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  • DOA Northwood? :(

    Before I go through the hassle of getting an RMA, do any of you have any ideas?

    I just bought a retail 2 GHz Northwood P4, retail Asus P4T-E, 512 MB Kingston RIMM (life-time warranty), and a PCPower and Cooling 400 watt silencer power supply. Everything else is from my old, reliable system. I have put togethter quite a few systems (the first one I built was a 486), so I have some experience. What's funny is this is the one that I took the most time with. In fact, I was proceeding at such a leisurely pace and so optimistic, I put the whole thing together, hoping to just flip it on and be on my way.

    I plug in the power supply with the case open to make sure all the fans work and no funny business. It powers up for a couple seconds, then goes off. I figured this was something to do with the ATX switch or something, so no big deal. Push the power button on the front, system powers up - power light on, fans on and green light on motherboard is on...........and nothing. No beeps, no output to the monitor, etc. I proceed to strip the system down to a GeForce3 graphics card, keyboard, memory, and CPU. Still nothing. Try a PCI graphics card....still nothing. Try no graphics card (hey, I'm desperate), hoping for any beep. Nothing. Try no memory. Still nothing.

    I took the CPU out and re-seated it. Nothing funny. Still no indication of life. I'm really out of ideas. Maybe I'm missing something obvious? Here's the obvious things I didn't over look:

    1) power supply is set to 115v

    2) ATX power cable is connected correctly to MB.

    3) P4 12 V connector is attached correctly.

    4) Power switch, power light, reset switch, ect. are connected correctly.

    5) Rambus mem appears to be installed correctly, if I understand the manual correctly: 256 MB in RIMMA1 C-RIMM in RIMMA2, 256 MB in RIMMB1, C-RIMM in RIMMB2. All fit nice and snug.

    6) Of all the systems I've put together, this one went the smoothest (no hammers, saws, screwdrivers across the motherboard, etc.).

    As I said, all the lights, fans, etc are on. I do hear a continuous click about 3 seconds apart through the speaker.....not a beep, but a click.


    Sorry for the long post, but I'm a bit bummed out about this (I've never had a problem with any system I've put together), and am not sure what to do. Is there any way to test if it's the MB or CPU that's the problem without a different MB or CPU?

    Thanks for any suggestions.


    John

  • #2
    Okay, after more work, I'm leaning towards a bad MB. For the heck of it, I cleared the CMOS (no jumper on this board, you have to short to VERY small leads...I also played it safe and took the battery out). Now when I plug in the power, no brief start up. Push on button, and it powers up, but still nothing. I also learned that a MB will give an error warning even with no CPU (didn't know this). Tested on my trusty Asus P3B-F. Power it up, and after a bit, it will start sounding an alarm like a Euro cop car. Damn loud too! The P4T-E does absolutely nothing but the very weak click at 3 sec intervals. Also considering Intel's quality control, it's hard to believe they'd ship a bad retail CPU.

    Any thoughts? Thanks,

    John

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    • #3
      The mobo needs a BIOS updat before it suports the Northwood CPU. Take it back to the shop where you bought it from and have them update it!
      According to the latest official figures, 43% of all statistics are totally worthless...

      Comment


      • #4
        Just to confirm what Guru has said - being a P4T-E owner myself.
        Most boards are shipping with the 1003 BIOS.
        A few of the very latest are coming through with the 1004 BIOS pre-installed.

        The problem is, the final specs on the Northwood were ever so slightly different from the samples the likes of ASUS had during the development of the boards/BIOS's.
        Only the BIOS revision 1005 supports the Northwood CPU's.
        ABit were lucky and their BIOS revisions are fine with the Northwood.

        Problem is you need a normal P4 CPU to flash the BIOS, so it's either borrow a CPU from a friend time or back to your vendor and get them to flash it for you.
        Another option of course is to swap the ASUS board for an ABit one - can't recommend that as the ASUS P4T-E just oozes quality from the moment you take it out of the box.
        It cost one penny to cross, or one hundred gold pieces if you had a billygoat.
        Trolls might not be quick thinkers but they don't forget in a hurry, either

        Comment


        • #5
          Thanks for the help.

          I thought BIOS support might be a problem, but I figured it would be like when the Coppermines first came out. My P3B-F needed a BIOS upgrade for them, but it booted and such, it ust didn't recognize the CPU as a Coppermine and run at the right speed. I guess that's not the case here.

          Unfortunately I don't know anyone around here with a P4, let alone a socket 478 P4. I bought the MB and CPU from mail-order, so this should be fun.

          Thanks again.


          John

          Comment


          • #6
            Give them a call and explain the problem.
            You are right, it's quite rare for systems to refuse to post when a BIOS update is required, they usually boot enough to allow you to actually make that update.
            Did you buy both the motherboard & CPU from the same vendor?
            If so, then you are actually doing them a favour flagging up this problem and they should be bending over backwards to help you.
            Most mail-order companies I deal with are usually quite helpful (with the exception of www.scan.co.uk - I'm sure lots of UK people will confirm how bad they are!!) other than that most are happy to help as they want your return trade - they help you out now and I'm guessing you'll check out their site in the future should you want to buy anything else.
            It cost one penny to cross, or one hundred gold pieces if you had a billygoat.
            Trolls might not be quick thinkers but they don't forget in a hurry, either

            Comment


            • #7
              All fixed. I got a hold of a P4 1.5 GHz socket 478. The BIOS that shipped with the board was 1004. Flashed it with no problems to v1005. It was a little strange getting it up and going (didn't like ANY video card!), but now it's all fine. The 2 GHz is running at 2.2 GHz without even really pushing it. Even went ahead and installed XPpro.

              Thanks again for the help.

              John

              Comment


              • #8
                Excellent!
                Really pleased to hear you are up and running with one of those cool (but expensive ) Northwood CPU's.
                Now, go get some 3DMark2001 scores on it.
                It cost one penny to cross, or one hundred gold pieces if you had a billygoat.
                Trolls might not be quick thinkers but they don't forget in a hurry, either

                Comment

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