Help with Abit motherboard

[Kevin Flansburg]

I have an old pc one of my firs got it when I was about 10. the mother board is and abit be6 (mabye pro) which im told is wonderful for over clocking. well I was trying fix some problems with it and I put in an ati 9000 pro agp. it seemed to work exepte I couldnt get it to disply. also I replaced it with the old graphics card and still doesnt work. any Ideas?

Its not the moniter ive chected that alos I tried a third graphis car that is known to work So im pretty sure that it is the mobo's agp that is screwed.
PLease help

[JackAxe]

A few questions:

When the computer boots, can you at least see the memory counter, or BIOIS info as an example? Or is it completely black from boot?

Also have you tried a PCI graphics card?

<]=)

[SamuraiCatJB]

The process jack is describing is called the "post" process. (you will often be asked by a tech rep if your computer is at least "posting"). If it displays anything during this process you should pay attention to what it says, or where it stops.

If the computer is not posting (no display at all during power up) does the computer beep at all when it powers up? If it is posting, when and how it beeps can be important too, but more so if it does not post. The number of beeps when the computer cannot post often tells you what is happening.

Do the fans come on? CPU, power supply fans, disk drives power up?

how many sticks of memory do you have in the computer? I have had one case where memory was the problem, because there were two sticks of memory, I was able to try booting on each one in the slot 0 position until it started up.

[Kevin Flansburg]

first of all no, it does not show a thing, the computer monitor gives me the "no signal", second I can hear it counting the memory but do not hear any beeps I beleive the didk drives do power up. also I have had the memory problem with this computer but I had resolved it a while ago, and it was running this morning, so I do not beleife that to be the case.

[JackAxe]

For reference, I burned out a AGP card in a borrowed PC by moving the PC a couple of inches when it was on. The card wasn't latched into its AGP slot properly, so lifted out when the cord was tugged and died. :o It was only the card though, because I brought it over that weekened and my friend dropped in anonther card that worked.


I would remove all other cards from your board and just try booting with the video card plugged in. Also try a PCI card if you haven't already?

When you put in the new card, did you unplug everything and make sure you were properly grounded?

<]=)

[Kevin Flansburg]

1) My mobo stupidly does not have a latch for its agp.
2)I will try that
3)I dont know if its worth buying a new card, I was just going to give it away once I fixed it and
4)Yes I did

[JackAxe]

if you haven't already done so, unplug everything, hit your power button to clear out any left over charge and let your system sit for several minutes. This should clear out anything remaining in memory, then try booting again.

Hopefully somehting works, if not it's time for a new mobo. I lost my Abit board the other year because of un-clean power.

<]=)

[Kevin Flansburg]

thanks anyway. I might try getting a pic graphics card.

[SamuraiCatJB]

thanks anyway. I might try getting a pic graphics card.

I suggest borrowing one or find a tech place that can try it. I have one in the back I think.

[Kevin Flansburg]

I might ask another kid at school. He's a on a slightyl mor tight budget so he would probalby have pci, I usualy go for agp and I hope to get PCI-E soon

[Kevin Flansburg]

alright, I tried wat JackAxe said and tried unplugging everything, it worked but none of the ide will power upp after this but thanx very much. The problem appeard to be a wireless card that I replaced while i was working on it.

[Kevin Flansburg]

alright, very good news, now it sees just the hard drive wich is pretty good, but it wont boot, no matter how i stard, it restarts and goes to the same menu, ive tride safe mode and normal

[Kevin Flansburg]

alright, can boot to windows where is lets choose safe mode and that crap, none of that works, either way, it restarts and i can just barely see the bsod flicker, I have a new cd rom in and am tring to reainstal '98 but wont boot to ce for some reason. I'm thinking of weather it is worth downloading linux, any suggestionsof what flavor to download?
500 Mhz p III
384 MB ram
20 GB hard drive
32 MB video

[Kevin Flansburg]

gonna go ahead and download knopic, lost my old disk

[SamuraiCatJB]

alright, can boot to windows where is lets choose safe mode and that crap, none of that works, either way, it restarts and i can just barely see the bsod flicker, I have a new cd rom in and am tring to reainstal '98 but wont boot to ce for some reason. I'm thinking of weather it is worth downloading linux, any suggestionsof what flavor to download?
500 Mhz p III
384 MB ram
20 GB hard drive
32 MB video

everyone has a favorite flavor, that is difficult to say what is best for you. Being new to linux, I suggest you try a live version first. One you can boot from CD and play with before installing. Suse and Mepis (which I just installed) and a couple of others come as Live CDs boot and play.

