PC wont POST

Hi all, well I finally got my CPU and I've installed it, got everything installed and connected up, moment of truth came, switched on and PC won't POST .

I know my RAM is OK, I know the Graphics card is OK, the PSU is OK, water cooling - pump is running, water flowing all ok, all fans both for the water cooling and the chassis fans are all ok and spinning and the case lighting is ok as well, so all connections and the PSU are definitely all OK.:good:

I've checked all the connections, all OK

Checked all the jumper settings, all ok.

I've tried clearing the CMOS, no effect.

Tried different RAM combinations, no effect.:crying:

So I think it's narrowed down to the Mobo or CPU, the mobo power led lights up and the keyboard plugged into the P/S2 port , the keyboard LED's are lit, so keyboard is powered ok by mobo, so I think that the mobo is generally ok.

When I switch on there are no mobo bleeps at all, and there is no display either, but as I said I know the graphics card is ok, as I've pulled it and tested it in another PC.

I suspect that it's either the CPU or the mobo BIOS chip, i.e. bad CPU unable to run POST code from BIOS, or the BIOS chip corrupted and no POST/BIOS available to be run by CPU.

I've ordered a replacement BIOS chip to see if this will sort it out, but wonder if anyone else has any suggestions, or has come across this problem before.

The mobo, CPU and Graphics card were all bought off e-bay, so I'm not 100% sure of their reliability.:doh:

BTW the PC specs are in my siggy, with the exception that the OS is not yet installed due to this problem.

As always any help with this will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

just a precaution, have you made sure the gfx card is fully pushed down its slot?

 

Hi thanks for replyng, should a mentioned it in my first post,

I've checked and re-checked that that the RAM and graphics cards are properly seated.

Checked all the slots for any dust deposits etc, all ok, and have made sure that everything is seated correctly and that all cables are securely and correctly connected.

As I say, it's got me completely stumped and can only think that it is a hardware fault suchas the CPU or the BIOS chip, as it seems that everything is powered ok, just no display and no POST, at least I'm assuming there's no POST as there's no beeps at all, not even the the single beep for succesful POST. But without a display I can't be sure, but then if it doesn't POST then I wouldn't have a display would I....:doh:

Thinking about maybe removing the CPU and testing it another PC, but before I strip everything back again, I'll wait for the new BIOS chip to arrive and try that first, then if it still doesn't work, I'll have to go back to the start and rule out the CPU being hte problem, I suppose.....!!!

 

what do you think might have happened to your cpu? overheating with in a W/cooled system?:O

 

Well as I said in the first post it was bought off e-bay, so am not entirely convinced of the reliability of it in the first place, though to be honest I'm laning more towqards the possibility that the BIOS has been corrupted on the mobo, which was also bought off e-bay, and was sold as new but untested, so i think it's probably the case that the person seeling it on ebay knew it was not working and listed it as untested without actually saying that it was not working for them....

So I'm hoping that replacing the BIOS chip will get the mobo to work and that the CPU will then be able to run the POST.

But if this doesn't fix the problem, then I don't know what else it could be other than the CPU, so by testing it in another known good PC, I can confirm or rule out the CPU as the possible cause.

Whos to say that the CPU hasn't been damaged in transit or been subjected to ESD before I got it....????

 

cpu will not be damaged at all after, unless you kicked it with anger

especially e-bay is a f**king place which just drains money, what are you expecting from a website selling a ghost

it's real but when we come reality i must say so, you think that's bios, well have you tried to reset cmos if the bios is write protected it will not boot and the new chip will just be protectless at all so the cpu can make the verification database construct

but i appreciate you and cheers for you, you say you have plugged the system at all (even it doesn't work, no mather) any females around me can't move the pc case anyway

i'm not joking by the way

 

and i have to add, most of clrcmos etc tools are just spywares so don't bother yourself with them

it's so simple there must be a jumper near the battery for cmos reset, if you can't find it just remove the cell battery and after about 1 min. plug it again, takes the same job with the jumper

 

i burned a athlon fx-57 with them, the pipe is not sealed well and after sometime the coolant fluid just sprayed at the cpu and mobo

so it's not trustworthy compared to the air blowing fans

but anyway it drops the temp. fixed to 27 degrees know, with a little liquidized nitrogen add up

 

Hi Dracos,

Yes already tried to clear the CMOS, removed the mobo battery and changed the jumper setting for few seconds, then replaced the jumper cap, and replaced the battery, still no effct, same problem.

