Need Help with Asus A7V133 Motherboard, wont POST!

[deversol]

I just built a new system, with the following specs

Asus A7V133 Motherboard
Athlon 1.2GHZ Processor
256 MB Crucial 133MHz SDRam
256 MB Micron 133MHz SDRam
Maxtor 30GB ATA100 HD
Swiftech MC370A Heatsink/Fan
Creative Annihilator 2 Geforce 2 GTS Video Card
Creative Live Sound Card
Turbo Cool 350W Power Supply

For some reason, my computer doesnt even start to post, and the monitor doesnt even go out of standby mode. Ive tried booting up with only the following components installed: Video Card, 1 memory chip, heatsink, power supply, and only the power switch plugged in, and it does nothing. Ive tried putting the memory in different slots, tried hooking fans up to each of the fan ports on the mobo, tried 2 different power supplies, tried booting with the hard drive hooked up and not hooked up. Ive tried all this with the Jumperless mode on, and also set to 133MHz clock speed. Ive tried everything, and cant seem to get it to even post, or the monitor to go out of standby mode. While doing all of this, I used all the necessary precautions, such as wearing latex gloves, using plastic motherboard supports, and wearing a static wrist strap, so I doubt I fried anything. What am I doing wrong? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[Guest]

Sounds like you got a DOA mobo.Did you see the green light on the motherboard when you turn on your system? I had the same problem as you. The only solution is to exchange the mobo.

 

[deversol]

Yah, the green light does come on, and the fans on the mobo also come on.

 

[Guest]

there are several reasons a motherboard will not boot up, but will not post any beep codes: floppy is not hooked up properly - this is pretty common. check to make sure the floppy cable is not backwards, etc. also, if the motherboard is grounded to the case improperly, it will not post. might want to remove the motherboard and check that its attached properly. just some stuff to check that you didnt mention and i have run into in my travels. peace...

 

[deversol]

Well, Ive tried this with the floppy hooked up and not hooked up....it should still begin to POST. I have not checked the motherboard....Its mounted on plastic stand-offs....how else should it be attached to the case?

 

[btvillarin]

I was reading your inital post, and I have a question: was your keyboard and mouse plugged in?

Now, just plug everything into your motherboard: Graphics card, NIC, sound, HD, FDD, CD-ROM, RAM, etc. - just not the power yet. Clear the CMOS (using that "jumper" by the battery). Check all the jumpers one more time (i.e. FSB @ 133 and multiplier @ 9, I believe, vCore at 1.75v, JEN @ 1-2). But just make sure after all this, at the back of your computer, at least the monitor, keyboard, mouse, and of course the power is plugged in.

If at first you don't succeed, try clearing the CMOS again and again if you don't get it right the first time. I found that being persistent works. Besides, you don't want to go through the hassle of getting an RMA and returning stuff. Plus, seeing what you did to ensure you don't mess up, I doubt you fried anything.

<i>OC...unless your computer's cheezy (is that a good rhyme?)</i> 😱

 

[deversol]

Thanks for your reply. The keyboard was plugged in, but the mouse was not. I only hooked up the HD, floppy, video card, monitor, and RAM, as well as hooking up the Power switch, reset switch, speaker, power led, etc. However, I didnt try to clear the CMOS. This is actually the 4th motherboard Ive tried to get to work in my system. I had went through 3 Abit KT7A-Raid mobos, tried all the same things, including clearing the CMOS, but got the same result....absolutely nothing. Ill try clearing the CMOS, but if that doesnt do it, what else could be the problem? Im completely baffled....and have been the past three months Ive tried to get this system to work 🙁

 

[dmcmahon]

The floppy isn't necessary for POST. Neither is the mouse. The minimum config to get past POST and into the BIOS is keyboard and vid card, plus one stick of RAM and of course the CPU. Add the floppy drive and a DOS disk and you should even be able to boot.

There is almost never anything wrong with the keyboard, but a simple swap eliminates that as a factor. That pretty much leaves the following suspects: bad mobo, bad RAM, bad vid card, or bad power supply. If you have alternates, you might try swapping them. Since you're on the 4th mobo, have you thought about the power supply? Sometimes it can be something stupid like not having it set for 220V. What about the CPU? Did you move it from one board to the next?

