Hi,
I let one of my friend use my old motherboard and processor for some time (thats a K7SEM, from EliteGroup, AKA ECS, using a Athlon Thunderbird 800) until he upgrades to something more descent. When he did, he gave the board and processor back to me, and everything worked fine all the time (thats what he say!). Then I plugged it in, and it seems that theres only power going thru the board, no display on the monitor at all. Theres an onboard graphic card, and thought to try an external graphic card, which didnt do anything.
Then i did a deeper troubleshooting, like swithching memory modules, clearing CMOS, even looking the processor pins if some of them was curved or anything. Nothing solved the case. Remember, there was nothing displayed on the screen, the monitor was in 'sleep mode' all the time, like when there is no data going through the monitor cable (i guess im clear enough :) ), but there was some power due to the CPU fan running.
There was no indication from the PC Speaker at all, no beeps. Just in case someone would think about "removing all the unnessesary parts", there is only the motherboard, the CPU, a SDRam module, and sometimes a graphic card (if i'm not trying the one onboard). The keyboard is there too (duh).
Now I was thinking about the POST and the very first thing a computer does when having power. I know some bits of it, but i may be missing a point or two.. First (after electric tests) the processor looks at the BIOS to know what to do. Then after checking if theres some memory plugged in, it tries to start up the video adapter, right? So we have some spots where the board can be in trouble, like the BIOS can be corrupted, screwed up processor, or BIOS having troubles starting the video card..
I guess i'm clueless about the real reason, but thats what I think.
Jumper-wise, theres only one appropriate (documented) jumper, that clears the CMOS. There are some others that doesnt appear in the board manual (even on the manual on ECS website).
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