P4C800 Deluxe won't boot - HELP!

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dmcmahon

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Mar 19, 2001
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I need help. Badly.

I've put together a new computer system. The major parts are:

P4C800 Deluxe motherboard
Intel P4 2.8 GHz 800 MHz FSB
2 sticks 512M each of Corsair XMS 3200 CL2 DDR ram
ATI Radeon All-in-Wonder 9000 video card
Floppy
WD 200G hard drive with 8G starting partition formatted FAT32 (IDE1 master)
Memorex DVD+RW drive (IDE2 master)
Zip 750 drive (IDE2 slave)
Antec Performance Series II case w/ 350W power supply

Everything seemed to go together smoothly. But the system doesn't boot, doesn't display anything on the screen, and doesn't make a peep from the speaker. When I throw the switch on the power supply, a green LED lights up on the board. When I push the power switch on the front of the case, it seems to start up OK. All fans (case, power supply, and CPU) are running. The power and IDE lights on the front of the case light up. Power appears to be running to the IDE devices (confirmed because the Zip drive makes a noise at startup and fails to do so if the power is disconnected from it).

But, um, that's it. It just sits there sucking juice. I tried disconnecting all the IDE devices and the floppy, no joy. I tried removing first one and then the other stick of RAM, no joy. I tried clearing the CMOS, no joy.

So, do I have a dead motherboard? CPU? How can I be sure, since RMA'ing a bad part is a pain? (My gut feeling is it's the motherboard, because with a dead CPU I would still have expected some noise from the speaker.) Anything else I can try before going through RMA hell?
 
I have basically the same setup and the same problem. My machine was working for 3 months until it quit on me. It appears that it is probably the Mobo, but it still could, in theory at least, be the processor.

Here are a few things to try.
1. Plug some speakers or headphones into the Green line-out jack on the back. You might get a voice message. Mine is telling me "System Failed CPU Test".
2. Check the power supply on another machine if possible. I did this in my scenario and verified that the PS was still good. I also have a no-name PS though.

I got in touch with ASUS tech support and they would only tell me to clear the CMOS, so not much help there.

Here is my system:
ASUS P4C800 Deluxe
P4 3.0 GHz 800Mhz FSB
2 x 512 MB PC3200 DDR
ASUS GeForce FX 5200
2 x 120GB Seagate SATA HDD
420 Power Supply
DVD, CD, etc

I too have tried clearing the CMOS, removing the CMOS battery, removing each stick of ram (one at a time), removing all peripherals, etc.

Let me know if you have any luck as I'm dying without a computer at home.
 
I am using a P4C800 Deluxe and have found if you do not have a PS2 keyboard or it is unpluged your system does nothing. If the CPU was the problem the MB BIOS should indicate so. If you can't enter BIOS by pressing F1 during powerup the board seems to be the problem. You could contact them through their help desk but don't hold your breath. I have found that it seems they have better things to do than deal with peoples problems. You might even try the Ram Guy @ Corsair. That company runs their own web site to help people with their product.
 
I had the same problem with my Soltek SL 75FRN2-RL, I got it working again by doing the following.


1.Turn off computer, unplug from wall, turn off the power supply.
2.Press the power button a few times, make sure that the capacitors are drained.
3.Remove bios battery
4.Let it set 5-10 minutes
5.Clear cmos jumper
6.Let set 2-3 more minutes
7.replace battery, put cmos jumper back to default settings, plug back into wall, turn on power supply.
8.Double check make sure everything is hooked up, make sure the fuse box is set too, and it didnt flip, maybe try flicking the one to the room with the pc.
9.Press insert and HOLD IT
10.Boot the computer and keep holding\pressing insert key.

I can get the pc to boot and run good the only problem is, if I turn off the pc it won't post and I have to go through the process again. If any one has any suggestions on how to fix that problem let me know.
 
hi
well, just when the my computer was about done, i go and read this. so are there problems with the mb or processor?
i really would like to know. i dont want a system i have to try and get help from a manufacturer who has a bad rep for customer service?

gaming computer for the kids:
P4 2.8ghz 800mhz FSB
ASUS P4C800 Deluxe MB
Kingston HyperX PC 3500 DDR434 512MB X2
PowerColor ATI Radeon 9700 128MB DDR AGP video card
Western Digital Caviar WD800JB 80GB Special Edition
a floppy drive

so what is the problem, the motherboard or the chip?


thanks
suzy
 
Thanks for all the responses. These notes are pretty bloody scary, especially the part about the system dying after 3 months, and part about having to clear the bios battery every time to get the system to boot. I'll try the headphones, thanks, that's not a bad idea. I do have a PS2 keyboard hooked up to the machine. I think I'm going to have to RMA the board. 🙁

Update - I tried the headphones and the board is saying "System failed CPU test". Still not sure whether to believe it or not. Unfortunately I don't have a spare P4 chip lying around I can test.

P.S. I called the customer service and did manage to get through to a technician without much hassle. (You first have to create a trouble ticket number on their web site.) He also advised connecting headphones to hear the problem.
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by dmcmahon on 06/11/03 09:16 AM.</EM></FONT></P>
 
Did the technician advise you to do anything? I'm not looking forward to dealing with ASUS Japan (if it even exists). I am going to bring my processor to work tomorrow to see if it will work in a machine here (to eliminate at least one of the variables). If it is indeed the board, I would hope that ASUS would help out a bit more. I've been ASUS faithful for almost 10 years (since the ASUS P2BDS) and haven't had any problems until now.

Anyways, if you get any help that doesn't involve returning the board or proc, let me know.

