No boot

[gerhard]

My computer recently doesn't want to boot. My basic components are a Asus P4P800 motherboard, 2 x 256 mb Transcend ram modules and a 3ghz Intel nortwood p4. Nothing out of the ordinary happend. I shut the computer down, and when i came back and switched it on, it did (almost) nothing. The power led on the case comes on, the cd-rom led flickers twice and then nothing else happens. The screen doen't switch on, nothing. I removed some of the components one at a time, tried to boot, and then put it back. Even if i remove the screencard the motherboard doesn't even beep. I don't want to return the motherboard to the vendor if i'm not sure that it is the cause. Any ideas?

 

[Crashman]

Could be a bad power supply.

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[gerhard]

I bought a new Aopen (300w) power supply when i bought the p4 and mobo. After i saw your post, i installed my parts in a friend's case, same problem. I'm a big asus supporter, so you can imagine what my gigabyte/msi/abit friends are saying! Thanx for the help crashman.

 

[gerhard]

Now i'm getting very irritated. I finally recieved 'n new mobo from my supplier (the old one was faulty) and installed it. Still exactly the same problem. Can it be that I recieved a defective mobo again? Please any suggestions will be appreciated.

 

[endyen]

Try a basic post. You put in only the components needed to post. You know, psu, mobo, chip, hsf, ram, graphics card. Do this outside the case, and use a jumper on the power switch pins. Pull the jumper if it starts to boot. If it posts okay, put the same parts together inside your case.
You may have a missplaced standoff in your case, so when you put the stuff in the case, make sure you use as many screws as you have standoffs.
If it then posts inside the case, add 1 device at a time, and try to post. The last thing you add before it stops posting was the problem.
If it wont even post outside the case, start swapping some of those parts. I usually start with the ram.

 

[gerhard]

Ok, I did everything and eventually it was the mobo. Thanx anyway guys, i learned a lot from you. They supplier swopped it out for me. My pc is working now, but only in single channel mode. The moment i put the two ram sticks in seperate channels (for dual channel mode) it keeps rebooting. Sometimes I can work for a few minutes before it reboots, other times windows doesn't even load properly. I have downloaded the newest bios from asus' site but it did not help. I have tried different memory but no success yet. Could a faulty cpu cause this?

 

[Ned_Flanders]

What are your voltage rails? You can find these in the BIOS...

3.3V
5V
+12
-12
etc


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[RichPLS]

You do know a 300watt PS is the minimum you should be using for that setup, and if you add multiple drives and high end graphic alone can draw 100watts, you can overload that PSU.


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[gerhard]

I think the voltages is within the safe range(+/- 5%). I'm using a 300w Aopen psu. What whould be a tolerable range? The 3.3v quivers a bit, think i will install pc probe to see if it stays there under load. I only have one hdd and an old graphic card (geforce 2 mx400). Planning on buying a geforce 6800.

 

[Aidanoridania]

when your comp reboots with the second ram stick than that ram is defective too. defective mobo's can fry up other parts too

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[gerhard]

They seem fine, within in the 10% deviance to both sides. I'm waiting for Asus to release a new bios, maybe it would solve my problem

 

[Ned_Flanders]

I think the safe level is only 5% deviation.

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[pat]

They seem fine, within in the 10% deviance to both sides. I'm waiting for Asus to release a new bios, maybe it would solve my problem

Sometime, even a BIOS cannot compensate for loosy design Asus sometime has...

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[ChipDeath]

Since you say it's fine in single channel mode, I wouldn't say the PSU is necessarily causing your problem. Try increasing RAM voltage in BIOS and/or loosening your memory timings.

Dual channel in P4s gives much more benefit than low latencies.

And the generally accepted 'safe' Voltage difference is 5%. Your PSU is probably more-or-less workable, but you're probably pushing it close to its design limits - I wouldn't expect it to last too long.

---
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1Gb @ 209Mhz, 2T, 3-5-5-10
Voltmodded Sapphire 9800Pro @ 450/350 w/ modded VGA silencer 3.

 

[gerhard]

The workman always blames his tools, or something like that. True, true... I will try out all the suggestions you gave me and see what happens, thanx.