New P4 system won't boot - please help

[Igor01]

Hi guys, I've just upgraded my system:

Abit BE7-RAID
2x256 MB OCZ PC3500 EL
P4 2.4B with stock HSF
GF3 (waiting for Radeon 9700 Pro)
3 Maxtor 7200 Harddrives (40-60-80 GB)
Plextor 24x8x4 Burner
Generic Floppy
Enermax 465W Power Supply (EG465E-VE)
XaserII 5000 Case

I've put everything together and tried to boot - all the fans start ok, I get the POST beep and the start up screen first displays the video card and then I get the screen that identifies the CPU as a P4 1800 (100x18) and the usual prompt to press Delete to enter BIOS setup, there's nothing blinking on the screen so it's impossible to determine whether the system is frozen or just waiting for something. I press Delete but it will not enter BIOS setup, and won't proceed to boot the OS if I don't press anything. It just sits there until I restart then the process repeats itself.

I then disconnected all non-essential components leaving only the mobo, CPU, RAM, videocard and the keyboard. I disconnected all the fans in the case thinking that maybe the PSU is not supplying enough power to all the components - exactly the same result. I even tried taking the mobo out of the case and booting it up with just the essential components sitting on a carboard box thinking that maybe there's a problem with grounding or shorting somewhere in the case - still the same thing happens.

I am quite perplexed as to what the heck is wrong with this setup. The mobo, RAM and CPU are brand new, GF3 worked flawlessly in my AMD setup, so did the drives, and the power supply. The PSU is P4 compliant and should be able to supply enough power.

One thing that maybe an indication of what's wrong - near the main power socket on the mobo, there's two tiny LED's. When the system is powered off (while still plugged in to the power outlet) only the green LED is lit, as soon as I press the Power button on the case, the red LED lights up and stays lit until the systm is shutdown again. I could not find any mention of these LED's in the Abit manual.

So, if anybody has any suggestions, please throw them at me, I need to get the system going ASAP and I am pretty much out of ideas here. Any help is welcome and appreciated.

Igor

[minibubba]

have you tried reseating all of the components, such as the cpu, ram, and memory?

[Igor01]

Yes, more than once... Heat also shouldn't be an issue since I've made sure the HSF combo is installed properly and I've also applied some Arctic Silver to facilitate better heat transfer.

I think the problem has to do with the fact that the CPU is identified as a 1.8 rather than 2.4 and the board seems to insist that it should run at 100 Mhz. I am wondering if there's some stupid little jumber that is forcing the 100 Mhz FSB mode, however the manual makes no mention of it.

[minibubba]

try looking though the manual again, or searching the manufacturs web site...there should be a jumper somewhere.

But that shouldn't keep you from getting into your bios...

[Wiggo]

Yes definately look for a jumper on the mobo to switch the FSB from 100MHz to 133MHz so ya manual is ya best bet there but my Gigabyte 8PE667 (same chipset) doesn't have one but uses the CPU's own identifier code for setup so to me something is wrong there and it just maybe faulty hardware that needs replacin'. :(

But have ya cleared the CMOS yet? :?:
<center>:cheers:</center>

[Igor01]

Thanks Wiggo. The board does not have a jumper, it relies on the CPU's code to identify the correct FSB frequency. I suspect either the CPU or the mobo (perhaps BIOS code) is screwed up.

I've tried clearing CMOS both with the jumper and by removing the CMOS battery many times. Reseated everything a zillion times. I don't think there's anything else left to try.

I'll try to RMA they one after the other to ID the one that's causing problem.

[Wiggo]

That would seem to be the best course at this time but don't leave the memory out either as OCZ memory is a real mixed bag of quality as well. ;)
<center>:cheers:</center>

[Igor01]

Thanks for all the help everyone. The problem was caused by OCZ PC3500 EL memory, for some reason both sticks of this brand refuse to work with my Abit BE7-RAID.

Tried another stick of OCZ PC3500 non-EL and it worked fine. Emaild OCZ tech support, waiting for an answer.

[Wiggo]

OCZ strikes again. :(

I wonder if ya'll ever hear back from them. :?:

[Igor01]

Well after calling them again and emailing again, I got an email authorizing the store where I got the RAM from to exchange these for me... I just hope those work better :)