silent_jay

So my buddy decided to buy a new case, he picked up the CasEdge Diabolic Series Minotaur , not too sure why as he has the K7SEM V3.0 I saw them on ebay for 40 bucks.

Another friend and I are trying to do a favour and hook it up but we can't seem to get the thing to power up and everything seems to be in the right place so we are stumped. We've found this manual but it's for version 1.0 and not 3.0 so it doesn't appear to be the same. http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWeb/Downloads/ProductsDetail_Download.aspx?DetailID=229&DetailName=Manual&DetailDesc=K7SEM(1.0)&MenuID=0&LanID=8

We are about ready to throw this thing out the window as it is being more of a pain in the ass than anything else. Hope I provided enough information, I don't know an over abundance about this computer though as it isn't mine.

Thanks for any help you guys and girls can offer.

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muckluck

Maybe the mother board is just dead? Or power supply problems... Did you test the PSU on another mother board to see if it was working? Make sure the switch on the back of the power supply is on, sounds stupid but I forget to flip it on occasionaly. Another thing to do is try and flip the power switch connector, you could have it on backwards. If it were my friend I would tell them to buy another motherboard. SiS chipsets are normaly horrible.

-- Edit --

IMHO: That case is horrible looking

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Is the motherboard separated from the case via tall screw-spacers? If not, you shorted the mobo the first time you tried to start it. If any part of it touches, like the specs of solder and such, I think it can die.

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silent_jay

The power supply is working fine, there is no switch on the back of the power supply, although I wish there was, if there was someone who would forget to turn it on it is me. I told him to get a new motherboard first but he's not exactly computer savy and just doesn't understand, he figured he needed a case more than anything, and wouldn't listen to me when I said otherwise, so I let him go on his merry way. I agree the case is hideous, I don't even like it being in my apartment it's so ugly. I'm pretty sure the only reason he bought it, is because it has lights on it, and he can watch them light up.

Yeah the motherboard is separated by the spacers, it hasn't touched anything yet, although I would like to see what happens to it if I throw it from my balcony and it touched the pavement.

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guthmund

Okay, I'll take a stab...

Is this the right manual?

Does absolutely nothing happen when it's powered up (you mentioned the case has pretty lights )? I mean, if the ps if fine and the motherboard is properly spaced (and worked before, right?) then it has to a be wiring problem? I would double check all the connections made from the case to the mobo. From personal experience...I once had to use an error riddled manual and mixed up a couple of the connectors and the thing wouldn't come on at all.

So, if the link I posted is correct, I would just run through and double check everything as there's a good chance you mixed something up what with using the wrong manual and all.

Good luck.

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silent_jay

It's the closest thing to the right manual, the only difference is that the board I'm trying to get working is a 3.0C and the manual is for 3.0M, but it's a 3.0 so that makes me happy, thanks so much for finding that, I was at the ECS site and all I could see was the 1.0 guess I wasn't looking hard enough. Thanks again for finding that.

Not a thing happens, not even those silly lights work when it's hooked up, I hope I at least get to see these things light up, although this experience has taught me that I don't like these cases or neon at all. The motherboard was working properly, I was using it a few minutes before I started the adventure of changing everything.

I'll check the wiring again, and this time with the right manual, thanks for all the help it is greatly appreciated.

I must tell my friend to learn how to do this crap himself, he tells me he can't be without his computer for too long even though all he does is check his email and use Messenger and keeps asking how long it is going to be until it's finished. He doesn't seem to like my answer of it will be finished when it's finished...lol

Thanks again for all the help, I'll update after I check the wiring.

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pacaveli

so you have tpo put spacers between the mother board and cases, where can i biy those?

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catback

They typically come with the case, if not or if you need more a computer shop would sell em.

skaven

Oh man...that board is a piece of junk! I used the K7SEM in an office deployment I did a couple years ago. Bought 45 of them to build 40 systems...ended up having to return 18 boards because they were DOA.

Based on stats like that, I'd imagine you've just got a dead board.

But all prejudices aside, try the following:

1. Verify that the PSU works by unplugging the 20-pin ATX connector and using an unrolled paper clip to connect any black wire with the green wire. The PSU should come on (and any components connected to it should fire up)

2. If the PSU is working hook everything back up and use that same paperclip to short each pair of pins on the header block (i imagine the reason you're so frustrated is that you can't find the power headers). So short pins 1-2, 2-3, 3-4, etc. until the system fires up. If you can't ever get the PSU to come on, you've got a dead board.

