Motherboard dead on arival - Any ideas?

I have just bought an Elite L7VMM3 - Pro3200A+ CPU (in other words Althlon XP 2220 onboard) and its dead. I have tested it with two 333Mhz 256MB DDR chips and reseted the CMOS but there is still no post.

Does anybody know anything else I can try?

 

Well assuming you aint got a short circuit somewhere (like perhaps an extra leg sticking out from the case shorting the board) then its probably worth just sending it back ASAP.

 

There is no short circuits, I always tripple check that before the initial power up. The case is a £12 Ebuyer job so I am wondering if the PSU maybe faulty.

The other thing is I have not yet connected any drives because I wanted to make sure it POSTs before doing that. Do you think connecting the drives will many difference? Personaly I can't see how.

I have also tried an external video card. It looks like I will have to return it then .

 

AT, even without drives the unit should post and report that it can't find drives and allow you into the BIOS. However you could attach a drive just to discount that being the source of the problem. Have you got a spare PSU that you could slot into the case to test that theory out? Or even an old case you could put the motherboard in to test it? Otherwise I'd just ship it back and get a replacement/refund.

 

No beeps?

One thing that annoyed me no end (I work part time at a shop building/repairing PCs) with ECS/Elitegroup motherboards was that a lot of the boards we used (K7S5A) were shipped with the CMOS jumper in the 'clear' position, so the board wouldn't boot when someone first powered it up without checking the jumper was set to normal, and customers would often bring one back saying it was faulty. Just check the manual and be sure

Theres not much you can do to check with that board though , since it has onboard everything bar RAM, I'd try a different PSU and try it out of the case (running on a piece of cardboard on the table or something) to be sure its not shorting, and if it still doesn't post then I'd look into sending it back.

I wouldn't be shocked by an ECS board being DOA though as we had loads returned because they were faulty, though saying that the one you have is the only one we still stock at work because its cheap and pretty good value, ideal for an office system, and they've all been pretty reliable so far.

 

Yep I am just looking for an old PSU now, I might just use mine. The case was only £12 so a PSU problem would not suprise me, I've read a few problems before of PSUs not giving enough power to make a motherboard POST. Out of the 10+ ECS boards I have bought only 1 has failed to post so far (apart from this one).

I will also try an AGP graphics card just in case.

 

Just one thing what is the 12v CPU vcore connector? The motherboard manual told me to connect it but I have never seen this before.

 

Its the square '4 pin' connector power from the PSU, often called the P4 connector, cos it was originally a requirement for P4 systems, but recently a whole load of motherboards have had it for extra voltage rails.

Generally though every AMD system I've seen has had this as being an additional supplementary voltage rail though, rather than a necessity for the system to operate, but if you have a P4 connector from your PSU then definitely plug it in

 

So it would be ok to not connect it up? My other Althlon XPs don't have it and have been working fine for months. My other PSU don't have that P4 connector on it.

 

It 'should' be okay to not connect it, indeed I've not seen an athlon XP system that *needs* it though many motherboards now have the connector.

But then again if the motherboard manual says to connect it and doesn't say that its optional, then definitely plug it in if the PSU in your case has it (I would be surprised if it doesn't have it because all P4 systems need it, and making a PSU thats no good at all for any P4 motherboard limits its use and market value, even if it is bundled with a cheap case).

http://www.tech-report.com/reviews/2001q1/pentium4/p4-in-socket.jpg

(The square 4 pin connector shown there with the yellow/black wires going to it is what this connection looks like)

 

Ok just replaced the PSU and still no luck so I will take it back. I would buy a seperate CPU and Motherboard but I hate the fans so much I am always scared of breaking the motherboards.

I know these boards work well (when they POST) so I will just ask them to swap it.

 

A while ago I added additional memory on my PC and found that it did not power up. The EDO memory I added was not compatible with my M/B.

 

A memory problem would be quite common but I have tried to different modules and neither power. They both work in my board. Its just a faulty board I think.

 

Got a replacement board, the new one works fine however I had to buy some memory for it (as I was using a 256mb stick from my PC for testing) but its dead. I have tried it on 3 different machines and no luck.

The shop (Microdirect) sell it as "Major Brand" however the brand name is Matrix.