, those darn
blue boxes came back on the screen. This definitly looks like it's a
problem with either on board video or BIOS -- it only happens before
or during POST.

Fred


Hi Paul,

I managed to get it to boot...somewhat

Right after I posted this message, I decided to go against what the
owners manual says for RAM sockets (one stick in A1, one stick in B1
(the two yellow slots next to each other)) and set the RAM up like I
have in my A8N5X - alternating slots (oddly enough, when I got the
A8N5X, I also blew a power supply...)

In doing this I got the PC to a point where I can boot up to install
XP. However, if the system restarts any way other than a 'hard reset'
(powered off, wait a few seconds, powered on), it fails to start at
all.

What I get, instead, is either blue dots scattered across the screen,
or blue and purple boxes scattered across the screen. In eithor case,
I still have a classic, MS-DOS style cursor in the top left. Sometimes
the top-left quarter of blue and purple boxes flashes. I managed to
get into BIOS to disable the startup graphics so I can see what it's
doing in the beginning and one time it said "CMOS Checksum Error - F1
to continue".

Also, I didn't get to install XP -- apparently there's something wrong
with the disk (demboot.sys is corrupted), so I'll have to find a way
to beg MS to replace my copy or find another disk and use my license
key with it.

Regardless, it seems like my failure to being able to reboot without
completely shutting down the system and waiting a few seconds is the
problem now. Got to figure out a way to fix this and then I'll be
happy. Now that I got it started up I can mention what BIOS version I
have installed, maybe it's a problem in there:

ACPI BIOS Revision 1001
06/26/2007-690G-SB600-M2A-VM_H-00.


TIA,A

Fred

On Thu, 27 Dec 2007 13:29:28 -0500, Paul <nospam@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Fred Poe wrote:
Hello,


We just got a whole new system for Christmas in kit form. We've put
together tons of PC's in the past but this one we keep running into
problems with.

Christmas night when we put it together it wouldn't even start up.
Eventually found out that the power supply blew (it was working fine
with its old mobo -- 400W ATX)...opened it up and there were a few
popped capacitors. So we ordered a new P/S, 550W Coolermaster from
Newegg and it came in today. Pop it in and now we have a new problem.

Now the lights come on, the drives start spinning, but no video comes
on. The LCD's we tested it with both stay in standby mode, if we try
to force the monitors on, it will say "No Signal". We've tried it on
two seperate monitors with both DVI and VGA cables and still get
nothing. We've even stripped it down to just the mobo, cpu, ram,
keyboard and monitor and we still get nothing. We've double and
triple checked all the connections inside (this isn't the first
computer we've built, like I said) and can't seem to figure what's
wrong. I popped in an OLD video card (ATI Xpert 98...PCI, it's the
only spare card I had around besides a couple AGP ones) to try and
figure out what's wrong but even that gave the same problem.


If anyone has a clue as to what may be wrong, please let me know. I'm
a bit stumped right now.

Thanks,

Fred

ATX12V 2x2 square power connector plugged in ?

You've completed the "switch on the power supply" test case,
so the next one would be:

CPU, heatsink/fan, motherboard, no RAM, no video, no disk, computer
internal case speaker connected. If you switch on, does the computer
internal speaker beep ? The beeping means the CPU ran some BIOS code,
and discovered there is no RAM present. That tells you the CPU is working,
at least a bit. Add RAM and do the next test, and so on.

Build the system up piece by piece. The easiest way to do this,
is while the motherboard is sitting on top of a telephone book with
a cardboard cover. With the system open, and on a work table, it is
easier to see what you're doing. Sitting out in the open, also avoids
problems with standoffs shorting to something.

I hope the popping of the old power supply, did not damage
the motherboard.

Paul
.

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