Member Avatar for fen911

I'm having trouble getting my board to post. I have power to everything and believe all the drives are connected correctly, but it will not boot up. I've cleared the CMOS several times, but still nothing. Symptoms: The CD/DVD drives only have power when the IDE cables are not connected. The 3.5 floppy is registering, as wells as the hard drive. I've tried posting with nothing connected but it still won't. Thinking it might be a bad video card or AGP slot. Any suggestions?? :rolleyes:

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A short, practical checklist to complement this thread: described a classic "won't POST" situation and rightly pushed for BIOS/beep information. For anyone hitting the same dead-start behavior on older boards, follow a clear isolation flow so the faulty part is identified instead of replaced on faith.

  1. Start minimal: unplug all drives and USB devices, leave only CPU, one known-good stick of RAM (try each slot), motherboard power (24-pin + CPU 4/8-pin), and a video card or onboard VGA. Attach a system speaker for beep codes.
  2. Clear CMOS properly (jumper or remove battery for several minutes) and try to enter BIOS.
  3. Swap parts before condemning the board: try a different PSU or use a PSU tester/multimeter to verify +12V/+5V/+3.3V under load; try the video card in another machine and try a PCI card in this board if possible.
  4. Inspect the board: burned traces, discolored or bulging capacitors, or bent pins are strong hardware-failure signs. Also check for chassis shorts (missing standoffs) and properly seated CPU/heatsink.
  5. If the system has no beeps, fans spin but no video, and you get the same result after the steps above, it usually points to motherboard failure.

Before RMA or replacement, document the steps taken, take photos of connectors and any PCB damage, and remove the hard drive to recover data with a USB adapter if needed. When fitting a replacement board, confirm CPU/socket and BIOS compatibility and update BIOS only after confirming a stable power source (use a UPS if possible). These steps avoid unnecessary part swaps and speed up reaching a definitive hardware fault.

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Member Avatar for djrivera1

can you access your bios, what error code do you get or is your computer just freeze up.

Member Avatar for fen911

It was a bad board. Think the AGP slot was fried - wasn't giving me any video. The drives were all powering up though. Took back to store and replaced and having no troubles at all now. Thanks for the reply.

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