• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.
  • The forums have been upgraded with support for dark mode. By default it will follow the setting on your system/browser. You may override it by scrolling to the end of the page and clicking the gears icon.

PC froze, now fails to boot to BIOS

H

Havoc

New Member
Joined
Feb 24, 2007
Messages
85 (0.01/day)
Location
England
System Specs
System Name Jemima
Processor Pentium Core 2 Duo E4300 Allendale
Motherboard Abit IP35 Pro
Cooling Custom Built Water Cooling, Utilising a Small Lake
Memory 2GB Dominator DDR2 800Mhz
Video Card(s) ATI X1950Pro 256MB
Storage 120GB Seagate Barracuda + 320GB Maxtor DiamondMax
Display(s) Advent 17" CRT + GNR 15" LCD
Case Coolermaster Elite
Audio Device(s) Onboard
Power Supply 550W
Hi all,

I was quite happily working away on my computer today, when all of a sudden it froze. The clock stopped, the mouse did not respond & so on. I gave it 5 minutes or so, then hit the reset button. The machine made all the noises it usually does on boot and all looked fine except nothing was displayed on the screen. I ummed and erred, then held the power button down and turned it off.

Since then when the power button is pressed, the machine sparks into life for a split second then turns back to normal - the fans spin, the lights glow & so on and then nothing. I considered this to be a power supply fault at first, so I had this tested and it came back fine. I tried changing the RAM up and the Processor to no avail. The only thing left on the list is the motherboard, but I've never had a board fail on me before, and this one's only six months old!

Things I have tried:

  • Removing the BIOS battery for 30 mins
  • Changing the processor
  • Swapping the RAM modules over
  • Removing both Hard Drives
  • Taking the Graphics card out

One final thing to note: I plugged the 24 pin connector into the board but not the 8pin 12v and powered the machine up - The fans stayed on until I turned the machine off, yet I saw no output on the screen. I'm not really too sure what this 8pin does, but presumably it's important.

My PC:
Asus M4A88TD-V Evo USB3
AMD Phenom X6 1100T Black Edition
6GB 10600 DDR3 RAM
ATi Radeon 6790
Jeantech 700w modular PSU

Does anyone have any bright ideas on what I should do next?

Thanks!
 
The 8 pins is 12 volt for the CPU. It wont post without it conmnected.

Try it with one stick of ram, CPU, and onboard graphics. Pull everything else including the graphics card and hard drives. (leaving the front power switch on of course) If it does not post RMA the MB
 
Are you getting any beeps from your board speaker? Unfortunately it sounds like your motherboard died...

My next step would be testing with only the CPU and one RAM module, to see if it boots, or at least you could get a code from the board by way of its speaker, and look it up in your board's manual.

If you have access to another board, you may want to test your other components there, at least if your board is bad it should still be under warranty right?

Good luck
 
Thanks guys. I tried it with just the one RAM module this morning and it's no different.
There's no beep from the motherboard - I wasn't actually aware of the fault finding capabilities of such, so thanks for that. Useful for next time. :)

Yes, the motherboard is under warranty - Chances are I will be returning that as soon as possible whilst in the meantime acquiring a new motherboard as I need my PC for my job. :(

Thanks chaps.
 
aah yes. the board died. to be more precise i think the chipset died. this thing happened to a friend of mine, who also owns a crappy core 2 duo. his mobo died. and it took intel a month to replace it :D

i wanna lol at this too
top-logo2.jpg
top-logo1.jpg

i didnt even know Abit made motherboards!
 
Last edited:
if its on warranty period just rma it and you will fine
 
de.das.dude said:
aah yes. the board died. to be more precise i think the chipset died. this thing happened to a friend of mine, who also owns a crappy core 2 duo. his mobo died. and it took intel a month to replace it :D

i wanna lol at this too http://www.abit.com.tw/images/top-logo2.jpghttp://www.abit.com.tw/images/top-logo1.jpg
i didnt even know Abit made motherboards!
Click to expand...

