Abit TH7II problem...SERIOUS :(

[Scoot]

Man...I really hope some1 has a solution to my problem...I'm going nuts!!!

Today I finally got all the stuff to put my Pentium 4 system together, here are the specs.

- Ennermax 330 Watts powersupply
- Abit TH7II
- Pentium 4 1,6GHz
- 2x 256MB Dane-elec RDRAM
- Hercules 3D Prophet II Ultra
- Creative SB Audigy XP-Gamer
- 3Com 905c NIC
- Pioneer 105S DVD-Rom
- IBM 45GB 75GXP HDD
- Logitech Optical USB mouse
- Logitech keyboard

I fired it up, tweaked the bios settings and installed Windows XP pro, all went smooth. Installed some games, did some benchies all without any problems! Checked my CPU temp: 50C stressed (intel heatsink).
Then I went into the bios and set the FSB to 106...rebooted...and nothing happened. So I pushed the power button 4 sec. and the system went off. When I tried to power up again...nothing happened!!!!
I've tried all things I could think of...remove/add cards, change memory slots, look for short circuits, CMOS reset...NOTHING WORKS!!!
All the other components work well, I tried them in my other system.
I just don't think the board's dead...it just isn't possible?!!?

Does any1 know something I didn't think of...?

[batboy]

Have you have tried a cold boot, meaning disconnect the power cord from the power supply for a couple minutes and then trying again? If so and it still don't work, you might have to reset the CMOS. Check your manual on how to do this, but there is usually a jumper you pull off for a few seconds or sometimes you have to remove the internal battery and then reinstall it. This should reset the BIOS back to default settings. Hope this works for you.

[Scoot]

Well I tried those already...but I did find a soltution to my problem! I got this from a dutch forum callen gathering of tweakers www.tweakers.net
By removing the cmos battery for about a minute and then reinstalling it again, I was able to boot up again! Seems like my motherboard wasn't discharged properly or something...weird!

[batboy]

Glad you are back in business. BTW, pulling the battery out and reinstalling it was one of the things I suggested too. Other Abit motherboards have been know to require this procedure also.

[theflyingrat]

I was always hoping someone would build and release a switch on the market that mounted on the front of your case. It could fit over the "Clear CMOS" Jumpers, and you could unplug your comp, then clear your CMOS without opening up your case. Just a quick thought for all you handymen and electrical engineers out there. Think it's possible?

I had (read HAD) an Abit board and it angered me to the point of insanity when it'd do this. It would run fine and dandy until some random reboot...bam! No POST. Open up the case, clear CMOS, you know the drill. I also had an Asus board, and it was somehow able to reset its own BIOS settings by itself whenever you pushed it too far. Why Abit still hasn't figured this out, I have no idea.

[Scoot]

Maybe it has something to do with their softmenu technology...
I've had several Abit boards so far (BE6II RAID, SH6, KT7A RAID) and never had this issue with any one of them before this one. But apart from this little incident I love this board! I'm running stable @ 1920MHz right now(1600MHz P4)!!! With my RDRAM clocked at an insanely high 480MHz. And all this with the boxed intel heatsink...running rather hot tough, 56C at full load. Really wonder if I can go even higher with a quality heatsink & fan.

[Turbo]

Originally posted by Scoot
Maybe it has something to do with their softmenu technology...
I've had several Abit boards so far (BE6II RAID, SH6, KT7A RAID) and never had this issue with any one of them before this one. But apart from this little incident I love this board! I'm running stable @ 1920MHz right now(1600MHz P4)!!! With my RDRAM clocked at an insanely high 480MHz. And all this with the boxed intel heatsink...running rather hot tough, 56C at full load. Really wonder if I can go even higher with a quality heatsink & fan.

I'm sure you can. My Samsung PC800 will easily post at 133 (533) Mhz with a P4 1.7. Now for some reason :p the cpu will not boot into windows at anything higher than 125 (500) Mhz fsb with the stock cooler, but I'm getting a Swiftech MCX478 whenever it'll be available. I'm hoping soon :) Then I'm going to try for 133 (533) and 2266 Mhz. Runs stable at 2125 Mhz and 2.1V with the stock cooler, I might just get lucky. Have you seen my memoryscores in the "Post your memoryscores here" thread in the "Memory" section? Well they were taken at 124 Mhz fsb, and at 125 they're even better :D

Now for the reset bios option, I also wish Abit would have the same feature as Asus does. The "fail-safe-boot" or whatever it's called. Meaning that if you've pushed the cpu too far, or didn't give it enough juice, on the next boot, the cpu will boot at the lowest fsb possible with that paticular board, with the default Vcore. And none of the other settings in the bios, except fsb/Vcore will have been changed. Now with a board as quirky as the TH7II indeed is IMO, that would have been a very welcomed feature.

[Yodums]

Usually that would happen to me if I overclock too high.. Whenever I turn the computer on it would show my vid card specs and then well heres something I used... I tried the battery trick.. No luck.. .ook then read the manual.. They said when I boot hit the insert button I did it after a couple of reboots bios was back to default.. Or I use to turn the PSU off and turn it back on and the monitor would flash again hhehehe

[batboy]

I've had 3 different Abit boards (actually still have two) and never once had to clear the CMOS on any of them. But on my latest SA6-R, I did push it too far during extreme overclcoking a couple times. It was scary when it wouldn't reboot. But each time that happened, if I disconnected the power cord from the power supply three times and tried rebooting each time I reconnected, it finally booted back after the third time at the default CPU settings which allowed me to get back into the BIOS to correct my goof up.