Need help with Abit BD-7 Raid Motherboard

Using a BD-7 board for about 1 1/2 years without any problems. After
restarting the PC I am now unable to enable the monitor. I looked at
the bios boot code and I notice that the code which is repetitively
stopping at "A7 " I looked at Abits site and could not learn anything
about these error codes. A observation that I was able to make was
that the 12V mini fan on the AGP video card was not moving. I
replaced the AGP with a PCI card same results.

I tried exchanging the power supply with a know good unit. No Change
Moved the memory card in another slot NO Change
Change the memory with a known good - No Change
Removed all the extra cards - Lan , added ATA card No Change
Removed all the drives - No change
Reset the CMOS - No change

The only thing left is the CPU and the motherboard. My inkling is the
motherboard perhaps with the 12 V line. Perhaps a shorted leaky cap.
Does anybody have any knowledge with this board with the error code
A7?

<> wrote in message
news:...
> Using a BD-7 board for about 1 1/2 years without any problems.
> After restarting the PC I am now unable to enable the monitor.
> I looked at the bios boot code and I notice that the code which
> is repetitively stopping at "A7 "

That's a memory integrity/insertion error. It'd be worth removing all your
RAM, and carefully reinserting it, making sure the DIMM is pushed fully
home. If you have more than one stick, try starting the PC with one at a
time installed and see what happens, as one may have failed.

> A observation that I was able to make was that the 12V mini fan
> on the AGP video card was not moving.

When you say this is a "12 volt mini fan", do you mean it's a fan powered
straing from the PSU's 12 volt line, or is it powered directly by the
graphics card? Either way chances are that unless you *know* that the fan
failure happened at around the time your boot failures started, chances are
it happened some time ago and you only just noticed.

> I tried exchanging the power supply with a know good unit. No Change

Knackers, that was one of the possibles.

> Moved the memory card in another slot NO Change
> Change the memory with a known good - No Change

Downer, they were the prime suspects. One thing to try would be to remove
the board from the case, build it up on a supportive but soft flat surface
(like a newspaper) and make sure the memory stick is fully and firmly
engaged, using a little more pressure than you could when the board is in
the case.

> Reset the CMOS - No change

Might be worth changing the battery, given the age of your board. Bit of a
longshot but won't cost much to find out.

> The only thing left is the CPU and the motherboard. My inkling is
> the motherboard perhaps with the 12 V line.

That doesn't sound too likely a mode of failure.

> Perhaps a shorted leaky cap.

These boards were brought into production long after Abit became aware of,
and rectified the bad cap situation, so this sort of failure doesn't sound
too likely. Are any of the caps domed, leaking or otherwise
knackered-looking?
--


Richard Hopkins
Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
(replace nospam with pipex in reply address)

The UK's leading technology reseller www.dabs.com