MECressey

HI,

I build custom, quiet Digital Audio Workstations (DAW) as a hobby business - email me if you want to see my web site. I use Asus P4C800-E Deluxe as the motherboards.

Fedex has managed to damaged 2 of my custom computers during shipping. The first had notable signs of damage to the case. Now I double box the computers, however, Fedex has now damaged a second computer. It arrived & appears to have been "shaken up" alittle bit (the disks were dislodged). I've had dislodged disks several times but usually the work just fine, i.e., they were not damaged.

The computer boots up but no video is displayed, even when a new video card has been installed. Both damaged computers exhibited this even though the motherboard shows no damage & the video card was functioning properly.

My question is: any ideas could have happened to the motherboard that might caus this problem? Should I try clearing the CMOS? It seems like the motherboard could sustain some "shaking/rolling" since it is tightly hosed to computer case.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, as my client would like to use his new DAW.

Thanks in advance.

Mike

MECressey

PS - I use this motherboard in my own DAW & most of the DAWs that I sell & I've had no problems with it.

Mike

clintfan

Hi MECressey, and welcome to the forum!

As you well know, this model mobo has no onboard video, it has to come from an add-on AGP card.

One idea is that over the years we have seen some AGP's whose circuit boards were too thin to fit securely into the AGP slot. Usually the video mfg. has supplied a too-thin card, it isn't that Asus has supplied a too-loose socket.

Another idea is that if you're using a DVI monitor here, but the customer is using an analog monitor --or vice-versa-- the mobo BIOS may have configured itself to your monitor, and doesn't see your customer's unit: clearing the CMOS is, I think, the only way to fix that, after which any custom settings you made --such as Boot Device Priority, HT, etc.-- must be reestablished.

Third, there is a PCI-vs.-AGP Graphic Adapter Priority setting in the BIOS Advanced- Chipset. Default is AGP first, but I suppose it could somehow have got set to PCI, though I doubt it, and it should still choose AGP if a PCI card isn't present. Clearing CMOS would set it back, but is a radical thing to do if the rest of the PC boots to the O/S successfully, as you say.

Final idea is that the Northbridge chip has somehow been jarred loose or been damaged. The AGP port is driven off the Northbridge, but I think it is soldered in, not socketed. Again, if the chip is healthy enough to boot the O/S, it's unlikely only the video sections have been destroyed.


It could be something else besides these ideas, but debugging the problem long-distance may prove futile, and bad customer relations for your client. If you can, you should probably have the client ship the failed PC back to you, send him a replacement unit, and then fix the broken one afterwards.

-clintfan