A few ABIT AN9 32X questions, pulling my hair out here

[Nagasama]

if you RMA'd the mobo and are having the same problem, that would be extremely unlikely to have two bad ones in a row. do you have the 4 (or 8) pin cpu power connected to the mainboard? i know someone here had a similar problem and that is what it was.
are you sure the 24 pin mainboard power is seated correctly?
its something simple like that, i can almost assure you.
have you tried using another stick of ddr2 800 in the board?
when you benched the 3600, did you use the same psu you are using in your new system? can you use a different one?

 

[Mr. LL]

if you RMA'd the mobo and are having the same problem, that would be extremely unlikely to have two bad ones in a row. do you have the 4 (or 8) pin cpu power connected to the mainboard? i know someone here had a similar problem and that is what it was.
are you sure the 24 pin mainboard power is seated correctly?
its something simple like that, i can almost assure you.
have you tried using another stick of ddr2 800 in the board?
when you benched the 3600, did you use the same psu you are using in your new system? can you use a different one?

The 4 pin CPU connector is plugged in, the 24 pin connector is in tight, I haven't tried another set of DDR2 800 RAM just the spare set of 4600 or whatever it was.

I tried two different cooler master 600w PSU's.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Nagasama]

wow...hmmmmm if possible, try another set of ddr2 ram. make sure it needs like 1.8V or something low anyway.
dang man, i would be shocked if two mobos are bad from the start, but it is possible i suppose. you're certainly running out of options of what it could be...

EDIT:
i also found this after a little searching:
Basic Beep Codes for ABIT AWARD BIOS Motherboards

No beep at all - this means your motherboard is dead, either due to a defective or underpowered power supply, poorly seated CPU or RAM, or a dead-on-arrival board

One beep - board is working fine

One long beep then machine shuts down - faulty, improperly installed or missing CPU

1 short (Beep) System booting is normally

2 short (Beep) CMOS setting error

1 long - 1 short (Beep) DRAM ERROR

1 long - 2 short (Beep) Display card or monitor connected error

1 long - 3 short (Beep) Keyboard Error

1 long - 9 short (Beep) ROM Error

Long (Beep) continuous - DRAM isn't inserted correctly

Short (Beep) continuous - POWER supply has a problem

A two-tone siren - generally caused by overheating or out of specification voltages

Four beeps then machine shuts down - this is because this version of the BIOS will shut down your machine if no fan tachometer signal is detected on the fan header. Make sure you attach a fan to the CPUFAN header or clear CMOS to reset to default (no checking).

from this site:
URGENT!! Can't POST!! - Universal abit USA Forums

maybe it will help more.

 

[Mr. LL]

Thanks a lot for that info, that is another thing that bugs me is it beeped at first and now it doesn't beep at all, maybe my crappy little speaker is bad.

It had continuous 3 second long beeps, some times it would beep once, some times not at all and now it doesn't beep at all no matter the configuration and even after resetting the CMOS.

 

[Nagasama]

that guide i posted says that a long continuous beep means the ram is not inserted correctly. which probably means it is not all the way seated (it will only go in one way).

 

[Mr. LL]

that guide i posted says that a long continuous beep means the ram is not inserted correctly. which probably means it is not all the way seated (it will only go in one way).

I'm sure the RAM was seated all the way. I'm starting to wonder if the RAM is bad or like has been suggested on the Abit forums the voltage setting needs to be changed for the RAM (or some sort of setting, I'm too tired to look it up right now) in order for it to POST properly, its confusing either way since I used another set of RAM, but who knows with computer hardware.

 

[Nagasama]

didnt i suggest that you raise the ram voltage to 2.0 or 2.1V?
if not, yes do that. definitely possible that it would keep the comp from working if the ram isnt getting enough juice.
EDIT: no i didnt suggest that, different thread, sorry. yes that is quite possibly the problem.

 

[Mr. LL]

didnt i suggest that you raise the ram voltage to 2.0 or 2.1V?
if not, yes do that. definitely possible that it would keep the comp from working if the ram isnt getting enough juice.
EDIT: no i didnt suggest that, different thread, sorry. yes that is quite possibly the problem.

Yeppers, my next step is testing my RAM in DIMM 4 to see if it can get enough to boot and if not I am picking up a stick of 667 RAM and try to boot it with that.

That actually makes sense that I got memory beeps, hopefully once I make the change it will all start to work out.

I'm chompping at the bits too, I have HL2 Episode 2 and COD 4 just sitting there waiting to be played, dang job and business is keeping me busy but I am going to get this thing going soon.

 

[Mr. LL]

Figured I would keep this thread going here too incase someone on the forum has any ideas, I've got another thread going at the Abit site.

Arg!

Well, I bought a stick og 1GB DDR2 PC2-5300/667mhz RAM from Best Buy, the guy said it was unbuffered but I don't see it say that specifically on the package or site but I think it should work.

Here is a link:
PNY

I tried it one stick in each slot resetting the CMOS in between tries and no luck.

I am going to order the BIOS chip, it should be here before the return time runs up.

UPDATE: I ordered the BIOS chip, it should be here in 2-5 days.

Given this new info if you guys have any other ideas or suggestions please let me know. Thanks a lot for all of the help you all have given me so far, hopefully with the new BIOS and 667 RAM I will be able to get it going enough to change the mem settings and then start putting everything else in.

 

[Mr. LL]

Everything is working on my system now, figured I would post the results in case someone else has the same problem in the future.

I had two main problems...
1. Only newer BIOS versions work with the AMD 6400.
2. OCZ RAM needs 2.1v to run and board is set to 1.8v.

You can flash the BIOS to bring it up enough to run a AMD 6400 on the AN9 but in my case I didn't have another CPU to flash it with so I ordered a new BIOS chip from ABIT for $10 or something.

The OCZ voltage problem was overcome by placing one stick in slot 4 after I put the new BIOS chip in, from what I have heard slot 4 some times will work with higher voltage RAM. Once I put the new chip in, had on stick in slot 4 I was able to get a screen and enter the BIOS, I changed the RAM setting in the Uguru menu, save and exit BIOS, shut system down, insert both sticks in slot's 1 and 2 and it worked fine after that.

Thanks to the posters here and on the Abit forum I was able to get it working.