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Appendix A
Frequently Asked Questions
3. Is your monitor turned on? Is the brightness turned up?
4. Did you turn on the power?
5. Make sure your IDE/SCSI hard drive cables are correctly connected
to your IDE/SCSI drive. Verify that Pin-1 on the cable corresponds
to Pin-1 on the drive. See Chapter 2 on Connecting IDE/SCSI
Cables and Devices.
Q: My hard drive light stays on, but there is no video. Why?
A: There aren’t many things that can cause this symptom but there are a few
things you can try.
First, disconnect all nonessential cables from the motherboard. These
include cables going to the case for the power LED, reset, and other display
indicators. Second, remove all IDE / SCSI sound and floppy cables from
the motherboard. In addition, disconnect the power cable from the back of
the power supply. Once all these cables are cleared, reconnect the power
cord and turn the system on.
Q: Why do I hear a buzzing noise from the power supply?
A: If you hear a buzzing noise, turn off your system immediately.
This is generally caused by a power connector that’s plugged in backwards
or a short somewhere on the motherboard. The first thing to check is your
cables. Disconnect all cables from the motherboard and turn the system
on. If the system beeps, all is fine. Reconnect the cables one at a time to
isolate the bad or improperly installed cable. The cable which is most often
responsible for this sort of behavior is the IDE or SCSI cable. If the cable is
reversed on the motherboard or drive end, it will produce a short and not
allow the system to boot. Make certain that pin-1 on the cable lines up with
pin-1 on the motherboard and hard drive.
If this still does not solve the problem, remove the system board from the
case and run it on top of the box it came packed in. If the buzzing stops
and the system beeps, the problem is with a short between the case and the
motherboard. In this case, try using plastic standoffs or nylon washers
between the screws holding it down to the case.
Q: All I get are beep codes. What do they mean?
A: Fatal errors, which halt the boot process, are communicated through a
series of audible beeps. If AMIBIOS POST can initialize the system video
display, it displays the error message. Displayed error messages, in most