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Problems rebuilding system



 
 
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  #1  
Old November 24th 19, 03:54 PM posted to alt.comp.hardware
John McGaw
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 732
Default Problems rebuilding system

On 11/23/2019 10:31 PM, Norm Why wrote:
Hi,

I gutted my old system because the MOBO would not boot. I have an Intel
Q9650 CPU and two sticks of DDR2 RAM, SSDs and a Zotac GTX 970 Single Fan
Graphics Card. I bought an official Intel cooler fan for the Q9650. I'm

snip...

First things first. You say that there is no video of any sort. Have you
tried to verify that the video card you have is actually working? I would
expect to see something show up on the screen even if everything else in
the boot sequence was kaput.

Also, if the video card has multiple outputs (3 or 4 on your card I
believe) have you connected a monitor to each of them and tried the reboot
sequence? I got trapped in an "impossible" situation that sounds a bit like
yours a few years back and it turned out that everything was actually
working pretty much as intended but I had the monitor hooked to the wrong
video output and didn't see anything that was happening. Just a thought and
it should only take a few minutes to check...
  #2  
Old November 25th 19, 03:22 AM posted to alt.comp.hardware
Norm Why[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 114
Default Problems rebuilding system

"John McGaw" wrote in message
...
On 11/23/2019 10:31 PM, Norm Why wrote:
Hi,

I gutted my old system because the MOBO would not boot. I have an Intel
Q9650 CPU and two sticks of DDR2 RAM, SSDs and a Zotac GTX 970 Single Fan
Graphics Card. I bought an official Intel cooler fan for the Q9650. I'm

snip...

First things first. You say that there is no video of any sort. Have you
tried to verify that the video card you have is actually working? I would
expect to see something show up on the screen even if everything else in
the boot sequence was kaput.

Also, if the video card has multiple outputs (3 or 4 on your card I
believe) have you connected a monitor to each of them and tried the reboot
sequence? I got trapped in an "impossible" situation that sounds a bit
like yours a few years back and it turned out that everything was actually
working pretty much as intended but I had the monitor hooked to the wrong
video output and didn't see anything that was happening. Just a thought
and it should only take a few minutes to check...


Thanks John. All the parts from my old build were working. But a more
important is what the GIGABYTE MOBO expecting. Troubleshooting is done with
GIGABYTE, Taiwan. First one must register. Registration is a very good
exercise where one must provide all the info on the MOBO. One is asked what
PCI VGA card is used. Then I remembered the ten year history of my MCP73VE
MOBO. It had a built-in VGA port. Only after VGA is used to work with the
BIOS program can one download drivers for a PCIe GPU. On eBay cheap ones are
available for $10. There are two shops in town that might have a cheap one.
Then after some time I can download all the drivers from GIGABYTE. Hopefully
by Monday it should be working.


  #3  
Old November 25th 19, 12:22 PM posted to alt.comp.hardware
John McGaw
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 732
Default Problems rebuilding system

On 11/24/2019 9:22 PM, Norm Why wrote:
"John McGaw" wrote in message
...
On 11/23/2019 10:31 PM, Norm Why wrote:
Hi,

I gutted my old system because the MOBO would not boot. I have an Intel
Q9650 CPU and two sticks of DDR2 RAM, SSDs and a Zotac GTX 970 Single Fan
Graphics Card. I bought an official Intel cooler fan for the Q9650. I'm

snip...

First things first. You say that there is no video of any sort. Have you
tried to verify that the video card you have is actually working? I would
expect to see something show up on the screen even if everything else in
the boot sequence was kaput.

Also, if the video card has multiple outputs (3 or 4 on your card I
believe) have you connected a monitor to each of them and tried the reboot
sequence? I got trapped in an "impossible" situation that sounds a bit
like yours a few years back and it turned out that everything was actually
working pretty much as intended but I had the monitor hooked to the wrong
video output and didn't see anything that was happening. Just a thought
and it should only take a few minutes to check...


Thanks John. All the parts from my old build were working. But a more
important is what the GIGABYTE MOBO expecting. Troubleshooting is done with
GIGABYTE, Taiwan. First one must register. Registration is a very good
exercise where one must provide all the info on the MOBO. One is asked what
PCI VGA card is used. Then I remembered the ten year history of my MCP73VE
MOBO. It had a built-in VGA port. Only after VGA is used to work with the
BIOS program can one download drivers for a PCIe GPU. On eBay cheap ones are
available for $10. There are two shops in town that might have a cheap one.
Then after some time I can download all the drivers from GIGABYTE. Hopefully
by Monday it should be working.