3. If the PSU fires up but the system never POSTs (no beeps, no video signal, etc), then check that everything is seated properly. Disconnect all peripherals that you possibly can and try again. On cheap boards like the K7SEM, the BIOS sometimes freaks out when something isn't connected properly. For example, if you've got two devices on one IDE channel both set to "master", most modern boards will figure it out and at least POST but ignore both devices...cheap boards generally will not. Disconnect all IDE devices, the floppy drive, any PCI cards. Try firing it up with just CPU and RAM installed.

4. If it still won't come on/POST...send that puppy back...you've got a bad board.

5. If you do get the board to come on, but are getting a pattern of beeps from the speaker (you may need to hook a speaker up to the headers on the board), then you've probably got a problem with your CPU or RAM. Since the video card is built in, if it's busted then you'll have to send the whole board back anyway.

Good luck!

skaven

And regarding needing spacers...that's a load of crap. The screw holes on motherboards are all tied to ground. The entire chassis (including the PSU's chassis) is all tied to DC ground. This is necessary so that currents going from one component to the other have a common ground signal. If you put spacers between the screw holes and your chassis, you deprive parts of the board of an extra ground signal.

To be fair, putting spacers in won't cause your system to fail, but not having them certainly can not be the cause of your problem.

The only time the screw points in a chassis are a problem electrically are when they are located somewhere where there isn't a screw hole and they make contact with a non-ground pin on the back of the motherboard.

silent_jay

Finally got the thing powered up again, thanks to all for the help and thanks for the manual guthmund, that really did the trick and got it done. Just got the finishing touches to do, hopefully that won't take too long.

I'm just glad the motherboard wasn't dead because I know who my buddy would have been blaming for that one, it would have been all one me, even though he's clueless about these things.

I'm so glad to be getting this thing out of my apartment, and it's working, I must learn to keep my mouth shut when friends need something fixed or installed, they seem happy it's getting done for free but they always want it so fast and don't seem to understand I have things to do for school as well and their computer is about 5 in line of priorities.

Thanks again everyone, the help was greatly appreciated.

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silent_jay

Now that it's fired up, it worked fine the first couple of time, then I turned it off and decided to check it again to make sure everything was fine and working properly again, when it is turned on it stops and asks for the boot disk to be put in drive A, or a CD, I've tried both CD and bootdisk, but now I can't get into anything. Any suggestions? Cause I'm stumped.

This computer is driving me nuts, it shouldn't be this hard at all, I've done this before before and they all went fine, maybe it's the heat thats getting to me this time while doing it who knows, but my brain seems to be turning to mush.

Thanks in advance for any more help you guys and girls can offer, it is greatly appreciated

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guthmund

Oooo, round two.

The first couple of times you booted up it went all the way into Windows? (assuming, of course, the guy is using windows, right?)

Well, it could be a number of problems, none of which should happen on their own and willy-nilly, but...what can you do? /shrugs Maybe when it was wired up the first couple of times, it reset something...stranger things have happened.

I am going to assume that the pc is POSTing and you can get into the BIOS settings.

Double check the BIOS settings to make sure that the hard drive with the OS is on the list of bootable devices. It might be under a sub-heading or something, but I can almost guarantee it is there. It's like a little priority list of what the pc is supposed to try and boot from. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about and if you don't, you'll find it. Poke around a bit and see if the BIOS recognizes the hard drive correctly. If you don't know much about BIOS settings, I suggest that you just set as much shit as you possibly can to "auto." It's what I do and it hasn't failed me yet.

If that doesn't solve the problem, then it's a hard drive issue (again, assuming that the hard drive isn't a new one, but the same he used before, no?), but before we delve into that I suggest you try all the mobo options first, since it was the source of the initial problem.

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silent_jay

Sorry about that, he got his computer back the way it was, not working.

He kept telling me how he couldn't be without his computer anymore, asking why it was taking so long, and he wanted me to give mine to him as a loaner, now all this guy does is use messenger and check his email, a computer isn't a necessity to him, and he sure wasn't getting mine as a loaner, I have school work to do, unlike him my life is on my computer.

So I told him instead of pissing and moaning about how long it takes me to do it for free, he can now take it to a shop and pay to get it done. Maybe now he will learn to keep his mouth shut when he can't fix something himself.

Thanks for all the help, very much appreciated everyone.

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pacaveli

hmm well that could of been what went wrong when i built my computer... i'll have to get me some for me new motherboard

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