P5B: No post error

MY SPECS
* Motherboard and CPU: ASUS P5B Motherboard, Intel CPU Support: (Core
2 Duo/Quad, Pentium 4/D, Celeron), Intel P965/ICH8 Chipset, Socket 775
* OS: Windows XP SP2, fully up to date
* 2 GB ram (brand name)
* Three hard drives (120GB SATA Maxtor, 120GB SATA Maxtor, 500GB SATA
Seagate)

PROBLEM
I disconnected my 500GB SATA Seagate hard drive and connected my new
750GB SATA hard drive. I then transferred the contents of my 120 SATA
Maxtor to the new one. I then disconnected the 120GB SATA Maxtor,
reconnected the 500GB SATA Seagate and transfer that data to the new
one too. (I, of course, turned off the computer, unplugged the power
before changing SATA wires in the case.)

Then I removed my system drive (another 120GB SATA Maxtor). When I
turned on the computer, the motherboard didn't POST. That is, there
was no beep. On the front of the computer, a yellow light appeared for
a moment, and then turned off. No green light comes on.

QUESTION
Could switching the location of the hard drives (Sata 1, Sata 2, Sata
3, Sata 4) have caused a no post error?

WHAT I HAVE TRIED SO FAR
1. I unplugged all the hard drives and turned on. No change.
2. I plugged the original system drive in Sata 1 without any other
drives. No change.
3. I turned off and unplugged the power cord from the back of the
computer for 15 minutes. No change.

WHAT I WILL TRY TONIGHT BASED ON MY RESEARCH
1. After no post, press restart (instead of power off).
2. Remove one memory stick. Then both. Switch around in all
combinations.
3. Unplug the power supply unit (psu) from the mainboard and take the
cmos battery out of 15 - 20 minutes to clear the PWM current.
4. Put CMOS pins in the "clear" position and leave for many hours.
5. Boot without peripherals connected (everything except cd rom) and
with mobo cd in drive.
6. Hold down "insert key" when powering up (not sure what this means
yet).

OTHER FACTS
a. The mobo led light is constant green.
b. I recently had my changed with a refurbished one from Asus after my
original one failed. Previously, the symptom was that the computer
wouldn't turn on, period. I thought it was the power supply, but my
computer store said it was the mobo.

I had a problem getting my P5B posting - traced it to a bad ( pretty old )
floppy drive.

Could be all the plugging/unplugging you've done shorted something out in
unrelated to the hard drives

Good Luck

"Thumper" <> wrote in message
news:22859957-f9de-48db-97d0-...
> MY SPECS
> * Motherboard and CPU: ASUS P5B Motherboard, Intel CPU Support: (Core
> 2 Duo/Quad, Pentium 4/D, Celeron), Intel P965/ICH8 Chipset, Socket 775
> * OS: Windows XP SP2, fully up to date
> * 2 GB ram (brand name)
> * Three hard drives (120GB SATA Maxtor, 120GB SATA Maxtor, 500GB SATA
> Seagate)
>
> PROBLEM
> I disconnected my 500GB SATA Seagate hard drive and connected my new
> 750GB SATA hard drive. I then transferred the contents of my 120 SATA
> Maxtor to the new one. I then disconnected the 120GB SATA Maxtor,
> reconnected the 500GB SATA Seagate and transfer that data to the new
> one too. (I, of course, turned off the computer, unplugged the power
> before changing SATA wires in the case.)
>
> Then I removed my system drive (another 120GB SATA Maxtor). When I
> turned on the computer, the motherboard didn't POST. That is, there
> was no beep. On the front of the computer, a yellow light appeared for
> a moment, and then turned off. No green light comes on.
>
> QUESTION
> Could switching the location of the hard drives (Sata 1, Sata 2, Sata
> 3, Sata 4) have caused a no post error?
>
> WHAT I HAVE TRIED SO FAR
> 1. I unplugged all the hard drives and turned on. No change.
> 2. I plugged the original system drive in Sata 1 without any other
> drives. No change.
> 3. I turned off and unplugged the power cord from the back of the
> computer for 15 minutes. No change.
>
> WHAT I WILL TRY TONIGHT BASED ON MY RESEARCH
> 1. After no post, press restart (instead of power off).
> 2. Remove one memory stick. Then both. Switch around in all
> combinations.
> 3. Unplug the power supply unit (psu) from the mainboard and take the
> cmos battery out of 15 - 20 minutes to clear the PWM current.
> 4. Put CMOS pins in the "clear" position and leave for many hours.
> 5. Boot without peripherals connected (everything except cd rom) and
> with mobo cd in drive.
> 6. Hold down "insert key" when powering up (not sure what this means
> yet).
>
> OTHER FACTS
> a. The mobo led light is constant green.
> b. I recently had my changed with a refurbished one from Asus after my
> original one failed. Previously, the symptom was that the computer
> wouldn't turn on, period. I thought it was the power supply, but my
> computer store said it was the mobo.
>

UPDATE: I removed the ram stick (in the third slot from the top), and
unplugged the power on the floppy drive and turned on the computer.
Problem solved! I haven't yet put it back or swapped it with the one
is the first slot. Will try that later. But, it seems that playing
with the ram is an easy first step to solving a no post error. (Or
maybe the problem was the floppy. Will have to isolate the variables
and report back.)

Thanks for your suggestion, Tex.

UPDATE #2: I put the second RAM stick (both Kingston, 401Mhz, DDR802)
back and the PC boots normally. Perhaps the problem was the floppy
drive, which I have not reconnected (power or data).

I have been having errors in my CD burn verification and Skype
crashes. Someone suggested I run memtest86 v2.11. I did on reboot and
seem to have some errors. Can you interpret these for me? How can I
tell which RAM piece is bad?

Test: 7
Pass: 0
Failing address: 00053a46344 - 1338.3MB
Good: 215b604f
Bad: 215b404f
Err-Bits: 00002000
Count: 1

Test: 7
Pass: 2
Failing address: 00012ce14e4 - 300.0MB
Good: e5c676e2
Bad: e5c656e2
Err-Bits: 00002000
Count: 2



Test: 7
Pass: 2
Failing address: 000504e13e4 - 1284.0MB
Good: 980d20f0
Bad: 980d00f0
Err-Bits: 00002000
Count: 3

put in one at time and test

pokeyman

"Thumper" <> wrote in message
news:12e0415c-0b13-4902-a8b6-...
> UPDATE #2: I put the second RAM stick (both Kingston, 401Mhz, DDR802)
> back and the PC boots normally. Perhaps the problem was the floppy
> drive, which I have not reconnected (power or data).
>
> I have been having errors in my CD burn verification and Skype
> crashes. Someone suggested I run memtest86 v2.11. I did on reboot and
> seem to have some errors. Can you interpret these for me? How can I
> tell which RAM piece is bad?
>
> Test: 7
> Pass: 0
> Failing address: 00053a46344 - 1338.3MB
> Good: 215b604f
> Bad: 215b404f
> Err-Bits: 00002000
> Count: 1
>
> Test: 7
> Pass: 2
> Failing address: 00012ce14e4 - 300.0MB
> Good: e5c676e2
> Bad: e5c656e2
> Err-Bits: 00002000
> Count: 2
>
>
>
> Test: 7
> Pass: 2
> Failing address: 000504e13e4 - 1284.0MB
> Good: 980d20f0
> Bad: 980d00f0
> Err-Bits: 00002000
> Count: 3