Mainboard problem

[bhxtyrant]

Hello guys.today i ran into a problem maybe one of you can help me with.A freind of mine decided to upgrade one of his old PCs to an athlon XP based system.He purchased an Epox EP-8K9A motherboard that supports up to Athlon Xp 2700's.Now he installed it with a 100GB maxtor IDE hard drive,Athlon XP 2400+ and 512MB of PC2700 ram.Now heres the weird thing he installed an older Radeon based AGP graphics card.When he starts up the PC everything comes on.(fans spin hard drive activity light flickers ect) but nothing comes up on the monitor at all and the monitor goes into standby mode.Now thinking smart i decided to try out a couple of old gfx cards i had laying around both PCI and AGP based.all produce the same result.I then decided to test out his RAM and processor in one of my current Athlon XP based systems and it all works perfectly fine.I then tried contacting EPOX in which they recommended me clearing the BIO's which didnt help at all.So my question is can anyone think of any other possible solutions?Or does it sound as i expect that the mainboard is damaged or something.

[FastGame]

Now thinking smart i decided to try out a couple of old gfx cards i had laying around both PCI and AGP based
So why would this happen with both PCI & AGP cards ? you sure the monitor is hooked up right, cable good, monitor good ? try another monitor ?

Bios settings correct ?

Do all the cards you tried work in your PC ?

[bhxtyrant]

Well obviously the monitor works as it was connected to the same system before the upgrade and worked fine.We also tested it out with another PC and it still worked fine.Yep monitor is definently hooked up right.

Now for the Bio's we cant get in the Bio's because we cant get anything on screen.from the moment the PC starts to the time we turn it off nothing comes on screen period which is why this problem is so strange.When the PC is turned on the monitor instantly goes into standby mode.Did the same thing with the monitor i use on my current system.

Yes all cards have been tested as well as all hardware.I decided to install an old MSI mainboard (by old i mean a couple months old,it was in my system before i upgraded to my ASUS board) into his PC to test out his hardware and everything came on perfectly fine using the same monitor,ram,processor,gfx card and hard drive.

[FastGame]

Then I wouldn't even mess with it, send it back.

[edit] before you send it back get the manual out and check the MB, make sure all the jumpers/switches are set right.

[bhxtyrant]

Heh kinda figured thats what you were gonna say :p oh well lucky its under warranty.I also have one more question reguarding a different matter.Figure i should just ask it here rather then make another new topic.

I am about to go pick up my new AMD64 3000+ processor and MSI Nforce3 mainboard hopefully tomorrow.(waiting on it to get into the local PC shop as it had to be custom ordered and was cheaper then buying at newegg (getting it for about $120) and i was reading a little info about it and noticed someones review said-

the dual channel memory will adjust DDR400 to DDR333 when used in dual channel mode if double sided, but MSI ensures that running DDR333 dual is more efficient than single channel DDR400

Is this true?and will it affect me overclocking this PC?As you probally recall i made another topic about this a while back.So just wanted to ask this before i end up getting something that may not be a good OCer after all.

Oh and thanks for the help as always :D

[FastGame]

Quote:
the dual channel memory will adjust DDR400 to DDR333 when used in dual channel mode if double sided, but MSI ensures that running DDR333 dual is more efficient than single channel DDR400

Well I take it the XP 3000 your getting is Socket 939 (dual channel). no that Quote isn't true. 333fsb @dual channel isn't going to beat 400fsb @single channel

You'll be able to OC a little higher with the 939 dual channel because the memory controlier is less stressed than the single channel 754, more so on large amounts of ram.

BTW did you see my edit above ?

[bhxtyrant]

Yep i am getting the 939 AMD64 3000+

As for the quote from the way they made it sound i thought for a second they meant the motherboard automatically changes DDR400 dual channel RAM to run at DDR333 basically meaning it makes it run at that speed which had me a little worried.After all i want to get the highest peformance possible.

Just saw your edit above as well and yep i checked that when i first encountered the problem.I tried all the usual solutions like checking all contections,trying the different gfx card,trying a second monitor ect.when nothing helped i installed the MSI board with the original hardware we tried and everything worked fine.I then called tech support and they said try clearing the BIO's which didnt help.I was on my way to returning it tomorrow and then thought i should ask here in case anyone might know more then me on the matter lol (of course me and you both know there are pleanty of more advanced PC techs here then myself.)

This is the full quote off newegg.com from someone who pourchased the same mainboard i am purchasing (the MSI Nforce 3 ultra that you guys recommended to me :) )

Rocking board. Everything great so far, and newegg of course was fantastic with delivery. Couple notes: Zalman CNSP7000b ALCU can work but comes close to both memory and AGP card; be sure to get shorter brass screws if you wish too use the MSI backing plate. Also, the dual channel memory will adjust DDR400 to DDR333 when used in dual channel mode if double sided, but MSI ensures that running DDR333 dual is more efficient than single channel DDR400.

[FastGame]

Looks good to me, your doing research & reading reviews :)

[bhxtyrant]

Yep gotta do it like i said before though its so hard to keep up in the ever changing world of PC hardware.

At the moment i got my list pretty set up and am ready to place my order for the parts that i didnt already order.

pqi TURBO Series Dual Channel (Platinum) 184-Pin 512MB(256MB x 2) DDR PC-3200 (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-141-158&depa=1)
ASPIRE X-Navigator Black Aluminum ATX Mid-Tower Case with side window and 500W Power Supply, Model"ATXA8NW-BK/500" (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-144-090&depa=1)
Samsung 16X DVD±RW, Model TS-H552B/WBCH Black, OEM Bulk (http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=27-151-054&catalog=23&manufactory=BROWSE)
MSI "K8N Neo2 Platinum" NVIDIA nForce3 ULTRA Chipset Motherboard For AMD Socket 939 CPU (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-130-468&depa=1)
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 1.8GHz, 512KB L2 Cache 939-Pin 64-bit Processor - OEM (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-499&depa=0)
Maxtor 200GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model 6Y200M0, OEM Drive Only (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-144-324&depa=0)
Thermaltake PIPE101 3 in 1 CPU Cooler for Intel P4 and AMD K7 & K8, with Heatpipe Cooling, Model "CL-P0006" (http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=35-106-045&DEPA=1)
Thermaltake UFO#3 SILVER UV 90mm Cooling Fan, 80 to 90mm fan adapter included, Model "UFO#3 SILVER UV" (http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=11-999-134&DEPA=1)
AOpen nVIDIA GeForce 6600GT Video Card, 128MB GDDR3, 128-Bit, DVI/TV-Out, AGP 8X, Model "91.05210.66H" (http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=14-135-160&DEPA=1)

And im gonna toss in my old 160GB IDE Maxtor HDD as well so i think i'll be pretty much set.I was also gonna upgrade to Windows XP Professional x64 edition but from what i read so far it wouldnt really be worth it yet.

[FastGame]

That looks like a very nice setup :D

[cash_site]

could you wait for Nforce 4 and 6600GT PCI-X card?