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Motherboard FAQ
Basic for all motherboards
Basic common problems:
Problem:Won't boot and fans don't spin.
Answer: Check to see if Plug is in Power Supply and pluged into wall. 2)If power supply has a switch have you turned it on?
3) Is power cable pluged into motherboard? (if P4) is both accessory power cables pluged in. 4) Is fan spinning in power supply?
If not, most likely a dead power supply.
If fan is spinning in power supply but not powering on fans you may have too small of a power supply or
your fan header is blown (try putting cpu fan on differant 3 pin header) or your shorting out somewhere. To check for a short remove motherboard from case, place on a book attach power cable(s) to motherboard
install only you video card, processor(and heatsink/fan) and ram (1 stick if SDRam or DDR, 1 pair if Rambus). try starting by briefly shorting the 2 jumpers
where your start button cable goes, (aka soft-on, power sw). If this does not cause you to have the CPU fan to spin you most likely have a dead Motherboard.
Problem: Won't boot but fans spin.
Answer: 1) remove everything but your Video card, CPU(and fan heatsink) and 1 stick of Ram (1 pair if Rambus). unplug your drives and
accessories. NOW RESEAT, reseat, reseat your video card, memory (DDR is very problamatic, you should hear a snap,snap as the DDR pops in). try this several times.
If still no boot Clear your Cmos using the jumper. after placing jumper on the clear Cmos position push your start button several times
(no it should not turn on), then place the clear Cmos jumper back to its original position (normal), now try starting. If you still get no boot then try this;
Unplug the power from the case (a MUST DO! turning off power switch is not good enough it still passes a 5V feed for power on by lan), remove Cmos battery
(this is a small shiny, silver, round thing like a watch battery but bigger). After removing battery push your start button several times, (nope it should not start).
now replace your battery, plug power back in to power supply and try booting. This should have reset your Cmos. Set it as needed.
If still no boot try the above step in regards to possible shorting,If this still did not allow you to boot there is one more thing to try but is recommended for advanced users ONLY. carefully remove your bios chip from the board being sure
to not bend the pins (not all boards have removable bios's), short the bios chip against anything metal, replace chip. If this or nothing else
worked there are 2 possible problems,(assuming processor, video card and memory are good) 1) Bad board, 2) too small of a power supply this is most common with AMD processors, check to see if your
power supply is on the AMD approved list.
Other potential problems: Bad ram(try another) sometimes even with the speaker hooked up you won't get a beep code for bad ram.
Bad processor, this is particularly true with AMD. Not that they are bad more often but can be easily fried or cracked and chiped. try another.
Bad Video Card, rare but if you are hearing a boot beep(speaker must be attached) but getting no video this is very possibly the problem.
Quick note on Overclocking: Quite often after setting your FSB or Multiplier to high(or not increasing voltage) your
board won't boot. A some times quick fix is when rebooting(alt, control, delete keys all at once) hold down the insert Key this may resset your bios, if not
follow the above directions for resetting the Cmos. A very good power supply is highly recommended for OCing.
