Motherboard or CPU ?

[shiatsu]

I have recently built a second PC (base unit) from spare parts including a second-hand Motherboard (Gigabyte GA-7ixe4) and CPU (Duron 850) acquired via ebay. The system powers up okay but that is all and it won't boot. I am staring at a blank screen and trying to figure out exactly what is wrong!

The symptoms are :
Power switch on the front panel does nothing when pressed on/off.
Power can only be activated by using the on/off switch on the back panel of the PSU.
The PSU and it's fan, the CPU fan, Hard Drive and CDROM Drive all power up okay.
Power-on LED operates okay.
Hard Drive LED operates for a short period and then goes off.
Floppy Drive LED does not operate.
No warning beeps at any time from the system speaker.
No video display - nothing appears on screen at any time.
(video card is okay as previously tested in another machine)

It seemes likely that the problem is either the Motherboard or CPU. Does it sound as though the BIOS is screwed?

Any ideas or suggestions gratefully received.

Thanks, Alan

 

[Teddy]

"Power switch on the front panel does nothing when pressed on/off"

Some cases require that you hold the power button down for about 5 seconds to power them off.

As to the rest of your problems, have you tried resetting the CMOS? That may help.

You may want to test out your RAM modules in another system, they can sometimes be bad (even when bought new).

Good luck,

 

[canadian_divx]

dubble check to see if the led's and power switch is pluged in right, and for the blank screen check the bios.

 

[Isamu966]

When you say it powers up ok, do you mean the mobo checks memory and id's your IDE devices and blanks when trying to look for a drive with boot info?? Or blank from the beginning???

First of all, when I get a mobo for a custom comp I clear the CMOS or Bios and configure it to my components. If it identifies your IDE drives in the Bios then good. It's another check off the list. JP3 by the mobo's battery.

Also check your system bus speed switch settings.

As for the power switch, double check the mobo's manual with your case's manual for the correct pins to see if the switch is connected properly. I've miss counted a pin once.

This is all I can think of for now. Good luck!

 

[shiatsu]

Thanks for the repp;ies.

I played around with the machine all afternoon and the culprit turned out to be a new memory chip. After trying all the other things suggested I decided as a last resort to change the DIMM chip with one that is known to be okay. Suddenly everything came on and it all appears to work okay.

Regards, Alan