i recently bought a new asrock P4i45 PE+ mobo , with a P4 2.8GHz chip , 512 MB ram , new case and 350w PSU .
i put the new system together - worked a charm . But i had to travel , so i packed it in my suitcase with foam padding around the case to protect it from knocks while in transit ( it flew american airlines lol ) . when i got home and plugged it in - nothin worked , HD lights were on steady red , but no monitor output or anything else , i tried resetting the cmos , still nothing worked , so i took another G-card thinking that the new one had been damaged , but still nothing .

i have taken all un-nessesary PCI cards out and now all it has connected is one hard drive and G-card ( which i know both work since i tried them in my other computor ) and now the screen SOMETIMES comes on but is all messed up - sometimes it doesnt come on at all , occasionally it comes on if i remove the HD and it allows me to get into the bios ( which i ran thru the settings and restored all defaults ) but still nothing , it wont find any of the drives
i have checked all connections on everything, the PSU voltage/amps is fine, cpu fan spins up nicely, although when i have managed to get into the bios , the voltage readings on the board seemed to fluctuate slightly

so i am wondering if anyone else has had this problem ?
and wether you think its the mobo ( the cheaper one to fix ) or the processor

thanks in advance

Try another PSU but it sounds like the bios is shot, there may be a bios failsafe mode downloadable from the Manufacturer....

Have you tried to unplug everything and reinstall ( processor , memory modules etc ) them ?

have tried removing the CPU and memory , pretty much took the d*mn thing to bits , still looks the same

here is all i get on the screen when i boot up ( when it actually does display something )
BTW , checked it with 2 G-cards , and 2 monitors , so i know they are not the problem because they work fine in my other computor.

My Suggestion --- Take your store recipt, take the mobo, drive to the store, and get a replacement. If that dosn't work. DO the same for the RAM, and anything STILL under warranty.


Allan

Did you check all the hardware and see any evident damage?

If you are expierencing HDD lights lit steadily this is HDD thrashing and could very well cause the other symptoms you are expierencing as it could be hogging all of the system resources. You can verify this by disconnecting the drive and putting a bootable OS CD in your CD rom drive. If it comes up and gets you to the install screen then I would venture to say you may need a new HDD as they are very fragile and a few good jolts may render them useless. I hate the way airlines handle anything, they tell you they are careful then you watch as they throw all your luggage around like a sack of potato's. I have been the victim of checked baggage abuse on several occasions.

kmodorex wrote:

My Suggestion --- Take your store recipt, take the mobo, drive to the store, and get a replacement. If that dosn't work. DO the same for the RAM, and anything STILL under warranty. Allan

lol - as much as i would like to do that - travelling 4000 miles back to the UK would cost more than a whole new PC.

i checked the components for any visual damage - couldnt see any - i disconnected the HDD so that only the bios would work , but still nothing

Am thinking about taking the mobo out and using it as a clay pigeon target and using the picture for a screen saver lol then starting all over again

You should try the mb on another system. For all you know there can be something wrong with the other hardware.

i havent got another P4 system to try that - i am using an athlon now
forgot to add - the mobo doesnt post test either sometimes ( i rebooted it several times with just the basic mobo+ram+chip+g-card ) , sometimes it letsme into the bios , other times it doesnt - sometimes it post tests sometimes it doesnt - it seems to be hit-or-miss wether it shows the screen or lets me into the bios or not