[SOLVED] ASRock X99E-ITX/ac No POST, RMA/repair options?

[bhogervorst]

I have an ASRock X99E-ITX/ac that no longer posts, even with known-good, supported CPUs, memory and PSUs. When turned on, it gives fanspin for a few seconds before turning off, with no display output or beeps from a debug speaker.

I bought the board from a friend in this condition for quite cheap. The board is out of warranty but it's still very nice and worth a lot, and I'm willing to pay to have it fixed or replaced under RMA, if it's cheaper than buying a whole new one. I have all the original packaging and accessories with the board (I/O shield is even sealed), but I don't have proof of purchase to submit an RMA with ASRock to get a replacement quote.

What should I do in this situation? I don't know that ASRock will help me if I can't provide an invoice which I don't obviously have. Does anyone do board repairs that don't cost a fortune? I realize that's a niche market, but this is also a niche board that is worth a good look even when dead. Any way I could find schematics for the board in order to do some basic probing for bad components?

 

[lvt]

It could be a dead CMOS battery or a dead Bios chip.

Good news is that both are user-replaceable and can be bought from eBay, Amazon.

 

[lvt]

Anyway, use a magnifying glass to visually check the motherboard for physical damage, missing resistor, bulged capacitor, any metal foreign object that is stuck and caused a short-circuit... If everything seems fine, you can process the battery/Bios test, you should replace both of them at the same time.

The cost is likely to be less than $20 (shipped).

Given the motherboard's rarity, I think it's worth trying.

 

[bhogervorst]

Anyway, use a magnifying glass to visually check the motherboard for physical damage, missing resistor, bulged capacitor, any metal foreign object that is stuck and caused a short-circuit... If everything seems fine, you can process the battery/Bios test, you should replace both of them at the same time.

The cost is likely to be less than $20 (shipped).

Given the motherboard's rarity, I think it's worth trying.

Ivt, these are all excellent suggestions, thank you!
I actually considered the possibility of a bad BIOS flash several times, but didn't try it because I figured the problem was hardware related. However, it's a complete no-brainer for me to remove and re-flash the BIOS chip as I have a CH341 USB CMOS chip flasher that I can use to read and write BIOS chips. I'll give that a shot with the latest BIOS firmware from ASRock and see what happens.

I also tested the CMOS battery, and it gave a voltage of 2.8v, which is 0.2v below nominal of 3.0v. I'm not sure if this will effect anything, but I'm going to replace it anyways. Due to space limitations, it's an external battery with a wire to plug into the board. The little wires that go to the battery terminals are spot welded to the battery 🤦‍♂️. Should be able to make something work though.

 

[bhogervorst]

Replaced the BIOS battery and re-flashed the CMOS chip. No change in symptoms. I've already done a pretty thorough look over the board physically, and I see nothing burnt or obviously missing. I will take a second look though.

Edit: No visibly bulging or damaged capacitors. I wiggled all of them and they're all solid and not loose.

 

[lvt]

Replaced the BIOS battery and re-flashed the CMOS chip. No change in symptoms. I've already done a pretty thorough look over the board physically, and I see nothing burnt or obviously missing. I will take a second look though.

Edit: No visibly bulging or damaged capacitors. I wiggled all of them and they're all solid and not loose.

Do you have a working beeper connected to the motherboard?

 

[bhogervorst]

Do you have a working beeper connected to the motherboard?

I have several speakers that came out of older computers with the 4-pin (2 wire) headers on them that I've been using. I can hear them making slight thump/crackle noises when the system powers on and off. I don't know if the speaker header outputs sound signals or just voltage though. If it's just voltage, I need an actual beeper or LED probably, and not just a speaker. I could try a multimeter too.

 

[lvt]

I have several speakers that came out of older computers with the 4-pin (2 wire) headers on them that I've been using. I can hear them making slight thump/crackle noises when the system powers on and off. I don't know if the speaker header outputs sound signals or just voltage though. If it's just voltage, I need an actual beeper or LED probably, and not just a speaker. I could try a multimeter too.

You should use a piezo-buzzer for motherboard in order to hear clear beeps.

 

[bhogervorst]

You should use a piezo-buzzer for motherboard in order to hear clear beeps.

Didn't have a real piezo buzzer (uuhg) so used an LED instead, which serves the same purpose.

Oddly enough, with no memory installed, the board turns on, fans spin, there is an initial LED blink, then 3 blinks, which indicate no memory installed according to ASRock. The board continues to run with fans on, repeating the 3-blink cycle until manually powered off. This makes me think that the issue is not power related, as I initially expected.

Upon powering the board on with good memory, it cycles on with a flash of the LED (like before with no memory), after a second quickly flashes again, then after running for about 4-5 seconds flashes quickly again, then after another second flashes and shuts off. Stays off for a little bit (5-10 seconds) than repeats the same pattern.
So essentially: [power on] [fans on] . . [quick flash] . . . . . [quick flash] . [fans off] . . . . . . . . . [repeat]

It's almost like the board posts (long flash, succeeded by short flash and 4-5 sec delay), before running into issues (second short flash, long flash then turns off).

