New box does not load BIOS

[jjohnson at sunrise-linux.com (miah)]

1. unhook *everything* from the motherboard except the essentials.
(so, byebye nic, dvd/cd/hdd, etc).

2. remove agp video card and install pci video card, see if it works.


soemtimes motherboards are set to boot the pci video by default, and
wont touch agp until its told to.  you might have to go into bios and
change it.  since you said it went through and did the fdd test and
dvd test i am assuming that the system is booting, but you're just not
seeing the display.  if the ram wasn't seated properly it wouldn't
even boot, same if the cpu was bad.  make sure your speaker is hooked
up, so if you do have any issues you'll hear the beeps, you should get
a beep with ram issues, but probably no beep with a cpu issue.

but like i said, try a different video card, pci preferrably, because
it should just work.  I allways remove as much as possible when trying
to determine the cause of a failure like this.  if it works after
removing everything, add one component and see if it still works.
chances are though that a dvd or cdrom will not cause a system to not
boot, but a soundcard or nic could be flakey enough to cause issues.

-miah

On Tue, May 18, 2004 at 07:12:19AM -0400, Doug Sweetser wrote:
> Hello:
> 
> I wanted a box that had solid technical parts throughout.  Here are the
> components I recently purchased:
> 
> 	ASUS Tek motherboard A7N8X-X socket-A
> 	Athlon XP 2500+ 333 FSB w/512k
> 	350 w Power Supply
> 	Radion 9200 8xAGP video card, 128 MB RAM
> 	2x256 MB DDR 266 MHz, DL 2.5 memory
> 	40 GB refurbished Diamond Max Plus 8 Hard Drive
> 	1 DVD player
> 	1 CD player
> 	case by quiet PC
> 
> The motherboard has a light to indicate it has access to the power supply.
> When I hit the power button, I see these lights come on:
> 
> 	3 on the PS/2 keyboard (1x, briefly)
> 	1 on HD (an IDE0 monitor, ~3")
> 	1 on CD (flickers a few times)
> 	1 on DVD (flickers)
> 	Power supply light stays on
> 
> The CPU fan and chassis fans both work.  Power gets turned off properly by
> holding the power switch for 4".
> 
> I have hooked up two different monitors to the output from the video card.
> The screen does not change at all - no familiar line about the BIOS as the
> memory gets checked.  The machine makes warmup noises for about 5", then
> keeps a steady hum.
> 
> This is the first time I have tried to build a box like this, so I may
> have made a basic error.  After this much cash investment, a completely
> blank monitor is disappointing.
> 
> Any suggestions?
> 
> 
> doug
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss at blu.org
> http://www.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>