I am trying unsuccessfully to install an AOpen AX3S Motherboard
together with an Intel Pentium III 866 MHz (133 MHz FSB) processor - a
specifically recommended combination in the AOpen AX3S installation
notes. The Pentium III 866 supplier has bench-tested the motherboard
with its attached processor and achieved a full Windows 98 boot with
no difficulty.
I can't get my Samsung SyncMaster 750S VDU to light-up during the boot
process - a blinking LED on the motherboard flashes continuously, and
then stays on solid while the System Reset button is pressed. Another
LED on the motherboard stays on solid to indicate that power is
reaching DRAM memory. All AS3X jumpers are set as recommended, and
the Clear BIOS jumper has been used from time to time.
Removing the Aopen AX3S Motherboard and attached processor and
re-installing my slow old Abit BE6 motherboard with its 700 MHz
processor and two strips of 128 Mb 133 MHz branded SDRAM memory works
fine - Windows 2000 fires up, and my system then works normally with
the Samsung 750S VDU. I have installed a new 300W power supply unit,
which produces the correct voltages as shown by a test meter.
It seems that there is some incompatibilty between the AOpen AX3S
Motherboard and the Samsung 750S VDU. The Pentium III 866 supplier is
adamant that there is nothing wrong with the processor (or with the
AOpen AX3S motherboard supplied by dabs.com in the UK) - AOpen
Technical Support in The Netherlands also felt that there was nothing
wrong with their AX3S Motherboard and that the new Pentium 866
processor was more likely to be at fault.
Can anyone out there please throw some light on the situation. It's a
classic case of different suppliers providing separate components and
the system integrator (me) trying to get it all to hang together. No
one else seems to want to know, and I have over £200 of personal
investment at stake.
Leslie Hall - lahall@sss.softnet.co.uk - 7 July 2002 |
Request for Question Clarification by
rhansenne-ga
on
07 Jul 2002 05:06 PDT
Hi Leslie,
I've run into many compatibility problems in my many years of PC building,
but I've never encountered an incompatibility between a screen and a motherboard.
I believe it's more likely a problem with the motherboard and either the
videocard or the memory (since MB and CPU have been tested by your supplier).
Have you tried using another videocard on the AOpen motherboard? Or installing
the memory from the Abit on the Aopen board?
Can you give us some more information, such as brand/type of videocard and DIMMs?
kind regards,
rhansenne-ga.
|
Request for Question Clarification by
missy-ga
on
07 Jul 2002 08:37 PDT
Hi Leslie,
You didn't mention whether or not you had tried installing Win2K
drivers for your montior.
Try this first:
http://www.monitor-drivers.com/drivers/26/26002.htm
If that doesn't do the trick, its entirely possible something is loopy
in your settings. Let me know if the drivers don't solve the problem,
and I'll see what else I can find for you.
missy-ga
|
Leslie,
It turns out that your vendor is correct in stating the problem is not
a monitor/motherboard compatibility issue. The motherboard doesn't
communicate directly with the monitor (the video is not integrated on
the motherboard on the AOpen AX3S), the only connection between the
monitor and the system is the video adapter. The problem is that the
video adapter is not supplying the signals the monitor requires. The
following assumes that the video adapter has been proven to work in
another system, perhaps even on your old motherboard.
The possible reasons for this fall into two basic categories, a signal
incompatibility issue between the video adapter and the motherboard or
a physical connection issue. Compatibility problems between monitors
and video adapters are extremely rare and can be safely ignored.
The first thing I noticed when looking up the specifications of the
two motherboards you mention is that the AOpen AX3S supports 4X AGP
video, while the Abit BE6 only supports 1X and 2X AGP.
AOpen Motherboard Review
http://www.aopen.com/products/mb/ax3spro.htm
ABit motherboard review:
http://www.hiphardware.com/reviews/abitbe62/index.shtml
The 1X/2X and 2X/4X AGP standards actually run at different voltages,
and the card edge is keyed so that the wrong adapter shouldn't fit in
the wrong motherboard. It's possible that your video adapter fits in
both your new and old motherboard because it is keyed as universal
(two notches) but it simply doesn't work at the lower 4X voltage. So,
without knowing what video adapter you own, I'd suggest you may need
to purchase a newer 4X AGP adapter, or test your current adapter in
another 4X AGP system.
There is, however, another possibility, which is a bad physical match.
AGP adapters sit so far from the back edge of the case, that when you
secure the hold-down screw, it often levers the front of the adapter
out of the slot and out of electrical contact. For this reason, some
AGP slots are actually designed with a locking mechanism to keep the
card in place. Try reseating the card, and look at carefully at the
joint between the card and the slot to make sure it is seated to the
same depth all along the length of the card edge.
