[redsniper]

It won't boot at all. When I turned it on the HD activity light blinked and then the cd and floppy drives made some noise and then it restarted before the monitor even had a chance to come out of sleep mode. After resetting the BIOS it continued this loop of restarting for about 5 minutes after which it made it to POST but no farther. Now when I restart it often fails to show the cpu speed or RAM count and whether it does or not I can't access the BIOS at all. It's worth mentioning that during the restarting loop I heard a kind of clicking/clunking kind of noise about once every two seconds which may have been a HD click o' death, but I don't know for sure. So what does this sound like? Is the cpu fried? Is the mobo toast? Or do I just need a new HD?

EDIT:
Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe
Athlon 2800
Maxtor 80GB

[aldo_14]

No beep codes?

[redsniper]

nope

[aldo_14]

Hmm... my first thought is a PSU problem maybe.  But that wouldn't really tally if you've been able to reset the BIOS (may be worth trying to reset the CCMOS with the jumper in case, though; maybe it got corrupted and didn't save correctly).

You should have a beep code if its memory, AGP card, HD, or chip problems IIRC.

[redsniper]

CMOS, that's what I meant, I did the whole 'remove battery switch jumper replace battery' thing, that's what got it to stop the restart loop. I don't think this mobo has beep codes since there's no guide for them in the manual, it has a speech synthesis thing instead.

[Taristin]

a7n8x-e does have beep codes, as well as speech synth.

[redsniper]

well the only beep it makes is on the rare occassion that it displays the cpu info and counts the RAM it makes a single beep, but it always did that back when it worked.

[Scuddie]

The clunking sound you heard every two seconds was that of your harddrive re-starting several times.  I wouldn't be too concerned about it.  As for the failing to start, I can only see the CPU or Northbridge as the culprit at this point, and even then it's a little iffy.  Anyway, you may not know this, but after a CMOS reset, you are required to set the jumper to force a 100MHz FSB before it can boot on most nForce2 based boards.  That may very well be where you are.

BTW, now may be a good time to clean your thermal paste on your CPU and Northbridge coolers, and replace them with Arctic Silver.  Also check your northbridge cooling fan.  If it's dead you have to replace the whole heat sync if running at 200MHz FSB.

Good luck .

[redsniper]

I don't have thermal paste, my cpu uses phase-changing thermal pads and my Northbridge doesn't have a fan, just a big heatsink. I've had to reset CMOS before when I accidentaly overclocked my cpu and all I had to do was take out the battery and move a jumper over for a few seconds and it worked fine, but I'll see if I can find the jumper you're talking about and try setting it to 100MHz.

[redsniper]

I haven't had a chance to work on my computer until now and upon checking my mobo manual, I've discovered that my FSB can either run normally or be limited to 200MHz, which is meant for Duron CPUs. My CPU is meant to run at 333 MHz FSB so I want to make sure that it won't be damaged by limiting it to 200 MHz. So is it safe to do this?

[Admiral LSD]

Originally posted by redsniper
I did the whole 'remove battery switch jumper replace battery' thing, that's what got it to stop the restart loop.

You did remember to put the jumper back in the normal position afterward, right? This can cause bootup funkiness too.

Originally posted by redsniper
well the only beep it makes is on the rare occassion that it displays the cpu info and counts the RAM it makes a single beep, but it always did that back when it worked.

The single beep typically means "All is well". You'll know a beep code when you hear it.

Originally posted by Scuddie
The clunking sound you heard every two seconds was that of your harddrive re-starting several times.  I wouldn't be too concerned about it.  As for the failing to start, I can only see the CPU or Northbridge as the culprit at this point, and even then it's a little iffy.  Anyway, you may not know this, but after a CMOS reset, you are required to set the jumper to force a 100MHz FSB before it can boot on most nForce2 based boards.  That may very well be where you are.

BTW, now may be a good time to clean your thermal paste on your CPU and Northbridge coolers, and replace them with Arctic Silver.  Also check your northbridge cooling fan.  If it's dead you have to replace the whole heat sync if running at 200MHz FSB.

