Help trouble with Motherboard! Help PLz

[fearfox]

help with motherboard!
This is the motherboard 440BX NLX
specs here at link http://www.gateway.com/support/techdocs ... .shtml#nlx
okay this is what happened i plugged motherboard into the case. I tried using 145 watt nlx/atx case the lights in front of case i would get nothing it was amber it was power self test and it would never turn on. so i thought it was the psu so i got a 250watt and 300watt max i plug it in now i get a amber light and my hardrive light is on green. nothing on screen even with more voltage psu. Tried agp card cause it has onboard video plus agp slot still nothing. i tried my old motherboard that was in the case it was same kind manufacturer intel 440EX motherboard and that works. i tried the celeron 333mhz with 64mb ram pc 66. it worked fine with both psu's. i think 440bx does not support celerons or its a dead motherboard.

please help what do you think!

[NascarFool]

I think you are right about it not supporting Celerons. All I see in the specs is P2 procs.

[sethpa]

maybe it just needs a BIOS upgrade ?



sethpa

[DocSilly]

BX boards do support Celeron and Pentium2 in SLOT1 package.

This board can accept a Pentium II processor using a Slot 1 connector with FSB or either 66 or 100 MHz, including the Celeron processor line. CPU speed is configured in BIOS Configure mode, as explained below.

A BIOS upgrade is, uhm, very hard to do when you have no working video

The CPU works and I guess the extra AGP card also works in other system, this points pretty much to a bad mobo.
You could try to clear the CMOS and verify the correct jumper settings. Maybe check the CMOS battery but all a dead battery could do is make BIOS forget custom settings ....
I assume you tried a bare minimum system: mobo, one DIMM, gfx card and maybe a HDD ? No beeps ?

[fearfox]

i did get three beeps. you know the weirdest thing you know the light inside the motherboard that tells you its receiveng electricity is on bright green. i did get three beeps one time and that was it.

[fearfox]

i put in cpu only and the computer passes power self test on. but i get like nine beeps it goes beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep

okay cpu and ram 128mb pc 133 sdram 4 beeps

cpu and 32mb ram pc66 sdram
4 beeps

no more beeps. 333mhz celeron and pc66 ram green light. but nothing on screen even on previous ones

[DocSilly]

It's hard to tell ... three beeps ...

- AMI BIOS use something comparable, 3 short beeps points towards bad RAM (Base 64 KB Memory Failure).
There are other codes of three, like 1 long and 2 short (gfxcard), same for 2 short 1 long beep.

- AWARD BIOS uses 1 long 2 short for gfxcard problem

- Phoenix BIOS uses 1 long 2 short for Checksum error in ROM

The Gateway data says it uses Phoenix BIOS ... maybe you should give it a try to update with their latest BIOS, it seems to work pretty much automatically.

4. Performing the update

a. Reboot the computer with the diskette in the A:\ drive.
b. The BIOS updated will begin automatically. The BIOS Update Utility text will display the following text:

The BIOS update utility will automatically perform the following steps in sequence:
a. Update the system BIOS
b. Reset all CMOS settings to default values
c. Reset the system to activate changes
Note: Remove the BIOS update disk from the floppy drive after the BIOS update utility resets the system.

Press any key to continue . . .

c. Press any key and the Intel Flash Memory Update Utility will update the system BIOS.
d. When that process has completed the system will automatically restart.
e. Remove the floppy disk from the A: drive before the computer completes post.
f. Press F1 to enter BIOS.
g. Once in the BIOS, personal settings can be adjusted. Press F10 to save and exit the BIOS Setup.
h. BIOS flash complete.

This will only work when your floppydrive works, so just try to reboot that SOB with a Win9x bootdisk and see if this starts to load.

EDIT:
I only saw your 3 beep post when I started my reply ... can you try to get the specific beat of the codes ? Depends on wether its short or long beeps. Only other reliable source for finding the error would be a diagnostics card that shows the POST codes.

[fearfox]

i think motherboard was picky about the ram.
i bought a generic 128mb pc 133 works
128mb pc 133 samsung beeps
64mb pc 66 same thing beeps
32mb pc 66 beeps.
have no idea what the problem was but i can load into windows i can do everything i was able to do before.
have no idea why it accepted 128mb ram pc 133 dunno

yippe problem fixed

[DocSilly]

Don't worry too much about it as long as it works