[Doby]

The BIOS should show up with just video card and moboard and power right?

You need a cpu and ram also

1. It's been a while since I've done this so, how much arctic silver 5 thermal paste should I apply to my processor to put my heat sink on.

Instructions here
istructions

And others like that, can it support 1 video card, or do you have to run crossfire? like have 2 cards running?... Because crossfire is somethign I might want to do in the future but not now.

You don't have to have two video cards to run the board, one will work fine but get a board with cross fire or sli if you plan on two in the future

The board you linked to will work fine with your hardware as long as you have a 939 pin cpu, keep in mind that when you decide to use 2 video cards a psu upgrade will be needed.

If I missed anything jus ask

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well you pretty much covered all my questions... I'm still confused about the BIOS... I was under the impression that the BIOS will run with just video card, motherboard, and PSU... Thats what I have been told in the past, and been told recently.


So I'm actually getting 2 different kinds of messages.

1. You have to have: mobo, CPU, PSU, RAM, and Vid card

and

2. you have to have: mobo, psu, and vid card.

which one of these is correct, when you are trying to just see the BIOS, nothing else ( so I can narrow it down to what is wrong)

Thanks for the artic silver instructions link!

[strikermed]

well you pretty much covered all my questions... I'm still confused about the BIOS... I was under the impression that the BIOS will run with just video card, motherboard, and PSU... Thats what I have been told in the past, and been told recently.


So I'm actually getting 2 different kinds of messages.

1. You have to have: mobo, CPU, PSU, RAM, and Vid card

and

2. you have to have: mobo, psu, and vid card.

which one of these is correct, when you are trying to just see the BIOS, nothing else ( so I can narrow it down to what is wrong)

Thanks for the artic silver instructions link!

[Doby]

When you first press the power button bios performs a routine test called the post(power on self test) it first checks the power good signal from the psu then proceds to checking the ram and video card. For this test the bios(part of the motherboard) must have a cpu to comuincate too

If any of these parts a are missing/defective the post will fail and give a beep or series of beeps indicating witch part is not working.

Lets say the computer passes post, then you can enter bios, have video and see the bios setup menu.

Lets say it don't pass post, then one of these components is bad, if the bios cannot detect any usable memory it will beep, usually one long repeated beep.
If the bios cannot detect video it will beep, ususlly one long two short.
If there is no cpu present or is bad, the board cannot then initiate bios, it may give a weak beep or unrecognizable beep.
Of coarse the board needs power to do all this, the psu.
Therefore a computer to pass post must have a
motherboard
cpu
ram
video card
psu

This is why I asked you to connect a case speaker and remove the ram, if the board beeps it means it is working properly because it cannot find usable memory, if it does not there is a good chance the board is no good. If the board beeps when ram is installed it does not always mean bad ram, it could also be a bad ram slot (dimm)

To see and enter the bios menu it must also have a mouse, keyboard monitor.

Hope that helps clear things up a bit and with everthing you have tried it does seem like a bad motherboard

[strikermed]

ok, I'm gonna do a lil bit more further testing before I go and order a new mobo... I'll see if I can find a speaker, maybe from my bro's computer and borrow it.


Oh, also, will it beep at all if it is a good start up? and where can I find a list of beep indications online? like a long beep and what not like you explained.


And further more, I just had a random question about the IDE cable connections on the mobo. There is a primary and a secondary. Does it really matter what devices you connect to these 2, like 2 hard drives to the secondary rather than the primary, and 2 rom drives tot he primary rather to secondary? This is for cable convenience.

Edited by strikermed, 05 January 2008 - 01:45 AM.

[strikermed]

Ok, I hooked up a working speaker to my mother board, and turned it on, ram installed, cpu installed, video card installed, psu hooked up, and of course mobo. I got absolutely no beeps. The speaker works because it beeps once when my bro's computer is hooked up.

what does this mean? and what does a faint beep mean? or almost no beep? or no beep at all?

[Doby]

Remove the ram and see if it beeps if not this is a good indication that the board is bad.

what does this mean? and what does a faint beep mean? or almost no beep? or no beep at all?

1 beep means the computer has past post,,,,,
A faint beep is something I have experianced with a bad cpu, this is very rare and you have to listen close to here it above the fans spinning
No beep at all, sometimes but not always could mean a bad motherboard, I have a Abit board that never gives the 1 post beep but runs fine, it will give the 1 beep if you change something in bios then never again unless a change is made in bios, must be some king of bios quirk, it will however beep all the correct beeps if the ram or video card is removed.

So beeps are just a indicator used to get a idea of what is wrong.

I'll get back to you on the beep patterns for your board, I have to find what bios it uses