P4S533-MX problem - help greatly appreciated

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Guest

Hi, I`m attempting to build a pc with this MB, and am having the
following problem:
When I turn the pc on, it goes straight into cmos setup, and has the
following message on the right side:
"Since you use a new CPU or reinstall your CPU, the system boots up at
66mhz to make sure the system can enter setup menu. Now you can
adjust the CPU speed as you wish. If the speed is adjusted too high,
the system may hang. Please turn off the system and then restart to
set the CPU speed."
It gives 3 options of cpu speed, the middle one being appropriate,
witch I press enter on, but this happens every time I turn on, also
the time stamp of the system is midnight on January 1st 2002 and when
I correct it and exit via F10 it does not save the new date and time,
but goes back to the original one on restart.
I`ve tried resetting the RTC jumper to no avail.
What do I need to do?
Many thanks,
Mark
 
,,,, but this happens every time I turn on, also
the time stamp of the system is midnight on January 1st 2002 and when
I correct it and exit via F10 it does not save the new date and time,
Click to expand...

It has to be the battery, battery connection poor, or jumper not connected.

-Kent
 
It has to be the battery, battery connection poor, or jumper not connected.

-Kent
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. The jumper`s definitely connected. How can I
tell if it`s the battery?
 
Thanks for the reply. The jumper`s definitely connected. How can I
tell if it`s the battery?
Click to expand...

If you have a voltmeter, a fresh battery will read slightly more
than 3.0V . AFAIK, if the battery has dropped to 2.4V, that is
when things will go flaky. The reason is, the Southbridge typically
needs at least 2.0V to keep the memory contents of the CMOS
RAM block (that is in the Intel datasheet, so you can look it up
if you want), and there is usually a diode in series with the circuit
that drops another 0.4V, so the battery needs to supply at
least 2.4V .

Occasionally, new motherboards are shipped with duff batteries.
Another reason for a bad battery, is if the CLRTC clear CMOS
jumper was in the wrong position for a long time. Or, if you
left the motherboard sitting on a conducting surface overnight,
the wires on the bottom of the motherboard can short and the
battery get drained that way. To give you an example, I have
to be real careful putting my P4C800-E into my computer case,
because if I drop it even once and it touches a brass standoff
on one corner of the board, that seems to reset the RTC clock
that relies on the battery.

Paul
 
Thanks for the reply. The jumper`s definitely connected. How can I
tell if it`s the battery?
Click to expand...

Didn`t have a volt metre, as Paul suggested, so thought I`d go mad and
spend 1.99 on a new battery and keep my fingers crossed. Thanks guys,
it worked! That`s the good news......
The bad news is I now have discovered a new problem. I can`t seem to
get the MB to recognise any IDE drive I connect to the secondary
connector. The primary has a hard drive and a cdrom, and that`s fine,
but I also have a second hdd and a dvdrw I want to connect. I`ve tried
using the two from primary connector on the secondary connector, but
no luck. I`ve tried just one drive on it, still no good. I`ve tried a
different cable, and the one from the primary, but still it dosn`t see
anything on secondary connector, just gives a POST message of
"secondary master fails".
Ideas greatly appreciated.
 
Didn`t have a volt metre, as Paul suggested, so thought I`d go mad and
spend 1.99 on a new battery and keep my fingers crossed. Thanks guys,
it worked! That`s the good news......
The bad news is I now have discovered a new problem. I can`t seem to
get the MB to recognise any IDE drive I connect to the secondary
connector. The primary has a hard drive and a cdrom, and that`s fine,
but I also have a second hdd and a dvdrw I want to connect. I`ve tried
using the two from primary connector on the secondary connector, but
no luck. I`ve tried just one drive on it, still no good. I`ve tried a
different cable, and the one from the primary, but still it dosn`t see
anything on secondary connector, just gives a POST message of
"secondary master fails".
Ideas greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

Have you tried setting the device on the end of the cable to master and
the one in the "middle" to slave?

Have you tried cable select on both (preferred)?

Ben
 
Didn`t have a volt metre, as Paul suggested, so thought I`d go mad and
spend 1.99 on a new battery and keep my fingers crossed. Thanks guys,
it worked! That`s the good news......
The bad news is I now have discovered a new problem. I can`t seem to
get the MB to recognise any IDE drive I connect to the secondary
connector. The primary has a hard drive and a cdrom, and that`s fine,
but I also have a second hdd and a dvdrw I want to connect. I`ve tried
using the two from primary connector on the secondary connector, but
no luck. I`ve tried just one drive on it, still no good. I`ve tried a
different cable, and the one from the primary, but still it dosn`t see
anything on secondary connector, just gives a POST message of
"secondary master fails".
Ideas greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

When you were working on the motherboard, did you use a screwdriver
to extract the battery from its holder ? Did the screwdriver slip
and hit the motherboard next to the battery holder ?

The reason I ask, is I notice in the picture of the motherboard in
the manual, that the battery holder is right next to the
secondary IDE connector.

If this is a new motherboard, either return it to your vendor
or send it back to Asus using RMA.

There are occasional reports of IDE ports failing to work, and
sometimes clearing the CMOS brings them back to life. In your
case, removing the battery, clears the CMOS anyway, so I cannot
see repeating that procedure making any difference.

I see the report of "secondary master fails" as being ominous,
in the sense that many kinds of failure result in no message
at all. It almost suggests a pullup resistor got scraped off
the board or something - like a logic signal is stuck in a
state that the controller does not expect.

Another test you can try, is the cardboard test. Remove the
motherboard from the computer case, pull the power supply, and
assemble the system components on a work table. I've assembled
two whole systems this way. Place a thick phone book under the
motherboard, to lift it high enough off the table, so that the
AGP and PCI card brackets have room to hang free of the table
top.

To start your tabletop system, a momentary contact of a
screwdriver tip, to the two pins where the power switch normally
goes, should be enough to get the computer to start.

With the motherboard sitting on the phone book, there are no
brass standoffs or bits of metal to make contact with the tracks
on the motherboard. If the symptoms disappear, it is safe to
reassemble your system.

When fitting the motherboard and AGP video card to the
computer case, I leave the motherboard screws a little loose.
I insert the AGP card, and insert a PCI card in the last slot.
Then, adjust the motherboard for two criterion. What you want,
is the brass standoffs sitting underneath the motherboard,
should be centered as well as possible, with each screw hole
in the motherboard. But, you also want the AGP and PCI card
to fit smoothly into their slots. You can hold the motherboard
in place with just a couple of screws, while you adjust the
position of all the hardware.

For best fit, you should use the standoffs that come with the
computer case. Each computer case can use a different length
of standoff, and for alignment purposes, only one length
of standoffs is correct for establishing the right relationship
between motherboard height above the motherboard tray, and
getting the PCI and AGP brackets to fit properly with the
computer case.

Good luck,
Paul
 
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