I could help you out if you were my neighbor -- I've been cleaning out my
closet and box room full of computer junk and have found at least six video
cards, some of them going all the way back to a Matrox standard VGA. Good luck.
  #4  
Old November 25th 19, 06:26 PM posted to alt.comp.hardware
Norm Why[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 114
Default Problems rebuilding system


"John McGaw" wrote

I gutted my old system because the MOBO would not boot. I have an Intel
Q9650 CPU and two sticks of DDR2 RAM, SSDs and a Zotac GTX 970 Single
Fan
Graphics Card. I bought an official Intel cooler fan for the Q9650. I'm
snip...

First things first. You say that there is no video of any sort. Have you
tried to verify that the video card you have is actually working? I
would
expect to see something show up on the screen even if everything else in
the boot sequence was kaput.

Also, if the video card has multiple outputs (3 or 4 on your card I
believe) have you connected a monitor to each of them and tried the
reboot
sequence? I got trapped in an "impossible" situation that sounds a bit
like yours a few years back and it turned out that everything was
actually
working pretty much as intended but I had the monitor hooked to the
wrong
video output and didn't see anything that was happening. Just a thought
and it should only take a few minutes to check...


Thanks John. All the parts from my old build were working. But a more
important is what the GIGABYTE MOBO expecting. Troubleshooting is done
with
GIGABYTE, Taiwan. First one must register. Registration is a very good
exercise where one must provide all the info on the MOBO. One is asked
what
PCI VGA card is used. Then I remembered the ten year history of my
MCP73VE
MOBO. It had a built-in VGA port. Only after VGA is used to work with the
BIOS program can one download drivers for a PCIe GPU. On eBay cheap ones
are
available for $10. There are two shops in town that might have a cheap
one.
Then after some time I can download all the drivers from GIGABYTE.
Hopefully
by Monday it should be working.



I could help you out if you were my neighbor -- I've been cleaning out my
closet and box room full of computer junk and have found at least six
video cards, some of them going all the way back to a Matrox standard VGA.
Good luck.


Thanks John,

I just phoned a neighbor who has a box full of old parts. He may have a PCI
VGA card. I got a reply from a local shop. They no longer sell PCI VGA and
if they did it would likely be as expensive as new parts. It is a seller's
market for the best and most expensive.


  #5  
Old November 25th 19, 07:11 PM posted to alt.comp.hardware
Paul[_28_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,467
Default Problems rebuilding system

Norm Why wrote:
"John McGaw" wrote

I gutted my old system because the MOBO would not boot. I have an Intel
Q9650 CPU and two sticks of DDR2 RAM, SSDs and a Zotac GTX 970 Single
Fan
Graphics Card. I bought an official Intel cooler fan for the Q9650. I'm
snip...

First things first. You say that there is no video of any sort. Have you
tried to verify that the video card you have is actually working? I
would
expect to see something show up on the screen even if everything else in
the boot sequence was kaput.

Also, if the video card has multiple outputs (3 or 4 on your card I
believe) have you connected a monitor to each of them and tried the
reboot
sequence? I got trapped in an "impossible" situation that sounds a bit
like yours a few years back and it turned out that everything was
actually
working pretty much as intended but I had the monitor hooked to the
wrong
video output and didn't see anything that was happening. Just a thought
and it should only take a few minutes to check...
Thanks John. All the parts from my old build were working. But a more
important is what the GIGABYTE MOBO expecting. Troubleshooting is done
with
GIGABYTE, Taiwan. First one must register. Registration is a very good
exercise where one must provide all the info on the MOBO. One is asked
what
PCI VGA card is used. Then I remembered the ten year history of my
MCP73VE
MOBO. It had a built-in VGA port. Only after VGA is used to work with the
BIOS program can one download drivers for a PCIe GPU. On eBay cheap ones
are
available for $10. There are two shops in town that might have a cheap
one.
Then after some time I can download all the drivers from GIGABYTE.
Hopefully
by Monday it should be working.


I could help you out if you were my neighbor -- I've been cleaning out my
closet and box room full of computer junk and have found at least six
video cards, some of them going all the way back to a Matrox standard VGA.
Good luck.


Thanks John,

I just phoned a neighbor who has a box full of old parts. He may have a PCI
VGA card. I got a reply from a local shop. They no longer sell PCI VGA and
if they did it would likely be as expensive as new parts. It is a seller's
market for the best and most expensive.



Dude. To start debugging, you don't even need a video card.

Insert CPU and RAM. Try to make sure RAM is in good shape,
like use that "small" capacity stick you don't normally use,
a stick that won't overload a Northbridge. For example,
on my first computer, I had a 64MB stick used just for "bring-up),
and the 128MB and 256MB sticks were for full time usage.

The thing is, the PC speaker (1x4 connector on mobo labeled SPKR)
is your friend.

When the BIOS POSTs, it starts simple.

