Second 2 day old ABIT M/B dying - no Video - no BIOS Beeps?

[g__day]

The first one died on day 3 (the second at the end of day 1):

For the first 3 day everything was perfect. Topower 420W PSU running XP2800 using 2 sticks of Corsair 512 PC3200 CAS 2 matched RAM and a 9700 PRO on an ABIT N7F-s v2.0 motherboard. Temps were under 44 Celcius.

As of now my PC sounds the disks are spinning but I get no video signal and no BIOS error beeps. I have tried 2 video cards and 2 monitors and clearing the BIOS - just a black screen. Its like my AGP port is dead or motherboard is shorting or something.

Importantly I notice the fan on the GPU turns for 3 seconds then stops for a fraction of a second - then this repeats over and over - making me supsicous the AGP port is shorting and not delivering steady power.

About 8pm Saturday my PC started re-booting whenever I played Return To Castle Wolfenstein for 5 mins or more - I underclocked the GPU and still problems. I put a massive fan blowing on the CPU and GPU from 3 inces away and it would play stably.

I switched my PC off for 5 mins - re-moved the video card - checked it looked okay, and re-booted - no video signal.

I tried an old video card - no joy, I tried a another monitor no joy. I cleared the CMOS and tried again - no joy.

The CPU has been running at under 45 degrees all day.

Any idea what on earth has happened to my ABIT N7F-s? Can an AGP port just die? I get no bios bips whatsoever - just no video

* * *

Okay - then I stripped it down - removed the AGP video card - remove all PSU leads - reset CMOS again for a minute. Re-attach CMOS to pins 1-2, re-attach power

Attempt boot - nothing - little red power led is on, cpu fan spinning, litte green power good led is on on motherboard next to red led. But no BIOS beeps?????

Try again removing memory - one stick then both - I just don't get any BIOS beeps whatsoever.

There have never been USB devices attached so far - so I am not expecting a short of a USB pin - will look at that next.

Tried removing one stick of RAM - moving the other to RAM slot 3 then reseting CMOS - rebooting with INSERT key help down - no joy.

Why isn't the N7F-s v2.0 beeping at me?

Any thoughts or suggestions greatly appreciated!

 

[Dio]

Have you checked the CMOS battery?

I had one board where the CMOS battery would flat in 2-3 months. Once that was dead, no boot, no beep, just plain dead. After it ate a second battery in the same kind of time, I RTM'ed it.

Other reasons for not beeping vary. I've had boards that won't beep if the CPU isn't running; some will. Possibly, therefore, the CPU is dead. Other than that, it usually means something fatal is wrong with the board and it's RTM time.

 

[Sxotty]

The video card thing is very strange, i.e. that if you put a big fan it actually worked it makes me wonder if somehow your video card could have fried the Motherboard. But yes it sounds like you are going to have to RMA it sorry.

 

[g__day]

Well returned it to the place I bought it today - they checked it and said - yep - its got lots of wierd errors. So now I wait (probably to Friday) for a new board and hope nothing else goes wrong.

 

[g__day]

Well they say the AGP port was bad - replaced it late Monday - the new board has died again 20 minutes ago!!!!!

What is going on here? After waiting a week for a replacement to my 3 day old motherboard which died last Sat, the new m/b arrived Monday evening at 6pm and it died 20 mintues ago - so it barely lasted 26 hours.

What the hell is going on?

I left in in screen saver mode running a MS Word document and when I came back it wouldn't respond. I rebooted and I can't even get to a BIOS screen.

I have cleared the CMOS but no joy - I get no video and no BIOS error beeps - just like before. The CPU never got above 50 celcius and the only thing I had active at the time was MS Word - hardly a demanding application.

I wonder what the supplier will say when I tell him its died again within 24 hours. At least this time he set up the board and mounted everything.

Any idea what the hell is going on?

It has got me worried and frustrated to the n-th degree. I get no video or beeps on power up and clearly the BIOS hasn't helped. This has got me stumped!!!