So I'm hoping that replacing the BIOS PLCC EPROM chip, which is what I'm guessing has been unsuccesfully flashed or corrupted, will hopefully sort this out.

As I say the mobo seems to be OK power wise as the Asus M2N32SLI has a power led on the mobo between the PCI slots, and the power led is on, and the keyboard leds are also lit, so the mobo seems to be powering the keybaord via the P/S2 port ok as well.

and all the other components are known to be good, so it has to be the mobo or CPU, so it's easier and cheaper to rule out the BIOS chip on the mobo first.....

I just wondered if anyone else on the HF forums have had a similar problem and can offer any advice on what worked for them...

 

well... whos fault was that??? and if you didn't, y didnt you double check???

 

I'd bet dimes to dollars it's the cpu. No matter what's wrong, though, it's weird that you get no beep codes.

 

Yeah thats whats making me think it may be that there's no BIOS available, i.e no BIOS...means no POST.....and no POST error beeps...

But at same time if CPU is cooked then even if BIOS is Ok, then the CPU wouldn't be available to run the POST anyway and also wouldn't give any beeps either.....I think...????

Any thoughts on this....?????

 

well lads, if the cpu is working and the computer is booting up to the award - ami check screen it is normal, but after that check mobo features are important if the machine can go up to ram test nothing wrong with the cpu

you haven't thought of this i believe, but there is another case

the problem may be caused by the storage controllers, sata - ide etc. the only way to find out the case is trying the hdd, keyboard etc. on another computer

but if the system boots up to only the gpu bios check we can count the cpu as suspicious too

need further info about your pc

 

Hi Dracos I think you've misunderstood it's not booting any BIOS at all, i.e no display, no POST at all, nothing no check screen at all, no Tests whatsoever....

I tried doing a hotflash of the BIOS chip last night using another computer, booted to DOS, then removed the godd BIOS chip form the mobo with the system powered up, and fitted the dodgy BIOS chip to try to flash a BIOS file to it, scary stuff to be sure....

Tried first of all using Winflsh, but that wouldn't run at all, so then created a boot CD as my PC doesn't have a floppy drive, and tried using AWDFLASH.

AWDFLASH ran from the DOS Prompt, but when I tried to flash the BIOS AWDFLASH accepted the new BIOS file, then asked to save the current BIOS to file, and there's no option to skip this step, so no matter what I put in or did it kept coming up with an error message "source file not found" and then quits the AWDFLASH util back to the DOS prompt.

I tehn tried using the UNIFLASH util, and this wouldn't recognise the chip at all, even though the UNIFLASH website says that it supports the chip in question - the M50FLW080A chip - but I tried running the cmd parameters to flsh the BIOS file to the chip anyway, but it refused to do it, just giving a continous beep, (unsuccesful flash beep code).

I tried using the -ASUS cmd parameter which uses the Asus interface to flash as well, and this did the same thing.

So with both AWDFLASH and UNIFLASH not detecting a BIOS on the chip it seems that it is definitely the BIOS chip that is the problem........

I shut down the system and replaced the dodgy chip on my good PC with the original BIOS chip and re-booted to make sure my good PC was still OK, and it booted fine, but I cannot get the BIOS chip for the new build to accept a BIOS file.

I've ordered a replacement BIOS chip and hope that it wilol sort the problem out...

Thanks

Karen