If neither of these suggestions does the trick, please get back to me
with a "Request for Clarification" and we'll work our way through it.
There are other more basic possibilities, like the memory or power
supply not being compatible with your new motherboard, but that opens
a whole new can of worms I'm sure you'd like to avoid. If you'd like
to review a checklist of reasons for boot failure on a newly built PC,
see
http://www.daileyint.com/build/trouble.htm
morris |
Clarification of Answer by
morris-ga
on
07 Jul 2002 12:34 PDT
leshall,
Thanks to a comment from answer-bot, I went back and looked at the
aopen link in my answer, and saw that the motherboard indeed has an
integrated video controller. I saw the video upgrade option at the top
and made a false assumption, since motherboards with integrated video
usually don't feature a live AGP slot. This brings up the question of
how your vendor attached the monitor when he demostrated that the
motherboard worked. Was the monitor attached to the motherboard, or
did he add a video adapter? Again, it's not a compatability issue
between the motherboard and the monitor, the signals produced are
analog so there are no fine grained timing or voltage issues.
If you are using the integrated video adapter, it does move the
problem into the realm of boot failure rather than video failure.
Since the CPU and motherboard were proven in your vendors test-bed,
and since you don't mention any other adapters being installed, it
does sound begin to sound like a memory or power supply issue. Your
new 300W power supply works with the old motherboard and is almost
certainly up to snuff for the new motherboard, so it's time to suspect
memory.
The validated RAM for the new motherboard can be found on the Intel
site (they supply the chipset) at:
http://developer.intel.com/technology/memory/pc133sdram/valid/pc133dimm.htm
The best way to prove us all wrong at this point would be to borrow
another monitor and hook it up - if the screen lights up, I promise to
feel silly.
morris
|
Clarification of Answer by
morris-ga
on
07 Jul 2002 17:15 PDT
Les,
We are forbidden by Google to give out our own personal contact
information. However, you can post Request for Answer Clarifications
and I'll respond. This option is available when you log into your
Google account. I'm glad you were happy with the toubleshooting tips
received so far, but you can (or could) actually reserve the right to
reject the answer until it's completly answered to your satisfaction.
Morris
|
Request for Answer Clarification by
leshall-ga
on
09 Jul 2002 04:58 PDT
morris - I've decided to take your advice and order memory modules
which are specific to my new AOpen AX3S motherboard (for appreciably
less than $100). www.crucial.com is an incredibly useful web-site for
memory which I've used before. I just specified the motherboard on
which I wanted to mount the memory, and they came back with a list of
validated memory items, from which I selected a 256MB module and a
128MB module, each with 133MHZ FSB capability.
I then had an ordering problem. As a UK customer I provided my credit
card details, but UK address validation procedures rejected what the
on-line order entry system wanted me to specify as my address. This
is all to do with the differing address formats used in the US and in
the UK. We only define places as Cities if they are big enough and
important enough to contain one or more cathedrals! Our Counties are
a bit like your States, but we never abbreviate them to two letters.
Our Postal Codes do not have the same format as your Zip Codes. All
this started in comparatively recent times - about 800 years ago! I
have many UK friends in the US and they all have trouble with the
general inflexibility of the US-based order-entry systems - should I
write to the President of the United States about it, and would it do
any good? (You all celebrated my birthday on 4 July, so I must have a
bit of pull!)
Fortunately crucial.com have recognised the order-entry problem and
have set up www.crucial.com/uk - this makes life easier, quicker and
cheaper for us Brits who need all the help we can get. We pay in
pounds sterling (£) and the product is delivered free by our Royal
Mail postal service from (presumably) a UK warehouse (probably
someone's garden shed).
Another web-site I have found to be of great value is simmtester.com -
users can download free software to test their installed memory
modules in stand-alone MS-DOS mode. These modules are not tested
individually but as a coherent whole.
Finally there is one other website which everyone needs to know about
- I refer to www.driverguide.com. They act as a distribution site for
a huge number of device drivers for everything you can imagine,
including BIOS and I/O drivers. I've already downloaded and installed
their updated drivers for my Samsung SyncMaster 750s VDU, and
confidently expect this together with my new validated memory when it
comes to work on my new AOpen AX3S motherboard. If it does, I'll
upgrade my rating for your efforts in pointing me in the right
direction from 4-star to 5-star - that's a promise!
Leslie Hall
|
Clarification of Answer by
morris-ga
on
09 Jul 2002 07:25 PDT
Les,
That's some great information - we should be paying you! We often get
questions about buying computer hardware in the UK, payment method,
customs, etc... Good to hear that somebody had the sense to set up a
mirror operation in the UK.
morris
|
,
3 Comments
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