BIOS Issues...

[ddrueding]

Here's a new one for you....

My system failed to POST
I reset the BIOS and restarted
POSTs on restart, prompts for BIOS values

If I go into the BIOS at all, exiting will cause the system to fail to POST
If I "continue with default settings" I can get into the system, but a restart will cause no POST.

With the BIOS battery removed, it will restart every time (with the prompt for "continue with default settings")

I tried reflashing the BIOS, same issues.

I don't want to buy another motherboard

 

[time]

Try changing the battery.

 

[ddrueding]

Oh, forgot to mention...tried 3 different batteries.

 

[Howell]

"Clear CMOS" jumper position?

 

[Mercutio]

Your better motherboards have a second BIOS to keep stuff like that from happening.

Check to make sure your motherboard isn't in electrical contact with the chassis.

 

[Jimshady]

What is the system, and what are the changed circumstances?

My mate just bought a P4C800 and a prescott chip. The thing wouldn't POST. It had to be booted with a P4c CPU and be flashed with the latest BIOS before we could put the prescott in. That was a pest to figure out.

 

[mubs]

Hope this isn't one of your MSI K8T Neo FSR motherboards??

 

[ddrueding]

Better motherboards also have "Clear CMOS" jumpers, but pulling the battery does the same thing.

Checking to see if the motherboard is grounded is a great idea. I'll check that out when I get back to the house.

I'm not seeing how a second BIOS could prevent this kind of thing more than once. Redundancy for nonrepairable parts doesn't make much sense to me. Further, if it is a matter of the chasis being grounded, neither would work...right?

System is:

MSI K8T Neo FSR Motherboard (Latest 1.80 BIOS)
AMD Mobile Athlon64 2900+ (SLK-948U / Panaflo L1A 92mm)
2x 512MB PC3200 Mushkin "Blue" RAM
ATI Radeon 9800Pro with Zalman Fanless cooling mod
Samsung 160GB SATA Drive / S*ny DRU-700A DWD-RW
CoolMAXX 350W PS (12CM fan) in an Antec P160 Chassis.

I recently completely gutted and rebuilt the system:
CPU swap from a standard 3000+
HSF swap from a Zalman 7000 "Flower"
HDD swap from 2x 360GD (via Ghost)

mubs:


I have no doubt it was humar error; I did it after being awake about 30 hours.

And I'll take this opportunity to rant about this CPU some more. With cool and quiet enabled, the CPU runs at 800Mhz @ 0.25v!

 

[Mercutio]

On a gigabyte board, the second bios is read only. So you'll always have at least a minimal level of functionality. It's certainly not a bad thing.

 

[ddrueding]

Well, that's pretty much what I'm stuck with here. "BIOS defaults" are letting the system run; but I can't make any changes.

 

[Jan Kivar]

And I'll take this opportunity to rant about this CPU some more. With cool and quiet enabled, the CPU runs at 800Mhz @ 0.25v!

Is 0.25V from MBM or from CPU-Z (or something)?

You might also try to set the fail-safe settings from the BIOS and then try to restart.

Cheers,

Jan

 

[ddrueding]

And I'll take this opportunity to rant about this CPU some more. With cool and quiet enabled, the CPU runs at 800Mhz @ 0.25v!

Is 0.25V from MBM or from CPU-Z (or something)?

You might also try to set the fail-safe settings from the BIOS and then try to restart.

Cheers,

Jan

That's from the BIOS before it choked (completely at idle). When doing basig tasks it runs @ 800Mhz @ 0.9v. I'm really impressed with the number of things I can do quickly without it speeding up.

Making any changes to the BIOS causes the error in the OP.

 

[time]

Have you swapped the CPU back?

 

[ddrueding]

Have you swapped the CPU back?

It did an fact work with the new CPU for as much as an hour before I cracked the case open again and made more modifications.

 

[Will Rickards WT]

flash to an older bios?

 

[ddrueding]

flash to an older bios?

Won't support this CPU.

 

[time]

Have you swapped the CPU back?

It did an fact work with the new CPU for as much as an hour before I cracked the case open again and made more modifications.

That doesn't eliminate the CPU at all. You changed the CPU (and cooler), and an hour later you can't boot without this happening. I don't like coincidences.

 

[ddrueding]

Got it...I almost feel stupid saying what it was...

I used an Antec Cobra rounded IDE cable for my DRU-700A. This is a really neat shielded cable that is thinner and more flexible than most. It also comes with a grounding strap on the end. Connecting this strap is the culprit.

 

[Santilli]

Well thanks. I connected the strap, and wondered if I really needed to...



:eekers:
s

 

[mubs]

So, dd, disconnecting the strap fixed the problem??

 

[ddrueding]

Yup.

I can only guess that the foil shield is unintentionally grounded to either the board or one of the wires somewhere...I'll look into it more when I have more time.

Right now I have 3 servers down in 3 different cities....great :roll:

 

[Mercutio]

Grounding problem. Ha! Knew it.

 

[blakerwry]

crazy cognitive abilities merc-man.

 

[ddrueding]

Grounding problem. Ha! Knew it.

Yup, credit goes to Merc. As soon as he gave the sugestion, I had a feeling he was right. Just hadn't had time to work on it until earlier.

Now I have a home-brewed "server" in one of those ghetto 20$ beige towers....with 7 hard drives in it! The thing is sitting next to me cooling off before I can even touch it. Somebody needs to be shot.