I just got a 1.2 ghz amd athlon with 266fsb and I have pc133 RAM that works. When I try to start up, I get 4 long beeps then my pc shuts off. I've tried to replace the ram, and I've tried different video cards. I have an Abit KT7A board, Voodoo3, 128mb PC133 RAM stick, and 2 HD's with 2 SCSI cards. Their tech support sucks, and the solution doesn't lie on their website or manual. I actually bought the mobo about 4 months ago, and I actually got a chance to put it together now, so I'm pretty sure I can't get any refunds.
Almu, I'm typing on a machine running the KT7A. Neener neener neener. You may want to try the following 2 Usenet newsgroups if you want others to try and troubleshoot your problems : alt.comp.mainboards.abit alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit Also, see if this user-run support site can help you : http://www.viahardware.com/faq/kt7/kt7faq.htm From the above site :
Please describe the beeps in terms of their length, ie like morse code. I believe 4 beeps is the video beep, but let me get back to you on that.
Don't run any Athlon without a fan period, even just for testing. They go from 'cool' to 'hot enough to melt the skin off of your fingers' in about 1 second. Really. I've had customers that have blown these CPUs up by not running them with a fan for like 10 seconds! In this respect the Athlon sucks ass. And yes, 4 beeps is the 'ram beep', which would seem to have been appropriated by Abit in this situation. Also, it never hurts to pull the ram, clean the sockets with some air and reseat, but the fact that it actualy shuts off would indicate the fan thingie -- they try to keep you from blowing up your stuff.
Otto is right. But then anyone not running a fan on a T-Bird probably won't get much of a chance to type anything about his mobo not working. Haha! OK, enuf geek humor... Almu, you may also want to make sure that your CPU fan is attached to the FAN1 header. Even if you're able to attach it to the FAN2 header and it is cooling your CPU, disconnect it from the FAN2 header and attach it to the FAN1 header.
DOD, YOU ARE THE BEST!!!! As simple as that was, I would of never figured it out! It worked perfectly and now the machine is up and running. DOD, I TRULY APPRECIATE YOUR HELP! THANKS A MILLION!
alright DOD, I gots a question for you. I am running a 800mHz tbird on a ABIT KT7BRaid board, 3 sticks of 128 MB RAM, Vodoo 3 Video card, and Creative Soundblaster Live. My computer freezes sometimes right before the icons show up on the desktop. My wallpaper shows, but just freezes. I have heard that the SB Live has issues with running on Athlons and ABIT boards, but cant find any patches. Got any suggestions? Thanks a bunch
Yes, go here : http://www.viahardware.com/faq/kt7/kt7faq.htm The SB boards caused a problem when running Soundblaster 16 emulation which most people don't need anyway (old technology). Sometimes the disabling of that emulation/support helped people with the lockup problems. The KT7 boards can be tricky to set up, to be honest. The fact that you got the RAID variant makes it even trickier, especially if they were still using that Highpoint controller in the B series KT7's. The number of things causing your lockup could be several. Just go to that site; it's great for troubleshooting your setup. BTW, are you over-clocking your TBird? Are you using the latest BIOS? Are you using the latest VIA drivers? The links to all the above are at the URL I gave at the beginning of this response.