The company, abit, had been in the motherboard business for quite a while(since the 1980s).
In 2005, I believe, they sold their MB business to USI, which, renamed it Universal abit and make boards for other companies and such.
And, the original abit had made a lot of great boards. If you never heard of them... I guess you never owned one, so why lol them. IMO, those where some solid boards in their day.

Plus, if you read the op, you would see that he/she states that they are using a Asus M4A88TD-V Evo USB3.

Havoc said:
My PC:
Asus M4A88TD-V Evo USB3
AMD Phenom X6 1100T Black Edition
6GB 10600 DDR3 RAM
ATi Radeon 6790
Jeantech 700w modular PSU
Click to expand...

Back on topic:

@Havoc> If you haven't sent it in for RMA, yet.
I am just wondering, I don't think that MB has a build in speaker. Did you plug one into the header to hear any beep errors tones?
Did you try swapping keyboards and un-plugging any other USB devices and external devices.
Also, try removing the DVD/CD, card readers, etc.
Did you try a different PSU? I saw you had it tested, however, if you can get another (borrow one maybe) and try it.

Goodluck and hope you get her fixed.:)
 
95Viper said:
The company, abit, had been in the motherboard business for quite a while(since the 1980s).
In 2005, I believe, they sold their MB business to USI, which, renamed it Universal abit and make boards for other companies and such.
And, the original abit had made a lot of great boards. If you never heard of them... I guess you never owned one, so why lol them. IMO, those where some solid boards in their day.

Plus, if you read the op, you would see that he/she states that they are using a Asus M4A88TD-V Evo USB3.



Back on topic:

@Havoc> If you haven't sent it in for RMA, yet.
I am just wondering, I don't think that MB has a build in speaker. Did you plug one into the header to hear any beep errors tones?
Did you try swapping keyboards and un-plugging any other USB devices and external devices.
Also, try removing the DVD/CD, card readers, etc.
Did you try a different PSU? I saw you had it tested, however, if you can get another (borrow one maybe) and try it.

Goodluck and hope you get her fixed.:)
Click to expand...



oops i check his specs :(


also are you sure you dont have any bent CPU pins?
 
also try this: remove all USB accessories!
 
Sounds like the CMOS on the motherboard is corrupt. Your OP said that you took the battery out but I didn't read where you had shorted the "Clear CMOS" jumper on the motherboard at the same time the battery was out. Removing the battery typically doesn't clear anything unless you short that jumper too. Have you cleared the CMOS?
 
I tend to think that it's a PSU issue but the motherboard may be the cause.

But I don't understand this paragraph: "Since then when the power button is pressed, the machine sparks into life for a split second then turns back to normal - the fans spin, the lights glow & so on and then nothing."
 
@Havoc

Integrated or dedicated card?

EDIT:

Missed the HD6790. Also without the 12v connected, your cpu can't get the required voltage to function. So therefore the board is going into say a "check cpu" no post. I have to say the board or CPU is dead.
 
Last edited:
Derek12 said:
I tend to think that it's a PSU issue but the motherboard may be the cause.

But I don't understand this paragraph: "Since then when the power button is pressed, the machine sparks into life for a split second then turns back to normal - the fans spin, the lights glow & so on and then nothing."
Click to expand...

i think maybe he is saying the fans move at full speed?
 
de.das.dude said:
i think maybe he is saying the fans move at full speed?
Click to expand...

Could be, then this means that BIOS is initialized because (if I understood well) when there is a problem which POST couldn't complete and BIOS has control of fans, they go full speed and don't get to normal. Maybe I am wrong :confused:.

But there are things I still don't understand in the OP besides (my English isn't the best) for example:

"One final thing to note: I plugged the 24 pin connector into the board but not the 8pin 12v and powered the machine up - The fans stayed on until I turned the machine off, yet I saw no output on the screen. I'm not really too sure what this 8pin does, but presumably it's important."

What happens when the 8 pin 12V is connected? the computer turns on for a millisecond then shuts off? :confused:
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top