SOYO K7VTA Pro Box - Something Failing, Can't Diagnose

Try hooking up the monitor on the system that is not working to one that is
working. Obviously this isn't
necessary if you switched the monitor from the old Soyo system to your new
system and it worked. This will tell you
whether the monitor is OK. You can buy a plug in module for diagnosing XT
power supplies. But that's not
your problem. The fans run so it is very unlikely that the CPU units power
supply is bad. You can disconnect
the power plug from the MB and short pin 8 to ground and the computer should
start. Pins are numbered
consecutively up down one side and then restart on the other side. This
means that pins 1 and 11 are next
to each other. Pin 10 is the only 12 volt pin on the corner of the
connector.

"jim evans" wrote in message
...

I'd been using a box with a SOYO K7VTA Pro and a AMD 1.3 gHz Athlon
for a couple of years. A friend said he buy it, so I decided to
upgrade and sell him the SOYO box to defray the upgrade cost.

In December I built my new system. All I removed from the SOYO box
were my two hard drives and a CD burner. Nothing else was touched.
It sat untouched since December 'til today. There was no reason to
think anything could be wrong, but before asking him to bring his
drives over to configure it for him I decided to boot it from a DOS
floppy just to be sure everything's working. It ain't!

In the old days we got beep codes to diagnose what's wrong. No more.
This motherboard talks to you over the tiny built-in squeaker-speaker.

When I power it on I get no signal to the monitor (monitor's signal
indicator lamp remains amber). At power-on faint, squeaky,
completely unintelligible talking sounds come from the speaker for
about 15 seconds. The hard drive lamp on the front of the box lights
for about 2 minutes, then the floppy runs a little and the hard drive
lamp goes out - then nothing more. All the fans are running. If I
press Del repeatedly at power-on it appears to go into the CMOS
because the hard drive lamp goes off almost immediately.

I tried the video card in another computer and it works. I tried
hooking up to another monitor -- no help.

The 5 & 12 volts at the drive power connectors looks good. In the old
days we could check all the voltages to be sure the power supply was
working. No more. You have to disconnect the connector to get at the
pins and with ATX boxes the connector must be connected to turn the
power supply on.

To repeat, it was working fine. I removed three drives (I'd changed
drives in it many times while it was my main computer.). I did
nothing else except let it sit for a couple of months.

Anybody have any suggestions for how to diagnose the problem?

jim

No, if the monitor is good and the video card is good, I'm stumped. I
thought
it might be the monitor cable but I doubt that if the monitor works with
another computer. Are you sure the video card is seating well? Also,
because of the age of your computer I'd wonder about the CMOS
battery going out but I wouldn't think it would result in the symptoms
you describe. The fact that you don't even get the startup logo makes
me think it's the video system. You might try taking the CMOS
battery out for a while to let the CMOS reset. They usually go to
the safest default options. A new battery is a cheap thing to try
but I don't think that's it.


"jim evans" wrote in message
...

I'd been using a box with a SOYO K7VTA Pro and a AMD 1.3 gHz Athlon
for a couple of years. A friend said he buy it, so I decided to
upgrade and sell him the SOYO box to defray the upgrade cost.

In December I built my new system. All I removed from the SOYO box
were my two hard drives and a CD burner. Nothing else was touched.
It sat untouched since December 'til today. There was no reason to
think anything could be wrong, but before asking him to bring his
drives over to configure it for him I decided to boot it from a DOS
floppy just to be sure everything's working. It ain't!

In the old days we got beep codes to diagnose what's wrong. No more.
This motherboard talks to you over the tiny built-in squeaker-speaker.

When I power it on I get no signal to the monitor (monitor's signal
indicator lamp remains amber). At power-on faint, squeaky,
completely unintelligible talking sounds come from the speaker for
about 15 seconds. The hard drive lamp on the front of the box lights
for about 2 minutes, then the floppy runs a little and the hard drive
lamp goes out - then nothing more. All the fans are running. If I
press Del repeatedly at power-on it appears to go into the CMOS
because the hard drive lamp goes off almost immediately.

