Motherboard problems..?

[saiello]

Hi All. I think I have a problem with a motherboard that I hope you can help me with. I bought the motherboard, CPU and memory as a secondhand bundle that I was assured was working ( an attempt to upgrade from a Pentium Pro system!! ) Here are the specs:

M/B - Asus A7V8X ( not MX ) FSB333MHz
Processor - Athlon XP2200+
Memory - 512MB DDR333
Graphics Card - S3 Savage Pro 32Mb PCI
PSU 400W

I've tested the CPU, memory, graphics card and PSU independantly in another machine and they seem to be working fine. The motherboard power LED lights up and when I switch on the main power switch everything seems to kick in ( drives, CPU fan etc ) but then nothing happens! The screen remains blank ( the monitor doesn't even come out of standby mode and switch on ), but more worryingly, I don't get any BIOS beeps, just a couple of electrical clicks coming from the speaker! I've left it on for a good few minutes but still no joy. The seller had an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro installed and some have suggested that the PCI card is the problem and that the BIOS needs to be reset to default settings to get rid of a possible setting to AGP. This still begs the question as to why I get no POST error beeps indicating that the graphics card has not been detected! Any help greatfully appreciated!

Thanks in advance,
Salvatore.

[saiello]

OK, here’s some further test results:

Components ( see original post for specs ):
CPU, PCI graphics card, memory, PSU 400W. All tested independently and working fine.

Setup:
Motherboard outside case on anti-static material ( no shorting problem ). Mouse and keyboard plugged in.

Testing:
Cleared CMOS. Powered on with nothing on the motherboard ( apart from CPU! ). Then tried all combinations of slots for PCI graphics card and all slots for memory.

Result: No change from original symptoms.

I’ve yet to try an AGP card but don’t hold out much hope. I’ll try this as a very last resort before I send the boys round to the sellers address… ;o)

[xb0xed]

Not sure, the only thing I can suggest is try a AGP graphics card. If that doesn't work try looking in the motherboard user guide (if it came with one) and see what it says about jumpers.

[saiello]

Hi! You won’t believe how, but I managed to get it working..! After clearing the CMOS and not getting any joy, I made the assumption that the CMOS had correctly reverted to it’s defaults. I was also pretty damn sure (99.99%!) that all the components were 100% ok and there weren’t any compatibility problems with the motherboard and components. The only thing left in the chain was the flash rom itself. Just for laugh I levered out the rom chip and cleaned all of the contacts on the chip with a bit of emery paper. I shoved it back in, turned on the power and hey presto, that single BIOS beep was music to my ears, and she booted up! After 4 days of headaches, all it turned out to be was a dry contact..! ;o)) One to make note of..!

Thanks for your input,
Salvatore.