Computer Building Problems

**Leeum** · 28th December 2003

During christmas I have completed building my computer with a Gigabyt GA-7VT600 1394 motherboard but when I turn on the screen is blank. It is a brand new Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 Graphics card and 512MB DDR400 memory. Anyone ran into similar problems? Any help is appreciated.

Thanks

**TwoPlAnKs** · 28th December 2003

could be a number of things.

i asume you used full anti static protection?
is it giving out any beeps?
does the monitor work?

try removing everything from the board, then add the processor only. Turn it on and it should beep in a fairly vigorous manner moaning about not having any memory (which it wont have since you removed it)

if it doesnt beep then send the motherboard back cos it is probably nailed.
do the fans in the case come on?

are you sure that the board and the proc are compatable? an intel proc will go into a AMD board if you force it enough, but you can exepect fireworks if you do.

speaking of that a friend once nuked his pc by puting in the wrong proc - look up your motherboard manual and see if you can clear the cmos cos that solves a huge amount of probmes like this.

also you could try removing everything except motherbaord,gfxcard,proc,mem and PSU. if it works after that add the other stuff one by one until it stops working again. this will be the culprit

hope this helps,

TwoSheds

**Leeum** · 28th December 2003

Thanks. No I didn't use any anti-static equipment but I held onto the case chasis to earth myself and handled the hardware as little as possible. Yes the motherboard supports the CPU.

Thanks

**Realist** · 28th December 2003

Test the components in another mobo and visa versa.

**Leeum** · 28th December 2003

Thanks all for your help. You wouldn't beleive it. After taking off the CPU Cooler and re-sitting it on the processor the damn thing booted up when tested :thumbs

**Leeum** · 29th December 2003

Ok. Got up this morning and just finished putting on Office and on restart I noticed my Athlon XP 2600+ was named as "AMD Athlon XP @ 1300MHZ" After resetting jumpers on motherboard I only managed to get it to be recognised as a Athlon XP 2000+. After ringing the shop which I purchased the Motherboard and Processor from I was advised to return the Motherboard for testing in the shop and a swap if need-be. After testing in the shop we couldn't get the 2600+ recognised as it's correct speed or model. At the end of the day I left the shop and had to settle for a lower model of motherboard, a Gigabyte GA-7N400-L which doesn't have SATA or IEEE 1394 Firewire as my other motherboard did. When I got home I built the PC and when testing found that the computer would only boot to a Award Bios Boot Block. The system checks HDD and disk drives for Bios boot records and finds none. After a phone call to technical support I was asked to try a boot CD eg. Windows XP Professional with no luck and after confirming was advised to bring the motherboard back tomorrow for further testing. I'm going to take the motherboard back tomorrow but has anyone had similar problems booting up their new built PC? Could this be bad luck or are Gigabyte Motherboards lacking quality?

Thanks

Liam

**Realist** · 29th December 2003

Well for a so called PC shop to fail on this, they should be shot. Simply update the motherboards bios (The original mobo) and it will recognise your chip no problems.

http://www.giga-byte.com/Motherboard..._GA-7VT600.htm

http://www.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard..._GA-7VT600.htm

**TwoPlAnKs** · 29th December 2003

gigabyte has an amazing reputation, but in saying that their newer boards suck

the technical support is all done by people who can barely speak english and really dont give a sh!t about people who are phoning

and i got 2 motherboards from them both of which broke after about 2 days - it was the graphics cards fault cos it is broken and awatigng replacement (works as a gfx card but nukes motherboards) and when i put the pc in a shop after deciding i didnt want to spend any more on motherboards the people in the shop just gave up and put in a MSI motherboard, whihc is still wroking regardless of the broken card. my old gigabyte also worked with the broken card.

all in all they have started to suck and unless they improve soon they are gonna fail badly.

you wont go far wrong with msi imo

**Leeum** · 31st December 2003

Well guys, there is a happy ending to every story

I decided yesterday I had enough so I took the box to the shop and left it with them for about an hour. On return the motherboard had stumped the guy, he tried everything to get the second Gigabyte motherboard to boot a bios from floppy. After all the bother I had the boos of the shopo let me pick any motherboard and have it fitted there! :thumbs I picked an Asus A7N8X-X which was basically the same as the second Gigabyte with the nForce 2 chipset. After adding CPU etc. and putting in case and just a quick FSB change to 166 in Bios the damn thing booted up as a 2600+ :coffee: I can also overclock to something like 400 FSB which is I think a 3200+ Thanks all for your help but i'd strongly advise anyone to stay away from Gigabyte's recent batches of the 7VT600 and 7N400 especially with an AMD Athlon XP 2600+

Thanks

Leeum