wacky.banana

Rebuilding the PC from scratch ie reformatting hard drives and reinstalling software, when it stops booting into POST.

Having tried several things I pull the power cable out and take out the CMOS battery. I reboot and it works.

I change the CMOS battery, go for the manufacturers safe BIOS settings, reboot, and the thing won't go into POST. Take the battery out, still won't boot. Take the power lead out and reboot and we are in.

Seems there's a problem with the BIOS somewhere. If you save anything to it the PC won't reboot into POST.

Has anyone seen this problem before or has a solution for it please?

Many thanks

WB

Thunder77

Hi,
By far the best resource for Abit mobo questions is one of Paul's unofficial Abit FAQs. Find the one for your model here: http://www.sudhian.com/showfaqs.cfm?fid=7
HTH

jpor

iTrader: (1)

Last time this happened to me, was due to the RAM I was using (Corsair XL). The timings were too aggressive and had to be manually set to slightly slower settings in the BIOS. After first getting my hands on some cheapo RAM to get the Machine to POST.

V5-APS

iTrader: (1)

These boards also are known to have problems with some of the capacitors 'blowing' on them.....check them out for any that look blown.

wacky.banana

Guys,

Thanks for the responses. V5, don't think its a capacitor as I have the board back up and running (up to a point, that is). Jpor, interesting point about the RAM.

What I am experiencing is definitely some kind of BIOS/RAM type problem. I have the board up and running again using the motherboard safe settings. However I am still not sure what the root cause is.

Do memory sticks fail, and if they do, would I get these symptoms? Ideas please.

Other problem that's now reared its head is that Windows will install ok but every other application fails to install, giving me a variety of hardware type error messages.

I am installing another copy of Windows as we speak and trying to work through the problem logically. However not a clue what's going on which is seriously pi$$ing me off!

jpor

iTrader: (1)

When you first had this board did you have to make any manual adjustments in the BIOS. From what I am reading in your original post. You pulled the power out and then removed the CMOS battery which caused a factory reset of the BIOS setings. When you get it booting again try some manual RAM timings. Something of the lines of:

CAS 3
and the other settings (Which I can't remember at the mo) 8 then 8. Then try installing your apps. If that works, Then try upping the timings to 3,7,7 and if that works then 2.5,7,7 and so on until you find the right timings for your RAM.

The only other thing I can think of is that the RAID controller is at fault. You may be able to fix this with a BIOS/firmware update from the manufacturers website.

wacky.banana

UPDATE:

Jpor, the problem seems to hinge around the BIOS. I updated the BIOS by finding the latest driver. The PC now boots ok and the RAID recognises the disks fine.

The problem I cannot seem to get around is every time I boot up the RAID system looks to synchronise the drives even though this has been done each time before.

Problem is cannot find a later release of the BIOS so may be stuck with having to buy a new board & chip.

What I don't understand is what caused a perfectly stable system to screw itself up?

Any more ideas anone?

Many thanks

WB

wacky.banana

Further Update:

Sorted. Found a newer highpoint RAID driver which seems to have done the trick.

So in summary:

- Tested all RAID drives with a disk tool
- Low level formatted the drives
- Updated the BIOS & RAID drivers
- Created a mirror RAID
- Reinstalled Windows for the umpteenth time
- Installed applications, again for the umpteenth time
- Revisited all settings
- Booted on and off several times.

Fingers crossed, that's it sorted.

What a pain in the ar$e though

WB