"Adsythemic" said:
Erm,no offense,but I stated it does not POST at all only powers up.No
beeps,no voice,nothing.I'm trying to RMA
now.I used to love ASUS,way back when.. P55t2p4 so much so when I became an
"IT guy" I always chose ASUS.I was responsible for the purchase of 80 P4TE's
5 of which failed,and were replaced with no hassle.I guess I'm still loyal
to ASUS,but getting a DOA is really
irritating.If they easily RMA it, I'm still a loyal customer.
Adysthemic
There are two power up states. If you press the power switch, and
no PSU fan or case fan spins, then the power really is dead. If
you get fans spinning, but the processor doesn't complete power
on self test, then there can be some power on the board, but
maybe not all of the power rails are available. The first
state, for example, can be caused if you place an illegally
keyed 3.3V only video card in the AGP slot - the AGP_warn circuit
will prevent the power switch from working.
What Lazarus tried to explain to you, is your board has a special
chip on it, which contains a bunch of audio files containing a
woman's voice. Depending on the error condition on the board,
the voice messages are played by the chip. The chip is permanently
connected to the lime colored, Lineout connector on the back of
the computer. It doesn't matter whether you use an Audigy or a
Sound Blaster, the Woman still talks only via the Lineout
connector.
This chip is independent of the processor, and in fact a voice
message telling you no CPU is present, can be generated by the
Voice chip on its own. About all the Voice chip needs to operate,
is some +5VSB and a reset signal.
The signal from the Voice chip is fairly weak, so an amplified
speaker should be connected to the Lineout connector on the
back of the computer, in order to comfortably hear the message.
Due to the level of compression used in the Voice samples, most
listeners have trouble deciphering what is being said. It is
best to keep the manual propped open to the page that lists
all of the Voice messages, so you can correlate the muffled
message, to the text. Section 3.2 of the manual has the error
messages.
If I had to guess what you did wrong, it would be forgetting
to connect the 2x2 ATX 12V power connector. But, the fact that
you couldn't shut down via the power switch on the front of the
computer, is a bad sign, and implies there is a fault somewhere
else (unless you didn't hold the switch for four seconds...).
I recommend the cardboard test at this point, to try to eliminate
as many sources of short circuit as possible.
As with any procedure on the computer, unplug the computer when
changing any hardware. This avoids little accidents where the
+5VSB zaps something, like the RAM sockets that could still have
sustaining voltages on them. Since one poster here has had a PSU
power supply switch fail in the "On" position, the safest thing
to do, is always disconnect the cord before working in the
computer. (Yes, this is probably worse for electrostatic discharge,
but as long as you bring the chassis to the same potential as your
body, that takes care of a lot of it. A wrist strap can be used to
bring you to the same potential as the case.)
1) Remove mobo from case.
2) Strip everything off the motherboard.
3) Place motherboard on a piece of cardboard.
4) Connect the power supply, both the ATX 20 pin connector, and
the 2x2 square power connector.
5) Connect an amplified speaker to the lime colored Lineout connector
on the back of the computer.
6) At this point, you have _no_ wires connected to the PANEL header.
To power on the board, use a screwdriver tip to momentarily short
together the two terminals, where normally the power switch would
be connected. This takes care of defective computer case switches,
which do occasionally ship stuck shorted or stuck open.
7) When you fake the power switch press, with the screwdriver tip, you
should be greeted with a "No CPU Present" message. When you have
finished a test, touching the screwdriver continuously for
four seconds to the two power switch pins, will switch the
computer off.
If you get a Voice message from this test, then add CPU, memory,
video card, keyboard, mouse, one at a time, and listen for a
different error message from your amplified speaker. If the
CPU, memory, and video card work, it can take at least 30 seconds
before you'll hear "No Keyboard Installed" or the like. So, be
patient when listening for the messages, as some of them are
generated when the processor tells the Voice chip to generate
that message.
I hope that procedure will give you some more ideas as to
where the fault lies.
Paul
