Weird problem your thoughts please

[Flash]

I have a PC Chips P4 800fsb HT Mobo with 256Mb of PC3200 a P4 2.6 800fsb CPU cooled with a aero 4 lite

A pair of SCSI drives a geforce 4 ti4200 and a SCSI controller card

couple this with a Qtec 550w PSU which has never given me any probs

OK heres the issue


Whenever I power on I get nothing apart from one loud beep followed by 7-8 lower pitched beeps then 20 secs later 3 further beeps

on powering down only after the beeps it will then reboot normal and post fine

if I power down before the series of beeps it will repeat this process on boot until I have powered down after the beeps and then restarted

oddly enough the BIOS only shows the 5v and 3.3v levels both being 5.05v and 3.39v

but MBM shows the 12v as 9.49v but Im not sure its using the correct probes and Im pretty sure it wont work at that sort of levels

what do you reckon is wrong?

[andybasford]

Do you have a proper PSU to test it with? Not a QTEC 550rubbishrubbishrubbishrubbish.

[Byatt]

What sort of BIOS is it? You looked up that beep code (bizarre as it is)?

[Flash]

ami bios couldnt find any info on that amount of beeps

its goes like this BEEEEEEEEEEEEP beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep <20sec pause> BEEP beep beep

[Flash]

I cant test with any other PSU as I dont have one with the 12v cable the P4 board requires

without this the board will not power at all as I have tried it with my old 300w Enermax

[Blub2k]

Check the bios beep code, 7 or 8 beeps is ok, counting them and checking the exact code is better.
Failing that strip the system down and rebuild it piece by piece.
Dont worry about the PSU that is not the first problem that I would look at unless Andy knows of a particular issue that they cause like this ...Andy?
Or is this cos they are known to burn now and again?
I have the same psu and it is fine so far, but then I dont overclock.

[streetster]

try reseating the graphics card, make sure its in allll the way

[Flash]

try reseating the graphics card, make sure its in allll the way

done on numerous occasions

the AMI bios beep page reckons its a damaged BIOS its a 2Mbit bios will a flash sort it?

[MD]

hmm thats odd I was jut gonna say three beeps usually means a PSU trip, and the fact that it boots fine after rebooting when the beeps finish would say its not the BIOS.

I remember with the BIOS in HP's they have three beeps which indicate the PSU is triping out, to reset them you hold the power button in for 15 seconds witht he power cable out, seeing as you have to wait and then it will start it would indicate to me that this is a PSU issue.

m@

[Flash]

whats the best cheap option PSU that can run that rig? So I can buy one to test

I dont want to try it with another Qtec

[Flash]

I was just looking at a superflower for £35 420w or should I go for a scan CWT?

[MD]

People swear by the CWT's personally I got Thermatake, but thats more expensive....

I am not saying it deffo IS your PSU, but going on my past experience and well, you did ask

[Flash]

People swear by the CWT's personally I got Thermatake, but thats more expensive....

I am not saying it deffo IS your PSU, but going on my past experience and well, you did ask

Yeah but we both agree that the Qtec is kak and it would be anyones first port of call

[unrealrocks]

Yeah - it could be the PSU although something people haven't mentioned is so is the motherboard there terrible, only about 2 in 3 work. You could try flashing the BIOS although be prepared to buy a new motherboard - where did you get it from? If you must have an extreme budget board, go with ECS - there great for basic system builds (I have and still do swear by the ECS K7S5A (AMD K7) for system builds).

[Flash]

do ECS make a decent p4 800fsb with HT board though?