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C0deZer0
Oc'D To Rhythm And Police
Premium Member
join:2001-10-03
Tempe, AZ

C0deZer0

Premium Member

[motherboard] system will not boot anymore

Here's the skinny...

My system runs on an evga 680i sli. This morning, i press the power button. Fans and drives spin up, but nothing happens. Not even a POST beep. Looking for the two-digit led onthe board, it just seems to stay at "--" when pressing the power button now.

I don't know what or why it is doing this now. I just know it has me in a panic. And at this point, i won't be able to fiddle with it today until 5pm at the earliest. It's never not run without its UPS, so i certainly hope it's not fried. And the other onboard lights do turn on when it gets power.

Please help... :-(

VegasMan
Living the Vegas life.
Premium Member
join:2002-11-17
Las Vegas, NV

VegasMan

Premium Member

First try unplugging it and then remove the CMOS battery for at least 15 minutes. Reattach everything and see what happens.

C0deZer0
Oc'D To Rhythm And Police
Premium Member
join:2001-10-03
Tempe, AZ

C0deZer0

Premium Member

Nothing changed. :-(

VegasMan
Living the Vegas life.
Premium Member
join:2002-11-17
Las Vegas, NV
·CenturyLink

VegasMan to C0deZer0

Premium Member

to C0deZer0
OK lets go one by one.

1. Remove all cards including RAM and blow out all the connectors and then re-install and see what happens.

if not

2. Remove everything but video card and one stick of RAM and give it a shot, if it doesn't work switch the RAM modules and try again.

if not

3. Do you have another power supply you could test with? Your supply might be bad and not supplying enough juice to power the CPU.

We'll leave it at that for now and see what happens.

C0deZer0
Oc'D To Rhythm And Police
Premium Member
join:2001-10-03
Tempe, AZ

C0deZer0

Premium Member

Pestered a bud to get eVGA's phone support. Talked to a tech named Jeff there. He asked me what the last thing I did regarding to the system was... which I recall would be taking it apart to clear out the dust inside and putting it back together (forgot to mention adding another case fan to the radiator for a push+pull to cool the CPU).

With that, he'd asked me to look for the BIOS chip, which on this board is kind of in its own socket, and to kinda press it down/back in. After that, was just switch the CMOS jumper to RESET and I was able to get 'er turned back on. Reapplied the appropriate settings again, and I'm back up and running.

VegasMan
Living the Vegas life.
Premium Member
join:2002-11-17
Las Vegas, NV

VegasMan

Premium Member

Still has a socketed CMOS? OK
Glad you got it up and running.

C0deZer0
Oc'D To Rhythm And Police
Premium Member
join:2001-10-03
Tempe, AZ

C0deZer0

Premium Member

What, boards today don't have socketed BIOS chips anymore?

That's kinda dumb.

koitsu
MVM
join:2002-07-16
Mountain View, CA
Humax BGW320-500

koitsu

MVM

said by C0deZer0:

What, boards today don't have socketed BIOS chips anymore?

Many desktop boards don't. Some desktop boards (Gigabyte for example) have "dual BIOSes" (non-socketable), so that if one fails you can switch to the other manually (or automatically, I forget how that works). Server-class boards tend to have socketed PLCC BIOSes.

But for sake of point: when was the last time you actually had a total BIOS failure? I know when I did (my first and only) -- it was in 2006, when I was upgrading the BIOS on one of my yet-to-be-deployed Supermicro servers when the city lost power for a few seconds. I had to order a replacement BIOS chip (saved 4-5 days on shipping time) from badflash.com or some such place. And yeah, I have UPSes, but normally I don't hook up yet-to-be-deployed systems to them.

It doesn't sound like you actually pulled/reinserted the BIOS at all, although it's possible the BIOS was slightly ajar and some some thick dust or metal shaving during your cleaning got wedged between the pin and the socket. For those curious, the BIOS on the eVGA 680i SLI is PLCC and at the bottom of this picture. Quite a big socket compared to what my board has (M_BIOS and B_BIOS at bottom). Probably the same size (capacity) too, just that flash chips are now smaller than before (no not the same kind used in SSDs :P).

Subaru
1-3-2-4
Premium Member
join:2001-05-31
Greenwich, CT

Subaru

Premium Member

said by koitsu:

said by C0deZer0:

What, boards today don't have socketed BIOS chips anymore?

Many desktop boards don't. Some desktop boards (Gigabyte for example) have "dual BIOSes" (non-socketable), so that if one fails you can switch to the other manually (or automatically, I forget how that works). Server-class boards tend to have socketed PLCC BIOSes.

But for sake of point: when was the last time you actually had a total BIOS failure? I know when I did (my first and only) -- it was in 2006, when I was upgrading the BIOS on one of my yet-to-be-deployed Supermicro servers when the city lost power for a few seconds. I had to order a replacement BIOS chip (saved 4-5 days on shipping time) from badflash.com or some such place. And yeah, I have UPSes, but normally I don't hook up yet-to-be-deployed systems to them.

It doesn't sound like you actually pulled/reinserted the BIOS at all, although it's possible the BIOS was slightly ajar and some some thick dust or metal shaving during your cleaning got wedged between the pin and the socket. For those curious, the BIOS on the eVGA 680i SLI is PLCC and at the bottom of this picture. Quite a big socket compared to what my board has (M_BIOS and B_BIOS at bottom). Probably the same size (capacity) too, just that flash chips are now smaller than before (no not the same kind used in SSDs :P).

I wish I could get my gigabyte board to work again

One day it just went out (took a hdd with it) and it does nothing but makes this non slandered beep.. Well it's not really a beep but a long tone.

I took everything out and the board out of the case and it still did it.. so it's in the closet.. it's seems like now a days you have to keep extra boards on hand..

koitsu
MVM
join:2002-07-16
Mountain View, CA
Humax BGW320-500

koitsu

MVM

said by Subaru:

it's seems like now a days you have to keep extra boards on hand..


OT, but:

I realise it's not very economical for a lot of people (especially in this economy -- and believe me, I understand, I've been unemployed since May 2012), but keeping spare hardware on hand is usually a wise choice.

When I upgrade a system, assuming the old board uses the same CPU socket type as my new/upgraded board, I keep the old board in its box in case something goes awry. If after 1-2 years I'm still good, I end up sending the hardware off to my friends in Sweden (where everything tech has almost a 100% mark-up on it for no justified reason), or try to donate stuff here to folks who need it. Else I sell it on eBay.

Subaru
1-3-2-4
Premium Member
join:2001-05-31
Greenwich, CT

Subaru

Premium Member

said by koitsu:

said by Subaru:

it's seems like now a days you have to keep extra boards on hand..


OT, but:

I realise it's not very economical for a lot of people (especially in this economy -- and believe me, I understand, I've been unemployed since May 2012), but keeping spare hardware on hand is usually a wise choice.

When I upgrade a system, assuming the old board uses the same CPU socket type as my new/upgraded board, I keep the old board in its box in case something goes awry. If after 1-2 years I'm still good, I end up sending the hardware off to my friends in Sweden (where everything tech has almost a 100% mark-up on it for no justified reason), or try to donate stuff here to folks who need it. Else I sell it on eBay.

I thought I was the only one that did this.. lucky for me I kept a intel ITX board and it used the same socket so I was good, sucks about the board I loss.. No big deal on the drive since it's 80GB.