Computer Doesn't Boot

Hey,

My cousin just put in an old PII mb with an SiS 5595 chipset. I helped him get his two hard drives running and everything else smoothed out. When we went to try to connect to the net with his external USR 56K modem, the computer froze. So we shut it off and tried to boot it again... but it never booted. No video signal at all.

I've tried everything. Unhooked the modem. Took out the slave drive. Made the slave the master drive. Put the video card in a different slot. All sorts of stuff. All I get is the hard drive spining and LEDs, but no post (which means it doesn't beep error codes) or video signal.

Has this ever happened to anyone? Can you offer suggestions. I'm running out of things to try.

Thanks.

Hi,
I am sorry to inform you that your Board is Toasted.
You can use a special PCI - Card to detect what got wrong but again - The board is "RIP".

Sorry,
Gabriel

It may be either fried CPU core and/or I/O voltage regulator,either damaged information in BIOS chip, or bad BIOS chip itself...
Did You try resetting CMOS using "clear CMOS" jumper? What exactly motherboard model, by the way?

Quote:

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Originally posted by klintman:
<STRONG>My cousin just put in an old PII mb with an SiS 5595 chipset. </STRONG>

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Hey, so far as I remember, SIS 5595 is socket 7 chipset? <IMG SRC="smilies/confused.gif" border="0">

That stinks.

I haven't tried resetting the bios. I've tried taking the cpu and ram out and re-seating them. I'll have to try to find another PII and put it in there to see if the cpu is the problem.

We don't have the manual for this mb... My cousin is probably better off buying a new mb I suppose. That is if the cpu and ram is good. This one was given to him.

Gabriel, where can I buy this PCI card?

Thanks.

Maybe your Mommy board is shorting out on the case. Try removing it and the power supply and put them on a wooden table. If it boots, you have a short prob with Mobo and case.

That PCI card is called a "Post Card"
Goto: http://store.yahoo.net/binarygear/

Good luck dude. <IMG SRC="smilies/smile.gif" border="0">

you could always try a ISA video card.
if the board can post, it will with an ISA video.

Lots of good advice here!

JoeVegany has an excellent point. Try removing the Mobo from the case. I use either a large antistatic bag, or a wooden cutting board & sit it on the case (case laying on it's side.) I leave the Power supply in the case, unless it just won't reach. Disconnect EVERYTHING except video & floppy drive. This means the serial ports, hard drives, CD-ROM drive, all cards (but video). Leave the mouse & keyboard ports connected if they are detachable (non ATX mobo)

As mentioned by Ruslan, clear the BIOS by jumpering the "Clear CMOS" pins.

Try booting to a boot floppy.

If you still do not get video, try a different video card.

Still no video...... Get a new mobo <IMG SRC="smilies/frown.gif" border="0">

Read this ......
http://forums.windrivers.com/cgi-bin...&f=17&t=005338

It shows how easy it is to overlook the basics of troubleshooting.

Yes remove everything except for the CPU, RAM, Power supply, and Video Card. If she boots, add everything one at a time until she freezes. Once that happens, then you have your culprit.
If it doesn't boot with just the CPU, Ram, and Video Card; then TangleWeb is right, try another Video card... if not... New MoBo.. <IMG SRC="smilies/frown.gif" border="0">

Thanks for all the pointers.

Joevegany, I can't really use that post card because I don't have the manual and I wouldn't be able to determine what the post codes mean.

TangleWeb, thanks for the link to that other forum. I learned a lot.

I'll report on my findings. BTW... do you think that his 145w ps is enough to support his mb, cpu, cpu fan, 2 hds, cd-rom? What is the formula to figure out how many watts you need?

Thanks.

Quote:

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Originally posted by klintman:
<STRONG>That stinks.

I haven't tried resetting the bios. I've tried taking the cpu and ram out and re-seating them. I'll have to try to find another PII and put it in there to see if the cpu is the problem.

We don't have the manual for this mb... My cousin is probably better off buying a new mb I suppose. That is if the cpu and ram is good. This one was given to him.

Gabriel, where can I buy this PCI card?

Thanks.</STRONG>

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The POST card i mentioned can be found here - It is for "Heavy" techs: http://www.eurosoft-usa.com/pcipost.html

and 150W PSU is clearly not enough for the components you have mentioned. But i don't think the PSU is toasted because you mentioned that HDD leds are alive. if a PSU is toasted the only noticable thing will be White smoke <IMG SRC="smilies/biggrin.gif" border="0"> <IMG SRC="smilies/biggrin.gif" border="0"> <IMG SRC="smilies/biggrin.gif" border="0">

Good Luck
Gabriel

Gabriel is correct, 145W is not really sufficient. It sounds like you are trying to build this in a really old case. You can get inexpensive AT cases for less than $20 & they usually come with at least a 250W power supply. (I saw a cheap AT MiniMid case w 250W power supply on http://www.pricewatch.com for $11 + shipping)

ATX cases are only slightly more. Even the cheapest case will be better than what you're working with there.

It would have the added benefit of including an "installation kit" complete with stand-offs, screws, etc. This would reduce the likelihood of you shorting the mobo when mounting it in the case.

Good luck!

Quote:

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Originally posted by Gabriel:
<STRONG>
and 150W PSU is clearly not enough for the components you have mentioned.
Gabriel</STRONG>

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It's more than enough for his config.
That 145W("continious output", I guess branded PSU) = about 230W of usual modern power supply (especially no-name one),what have 230W ("short term") power output.

Disconnect ALL devices from motherboard, leave only CPU and motherboard (PSU and speaker also <IMG SRC="smilies/smile.gif" border="0"> ).Then You should get at least error beeps from motherboard. If still no beeps at all, definately either motherboard either CPU is fried.
May be also,what BIOS chip is erased or bad.

I did what Joevegany and TangleWeb suggested. Perfect! I took the motherboard out of the case and ran it with only cpu, ram, floppy, video card, and speaker, and it ran perfectly. I then suspected that the motherboard was shorting on the case as Joevegany suggested. I saw that there was one metal screw-in thing (don't know what the technical term for them... but the mb screws into these things to keep it raised off the case) that wasn't necessary and was in a position for a potential short. However, I couldn't remove it, so I put duct tape over. I then put the motherboard back in and added components one-by-one. Everything works great. However, his modem (external usr 56k) seemed to fried, so I hooked up a 33.6 external usr and it worked fine.

In short, there was a short. At least that's what I think. At any rate, it works. I thank you all for helping me through this experience. I definitely learned a lot about troubleshooting. :-)

Thanks again.

Congrats Klintman, on a job well done!