Mrf.

[theducks]

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 ;)

Comments

[theducks.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the card wobbles up and down (tower case) a fair bit.. but the retention lever is firmly in place, and I can't see any gold from the edge connectors on it. I've tried clearing the CMOS (removing the jumper next to the battery) .. but maybe I didn't leave it long enough the first time.. I just tried it again and still no luck.

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 :)

[mrq.livejournal.com]

Just a quick word on the BIOS clear, remember that you have to move the jumper from pins 1-2 to 2-3 to clear it, not just remove it. Other than that, I'm fresh outta ideas.

Unless your MB BIOS was more royally screwed than azhure's, in which case you'll have to find a kind soul with an EEPROM burner.