New box beeps once, but monitor shows nothing

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jan Alter
  • Start date Start date
J

Jan Alter

Hi,

Just put together a new system using a Biostar M7NCD mb and an old PCI
S3 graphics card (about 10 years old), and 256 mb of DDR RAM. When I turn
the box on the CPU fan spins up, the keyboard light flashes for a moment and
the speaker beeps once to seemingly indicate that it has posted. However, I
get nothing showing on the monitor. The S3 graphics card does work in
another old Pentium machine. Is it possible that there's simply an
incompatability with this card on this board or is there reason to think
that there may be something wrong with the board or my assembly or the CPU
or RAM?


Side note. I would have used a cheap 4X AGP card I ordered for this board
but to my surprise found that the AGP slot was only good for an 8X AGP card.
The mb had been advertised to accept both 4X/8X AGP cards. It's always an
education to build.

Thanks for any advice you might offer.

Jan Alter
(e-mail address removed)
 
1 beep on some boards is video so either you have AGP set as primary in the bios or the card is not seated correctly / the card is
NG.
 
Hi,

Just put together a new system using a Biostar M7NCD mb and an old PCI
S3 graphics card (about 10 years old), and 256 mb of DDR RAM. When I turn
the box on the CPU fan spins up, the keyboard light flashes for a moment and
the speaker beeps once to seemingly indicate that it has posted. However, I
get nothing showing on the monitor. The S3 graphics card does work in
another old Pentium machine. Is it possible that there's simply an
incompatability with this card on this board or is there reason to think
that there may be something wrong with the board or my assembly or the CPU
or RAM?


Side note. I would have used a cheap 4X AGP card I ordered for this board
but to my surprise found that the AGP slot was only good for an 8X AGP card.
The mb had been advertised to accept both 4X/8X AGP cards. It's always an
education to build.

Thanks for any advice you might offer.

Jan Alter
(e-mail address removed)
Click to expand...

AGP 8X should be backward compatible to AGP 2X but not AGP 1.
Pull power cord out of the system.Clear CMOS.
You cannot fully clear the CMOS on ATX powered systems with power to
the board.
HTH :)



--
Free Windows/PC help,
http://www.geocities.com/sheppola/trouble.html
email shepATpartyheld.de
Free songs download,
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/8/nomessiahsmusic.htm
 
Hi Shep,

Maybe I'm thick here, but the AGP slot will not physically accept the 4X
AGP card that I tried to stick into it unless I am missing some adaptation
of a duframus that needs to be adjusted.
That's why I attempted to install the PCI card until I can order an official
8X card.
The strange thing is that the manual says it will take either 8X or 4X.
Newegg lists it with the specs that it will take an 8X/4X card as well.
However, the Biostar website for this board indicates it will only take an
8X AGP
http://www.biostar-usa.com/mbdetails.asp?model=m7ncd

Guess I should go back and do another morris jig for better luck.

Thanks for the note about pulling the power cord out and clearing cmos. I'll
try that as well and bring another 4X AGP card with me to school on Monday
to see in fact if I am looking at an AGP card in the first place that was
sent to me.
 
Hi Shep,

Maybe I'm thick here, but the AGP slot will not physically accept the 4X
AGP card that I tried to stick into it unless I am missing some adaptation
of a duframus that needs to be adjusted.
That's why I attempted to install the PCI card until I can order an official
8X card.
The strange thing is that the manual says it will take either 8X or 4X.
Newegg lists it with the specs that it will take an 8X/4X card as well.
However, the Biostar website for this board indicates it will only take an
8X AGP
http://www.biostar-usa.com/mbdetails.asp?model=m7ncd

Guess I should go back and do another morris jig for better luck.

Thanks for the note about pulling the power cord out and clearing cmos. I'll
try that as well and bring another 4X AGP card with me to school on Monday
to see in fact if I am looking at an AGP card in the first place that was
sent to me.
Click to expand...

It does look like AGP slot is stopping the install so you are correct
:(



--
Free Windows/PC help,
http://www.geocities.com/sheppola/trouble.html
email shepATpartyheld.de
Free songs download,
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/8/nomessiahsmusic.htm
 
Shep© said:
It does look like AGP slot is stopping the install so you are correct
Click to expand...

See if you can find a used (i.e., cheap) simple VGA display card to use.
One beep indicates that the Power On Self Test (POST) is running. Thus,
you know the CPU is operating, the PROM works, etc.
 
Thanks,

I ordered an 8X Asus AGP card on Friday, so it should be here from
Newegg in a couple of days. I was pretty sure that the CPU was OK with the
one beep post, but it sure is annoying to keep wondering if it's simply an
incompatible VGA card.
Patience.
 
I had the same experience with my new 8x card and mb. As it turned out
the agp 8x slot is very tight and I did not seat it all the way into the
slot.. I went to the local store to have them look at it and he pushed
it in until I heard it "snap" into place. I was kind of afraid of
breaking something. I tried it twice and did not get it in correctly :)
live and learn
 
An 8X Asus card arrived this afternoon. After dropping it in there was
miraculous video. Win XP installed without a hitch.
 
hey! maybe some joker turned down the brightness and contrast, he he, it
happened to me after a really kicking party!
 
Back
Top