P4M890t-M(v2.0) won't boot/POST

[wolfear]

Hey all,
I just got a new barebones system last thursday and it has just up and quit.
The motherboard and processor came pre-installed. I installed the RAM and HDD according to instructions, installed my OS (Kubuntu 7.04) and things were up and running fine so I started transferring my data from my old systems.
I power down the system for about 10 minutes and when I powered back up, nothing happened.
CD drive will cycle for a bit, HDD light flashes once, then nothing. No POST, no signal to monitor.
I double checked all of the connections.
Fans all work.
After doing some reading, I thought it might be the BIOS, so I tried using the AMIBOOT fix I read somewhere to boot the system, but no go.

Specs:
P4M890T-M(v2.0) board (new)
Intel Celeron 3.33ghz dual core(new)
2 gigs ddr2 533 ram(new)
80 gig Samsung HDD(new)
OKIA 450watt power supply(new)

I am going nuts trying to figure this out. The system was in use for less than 24 hours when this happened. One minute it works, next it doesn't.

thanks in advance.

[JLK03F150]

Is the case speaker connected? Are you getting any beeps? Sure sounds like something quit on you.

Welcome to TechIMO

[wolfear]

TY JLK.
No, I am not getting any beeps.
Getting anything would be an improvement.

I am tempted to just get a replacement board on my own. Probably be faster and cheaper (by the time I paid shipping) than RMA.
My research into ECS motherboards gives me the feeling they are not always reliable.

[JLK03F150]

See if you can make it beep. Pull all the memory out & see what happens. It should give a "bad or missing memory" beep code.

Also disconnect all SATA and IDE connectors. I had a bad hard drive that made my system halt without a POST beep.

[wolfear]

Hi JLK-
Thank you for all your help.

I have the board pulled and sitting on top of the box.

I have everything disconnected and tried booting various combinations (no RAM, 1 RAM, both RAM, with keyboard, w/o keyboard, no drives, etc) and still nothing.

I did manage to find an old floppy drive and checked it out on one of my other systems to make sure it was working.
I connected it to the problem board and it doesn't look like it was being recognized. The CD drive will cycle at power up, but not the floppy.

I did a bit of searching and new boards are cheap.
The retailer finally responded to my emails and I have the option to RMA the system.
Do you think this is a BIOS issue and if so, would it be worth it to invest in a second identical board (even though I said previously I didn't have much faith in ECS right now) and using that to flash the chip from the problem board?
Or should I shell out the shipping fee to RMA in case the board itself is bad?
Once again, thanks for all of your assistance.

[Kaneo]

wolfear,

A no post system must be extremely frustrating for you...

I noticed that you said u had ur Kubuntu system running for a while before the problem of no posting happened. this might be due to the CMOS configuration jumper.

there may be sum sort of checksum error and could require you to clear the header and boot up straight after doing so. Just to make sure that if you are able to clear the header, to have no power cables from the PSU plugged in what so ever as this may effect the process.

On Most M'boards you have the jumper on pins 1 & 2. all you will have to do is switch them to 2-3 for about 5-8 seconds and them revert them back. given that your speaker cable is plugged in, you should be able to get a beep from your system when you boot up and it should post saying that it has loaded default checksum settings...

I hope this may solve your issue...

Kaneo.

[wolfear]

hi Kaneo

lol..yes..A new system that is operational for less than 48 hours is enough to drive one to drink <pops open beer>.

The CMOS jumper reset was one of the first things I tried as that was pretty much the limit of what I had the knowledge or capability of checking at the time.
I've gotten a crash course on motherboards over the last week (pun intended).

I went ahead and RMA'd the system this morning.
At least, I hope I did.
My drop-off time apparently didn't coincide with the employee who spoke English.
I either shipped it back to the retailer or there will be a very confusing delivery to a native tribe in South America.

Thanks for the help and I'll post back when I know more.

[DanU]

When (if?) you get it back, I STRONGLY recommend you throw away that OKIA power supply and replace it with something more reliable. These low quality power supplies have a reputation for blowing out, destroying the motherboard, hard drives, and anything else connected to them.

[wolfear]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DanU

When (if?) you get it back, I STRONGLY recommend you throw away that OKIA power supply and replace it with something more reliable. These low quality power supplies have a reputation for blowing out, destroying the motherboard, hard drives, and anything else connected to them.

Thanks for the suggestion DanU.
I hadn't given the power supply much thought since everything seemed to be getting power.
Guess I'm probably like most people: If they ship it with the system, I assume it's what I need.

I'm doing some research into power supplies now.

[KarmaKiller]

Hi there, check out this thread. It's written by our local Power Supply Guru.
Power Supply Info