Thanks
 
I just got this reply from ASUS China.

sir we thought the problem also might be this condition .
The leakage of electrical stream on Monitor, which affects the +5V power on MB through a VGA card without protection technology of electrical stream leakage, leads to that Winbond C VERSION ASIC chip on MB reports error message . Besides, the leakage of power supply may cause the problem too. But presently many VGA cards don't have protection technology of electrical stream leakage, so here we recommend you only install CPU on the motherboard without other components on it to check if the problem persists. And you may try to change VGA card or power supply for a try.
Click to expand...
I will try this tonight when I get home. I would hope though that my ASUS GeForce FX 5200 would work with my ASUS motherboard.
 
Yes the technician suggested several things that I'm going to try. The main one was to use headphones to get an actual error message, which is at least some level of information more than I had before. He also suggested removing all components including the CPU to see if the error message became "no cpu" instead of "cpu test failed", then add the CPU back (still no RAM) to see if the problem moves past the CPU and on to "no ram". He suggested removing the battery as part of the clear CMOS step. He also suggested that some level of partial shorting of the board may have occurred as a result of the mounts to the case, and that I should try placing the board outside the case on anti-static plastic and see if it will get past the CPU check.
 
Update - it's working. I skipped the step where I'd have to remove the board and put it on anti-static plastic because that would have been a huge pain in the arse. I disconnected everything execpt the wiring to the powersupply and case. I removed the battery and shorted the jumper as per instructions to clear the CMOS. I then attempted to boot and got the expected "no cpu" error. I then reinserted the CPU and heatsink, and lo and behold, it now gets past the cpu test failure and starts giving me beeps. Add the 2 sticks of ram and the vid card, and ouila, I get the BIOS screen. Add the floppy and IDE1, and I can boot into dos and run the flash program. We shall see how it goes but I'm past last night's roadblock. Good luck to everyone else with a similar problem.

P.S. this now allows me to rule out the CPU as a problem, which is good.
 
That is SUPER GREAT news! I can't wait to get home and try it myself. I'll update if it works for me as well.

Gotta keep my fingers crossed!

Thanks again!
 
I also bought a P4C800 Deluxe, so since you guys have the similar setup I have a few questions...

Does you Onboard LAN got detected right away by Windows?
Min does not and it's is enable in the BIOS.

Second, if there's not RAID or SATA drive connected, does the Hardware manager report and error on the Promise controller?
And when you install the Promise driver (IDE or RAID), does it says that the driver couldn't be install?

I need to know now because I won't be buying a SATA drive until the fall and I want to make sure the MB is not deffective...

Thanks!
 
The network card needs drivers before it will work (i.e. the drivers aren't on the Windows XP and earlier CD's).

When I set up the system the first time, after initial boot, I needed to put in the CD that came with the mobo and let it install the Network drivers/application (crap!) and the monitoring utilities (side note: make sure you don't have 2 monitoring utilities installed at the same time or you will get strange readouts).

The network faltered once during detection of the network and I had to run the diagnostic on the card to get it back on the net, but that only happened once or twice while I was screwing with the computer initially. I haven't had any network issues since then (but then again, I haven't been able to boot the thing for a week)

I don't have anything connected to the Promise RAID, so I can't comment on that, but I do have 2 SATA drives connected to the ICH5 Southbridge. They were recognized flawlessly (when my computer was still booting). I still have quite a bit of space, so I haven't even installed the driver for the Promise RAID controller yet. Mine shows up as "Unknown" (I believe) in device manager.

Sorry if that doesn't answer any of your questions.
 
I found that several of the on-board peripherals required me to install the drivers from the CD supplied by Asus. This included the LAN, the on-board AUDIO, and the Promise controller (I chose not to install that one, instead I disabled the controller in the BIOS since I don't have anything connected to it yet). XP seems to have successfully identified the USB and firewire, though. I still have one unrecognized USB device showing up with a question mark in the device manager, and I can't say I've actually tested anything other than the audio yet.
 
Thanks guys, I already try the driver things, but hey how can a dirver install when it doesn't see the hardware... so I guess this MB is deffective... I'll get an RMA...

Thanks for your help...
 
Well, there are degrees of knowing about the hardware. Did you check the device manager? You should see the devices listed with yellow ? symbols. The driver installations are able to find the devices and after rebooting most of the ?s should disappear and correct-looking stuff will show up.
 
"Well, there are degrees of knowing about the hardware. Did you check the device manager? "

Well I know quite a bit about PC, it's not my first setup I do...

The Device Manger won't even see the OnBoard LAN... And again, yes it is enable in the BIOS...

As for the Promise controller this one has a question mark in the Device Manager... but I need to try this with a SATA drive connected to see if it goes away...
If I disable the Promise controller in the Bios then the question mark is going away...

So it look like a deffective
 
Well, none of the stuff suggested by you or the ASUS help desk worked so I guess something is really broken. Oh well. I'll send it back and hope for the best.
 
Well, I have figured out what was wrong. The mobo is fine, it was the processor. By some freak of nature the processor decided to self-destruct (or something).

I took the mobo and processor into my local shop where they helped me out testing. When we dropped in a P4 2.4 the machine booted right up. When we put my processor into another board, nothing. It's really wierd as that processor worked for over a month and then just one day stopped. Anyways, it's under warranty, so I should get a new one pretty soon.

I have sent it back to Intel for replacement, so I should have a PC again in a few weeks.... 🙁
 
Do you guys have any idea when the P4C800E-DLX will be released? Because I too have a P4C800 but I could exchange it if the new, revised motherboard ships within say a month... do you guys know anything about this and whether or not the new chip (forget the name but it's also featured on the 865PE set) will perform better than its seemingly little brother?
 
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