cags Posted October 5, 2009 Share Posted October 5, 2009 Ok, I realise this is a programming forum, but I figure there are a lot of members about, maybe somebody has an idea. If I try and turn my computer on, you hear the fans whir as everything kicks into gear but there is no POST beep. If I turn it off again, move the CMOS jumper for 10 seconds to reset it, then move it back and power up, it boots up. This time it says CMOS settings reset load default settings or enter BIOS configuration. If I select load default, Windows (XP 64bit) boots and I can use it without any problems. But as soon as I shutdown I have to start the whole process all over again. Same happens if I elect to open the BIOS configuration. As soon as I've set the settings and choose exit. It (obviously) restarts and again no POST beep. I've had people tell me it's the Motherboard, the Processor and the PSU. Obviously I don't really want to replace all of these items. I'm fairly confident it's not the processor as I have a spare that I swapped in, which made no difference. What I don't get is if it is a hardware problem, why does it work after a CMOS reset? This leads to the obvious conclusion it's the motherboard, but I'm just not sure. I tried asking a local 'expert' who works in a repair/upgrade shop and the reply was basically "erm, I have no idea". Any suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
448191 Posted October 5, 2009 Share Posted October 5, 2009 It's pretty hard to tell just from that, but my money is on the MB as well. Seems nowadays such problems are 99% of the time MB problems. Wild guess, Asus or Gigabyte motherboard? Intel Q* processor? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cags Posted October 5, 2009 Author Share Posted October 5, 2009 Asus M2N SLI deluxe mobo, tried 2 different AMD 64 x2 processors (think ones 4800 and the other is 3600, something along those lines), with difference heatsync/fans. I've tried 2 different pairs of RAM a matched pair of Corsair and a matched pair of Crutial, to no avail. I could understand it being any of the components if it just didn't come on, I just find it really odd that it'll boot after CMOS reset with default settings, but if I go into the BIOS (even if I don't change anything) it won't boot. It's annoying me, I'm just leaving my computer on at the moment. Then once a month when it crashes repeat the process. Maybe not the best idea, but it works, I need my PC and I'm not willing to by a complete set of components to try and fix it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
448191 Posted October 5, 2009 Share Posted October 5, 2009 Asus and Gigabyte motherboards suffer from badly implemented "fancy" features. Or at least that's my take on it based on personal and second hand experience. My dad has a AMD Asus board with exactly the same problem as you describe. I had a Gigabyte before the Asus I have now, both have similar issues. The Gigabyte suddenly wouldn't boot, some searches on the internet revealed that it has this awesome feature which keeps multiple versions of the BIOS which had a tendency to fail and load an obsolete version. Although in the end it would run on an "old" Core Duo and a single stick of RAM. In the process I had to bin 4 dimms of RAM :S. For the Asus I have now it helped flashing the bios and running the RAM at 800MHz (Intel standard) instead of the rated 1066MHz. It kept failing to boot using the shipped BIOS and caused segfaults running the RAM at 1066MHz. I recommend you try to update your BIOS, but be prepared to bin it. There's also something called "long BIOS reset", but I don't have much faith in it. If you do have to bin it, get something without the fancy stuff from MSI or Asrock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cags Posted October 5, 2009 Author Share Posted October 5, 2009 I was considering running the Windows based BIOS flash utility but since it needs to restart the computer, I can't see it making f'all difference. The problem is I don't want to try to flash the BIOS, screw the motherboard then it still not work and then get a new processor that not working either etc etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
448191 Posted October 5, 2009 Share Posted October 5, 2009 My guess is your MB has this "EZFlash" feature in the BIOS, which I would recommend over doing it in windows. There's is always a chance your mb will get fubared. It's take a chance or do nothing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tibberous Posted October 5, 2009 Share Posted October 5, 2009 Not really fair to target Gigabyte and Asus, the reason that people have problems with them isn't that there bad boards, it is that they are marketted towards builders who may or may not know what they are doing, and are using a huge array of different hardware. I can vouch for Asus but my Gigabyte board ran great for years (probably still works if I'd dust it off) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peranha Posted October 5, 2009 Share Posted October 5, 2009 We used Asus boards for work, and had the same issues as you described plus others. Turns out that they had a problem with capacitors bursting on the boards. We have since then switched to Gigabyte, and have not had issues as of yet. Check the capacitors on the board and see if they are popped up on the top. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
448191 Posted October 5, 2009 Share Posted October 5, 2009 Not really fair to target Gigabyte and Asus, the reason that people have problems with them isn't that there bad boards, it is that they are marketted towards builders who may or may not know what they are doing, and are using a huge array of different hardware. I can vouch for Asus but my Gigabyte board ran great for years (probably still works if I'd dust it off) Here's my theory: both Asus and Gigabyte have (had) excellent reputations for producing quality hardware, and they became careless. That's all. It may very well be your old Gigabyte board is excellent, I don't doubt it actually. But, and this is just my impression from personal experience and reading about others', many motherboards of these guys have issues nowadays. In particular the ones with "all the fancy features". I have another theory saying in English verbs in present perfect *generally* don't duplicate consonants.. The jury is still out on it though, not everybody is willing to accept such a controversial theory from a non native speaker. In Dutch, now that is a different story. I could write a book about it, if I could spell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cags Posted October 5, 2009 Author Share Posted October 5, 2009 I should point out I've probably had the motherboard for the best part of 18months, so it's not like it was shoddy out the box, but still, very annoying mainly because I have no way of knowing for sure if thats causing the problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
448191 Posted October 5, 2009 Share Posted October 5, 2009 Same as my dad's Asus board and my Gigabyte board: ran fine for over a year (two year for the Asus), then started acting up. My new Asus board has solid capacitors (they were very aware of the capacitor issue) and so had my Gigabyte, I attribute the issues I had with them solely to firmware. It's well worth checking out your capacitors like peranha suggested though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zane Posted October 5, 2009 Share Posted October 5, 2009 you think maybe your CMOS battery is just dying? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cags Posted October 5, 2009 Author Share Posted October 5, 2009 That did occur to me, that would actually make sense... but I swapped it and no difference Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zane Posted October 5, 2009 Share Posted October 5, 2009 ...bummer I've had this same thing happen to me plenty of times but alas .. it's never the same solution. The first thing I do when this happens is I unplug all the Molexes. hard drives, cdroms, floppy?, LEDs, anything that isn't .. THE COMPUTER aka the Motherboard displayer machine as I like to call it. ------Assuming everything's unplugged now----- If you have to reset the CMOS every time then it's obviously not getting enough power to do it itself..which is only 3v or so. So either you have a short somewhere or the PSU is dying (since you've already made it clear that the CMOS battery isn't) .. Haven't really read the above posts so I may be repeating something so I apologize beforehand... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cags Posted October 5, 2009 Author Share Posted October 5, 2009 I'll give that a go tomorrow I think. I was thinking I can't disconnect alot of those things as I won't know if it's working, but all I need to listen for is the post beep, so I guess I can. The more I think about it, the more I think the only thing I probably can't find a spare for is the MOBO itself. I have other boards lying around but not AM2 boards. So I should be able to narrow it down to the MOBO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zane Posted October 5, 2009 Share Posted October 5, 2009 yeah.. that and the reason why it's the mobo. I'd hate to hear that someone threw away an AM2 motherboard because the BIOS isn't keeping or a jumper was set wrong. Just unplug all that shit..all you really need for the computer to actually "work" is a keyboard..... and if you want to see stuff.. then a video card. .. Process of elimination. If that doesn't work.. well, you should know by then what it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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