Faulty Motherboard

[kmac]

Not having much luck with recent kit from Scan....first PSU was DOA and now my AsRock A780GM-LE/128M motherboard appears to be faulty

Installed CPU, RAM and Cooler, HDD and optiocal drive with my Corsair HX620 PSU - fire it up and all fans spin, network port has lights on it, can hear disks spin up but no video. Tried both DVI and D-sub and no video from either. Tried different cable, different monitor no joy.

I guess the on-board graphics are defective unless I'm missing something?

[kmac]

Anyone know if the onboard VGA only works with certain CPUs?I'm running an AMD triple core.

[kmac]

Okay tried my ATI 4770 PCI-E card and no joy either. Card works fine in my other machine.

Any chance this could be a RAM issue?

Edit: Damn RAM not compatible with the motherboard.

This is the RAM I got:
http://www.scan.co.uk/product.aspx?ProductId=29888
On the chip say CM2X2048-8500C5C

This is what they say will work:
http://www.asrock.com/mb/memory/A780GM-LE128M.pdf
Closest is CM2X2048-8500C5D

Now need to decide whether to get new mobo or new RAM!!! Mobo seems cheaper as I have 2X2GB of the RAM already

[Queelis]

That may mean that they haven't tested the RAM, and not that it won't work with your mobo. Have you tried leaving only one stick of RAM in (either one)?

And do you not get video at all, or can you go into BIOS?

[kmac]

Hi - I have two 2Gb memmory modules and I tested each one individually in each RAM slot

No VGA out put at all so can't even get into the BIOS
Tried a PCI-E ATI4770 card and no VGA at all
Very frustrating
Fans and disks all spin up okay

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It could be that the BIOS needs to be updated on the motherboard.

[kmac]

Possibly but its a catch 22 - I need some RAM that will work before I can update the BIOS so that the RAM I have may work.

Actually I'm not sure a BIOS update will fix it. I finally realised the issue after careful perusal of the Motherboard manual and it states that only certain 1066Mhz DDR2 RAm will work and to check the AsRock website for compatible RAM. So they know they only support some 1066RAM.

I guess the easiest thing would be to get some 800Mhz RAM. The other annoying thing is that I have to remove the cooler to change the RAM as it (Xigmatech S1283) overhangs the RAM slots with only millimetres between RAM and cooler

[Pob255]

Try plugging a pc speaker and see if you're getting a bleep code on power on.

[kmac]

Its got a little speaker that came with the case plugged in. Not a beep out of that though. That's what unnerved me a bit. The manual also has no mention of beep codes and what they mean.

[Ben Rogers]

No beep at all in my experience can mean a dodgy CPU unless the speaker is faulty.

You would expect to get beeps for faulty RAM, graphics problem etc though but if the CPU is dead there would not be any beeps.

HTH.

[kmac]

Oh dear - just ordered some more RAM as its been more than seven days since I got the first lot of RAM in Scan woudn't take the old RAM back

I hope its not the CPU though - don't you need the CPU to work to get all the mobo connected fans to work?

I will change the speaker when I get home and check. If its the CPU then I can always send the RAM I ordered today back I guess

[Ben Rogers]

The fans will spin up even without a CPU present.

A CPU in working order is required to get the POST screen up. Same as RAM.

[kmac]

Hmm. Okay will eliminate RAM tomorrow evening and then RMA the CPU.

[Ben Rogers]

I seem to remember a thing about motherboards with onboard graphics from way back, the Pentium 3 days and before so it might not even be the case now and probably isn't but have you tried just one stick of RAM in the closest DIMM slot to the CPU as years ago RAM was required in the slot nearest the CPU in order to get a POST screen, for some reason.

[kmac]

I have two sticks of RAM, and two RAM slots - I tried all Six combinations, Each stick on its own in each slot and the two sticks together

[snootyjim]

Would recommend RMA'ing everything you've bought from Scan back together in a job lot if they'll let you do it.

Leaves you less open to being mucked around with not found faulty fees in my experience.