[GarrettZ]

Here are my specs:
Thermaltake 500W Power Supply with 12V 2.0
AMD Athlon X2 3800+
A8N-SLI Deluxe MoBo
Two eVGA SLI Geforce 7800GT video cards
Dual Channel RAM DDR400, 2 x 1GB
250GB Western Digital SATA, 3.0Gb/s
LG VGA LCD Monitor

So everything's in. I got all the power supplies in. The fans turn on, I hear the harddisk boot.

The problem is, the monitor isn't displaying anything and says nothing's connected. I do have the VGA-to-DVI converter on. Any suggestions? The harddisk is completely blank too.

I've tried removing one of the cards and switching the EZ selector back to Single Card and still nothing....

The internal speaker doesnt beep and I've switched the connection of it to see if I had it in wrong.

I've tried going bare-bones; cpu, one stick of RAM, one video card, blank harddrive...nothing.

Could this be a result of a bad CPU or Mother Board?

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Try it with no ram or no vid cards and double check the speaker is conneced properly, if it doesnt beep then its safe to say the motherboard is damaged.

[warriorscot]

Try it with no ram or no vid cards and double check the speaker is conneced properly, if it doesnt beep then its safe to say the motherboard is damaged.

[Noxxi]

Okay, so I had the SAME exact problem. I bought all of my parts before Christmas, and hooked it all up on Christmas...and the sound of the pump whishing water to my processor with the light hum of the 120mm fans got me excited! NO SIGNAL! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! This is a $500 card...IT HAS TO WORK!

So here is what the problem is:

There are two different kinds of AMD X2 revisions for the 3800+, and the 4200+.

1. The "Manchester" chip (a.k.a. the E4 stepping version found in the 3800+ and 4200+)
2. The "Toledo" chip (a.k.a. the E6 stepping version found in the 4200+.).

So, there are different BIOS versions of the A8N-SLI Deluxe out there...and since it was released before the dual core chipsets, some of the boards have an older bios (possibly because for whatever reason this board had been on the shelves, and when they shipped it or gave it to you at the store, they grabbed the box and did not know the BIOS would not support your chip).

SO, you have to do what I did...get a new BIOS chip from ASUS. I know I had the 1011 BIOS version, and I needed the 1013 or higher BIOS for it to start.

It is located below the SATA ports on the board. It is a square chip inside a square retainer with a sticker on it. It will say 1010, or 1011, etc. If you do not have the box for your processor to enter the serial number on the AMD website to find what revision you have, do what I did...lie. Just call ASUS and use option 3 twice. That will get you to the tecnical support. Tell them you have a dual core AMD processor, and you talked to the tecnical support the other day, and need to get the new bios chip. They will send it out. If you tell them you THINK that is the problem, they will tell you 100 troubleshooting tips, and tell you to call back after you do them all...but say it with confidence and they will send you a new and shiny chip.

Otherwise you will be stuck with a machine that runs, but no video.


Here is the number:

Technical Support
Motherboard and General Product Support :
Email: http://vip.asus.com/...e/techserv.aspx
Tel: 502-995-0883 (select option 3)
Fax: 502-933-8713

Edited by Noxxi, 29 December 2005 - 10:20 AM.

[Derek B]

i have the same problem...works outside the case fine. put it in the case and no vga. take it out and its fine again. sonow i have it sitting on cardboard inside the case and the case laying down. even tryed screwing it in with cardboard behind mobo and it doesnt work....

[Noxxi]

Man, I hear all kinds of great reviews on this board, but I see so many errors. It wouldn't post any video with my soundcard plugged in, but I take it out, and it works fine...What the...?

[warriorscot]

Gets good and bad reviews this board, Asus often hand pick the boards they send to reviewers so they dont see all the problems you here stuff about poor build quality and design from people who actually buy the boards and were unlucky. Make sure you have the spacers in properly and that nothing of the motherboard touches the backplate. Also make sure that the cards are sitting in the slot properly you may need to apply a fair amount of force to get them to clip in correctly.

[Noxxi]

So, Warriorscot...if this board keeps screwing up on me, what MoBo do you suggest as a replacement? I have a 4200+ X2, and a XFX 7800 GTX OC.

[anoobrew]

Gigabyte and Abit make decent mobos, heres 2
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813128301

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813127225

[warriorscot]

Gigabyte are ok on a budget, MSI and DFI also make good ones your looking for the nforce 4 ultras and SLI if you want it.

[cvswebdesign]

Okay so I know this topic is VERY OLD but I want to throw this on this thread in case people find it on Google.

If you put a new system together and it does not work you need to check 2 things that are VERY important.

#1. Did you put thermal paste between your processor and cooler? If not, your processor may be cooking on start up and will not post.
#2. Is your mobo grounding out on your case? I hope you didn't attach the mobo directly to the case. They put those nifty little gold screwing posts in the package for a reason. Make SURE you are not grounding out your mobo. I have seen this so many times, and each time I charge $75 bucks for something the customer could have done in 5 minutes on their own. Best way to do it is to put in 4 screws...one in each corner just to hold it in. Boot....if it boots....you can add another....boot...add another...boot...add another until all the screws are in and the system still boots. If you add one and the system stalls again....you've got issues there....don't put a screw in it!

If all else fails...remove the video card....remove the ram...remove all power and remove the CMOS battery from the mobo. Wait 10 minutes...re-install battery and start putting in components one at a time.

Good luck
Carl