 

[louie2001]

I am also worried about the CPU,I saw a bad CPU on a slot a motherboard over the weekend cause the exact same problem.May be a place to start.Odds of 4 bad boards seems a little strange and probably not the cause of your problem.I am sure you already thought the same thing.

Rock out with your AMD out

 

[louie2001]

One more thing you stated that your standoffs are all plastic one or more will need to be metal in order to ground the board I believe, just not sure which one it is.

Rock out with your AMD out

 

[BuGaLoU]

Yeah, alot of boards use the mounting points as grounds... Also its gotta be somethign aside the mobo if you've been through 4 boards.... Your gonna have to test each peice of hardware. Also do you have a fan hooked to the cpu-fan post on the mobo? I know the hsf you have hass a molex connector due to the energy hungry pabst fan. I dunno if that mobo does this, but some mobos won't power up if no fan is hooked up to the cpu fan post. I just hooked on of my chassis fans to that connector. Hope that helps..

Computer: $2000 Internet Access: $40 Registering for forums: Free A good signature: Priceless<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by BuGaLoU on 05/23/01 03:02 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Guest]

I’m pretty much the novice on this but w/ 2 A7V133 builds…… First A7V133 rev1.02 bios 1002 board. An absolute nightmare, two weeks to get this thing to post to bios. 2nd unit A7V133 rev 1.05 bios 1003 (I was ready for the jaws of death) but the thing booted up on the first punch of the power button ….go figure….Both units, all components new and Win98SE OS.
Note.. The A7V133’s BIOS default video setting is PCI. The rev1.02 board would not, contrary to all of the experts’ adamant statements, and I repeat, would not post up with an AGP card. You must obtain, beg, borrow or steal a pci card to get into bios with this version the A7V. I tried dozens of combinations and almost two complete sets of parts in addition to, driving my old AMD friend nuts by taking his PC apart several times to use his parts. First and foremost, this is a buggy board and I mean buggy. I could not get the OS to run more than a week until it became too corrupt to continue. All updates of Via drivers and ASUS bios to 1004 did not resolve all of the problems. The second board rev 1.05 was built from scratch by ASUS as a 133mhz board as opposed to the first rev 1.02 which was just a modified A7V board (peel off the A7V133 sticker and look underneath) bios 1003 booted with an AGP board installed on the first try and ran for three weeks before starting to lose some of the .DLL files, then becoming more and more unusable. To date I haven’t found any fix. My friend says there’s a VIA 4in1 chipset driver update to v4.31 that corrects some of the problems, but I can’t find it. However getting back to your original problem, this is what worked for me on the rev 1.02 board.
Set and double check, all mainboard jumpers to the default or auto bios position (except the I/O voltage should be 3,3v not 3.56v or 3.45v as the manual suggests the manual is still incorrect, from rev e688 to the e704 printing. Some other significant changes are on the use of ata100.
Power on w/ everything installed. Continuos loop of hi-low frequency alternating beeps and nothing more except the rattle of the relays as power is applied. Initially.
Power on with HDD in IDE Primary as master. CD-ROM In IDE secondary as master (make doubly sure that these units have their respective jumpers set correctly) and no sdram….board goes crazy w/ beeps, all right! The CPU and mobo is ok, shut down. Added one stick only PC133 CL2, power on, got the 1 long 3 short beeps. Power off added old 16mb pci video card, power on, bingo! This was after dozens or maybe scores of combo tries. Followed the book very closely and up graded the bios and the Via drivers. Note that the os becomes corrupt in short order so I suggest that you divide your hard drive into a min of three logical drives and install normally to the first or c: drive. Use the d: partition for your swap file (set the min at 100mb) and all of your files, use the e: logical drive for a copy of the Os and all Programs incl. any downloads. Because you will be re-formatting c: quite often with this board. But your life will be much simplified by doing this and you will not suffer to the extent of most VIA lost souls. Pay no attention to the Via Reps and Distributors of Via Products that dominate this site that profess no chipset problems…this board is [-peep-] up! You. Will have to play around a lot to get the OS to recognize an Ultra dma100 drive. But persistence will pay off.
good luck

 

[lamer_gamer]

The 4 in 1 drivers v4.31 can be found at viahardware.com under 4 in 1 driver downloads.

My brain has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down

 

[Guest]

going there now
thanks a million