Asus a7m266 problems

[Guest]

I just got my components in for my computer and put it all together and powered up the system only to find that the system did not start the boot up sequence, the monitor would not get a signal, and the system would just hang. What did happen was the HD led bulb on the computer case would flash on and off continually. I thought the power supply was bad but everything had power, I could open/close my dvd-rom, the case fan was on, the cpu fan was on, and the little led on the motherboard turned on. I tried taking everything off leaving the video card, the floppy drive, and the hard drive all connected with the same result, led would flash on/off. I switched floppy drives with an existing system, same result. I thought the hard drive was not working, so I hooked it up to another computer and found everything was working fine. I've tried the hard drive as master, slave, cable select...nothing. I wasted 3 hours last night trying to troubleshoot the dang thing but could never get past the led flashing. Arrrrggghhh!!! Please help me. Out of 7 systems I've put together I've never come across this.

My components:
Asus A7M266
AMD Tbird 1.2Ghz
Samsung 256Mb PC2100 DDR
Soundblaster Live! value
Asus DVDROM E608
POS(Piece of S) 1M video card

All bought over the internet. www.axiotech.com; www.tcwo.com; www.runtimecc.com

 

[stable]

Hiya

Check your RAM and make sure that it is NOT ECC. Only unbuffered NON-ECC will work, regardless of what it says on page 25 of your owners manual. This is a commonly known, yet a huge bug on the part of Asus. Next, check the seating on your POS video card. You may have to put it in and pull it out 3 or 4 times to get a good workable seat. I have also seen cases where we had to clear the CMOS to get the motherboard to post because of unrecognized video cards. Next, you'll have to check your memory configuration (Single Sided versus double-sided) to make sure that you are in the proper two DIMM slots. This is very important, if you're not in the correct two slots, your system won't post. We only use Single Sided DIMMs as the double sided DIMMs seem to cause crashes. (don't ask me why as we have no idea). As a heads up, while we are an Authorized Asus builder, we don't use or endorse this MB as we have seen far too many problems to detail here.

Steve Benoit


Stable Technologies
'The way IT should be!'

 

[Guest]

This is the full specs on my memory
Samsung PC2100 DDRam
Unbuffered Non-ECC - CAS2.5 CL2.5 - 7ns - EEPROM/SPD - 32Mx64 - 184 Gold Pins - 2.5v - 6 Layer

I've tried a PCI and an AGP video card with no luck.

I have read on deja.com and found other people with similar problems, they would boot up and nothing...the motherboard light would turn on but nothing much. There have been no mention on a blinking HD led though.

 

[Guest]

i am using a 256MB stick of crucial ECC DDR PC2100 and it works on my ASUS A7M266... what is the known issue with ASUS and ECC memory?

 

[Guest]

I have a 256 Crucial ecc pc1600... If you'd like to see the problem for yourself, go into your bios and try some user defined memory settings until you find the one to enable ecc and turn it on. Just make sure you know how to short out and reset your cmos first. That was about the worst lock-up I have ever had. Make that it was the worst... Turns out that even though you have ecc memory, the a7m disables the ecc by default. Notice in your bootup, you should see something like non-ecc under the memory type.

"I've been called worse by better people. You can do better..."

 

[Guest]

hello -

did you re-check your leads? (power, case speaker, on/off etc.)

<font color=blue>via is laughing at us mcdonald hamburger eating american pigs</font color=blue>

 

[Guest]

Checked, double checked, I even RTFM and checked. I even took the mb out of the case, took out the power supply, placed them both on top of my glass table and turned on the motherboard with only a video card(POS), memory, and cpu. Same problem, HD led-blink, blink. My memory is not ECC. I have not tried to clear the CMOS but will.

 

[Guest]

well in that case, given that A7M does not have a boot device to configure, I think Steve's comments above regarding the video card are what this is about... and Steve authors the best advice on this forum.

in any case it makes sense to at least get a cheap Geforce MX AGP.

Later Jim

<font color=blue>Via laughs at mcdonald hamburger eating american pigs</font color=blue>

 

[Guest]

I had the cpu checked and it works fine. I have used both an agp and a pci video card. Neither worked. I have sent the mb back to be tested, I have a suspicion that my mb was pre-used. The jumpers were not in default positions. I am going to have the DDR checked but until then I am in limbo. Thanks to all that tried to help me.

Arthur.

 

[Guest]

I just built a system. very similar...mine went on and worked perfect without a single hitch, id check the ram and see if the stuff even works. If it doesnt go get yourself some crucial =)

_RK_