New Asus Z84Fm build issue - The display does not turn on!

Hi all,

First off, thanks for the nice forum. I've enjoyed reading prior to my recent buy.

I just purchased a Z84Fm barebones laptop along with a T7500 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 160GB Hitachi HD, and two 1GB DDR2-667 sticks. Everything purchased seems to meet the specs on the asmobile site at

http://www.whiteboxworld.com/asmobile/z8/Z84fm/spec.htm

After installing all the components, I put in the battery, plugged it in and turned it on. Though the laptop appears to startup and turns the fans on, the screen does not turn on and the VGA output does not seem to go live. The HD light does turn on for a while and then goes off, and the CD-ROM spins up to check the disc in the drive, then spins down. I tried to turn the display brightness up with the Fn and F keys, but had no sucess. I tried one stick of RAM in either slot, remounted the HD, and double checked everything.

I'm convinced it's a processor problem or a computer monitor problem. Any guesses on which or how I could tell? My bias is that the computer has the issue.

I do have a desktop that I could flip the Core 2 into and test there, which will be the next step. If I'm missing something silly, a heads up would be great!

TIA!

 

1. To eliminate LCD use an external monitor on the VGA out port (supposing your computer has one but it should). If you see an image, then it's clear.

In my opinion this is the most likely culprit, it seems that it tries to boot from CD/DVD and then HDD, and then stops because neither is bootable.

2. You cannot "flip" the Core 2 into a desktop mainboard, the socket & chipset are different.

If it is the LCD, you can try checking if all is properly connected between the mainboard and LCD.

 

I don't think I made it clear in my post, but I have tried connecting a VGA monitor to the output and the monitor does not receive a signal.

I did notice when building that the CPU had one less pin than the slot it went into, but it is a T series chip and the motherboard supposedly takes up to a T7600.

Do you think even if I had a bad CPU I would see some kind of monitor activity when the computer powers up?

I have not had luck getting the rest of the bottom of the notebook off to properly check for connections between the video card, VGA output, and LCD. Are there any guide for the Z84 series around?

Thanks for the heads up about trying the chip in a desktop system. That saved some time.

 

Bad CPU => nothing at all happens in the computer.

You should really do the research and verify the CPU is indeed compatible with the motherboard. Otherwise the problem is clear.

 

ASUS claims up to T7600 processors are compatible at the link above.

I swapped in a T2250 1.73GHz from a AOpen MiniPC and the machine is up and running. It's definitely a CPU issue.

The MiniPC supposedly runs any Core 2 Duo, so I'm considering flipping the processor in to see if there is incompatibility with the ASUS (just got an RMA on the processor, might as well try it out before returning it). I will also swap the 2GB stick there into the laptop to see if there really is a 2GB RAM limit as advertised by ASUS.

I'll post back after testing. Thanks for the input!

 

Ok, I have some results to share.

The MiniPC does not take a T7500. The missing pins in the socket are in a different orientation than the T7500s, so I can't test it and will RMA it. I'll keep you updated on whether the T7500 is truly compatible with the ASUS Z84Fm.

I also installed a 2GB SODIMM in the top slot on the Z84Fm and found that both Windows XP and Ubuntu 7.10 recognize a full 3GB of RAM! This is fabulous as ASUS claimed a 2GB max. Makes me wish I would have gotten that 250GB HD just to test the max there.

The system is up and running well with all the ASUS drivers installed on the XP side. Ubuntu 7.10 Desktop i386 install appears to have worked perfectly and I even have a functional Bluetooth driver. Checking the built-in webcam out is on the todo list.

I'll report back as I know more.

 

The Z84Fm does not support the T7500, the T7500 is based on the santa rosa platform, with the 965 chipset, the Z84Fm is based on the 945 chipset and supports the merom cpu's

 

Sorry to take so long in getting back on that last comment, but I'm interested in the "non-support of the T7500". Wikipedia does call the T7500 a Merom processor, though they also list "Merom-2M" processors at the link below. At the link I first mention,

http://www.whiteboxworld.com/asmobile/z8/Z84fm/spec.htm

ASUS clearly lists the T7500 in the range that is supported. I am wondering now if that range is meant to be all inclusive, or based on FSB speeds. I'm quite hopeful that the T7500 is supported as they (appear to) claim there.

A quick googling has found several notebooks that supposedly run the 945GM chipset with a T7500 processor. I found examples from Toshiba and ASUS.

Wikipedia lists the T7500 as a Socket P processor, capable of FSB scaling, so not supporting the FSB speed (a number that's unlisted on the ASMobile site) is perhaps ruled out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Core_2_microprocessors

A new T7500 is on the way as is a 250GB HD and another 2GB of RAM. I will report back once I try to install it all. I'm hoping for a 2.2GHz, 4GB memory, 250GB HD thoroughly modern laptop. If that's possible, I'm in the whiteboxing camp something serious.

Aside from the screen directionality, thickness, and weight issues, it's a fine PowerBook replacement. Oh, did I mention ~1/3 the cost? Guess I forgot that part. Now when can I get a metal one...

 

Hope you get this sorted out.

 

I"m almost willing to bet money that a T7500 is not going to work in a Z84fm as the socket is different. You can give it a shot but the oonly cpu's which will work in it are the Core duo T2XXX T1XXX and Core 2 Duo T7XXX and T5XXX.

Asus would market the Z84 as supporting Santa Rosa Technology if it supported it. I will for sure eat crow if this is wrong and upgrade my Z84 because i'm only running a T2500

 

Is there a contradiction? T7XXX supported but T7500 unsupported.

I'm not sure about this, but I think Yonah is drop-in compatible (assuming microcode is compiled in the BIOS) with Merom from the series T7NXX where N is an even number.

The T7MXX with M an odd number, is Santa Rosa CPUs, and the pin layout & chipset are NOT compatible with Yonah and Merom.

 

U're right.. He's got wrong processor I'm Z84J owner as well as CPU seller .

His Z84F can only take even T7x number which means;

T7200 T7400 T7600 will work. With Odd number like T7300 T7500 7700 is NOT GOING TO WORK CAUSE THEY"RE NEWER CPU AND ONLY WORK WITH 965 INTEL CHIPSET.


Your best bet is going with T7200 since the price is decent and not too high as other ones.

That's why many of my sales ppl asked before buy cause the newer intel core 2 DUo has socket P not the regular socket M.

Here is the pic of difference of Socket P T5450 (T5500) and a regular socket M.

Problem solved, .. u put wrong CPU system won't boot that's simple

 

Yep that's basically what I knew. Although I might have mixed up some names, but I don't think so

 

I should have been more clear, thats right the even numbered T7000 series C2D's will work

 

yep not a doubt..

T7200 T7400 T7600 is ur choices. Better off with T7200 since it's cheapest

 

I hate intel's numbering sometimes

 

And if you want to be sure, santa rosa has a 800FSB while Merom have a 667 one (according you go T7xxx)

 

Thanks for letting me know everyone. Another RMA is going to kill me.