A7N8X-Deluxe: No Boot, No BIOS

[AdamSmith1776]

Dear List,

I just finished building a brand-new PC (my sixth, and I've never had any
trouble whatsoever before) and it: (a) will not boot; (b) will not let me
flash the BIOS; (c) does not generate any video output; (d) does not
generate any ASUS "audio POST" output (except as explained below). I hope
someone can help.

Configuration:

A7N8X Deluxe MoBo, Rev 2
BIOS = PCB 2, Rev. 1007
CPU = Athlon XP 2600+
RAM = 512 MB (one DIMM, from Crucial, on the single black (not either of the
blue) DIMM slots)
IDE0/Master = brand-new unformatted Hitachi 120 GB (this will be the system
drive)
IDE0/Slave = year-old formatted IBM 40 GB (to be used for data backup)
IDE1/Master = CD-R/W
IDE1/Slave = nothing
floppy
onboard audio
onboard LAN
PS/2 keyboard/mouse
no USB devices installed as yet
Radeon 9200 AGP 8X graphics card
no PCI cards whatsoever

Symptoms/behavior:

The first half dozen or so times I "powered on" (and yes, power WAS on--fans
and hard drives whirring, CD opened/closed, all green lights on, etc.)
absolutely nothing happened; no audio messages or beeps and in terms of
video all I got was a nice friendly colored window on my NEC Multisync
reporting "No video input."

Re-checked and re-checked everything, etc.

Then finally on the nth power-on, the ASUS voice/post function said:

"No VGA display. No VGA display [yes, repeated once]"

Still no other audio and no video whatsoever.

Reported problem to http://helpdesk.asus.com at least 4 days ago; no
response yet.

Re-set CMOS (took out battery, re-set jumper, re-reset jumper, restored
battery, etc.).

Still absolutely nothing.

Any ideas?

TIA

 

[Martull]

Have you tried to boot just with CPU, RAM and Video?

 

[Jeannot]

First recheck your motherboard, jumpers etcc. Boot with your keyboard,
mouse, new hard disk, video card, memory and processor only.
If it boot correctly add 1 item only a a time, you'll find where your
problem is.
Good luck
JC

 

[David]

Boot up with just cpu/ram/video card, make sure the video card is seated
properly (Even try a different card).

If you had a bios post card you could find out exactly where the problem was
but since this is only your 6th system I guess not very usefull for you.

 

[IanDunbar]

Dear List,

I just finished building a brand-new PC (my sixth, and I've never had any
trouble whatsoever before) and it: (a) will not boot; (b) will not let me
flash the BIOS; (c) does not generate any video output; (d) does not
generate any ASUS "audio POST" output (except as explained below). I hope
someone can help.

Configuration:

A7N8X Deluxe MoBo, Rev 2
BIOS = PCB 2, Rev. 1007
CPU = Athlon XP 2600+
RAM = 512 MB (one DIMM, from Crucial, on the single black (not either of the
blue) DIMM slots)
IDE0/Master = brand-new unformatted Hitachi 120 GB (this will be the system
drive)
IDE0/Slave = year-old formatted IBM 40 GB (to be used for data backup)
IDE1/Master = CD-R/W
IDE1/Slave = nothing
floppy
onboard audio
onboard LAN
PS/2 keyboard/mouse
no USB devices installed as yet
Radeon 9200 AGP 8X graphics card
no PCI cards whatsoever

Symptoms/behavior:

The first half dozen or so times I "powered on" (and yes, power WAS on--fans
and hard drives whirring, CD opened/closed, all green lights on, etc.)
absolutely nothing happened; no audio messages or beeps and in terms of
video all I got was a nice friendly colored window on my NEC Multisync
reporting "No video input."

Re-checked and re-checked everything, etc.

Then finally on the nth power-on, the ASUS voice/post function said:

"No VGA display. No VGA display [yes, repeated once]"

Still no other audio and no video whatsoever.

Reported problem to http://helpdesk.asus.com at least 4 days ago; no
response yet.

Re-set CMOS (took out battery, re-set jumper, re-reset jumper, restored
battery, etc.).

As suggested try with minimal hardware installed, I have heard that
if you hold down the insert key while you power up it restores the
default bios settings and should let you enter the bios. If you can
get into the bios like this, select restore defaults and save/exit.

I can't really see this being bios corruption though, but you never
know. If you still don't get anywhere with minimal h/w, take out
the mobo and check that you have the mounting posts in the correct
position, it may be worth trying to run the board out of the case as
well while it's out.

Let us know how you get on.

--

Ian

A7N8X Deluxe v1.04
Uber Bios 1006 + Sata Bios
XP2500 @ 2400MHz
Corsair Twinx1024-3200LLPT
200 x 12.0
ATI Radeon 9700Pro
2 x Maxtor 120GB 8MB SATA RAID 0

 

[John Tindle]

Have you tried different RAM?
Different Video card? - (even an old PCI card)
Power supply OK?
Try using as many different pieces of RAM as you can.
If different RAM gets you booted, upgrade the BIOS asap, then put back your
original RAM.
If still unsucessful, and you've tried the other suggestions, then It could
be a bad BIOS. Get a replacement from ASUS, or your local ASUS dealer.
(4MB BIOS chip located beside the IDE connectors)
I have come across bad BIOS chips in the A7N8X before.
Writing off the board is the least likely conclusion.

JT