 

[Sxotty]

Well it sounds to me like you need to figure somehting out because that is ridiculous, try different components. It is good for you that he set it up for you otherwise they would probably just laugh.

 

[PatrickL]

If you bought the same card there are chances that the vendors got a faulty series of that model. Try to change to another mothercard model ?

 

[AAlcHemY]

Checked the voltages of the PSU before the motherboard died ? ( Bios - PC health )
Tried a PCI gpu ?
Enough airflow in the case?

 

[GameCat]

Make sure there's nothing inside your case (like old standoffs or screws) touching the mb and causing a short. Try installing the mb in another case with a different PSU perhaps? If it works there but dies when you put in yours you know where the fault lies.

 

[g__day]

PC health - the voltages were fine from memory - I am using a AUD $180 Topower Gold 420W PSU in a full tower case with alot of extra cooling fans - so I doubt its a heat issue and I would be stunned if its a PSU issue.

The tech at the store mounted the MB for me - the server case has a retarctable Motherboard mounting panel so we can be sure there are no shorts.

The shop today was surprised - the tech said it could be

1) a bad board

2) a bad hard drive causing the board to die

3) a bad video card causing the baord to die

If boards kept dying for only me he would expect a HDD or Video card problem and asked me if they had given me any problems. I said they were all top quality components and had worked for over 8 months on another motherboard with absolutely no issues. And Sandrasoft said all my components were fine.

I hate technicans saying there is a mysterious problem in some other area of you rig that we can't pick and aren't responsible for so its not our problem. That's a cop out.

He was interested in was my Video card running at 8x AGP for the first time (it was) and could this be a problem - but I pointed out both teh Motherboard and Video card are fully rated for AGP 8x peformance. He kept saying ah but does it have a problem? And I kept saying it is certified to work - has never mucked up in the past - has a great reputation and how would you otherwise know if there are any problems on an otherwise perfectly working rig?

Very puzzling - I am wondering if I should give up and ask them to move me to a ASUS rig?

 

[PC-Engine]

What voltage does the AGP slot on the MB support?

 

[Sxotty]

The video card thing is very strange, i.e. that if you put a big fan it actually worked it makes me wonder if somehow your video card could have fried the Motherboard. But yes it sounds like you are going to have to RMA it sorry.

I said it sounded like your Video card before, and it still does why not ask the shop to borrow one of theirs, of put yours in their machine and see if it fries it?

 

[g__day]

PC-ENGINE

The MB can supply AGP voltages from 1.5V -> 1.8 V, I believe 1.6 was the standard it automatically selected for a 9700 Pro.

Sxotty

The seem to thing it is a HDD or PSU fluctuating and possibly spiking a voltage rail. The wierd thing is this setup has been performing perfectly for 8 months now.

Given it seems to be the AGP port dying I too wonder about the AGP card - but its unaltered and has caused any problems in any of my other machines.

For $200 AUD they have offered me a new 80GB HDD and 400W PSU - I may take them up on this so long as if it dies again they give me a new M/B and then I buy a new video card too I guess.

* * * My dilemmia


Guys and gals I am really interested in your views on this.

Put simply two new ABIT N7F-s 2.0 motherboards have died over 4 days when intergated to equipment that has worked flawlessly on my old ASUS A7V133 rig for over 8 months.

The guys where I bought my new CPU, RAM and Motherboard think its a power surge problem totally killing my boards and say they expect a HDD, PSU or video card is at fault.

For $200 I can get a new 400W PSU and 80 GB 7,200 rpm Seagate HDD. So my question is do you think a ATi 9700 Pro could be frying my new motherboards but not harming my old motherboard.

The dealer wondered if since my old m/b was only AGP 4x and my new one is AGP 8x this is exposing a design fault. What are your views?

 

[Sxotty]

I am not a genius who knows this stuff but let me tell you somthing that happened to me.

When I had a tnt2 ultra which was agp 2x,4x compatible I switched to a MB with 4x agp my video card died 2 days later, I rma'ed it and got a new one that worked..

Of course my MB did not die just the video card but something was wrong all along that I never knew. I do not know if it is possible for this to happen to you tho.