Did I fry my motherboard or is this normal?

[Pioneer]

I just finished my 4 player desktop mame cabinet and I fired it up
but it started to do a diagnostic in the bios I think
and it looked like it was searching for something and I waited a half hour and it seemed stuck.  Is it looking for the disk that came with the motherboard or is it looking for an operating system or did I fry my motherboard?

Oh yeah is there a way to make the computer turn on when the power suppley is turned on and not when the power button is turned on?

[RayB]

"it is looking for something". Don't bother telling us what messages are on screen, or what beeps you hear. That would help too much!

[Pioneer]

You sarcastic bastard.
It says something about searching for ATI ?
I didn't hear any beeps.

[electricd]

Pioneer.  Easy there tiger.  It is pretty important to tell us what it is looking for or what is going on as ALL computers are different and just saying "Is it looking for the disk that came with the motherboard or is it looking for an operating system or did I fry my motherboard?" doesn't cut it.  If it says something about ATI, it sounds like it has an operating system installed and it is erroring out with something to do with your video card.  Please post exactly what the screen says, and what color the screen is (is it blue?).

In the future please refrain from outlashing (RayB is a very respected member of this board, and his comment is dead-on), you will find that it will get you nowhere on this board.  Just a tip

[RayB]

In the future please refrain from outlashing (RayB is a very respected member of this board, and his comment is dead-on), you will find that it will get you nowhere on this board.  Just a tip

But I am a sarcastic bastard.  So no offense was taken.

[Pioneer]

That's what I'm talkin about bro.

[Scott84]

This board is 95% sarcasm, 5% arcade information.

[Pioneer]

This is to electricD
"Thanks for the info... I'll check it out closer on my lunch break."

I forgot that the "emoticons" or whatever tell your emotion behind a statement... I'll remember to put a smily face or something next time.

[kelemvor]

How far does it get before it "gets stuck"?  Does it start loading windows?  Does it never even get past the initial BIOS screen wher eyou canp ress F1 or F2 or whatever to enter setup?

Have you tried booting from a boot disk or boot CD to see if that matters?

[pointdablame]

we really do need more information to help you.

- Did you install an OS yet?
- If yes, did you install the chipset drivers for your motherboard yet?
- Have you ever successfully booted into the OS if you DID install one already?
- If yes, boot into safe mode by tapping F8 as the computer boots up.
- Tell us exactly what the screen says as you go through.  "ATI" could be a video card issue, could be an ONBOARD video issue, or it could simply be a hardware problem.

Your system should also have an onboard speaker of some kind.  During boot-up, the computer goes through the POST process and will beep out error codes if there are any.  Listen for beeping and note the types of beeps (2 short, 1 long, etc etc).  Check your motherboard manual to see what the error code means.  Usually a single beep means it POST'd fine.

Also, you could just clear your CMOS. You may have screwed with something in the BIOS inadvertently (sp?)  There is probably a CMOS jumper on your mobo that you must toggle... then pop the battery out of the board for a few mins.  Replace battery, switch back jumper... boot back up.

[Fat_Trucker]

Oh yeah is there a way to make the computer turn on when the power suppley is turned on and not when the power button is turned on?

There should be an option (I think its in the bios) asking what to do after a power failure or unexpected shutdown. Simply set that to power on. That way it will boot the PC every time its powered up from the mains.


The other thing, working on the presumtion that you have already successfully installed an operating system, if its hanging during post but you are getting data displayed on the screen, it sounds like bad ram, you might want to check your memory is properly seated and working.

If its hanging after post during windows boot it sounds like a driver issue (possibly a vxd driver relating to your GPU). Try booting into safe mode and choose the step by step option where you load a driver at a time and you should be able to identify what is missing/corrupted/causing the system to hang.

[eccs19]

Oh yeah is there a way to make the computer turn on when the power suppley is turned on and not when the power button is turned on?

There should be an option (I think its in the bios) asking what to do after a power failure or unexpected shutdown. Simply set that to power on. That way it will boot the PC every time its powered up from the mains.


The other thing, working on the presumtion that you have already successfully installed an operating system, if its hanging during post but you are getting data displayed on the screen, it sounds like bad ram, you might want to check your memory is properly seated and working.

If its hanging after post during windows boot it sounds like a driver issue (possibly a vxd driver relating to your GPU). Try booting into safe mode and choose the step by step option where you load a driver at a time and you should be able to identify what is missing/corrupted/causing the system to hang.

As Fat Trucker mentioned, you may have an option in the bios to set as he mentioned.  If it's an older system, then it my not exist.  I've not seen that option on to many older boards, but seems common on newer boards. Best to have a look, but don't bet on it.

Did you take this board out of the case and put into the arcade machine?  If so, you may have very well jarred lose the memory. Possibly even the CPU.  Was it working before putting it into this machine?  Did you put an ArcadeVGA card into it, or just a regular card?  Make sure video card is also seated well.  If you did transplant this from a case, and it's not in the case anymore, then chances are that you don't have the small speaker hooked up that may give you some beeps. (as mentioned earlier in the thread) Hook it up and see what happens.  If you know the make / model of the motherboard, that may help also.

[Masterful Gaze]

My advice is to start at the very beginning and check for loose cables. If the Hard drive cable is plugged in backwards it can cause unusual problems.

Did you mean ATAPI instead of ATI? ATAPI usually has something to do with the IDE port, like a CDROM drive or a hard drive.

[Pioneer]

"I feel like a moron wrapped inside an idiot"

You guys were right
I didn't put in an OS.
I figured it out and then started installing 98 to an xp upgrade and when
I read your replys I was like "How did they know that..."
You guys we're on the money.... and I'll check out the bios for the power switch feature.

By the way, the quote at the top was from my mexican friend Sal
so If you repeat it with a mexican accent you'll get the full effect.

[leapinlew]

"I feel like a moron wrapped inside an idiot"

You guys were right
I didn't put in an OS.
I figured it out and then started installing 98 to an xp upgrade and when
I read your replys I was like "How did they know that..."
You guys we're on the money.... and I'll check out the bios for the power switch feature.

By the way, the quote at the top was from my mexican friend Sal
so If you repeat it with a mexican accent you'll get the full effect.

* leapinlew jaw drops

[AtomSmasher]

I could see why not having an operating system would be a problem......

[Pioneer]

I guess your first time around you can expect a couple jokes.
This must just be part of my message board hazing process
I understand that I'm not proficient yet at tech but I do appreciate the help I get here, thanks.

Also I get a little goofy sometimes, I hope that doesn't upset anybody.

[Tiger-Heli]

Okay, so we have no idea what the system was, or what the computer was saying, or when it popped up any messages, or what the messages said, but we managed to fix the problem.

Dell or Compaq or ATI or Nvidia need to hire this forum, I think thats pretty good for two days work!!!

[lordtodd75]

One time my computer didnt work, then I realised it was a toaster with a calculator next to it