Mobodeath?

[NanLaew]

ASUS p8h61-m le/usb3 with an i5 CPU, generic 250Gb SSD, 8 Mb RAM and running Windows 10.

 

Watched some footy last night before a normal shutdown. Fired up this morning and only got the BIOS flash screen on the monitor but no 'beep' and no ensuing boot, just the flash screen. The HD activity LED is on until the 'beep' should sound, then turns off. CPU and VGA card fans spinning OK.

 

Pulled the SSD to check if it was crashed and it mounted/read OK on my laptop via a USB/SATA adapter. Put the SSD back in, re-seated both RAM modules then I pulled out the external VGA card so I could try it as-is using the onboard VGA. This time a totally blank screen, no BIOS flash and the monitor toggling back and forth between analog and digital until it detects no signal and gives up the ghost.

 

Motherboard died?

[Daffy D]

Could be the power supply or what happend to me overheating CPU due to bad contact with heatsink.

Check CPU is firmly connected to the heatsink.

 

[thequietman]

Remove battery, wait a minute or 2, then put back.

 

Should work after that. ????

[NanLaew]

3 minutes ago, thequietman said:

Remove battery, wait a minute or 2, then put back.

 

Should work after that. ????

Forgot to mention that I pulled the BIOS battery and it metered 3 V before I reassembled everything. However, I am going to try it with a new battery.

[steve187]

can you get into bios, 

[NanLaew]

22 minutes ago, Daffy D said:

Could be the power supply or what happend to me overheating CPU due to bad contact with heatsink.

Check CPU is firmly connected to the heatsink.

 

Yes, I have had that before on another machine but pretty much instantly got the CPU overheat flagged up in the BIOS boot stage before it went near Windows. They get hot real quick! Anyway, the CPU and fan are snug, unmovable and dust free.

[NanLaew]

48 minutes ago, steve187 said:

can you get into bios, 

The first time when it had the flash screen and the press 'Del' to enter setup option displayed, it didn't work. I have a USB keyboard and I couldn't see Caps Lock LED flashing either when I tried that so assume that USB isn't powered/accessible that early in the boot? On the subsequent, all blank screen with no BIOS flash screen boot up, there's no joy at all.

 

I will find a keyboard with a PS/2 connector before I dig deeper.

Edited December 18, 2019 by NanLaew

[tgw]

1 hour ago, Daffy D said:

Could be the power supply or what happend to me overheating CPU due to bad contact with heatsink.

Check CPU is firmly connected to the heatsink.

 

agree with Daffy - I would bet the power supply is faulty.

[NanLaew]

6 minutes ago, tgw said:

agree with Daffy - I would bet the power supply is faulty.

Would be a cheap and easy fix too as it's a microATX form factor rig and they're around 450 baht on lazada. I can't find my PS tester so I may take it out and down to the local Tuckom place tomorrow and let them test it.

 

In the meantime, some internet sleuthing on "no beep and no POST" issues indicates a few that have been resolved with either taking the CMOS battery out for a few hours rather than a few minutes to doing the RTC RAM reset as well. There are no exotic BIOS settings and tweaks to lose as this is the office machine so would be just rejigging the boot priority again.

[maxpower]

If the post has failed (no beep code) remove ram disconnect everything except power supply and panel connectors then power up to see if there is ram fail beep code.

Edited December 18, 2019 by maxpower

[NanLaew]

18 minutes ago, maxpower said:

If the post has failed (no beep code) remove ram disconnect everything except power supply and panel connectors then power up to see if there is ram fail beep code.

I haven't done it yet but what does it mean if there is/isn't a RAM fail beep code?

[maxpower]

13 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

I haven't done it yet but what does it mean if there is/isn't a RAM fail beep code?

The procedure is checking to see if the post test is alive or the fault is at at level where not even basic post tests can function properly. If you do get a ram not present beep code then you can start to think the post test crashed because of faulty ram.

 

The trick is to follow a strict single step logical test sequence from motherboard back to the power supply.

[NanLaew]

3 minutes ago, maxpower said:

The procedure is checking to see if the post test is alive or the fault is at at level where not even basic post tests can function properly. If you do get a ram not present beep code then you can start to think the post test crashed because of faulty ram.

 

The trick is to follow a strict single step logical test sequence from motherboard back to the power supply.

Gotcha!

[johng]

I remember once  having a strange problem changed "everything"  

new power supply then ram then video card then cpu and mainboard

the stupid thing still kept random rebooting or just powering down..in the end it was a  ghostly possessed power/reset button  in the case..(20 baht)  ohh well had a spare computer but felt  pretty stupid not working it out earlier before spending all that money

[NanLaew]

Normal service has been restored!

 

I left the PC overnight with the CMOS battery removed. Didn't do the RTC RAM reset, just put the (new) battery back in, hooked up USB keyboard, mouse and monitor, turned it on. Got the POST beep and the BIOS screen prompting to press F1 to check the settings. Did that, and it all booted up OK.

 

Subsequently, I re-inserted the VGA board and hooked up both screens and it is all good.

 

So a special mention to @thequietman for his prescient call. I did try it before for "a minute or 2" to no avail so the few hours or overnight did the business.