1) For a while, BIOS runs *without RAM*. It uses
register oriented code. it tests stuff. It reads
the RAM SPD chip. It then programs the Northbridge
memory controller.

2) Now, it carries out a RAM test. It does read/write to
RAM. If a written value does not come back, it beeps the
speaker a couple times. There is a repeating beep code,
sorta like an SOS ("Save Our Souls").

3) If the RAM passes, now it's time to search for video
and set it up.

4) If no video is present (card not detected), there is a
slightly different beep code. An SOS, but with a different
pattern.

Make *sure* the SPKR (1x4 pin header section) is plugged to
the case speaker, so you get the benefit of the SPKR output.
The speaker wires are connected to pin 1 and pin 4.

Now, without RAM or video card in the system and
CPU installed, and *2x2* ATX12V power plugged in,
there should be SPKR beeping because of the missing
hardware. If it won't beep, then the CPU might not
have power, the CPU could be blown, the motherboard
could be bad, the VCore regulator could have failed,
the usual sorts of things.

Instead of immediately wasting time on a search for
an obscure video card, I want to hear beeps first!

If there are no beeps, you have more serious problems,
like a BIOS flash version which won't run a 9650. Now,
normally, the initial release BIOS code runs a 9650, so
it really should have run, and there isn't really an
excuse for this one. Check that you have both the
main 24 pin and the 2x2 ATX12V plugged in.

To avoid problems with the computer case itself,
I test on the kitchen table first. First
insulate the motherboard (a phone book underneath
will do). The hard part is propping up a heavy video
card so it won't fail over. If you screw the video
cable to the faceplate, that's pretty strong. Then,
take the video cable and make a "sandwich" out of
heavy objects, so the cable cannot move, and then
the cable can keep the video card upright.

But just a beep test right now would be a start.

If you burned the ORing diode for the CMOS power
path, then the system can't start without that.
If there's no voltage on VBAT, there's no way for
the processor to read out stuff in the Southbridge
CMOS well. And that will stop your beep test, too.

A PCI Port 80 card can be used for a quick test
that "she's dead Jim". If the Port card display
stays at 0x00 or 0xFF and won't change, then the
machine isn't starting to POST at all. A jammed
RESET switch could do that, as an example of
another root cause type. Swap the RESET button cable
and the POWER button cable, so the bad reset switch
can be tested by using it to power up the system .
Unplugging the RESET button is also an option, as
at this point, you don't need it particularly.

Paul
  #6  
Old November 27th 19, 02:42 AM posted to alt.comp.hardware
~misfit~[_16_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 158
Default Problems rebuilding system

On 25/11/2019 3:22 PM, Norm Why wrote:
"John McGaw" wrote in message
...
On 11/23/2019 10:31 PM, Norm Why wrote:
Hi,

I gutted my old system because the MOBO would not boot. I have an Intel
Q9650 CPU and two sticks of DDR2 RAM, SSDs and a Zotac GTX 970 Single Fan
Graphics Card. I bought an official Intel cooler fan for the Q9650. I'm

snip...

First things first. You say that there is no video of any sort. Have you
tried to verify that the video card you have is actually working? I would
expect to see something show up on the screen even if everything else in
the boot sequence was kaput.

Also, if the video card has multiple outputs (3 or 4 on your card I
believe) have you connected a monitor to each of them and tried the reboot
sequence? I got trapped in an "impossible" situation that sounds a bit
like yours a few years back and it turned out that everything was actually
working pretty much as intended but I had the monitor hooked to the wrong
video output and didn't see anything that was happening. Just a thought
and it should only take a few minutes to check...


Thanks John. All the parts from my old build were working.


Does this include the CPU? Did you have that exact combination of CPU, RAM and GPU running off that
PSU? Because experience tells me that and "old 400w PSU" might struggle to run what you've got.

You said "my old 400w PSU". Older PSUs split their rated output between 3.3v, 5v and 12v rails.
Modern CPUs and GPUs want all or most of their power on the 12v rail...

I suspect that it was the PSU in the library with a candlestick...

But a more
important is what the GIGABYTE MOBO expecting. Troubleshooting is done with
GIGABYTE, Taiwan. First one must register. Registration is a very good
exercise where one must provide all the info on the MOBO. One is asked what
PCI VGA card is used. Then I remembered the ten year history of my MCP73VE
MOBO. It had a built-in VGA port. Only after VGA is used to work with the
BIOS program can one download drivers for a PCIe GPU. On eBay cheap ones are
available for $10. There are two shops in town that might have a cheap one.
Then after some time I can download all the drivers from GIGABYTE. Hopefully
by Monday it should be working.


--
Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has a cozy little classification
in the DSM"
David Melville

This is not an email and hasn't been checked for viruses by any half-arsed self-promoting software.
 




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