SN45G Problem - won't POST etc

[nb45]

Please help me!

I got a new Shuttle SN45G today, with the following:
new Athlon XP2500+
new 1gb TwinMOS DDR400 ram (2x512mb)
new Radeon 9800Pro 128mb
old HDD (with win XP pre installed)
old DVD-ROM drive

To start with, I could get into the bios. Had a fiddle round, got everything looking good (should have all been ok) then rebooted. Wouldn't boot into windows. It got as far as the enter safemode menu, made the choice (tried safemode and normal) then pc would just restart. Played around with the bios a bit, tried different mem and cpu settings. No joy.

Then after making another change to the mem in bios (put it back to auto I think), it now wont even POST. I cannot get into the BIOS! I have tried resetting CMOS using jumpers, using soft, even pulling the bios battery, but it either won't reset, or it has done but still won't let me in the bios or POST.

All it does now is power on (ICE fan starts but does not regulate itself, it stays on full power). Any ideas?

Please help me!

[elglg]

Have you changed the memory voltage settings? Cause there is a fault with the V2 SN45G boards, where changing the memory voltage kills the board . If that is what has happened then you will have to RMA it

[nb45]

Yes I changed the mem volt settings because I couldn't get it to get past the windows safemode menu. So I killed it then? Marvellous.

Thanks for the help anyway, elglg.

[nb45]

I've just been reading up on this problem, some people (only a few unfortunately) have managed to recover by removing the graphics card and resetting. Also it seems that some IDE cables can cause similar symtoms, so I'm gonna try stripping it down see if I can revover it. Does anyone know the bare minimum hardware a pc needs to POST or get into bios? Eg is ram needed (I take it the cpu is)?

Probably have to RMA it, but thought its worth a try in the morning.

[elglg]

The minimum needed to POST is CPU, RAM and GFX. Of course you will need to add a keyboard if u want to change anything should it POST. You can do it without a GFX card in but it should beep a number of times to indicate that a GFX isn't present.

[SilentDeath]

Ive read this post before and I knew the answer but I didnt think of it until now (this is a common shuttle problem). Basicly your gfx is drawing too much current when the pc first boots and the psu struggles and everything stops. A work around is to not plug in the gfx power cable untill 2 seconds after you put the power on (1 sec should be plenty imo), this reduces the start up load to somehting the small psu can manage and should then work.. See here for more detialed help and a proper work around.

[hibby]

Ah, the "RAM Voltage Change of Death" , just like my old SN45G. That sounds pretty much like what happened to mine. I set the voltage to something other than Auto and rebooted. First boot went fine, except Prime 95 said there was an instability in the system. So I rebooted to go back into the BIOS and it didn't do anything apart from the drives and fan spinning up. So I sent it back, and got a new case and motherboard along with a PSU that sounds like a ticking bomb.

[nb45]

Cheers for the help guys. I tried it without the gfx attached but still dead, so RMA'd it. Hopefully get the replacement weds.

Are there any other bugs I should be aware of before I start tinkering again?