I tried the video card in another computer and it works. I tried
hooking up to another monitor -- no help.

The 5 & 12 volts at the drive power connectors looks good. In the old
days we could check all the voltages to be sure the power supply was
working. No more. You have to disconnect the connector to get at the
pins and with ATX boxes the connector must be connected to turn the
power supply on.

To repeat, it was working fine. I removed three drives (I'd changed
drives in it many times while it was my main computer.). I did
nothing else except let it sit for a couple of months.

Anybody have any suggestions for how to diagnose the problem?

jim

'pro' has on board video? and its disabled? primary is set to AGP/PCI whichever is appropriate?

||What would cause the 2 minutes of drive lamp before the floppy runs||

This would be odd as the led is activated from the MB through the ribbon(basically), maybe the wiring is jumbled from the front
panel and the MB? 2 minutes would be strange to search for a bootable device I would think. Is this with some sort of bootable media
in some drive or none, as in no roms or anything, (except floppy obviously)? Change the boot order, that may help.


"jim evans" wrote in message ...
On Sat, 14 Feb 2004 03:58:15 GMT, "Don_B" wrote:

No, if the monitor is good and the video card is good, I'm stumped. I
thought it might be the monitor cable but I doubt that if the monitor
works with another computer.

And, it was hooked up with the same cable to both computers.

Are you sure the video card is seating well?

Well, I removed and reseated it, then did in again when I removed it
and put it in the other computer to test it.

Also,
because of the age of your computer I'd wonder about the CMOS
battery going out but I wouldn't think it would result in the symptoms
you describe. The fact that you don't even get the startup logo makes
me think it's the video system. You might try taking the CMOS
battery out for a while to let the CMOS reset. They usually go to
the safest default options. A new battery is a cheap thing to try
but I don't think that's it.


when there are no drives (other than the floppy) in the system?

jim
Posted & Mailed

jim

you need to short the cmos and set to default. There really isn't any reason you don't have basic VGA from the bios except for dead
video card,(which you have determined NOT to be the case). There must be something set in the video routine that is out of wack.


"jim evans" wrote in message ...
On Sat, 14 Feb 2004 07:49:20 GMT, "JAD" wrote:

'pro' has on board video? and its disabled? primary is set to AGP/PCI whichever is appropriate?

This system worked for 2 years as it is now. Nothing has changed
except the removal of the drives.

||What would cause the 2 minutes of drive lamp before the floppy runs||

This would be odd as the led is activated from the MB through the ribbon(basically), maybe the wiring is jumbled from the front
panel and the MB? 2 minutes would be strange to search for a bootable device I would think. Is this with some sort of bootable
media
in some drive or none, as in no roms or anything, (except floppy obviously)? Change the boot order, that may help.

The boot sequence was set to look at the floppy drive first. I can't
change anything in the CMOS now, I have no video.

jim

I tend to agree with JADs reply that there shouldn't be any reason why you
don't have basic VGA.
Assuming you have a motherboard manual or access to the information, I'd
short out the CMOS
and reset it. I'm intrigued that your BIOS may be looking for an AGP card
and you have a PCI
video card.

And, the cure of all cures. Have you reseated the memory during all of this?


"jim evans" wrote in message
...
Update:

I've now booted the system with a DOS floppy that automatically starts
a program that beeps once per second. It booted and ran the program
-- I hear the beeps. The program stops with a CR so it's reading the
keyboard too.

I've now tried a second known good video card -- no help.

I may be imagining it, but after listening to the squeaky garbled
voice diagnostic about a hundred more times, it may be saying
something about the VGA (graphics adapter). That makes sense but this
my be why I'm imagining hearing it. However whatever it is it isn't a
bad graphics adapter card.

jim