I suggest you stick to one that is designed for new users. I would say Suse or Mepis. Mepis is actually a debian linux, debian is not known for its ease of use, but it is known for its stability. Mepis takes the stable debian core and builds an easy to install, easy to use linux from it. It is, however, a bit troubling with latest hardware (which I have -- it doesn't seem to want to use the latest nVidia drivers to recognize my 6800, but everything else works flawlessly and automatically).

[JackAxe]

Cool that you're getting things back in working order. :)

<]=)

[Kevin Flansburg]

thanks, I dont think Im ready to by suse form a store, Ive seen it a frys, but I am downloading the knoppix iso right now, I have used that before, I will try empis to I would like to stick to downloadable versions as my mom thinks that it is to "fringe" to be eorking with. Oddly enough she uses a linux server every day at her job

[Kevin Flansburg]

also downloading mepis as we speak, does anyone know if cd-r's come in 750 MB, i only have 650 and the knoppix .iso wont fit

[SamuraiCatJB]

yes, you can find up to 800mb CD-R format. I have never seen one beyond 650 in RW, so make sure you check CD+R and CD-R disks not the RW.

[Kevin Flansburg]

i need a cd-r anyway, the only working drive i have is a cd-rom. i have both, just waiting till im out of school :(

[Kevin Flansburg]

Alright i have burned the mepis ISO and i tried to boot to disk but it will try to boot to windows, any help, I am not fammiliar with the bios.

[SamuraiCatJB]

If you are unfamiliar with bios setups, it is time to learn. they are menu operated, multiple choice (for the most part), and unfortunately not all the same.

You need to enter bios setup (depending on bios, F2, Del, other key during memory count)
You need to find the boot device list in the bios.
Chances are it is: floppy, hard-drive
in that order.
you can either switch the floppy to your CD rom by selecting it (remember multiple choice makes it easy), or you can do the more difficult thing, assuming you have a 3 or 4 device boot list, move the hard-drive down and add the CD-rom between: floppy, cdrom, hard-drive.

It is also possible, to avoid booting a floppy and installing a boot sector virus, that hard-drive is the only boot object in your list.

grab a pad of paper before you start, write down what you had before you change it, and what you changed it to.

Unfortunately, without knowing what your bios is, it is hard to give you exact menu selections.

Another source for PC help if you need it: http://www.geekstogo.com/

[Kevin Flansburg]

I can get into the bios, I have used it on newer computers and I found the boot order and changed it to what I thought said cd-rom, floppy, c: but it does not boot in that order

[SamuraiCatJB]

does it have another check box for "prevent boot virus" or something similar.... that essentially prevents booting from a removeable media in some cases....

The true way to prevent boot virus is in new bios they have "protect boot sector" option :)

[Kevin Flansburg]

No I could not find the box that you described, it seems to be set right but still boots to the windows safe mod screen

[JackAxe]

Jus a thought, but the times my system would only boot into Safe Mode, is when my video driver was set to a waked out mode, or not correct, or Windows had been jacked up somehow.

Try this:

After it goes through the memory count, press "F5." If you hit it soon enough a screen will pop up with different boot options;

Choose "Enable VGA Mode" if available. If this lets you back into Windows normaly, then reinstall your video drivers.

Or if availalable choose "Start Windows Normally."

Or if Safe Mode is your only option, then after boot, change the video driver to a Windows default VGA, then restart to see if you can get into Normal Mode. If yes, then reinstall your video drivers at that time.

<]=)

[JackAxe]

*LOL* Your sig is funny. :D

<]=)

[Kevin Flansburg]

I cant even get it to boot to safe mode, it will prtend to loading all of the files but ends up restarting anyway but I will try when I get home

[Kevin Flansburg]

also congrats on your 1000 post, only two more!

[Kevin Flansburg]

Ive decided to try knopix on my laptop for a few days efore making the jump, Im posting this from my school network using KNoppix!!!!
i think that I am getting the hang of this, i hope to get home sooon to try JackAxe's sugjestioon

[JackAxe]

What's sad, is that I have about 5 or 6 thousand posts if I count the ones from ClieSource. :) Not as many as SamCats though. :D

<]=)

[Kevin Flansburg]

yeah i was wondering, I thought that you had alot more

[Kevin Flansburg]

tried waht Jackaxe said and still got the BSOD

[SamuraiCatJB]

What's sad, is that I have about 5 or 6 thousand posts if I count the ones from ClieSource. :) Not as many as SamCats though. :D

<]=)

Lies, all lies...

<---- :p

[JackAxe]

Add about 20 thousand to that and it's a bit more accurate. :D

Have you tried bootting from a Window's CD and running a repair?

<]=)

[Kevin Flansburg]

it will try to boot to the hard drive, Its like it doesnt see the cd but the drive spins and it sounds like it trys to read it.