PC dead - very confusing!!

[miffy93]

[FONT=Calibri]Hope someone can help with this as it’s starting to drive me crazy – it’s a long story but I want to give as much info as I can..[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri]I had a working bog standard AMD Duron (1.6ghz) running XP, which I decided to upgrade to a 2.8Ghz P4 (second hand) – also bought a new case to put the bits in (fitted with a 450w psu).[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri]Before I got the case I put all the 2.8ghz bits inside the old case – things seemed to work ok, except for the GPU fan rubbing on the heatsink (when the case was placed horizontally the noise stopped – but I later found out that this was because the fan also stopped – but this is a side issue at the moment.[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri]So, the 2.8ghz bits (as well as the older Duron bits) booted up inside the old case – which is a good point to remember.[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri]The new case arrived & I put the 2.8ghz bits inside it – the cpu fan spun & the speaker constantly emitted 8 short beeps (apparently this is something to do with video buffers/chips – this could be related to the fan rubbing/stopping scenario above – but this isn’t the main issue.), but nothing else happens, no bios bootup or display on screen.[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri]Knocked it down to bare minimum & still no luck.[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri]Then thought i’d try the old duron in the new case – this was even worse, nothing at all happened, not even the cpu fan spun.[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri]Then I tried the old duron in it’s original case (ie to get back to where i’d started from, so at least I could have a working PC).[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri]Still nothing – exactly the same fault.[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri]To recap - Have tried both motherboards in the new case, duron MB acts completely dead, whilst 2.8ghz MB just spins the CPU fan & emits 8 beeps.[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri]Then putting original system (ie duron) back together in original case – system is completely dead.[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri]Help, I think i’m going mad!! [/FONT]

[EndlessWaves]

Originally Posted by miffy93

[FONT=Calibri]Help, I think i’m going mad!! [/FONT]

You're not the only one...

Are there any common elements in the two 'builds', are you using the same graphics card for both?

Personally I'd start by suspecting the PSU, if you were hard up enough to buy a pentium IV then it's probably a very cheap one and they don't have the best reputation. Does the P4 setup work if you plug the old PSU into it?

[miffy93]

The only new parts are the motherboard & processor (which came as a set) and the case - everything else, HD's, graphics card, ram etc are being moved from the 'old' to the 'new' system'.

Both cases have a psu fitted, but what's strange is that in the new case the 2.8ghz MB & proc 'fire up (ie the processor's fan spins), whereas the Duron MB & proc appear completely dead.

Having trawled the net it seems some people have had problems with standoffs in the past - but the old case doesn't even have these (just raised holes) and now this (original) system doesn't work at all.

To answer your question though, I haven't tried the p4 motherboard with the old psu (I did it the other way round - new psu with duron motherboard).

What else do you think it could be?

[Uridium]

Originally Posted by miffy93

The only new parts are the motherboard & processor (which came as a set) and the case - everything else, HD's, graphics card, ram etc are being moved from the 'old' to the 'new' system'.

Both cases have a psu fitted, but what's strange is that in the new case the 2.8ghz MB & proc 'fire up (ie the processor's fan spins), whereas the Duron MB & proc appear completely dead.

Having trawled the net it seems some people have had problems with standoffs in the past - but the old case doesn't even have these (just raised holes) and now this (original) system doesn't work at all.

To answer your question though, I haven't tried the p4 motherboard with the old psu (I did it the other way round - new psu with duron motherboard).

What else do you think it could be?

Not enough voltage to motherboard maybe. Make sure you have the 12v (often called P4) connector plugged in as well as main Motherboard 20/24 pin connector.

[CP-PC]

what graphics card are you using?? same one for both systems???does the graphics card work before you started all this??

[miffy93]

Originally Posted by Uridium

Not enough voltage to motherboard maybe. Make sure you have the 12v (often called P4) connector plugged in as well as main Motherboard 20/24 pin connector.

The 2.8ghz proc/MB (ie the one that spins the proc fan but doesn't boot) has the 12v connector fitted.

The duron proc/mb only has the 20 pin connector fitted (ie no 12v/p4 connector) - it doesn't seem to have the p4 conn (its a Jetway MB by the way).

I've made sure that the relevant power connectors are pushed home on the relevant system but no luck.

[miffy93]

Originally Posted by CP-PC

what graphics card are you using?? same one for both systems???does the graphics card work before you started all this??

It's a GeForce 7200 from the top of my head (can't look at the moment to double check), and the same one for both systems (although I have tried another card & got the same results).

The graphics card worked before I started all of this (in fact the duron system worked completely before I started all this!).