Good luck .

Actually hard drives clicking, particularly if it's with any kind of regularity, is almost never a good thing. redsniper, try unplugging the drive from the IDE controller and see if it still makes the sound. It could very well be the hard drive failing and the POST refusing to continue until it can spin the drive up.

Also, I don't know about the Asus crap but I've never had to touch the FSB jumper on either of the two nForce2 boards I've owned - even after a CMOS reset. The FSB does get reset, for safety reasons more than anything else I suspect, but it's been automatic and hasn't required any intervention from me aside from setting it to what it's supposed to be.

Originally posted by redsniper
I haven't had a chance to work on my computer until now and upon checking my mobo manual, I've discovered that my FSB can either run normally or be limited to 200MHz, which is meant for Duron CPUs. My CPU is meant to run at 333 MHz FSB so I want to make sure that it won't be damaged by limiting it to 200 MHz. So is it safe to do this?

It won't be damaged, the chip just won't run at its full speed that's all.

[redsniper]

Alright, I had some time to mess with this on my lunchbreak. The click/clunk is coming from my smaller backup hard drive. It clicks whether the IDE cable is plugged in or not. Unplugging both the IDE and power cables doesn't help my computer to boot up. I still haven't tried limiting the FSB but I will.

[redsniper]

I tried switching the FSB. No effect.
I'm really at a loss as to what's causing this and how to fix it. I mean, it's not even getting to POST... I don't know what to do.

[Flipside]

Last time I got something like this (about 3 days ago), it was because my Hard-Drive was dying and taking my Boot Sector with it, though, if it's your second drive I have non clue how this could be making your system refuse to boot up, I actually managed to boot mine from my Windows CD and perform a Scandisk. I actually managed to get my crashed Hard-drive working enough to transfer everything off it, and I've just bought myself 2 160Gb Western Digitals to replace it

My computer refused to make it to POST and also refused to give beep messages, and I also got the click-click noise. Sounds like something similar to me.

[Scuddie]

Have you tried an absolute bare startup, using nothing except CPU and memory?  Unplug everything from their slots, and I mean everything.  No video, sound, drives, or anything.  Just run it totally bare, and if your PC speaker gives you a beep, then your problem is with a component.  If it doesn't, you've got a break in your BUS.  Could be bad CPU, bad memory, or bad motherboard,  It matters not.  If your memory is bad (which I doubt), your CPU and motherboard can be saved.  Otherwise, it's best to replace every system component, including the PSU, as the CPU, Motherboard, and PSU can all contribute to a global hardware failure.

Anyway, before you do that, make sure the jumper/switch is not set at the reset position.  That would definately prevent it from booting at all.  It's a simple thing to check, and trust me, I have been foolish enough to overlook it more than once .

[Bobboau]

disconect both hard drives and see if you get to post

[phatosealpha]

You know, I had a duron that starting doing this.  The reason was that the heat sink fan had died, and it was stopping to prevent the system from frying itself.  Have you checked the CPU fan?

[redsniper]

all the fans work. It manages to start POST when I first turn it on after it's been off for a long time, but it's weird. When it counts the RAM it keeps counting higher and higher and once it gets high enough it just starts over from zero and keeps counting. If I press Del to get into the BIOS it goes into its restart loop and nothing happens. I'll try a bare startup and booting from the Windows cd.

[Turnsky]

Originally posted by redsniper
all the fans work. It manages to start POST when I first turn it on after it's been off for a long time, but it's weird. When it counts the RAM it keeps counting higher and higher and once it gets high enough it just starts over from zero and keeps counting. If I press Del to get into the BIOS it goes into its restart loop and nothing happens. I'll try a bare startup and booting from the Windows cd.

what kinda ram in it?.. those boards only take dual channel ram(meaning two sticks of the same type)..
oh, and check your cables, a floppy/IDE cable in around the wrong way can really wreak havok..

you have the exact same model mobo as i do.

[redsniper]

offbrand RAM in all 3 slots, which the manual says is okay. Two 256 sticks and one 512. It hasn't caused me any problems for the past year.