[Arizona]

When I turn the system on, everything activates but I can't get the system to post. I've tried unhooking everything but the MB, RAM and the video card. No dice. I bought new RAM today and no change. I will occasionally get a very brief single beep on start-up. Is it possible that the video card is incompatible with the system? I have not tried reseating the processor. Any advice would be great...here is my system...

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ ClawHammer Socket 939 CPU
1 GB PC3200 DDR400/333/266
GeForce FX5600U 128 MB
Abit UL8 motherboard

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Even if it seems that everything is functioning the first place to look at is the Powersupply. If you have a compatible spare around it's easy enough to test with the spare to be sure the system is powering up properly. PSU is the most common cause of PC issues and the first thing to look at. After that test the RAM. Even new RAM can be bad. Next inspect the mainboard for anything that seems wrong. Bulging capasitors was an issue on a couple of occasions in the past. The board looks physically good then if you have access to a mainbord of the same socket that is known to be working you can mount the processor and see if it posts to elemnate the CPU. If it post my bet is on the mainboard.

[silverbeard]

Even if it seems that everything is functioning the first place to look at is the Powersupply. If you have a compatible spare around it's easy enough to test with the spare to be sure the system is powering up properly. PSU is the most common cause of PC issues and the first thing to look at. After that test the RAM. Even new RAM can be bad. Next inspect the mainboard for anything that seems wrong. Bulging capasitors was an issue on a couple of occasions in the past. The board looks physically good then if you have access to a mainbord of the same socket that is known to be working you can mount the processor and see if it posts to elemnate the CPU. If it post my bet is on the mainboard.

[Arizona]

I'm about to try a new video card. When I hooked up my previous MB with my old card, I got nothing. I then tried a MB with built-in video. It worked by itself but not with the AGP card. Can a bad card cause a system to activate but not post?

[Arizona]

Well...the new card kind of worked. I now have a screen of gray with vertical white bands. This is closer than I've ever gotten to get this thing to post. Power supply seems to be working fine. Everything activates when the power button is pressed. I still have not installed the hard drive or cd-roms. How do I get this to come unscrambled?

[apritske]

Are you sure you have your power supply properly connected to your mobo? I'm guessing you have a main 24 pin power connector and probably a 6 pin 12 V connector, are both of them plugged in to the PS?

[apritske]

More like 8 pin or 4 pin, scratch 6 pin

[Arizona]

I installed the new card and connected the power supply directly to it and I finally got it to post. I haven't tried to access it beyond that yet but all things point to a bad video card and the scramble looks like it was attributed ti insufficient power...I had originally not directly connected it to the PS.