First post, by henk717
I am currently trying to build a 2005 era retro PC project and have all the essential components.
Unfortunately the system is not posting and based on my research i may have been unlucky in my motherboard choice with no post code troubleshooting available.
The parts used are based on parts i have seen others on Vogons use, so hopefully some of you will be familiar with the issue and will know what a good next step will be.
Here are the parts in the build :
- ASUS A8V Revision 2.01 motherboard (I wish it was the Deluxe, that one has post codes as where i can't find them for the regular version).
The bios of this board is hopefully new enough for the CPU, the seller posted a bios version in the description of the board that seemed new enough by a decent margin but the listing is no longer available so i do not know the exact BIOS revision that is installed, merely that when i checked it at the time i was satisfied with the bios version on the board.
- AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ 2,2 GHz (ADA4200DAA5BV)
- 4GB (4x1GB) KINGSTON KVR400 - DDR 400Mhz - PC3200 - 184PIN - RAM_22
- Gigabyte GeForce 6800 GT, 256MB DDR3, AGP (GV-NX68T256DH)
- IDE HDD / IDE DVD Drive
- Yamaha YMF744 Soundcard
- PSU is a semi modular 450w PSU i had laying around, not top tier stuff, not OEM garbage either. I had to use a ATX24 to ATX20 connector to hook it up to the board.
The following happens in almost all troubleshooting scenario's when the PC is turned on:
- CPU fan spins at full speed, power LED is on, HDD LED is on until the HDD finishes spinning up
- PS/2 Keyboard LED's briefly all flash on and then go off, but is otherwise unresponsive (Can't turn any of the keyboard LED's on or off)
- DVD Drive and HDD Drive make noise, in case of the DVD drive the led flashes briefly
- The GPU fan very briefly spins upon power up and power off (Sometimes long enough for its LED lighting to turn on), but is otherwise not spinning at all, there is no monitor output.
- No beeps from the PC speaker, no error lights are present on the board as far as i can see.
The following happens only if the GPU's power connector is not connected but the GPU is otherwise installed :
- CPU fan spins at full speed, power LED is on, HDD LED remains on
- PS/2 keyboard wasn't plugged in for this test, but it is likely that it would have had the same behavior.
- DVD Drive and HDD Drive make noise, in case of the DVD drive the led flashes briefly
- No visible activity from the GPU as is expected
- A constant loud beep with no interruptions, indicating the GPU is detected and faulty.
The above scenario's are identical depending on the GPU connection in the following test cases :
- All ram installed
- One ram module installed in the B1 slot (Tried every single module)
- One ram module installed in the A1 slot
- GPU is not connected at all (Same scenario as if the GPU was connected correctly, no beep)
- IDE cable is detached from the motherboard
- GPU is connected to a different PSU cable and port (Constant beeping)
- No ram installed at all
- Soundcard is not connected to the board
- No keyboard is connected
So now i am stuck since its my first retro PC build, i do not have any spare parts to test with that i know work correctly.
To me this means it could be the GPU, CPU or Memory. But which one is the most likely to be faulty and are there things i should try i haven't tested yet?
We also did check the socketing of both the ram or CPU and it seems to be fine.
What is the best way to continue this project? And if there are other ASUS A8V owners here is it true there are absolutely no ways to tell what is going on? Or are the beeps simply not in the manual?