Strange problem: A7N8X-E

W

WEeep

Geek Trainee
Hello,

A family member dropped my computer down the stairs while I was away. I found that all the components still worked except the motherboard which was an Asus A7V266-E. The case is a little warped as well. I purchased an Asus A7N8X-E motherboard to replace the one that broke. After installing and hooking everything together the computer will not turn on. No fans, no boot sequence, nothing powers on. I've only built 4 computers before and they have all been pretty straight forward. I have no idea what could be wrong. The green LED on the motherboard turns on when I switch the power supply on. When I hit the case power switch, nothing happens. So far I have:
-Cleared the BIOS by taking the battery out for 10sec and setting the jumpers
-Tried various memory configurations
-Tried to boot the computer with no components except the CPU attached to the motherboard
-Placed a different fan in the CPU fan and Chasis fan slots

The specs of my computer are:
Asus A7N8X-E motherboard
AMD Athlon XP 1900+
Enermax EG-465P-VE FCA 431W Power Supply
1.5GB Micron PC-2100 DDR SDRAM (3 sticks of 512MB)
GeForce3 Ti 500
Adaptec 19160 SCSI Adapter
Seagate 73GB Ultra160 SCSI hard drive
Pioneer DVR-AO3 EIDE DVD drive
Soundblaster Audigy Platinum EX

Any suggestions would be really helpful! It is probably something little and simple that I am overlooking :)
 
I doubt the psu is your problem.

So try testing each sticks of RAM individually and in every slots.
Also, make sure the jumper for the system clock (and every other jumpers for that matter) is set up properly.

If it stills doesn't work. You can go by a process of elimination. So strip the system down to its bare minimum (one stick of ram, no sound card, etc) and see if it changes anything. If it does, then add one component at a time and see where it starts to fail.
 
In addition, take the motherboard out of the case, and set it on a flat surface (hell, the motherboard box works fine). Again, remove all the parts you don't need to get the thing to POST, and take it from there.
 
Thanks for the responses!

Newbie question: what is needed on the motherboard to get it to POST? I kinda like Big B's suggestion of trying the motherboard outside the case.

Would it be possible that the CPU chip is bad? I exchanged the first A7N8X-E motherboard I purchased thinking it might have been defective, but alas it gave me the exact same problem. Would having a problem with the memory cause the computer to not turn on at all? I mean, not even the case fans come on when I hit the power switch, and the power switch isn't broken.

Thanks
 
It's always possible.

Two things come to mind. They seem obvious but there's probably an on/off switch behind the psu, make sure it's on. Secondly, make sure the power switch cable is plugged in correctly into the motherboard.
 
To be able to turn the system on just to test it, you'll need to have the CPU (and heatsink) installed, then just have one stick of RAM, and a video card.
 
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