Any thoughts?

 

[bhogervorst]

IT LIVES!!! I don't know how or why, but I'm in the BIOS now.
(I do know what caused my issue now, and below are the debugging steps that led me to figure out what the problem was.)

Firstly, my observations from the previous post were all with the CMOS battery unplugged (big dumb). The following is all of the changes I made before it worked:

1. Plugged in the CMOS battery
2. Swapped the Xeon 2603v3 (on the board's supported list) for a Xeon 1603v3 (not on the supported list)
3. Removed the little "U3 to U2" adapter/riser thing that was plugged into the TPMS1 (TPM) header on the board, by the Wi-Fi card and rear I/O

Turned it on and it gave me a 5-flash code for no GPU (none installed). Installed a GPU and now it works!

For science, I reinstalled the riser thing and it exhibits previous symptoms of no-POST. Looks like I've found my culprit. Don't even know what this thing is, but it's not going back on. I can also say that both the Xeon 2603v3 and 1603v3 work with this board, even though the 1603v3 is not officially supported.

Thanks for all the help Ivt! I'm a happy man with a working board.

 

[lvt]

Thanks for all the help Ivt! I'm a happy man with a working board.

Thanks for the kind words, but in fact you found the problem and fixed it yourself. Glas to hear that it worked 😉

I really like the LED thing, it's very genius.

 

[Intuition_77]

I found your post this evening. I am in the same boat as you.

Everything turns on but the screen remains dark and never posts even a logo or Bios like every other build I have made.

No mobo lights to let me know it had power other than the fact that when I had the cat6 cable plugged in to the top ethernet port it would blink.

No beeps either. .. 😕

I am wondering if my ASRock x299e-itx also needs cmos battery checked?
Also if the "Riser" you mentioned needs to be checked or removed as well.

I have an i9 7980xe proc and need to figure out if it is the proc or mobo that is the problem.

Pic of system

https://www.mediafire.com/view/4quy9rx9noqg8kf/Assembled_PC_001.jpg/file

Thanks for any info. 🆒

 

[bhogervorst]

I found your post this evening. I am in the same boat as you.

Everything turns on but the screen remains dark and never posts even a logo or Bios like every other build I have made.

No mobo lights to let me know it had power other than the fact that when I had the cat6 cable plugged in to the top ethernet port it would blink.

No beeps either. .. 😕

I am wondering if my ASRock x299e-itx also needs cmos battery checked?
Also if the "Riser" you mentioned needs to be checked or removed as well.

I have an i9 7980xe proc and need to figure out if it is the proc or mobo that is the problem.

Pic of system

https://www.mediafire.com/view/4quy9rx9noqg8kf/Assembled_PC_001.jpg/file

Thanks for any info. 🆒

Dang, I hadn't visited this thread (or Tomshardware.com) in a long while, and I had forgotten that I posted this.

Your hardware is quite a bit nicer than mine, that's for sure. I'm not sure you have the same problem as I did, as I think mine was a fluke of sorts.
To briefly summarize what I can remember, the board came with a header thing of sorts installed (that I think was on there when it was donated to the store I bought it from, and they found the same issue that I did). It was actually not in the correct spot or even correct for the board, and having it plugged in caused the board not to boot. When I unplugged it, it booted perfectly. It wasn't any kind of CMOS battery or BIOS issue. So that's why I say I'm skeptical that you have the same issue.

If this is the first boot of the system, you might have something configured wrong or have a DOA part. If the system just stopped working all of a sudden, you probably have a different issue, like a hardware failure. But maybe try booting without the riser thing and see?

Hope you can get it working.
B

 

[Intuition_77]

Well, it never has worked as this was the 1st time the Mobo or parts have been used in a build.

The reason I was asking about the "riser" is because the ASRock x299e-itx has two card risers OEM...

One is for the six Sata drive connectors, a smaller internal USB2 for misc stuff, which also has the USB3 connection so you can have USB 3 from the front of any case.
The other is the M.2 Riser card for a single M.2 drive installed right next to the CPU.

If it is not either of these risers then it likely isn't the same issue.

I just checked the manual for the TMP header you were talking about. Yes, this one is not being used nor does my stuff use it. It is just the 18 pins sticking up not being used at all.

Thanks for responding though. At least that pushed me forwards. I wonder if ASRock would fix it... even if I have to pay them. Its a rare board.

I'll keep digging, thanks.

 

[Intuition_77]

Oh, also, was it also that your CPU didn't work and it only worked because you replaced the CPU with another one?
Or did the other CPU work as well once you removed the riser?

I ask because... I am trying to figure out if maybe its the CPU and not the Mobo... Thanks