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Mrf.
So.. the PC plan goes well. Got motherboard, processor, hdd, cd-rw and display today.. and video card. But the video card doesn't work properly! Arrrg. It seems really loose in the slot and it doesn't display anything, so I'm guessing this a bad thing. Stupid PC hardware. So monday I'm grabbing a AGP TNT2 and PCI S3 Virge from work for testing another machine at a friends place on monday night, so I'll try them too.
Removing the RAM produces the expected error beeps, and removing the video card produces the same affect.. ie, nothing happening. Dern. For the curious, it's an Asus A7N8X-X motherboard, Athlon 2600XP retail, a WinFast A340 (Geforce 5200FX) video card, 512MB DDR2700 RAM, 52x32x52 Liteon CD-RW, 120GB WD 8MB JB drive.. bwaha. Once it works, it'll be swoit :P Only sliced my finger (right thumb) once.. stupid backplane stencil.
Until then, well damn, I just have to run the 17 inch LCD off my mac dual headed. Damn damn damn ;)
Removing the RAM produces the expected error beeps, and removing the video card produces the same affect.. ie, nothing happening. Dern. For the curious, it's an Asus A7N8X-X motherboard, Athlon 2600XP retail, a WinFast A340 (Geforce 5200FX) video card, 512MB DDR2700 RAM, 52x32x52 Liteon CD-RW, 120GB WD 8MB JB drive.. bwaha. Once it works, it'll be swoit :P Only sliced my finger (right thumb) once.. stupid backplane stencil.
Until then, well damn, I just have to run the 17 inch LCD off my mac dual headed. Damn damn damn ;)
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The Video card being loose sounds decidedly dodgy though, I had a bugger of a time getting in a GF4Ti4200. The retention clip at the back should hold everytihgn in place quite snugly when it is clipped over the top of the notch on the back of the card. THough as long as the card's fingers are buried in the slot properly, that should be ok. (assuming its not sliding back and forth somehow).
Another thing I found was that the whoile kit and kaboodle wouldnt get past post till I flashed the BIOS. Now I know youre not even getting that far, but neither was I till I gave the existing BIOS a clear by shorting the jumpers. I had found that every time I saved the BIOS, even without making changes, the PC would just plain not start.....black screen, no beeps, nuffin.
If clearing lets you boot, but not POST, then flashing should do it for you. I upgraded to the latest BIOS, but I suspect that flashing to the same as whats already in there would have worked too.
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My logic for strongly being concerned about the video card is that they have their own BIOS which flashes up a message on the screen when the system is first powered on, before the motherboard BIOS tries to POST, and nothing it coming up there. However this comes on after a basic integrity check by the system, so removing the RAM made it beep, which means the motherboard is probably ok, as is the speaker..
Of course, it may still be the motherboard.. one of the mounting screws (the one next to the AGP slot.. eek!) wouldn't go in properly, so I tried removing it, and it took the brass post out too.. which would have bent the motherboard slightly, but I've seen motherboards bend plenty more and still work.. so who knows. Oh, and the OEM HSF block was a pain in the ass to put on the CPU.. I had to use a disturbing amount of force to get the clip on.. but there's plenty of padding for that too. So yes, still think it's the video card, but getting another AGP and a PCI one from work will tell me :)
Thanks for you input.. nice to hear other people have problems doing this too :)
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Unless your MB BIOS was more royally screwed than