My ASUS Z87-A based system has a weird problem: When I turn it on, it powers up for a couple of seconds, turns itself off, then it comes on again and stays on. Shortly after turning itself on, the red BOOT_DEVICE_LED is lit and stays lit. But it never enters POST, or at least no monitor shows a connection and the BIOS screen. There is no beep code.
Shortly before this happened, I inserted then later removed a Sound Blaster PCIe x1 card, which is probably the event that kicked this off, even if only as a result of nudging something on the mobo.
Here's what I've tried already:
1) Reset the CMOS -- No improvement.
2) Carefully inspected everything on the mobo and connected devices for visible shorts -- Nothing seen, but that certainly doesn't mean there are no hidden shorts -- No improvement.
3) Re-seated all components except CPU, including RAM -- No improvement.
4) Disconnected all secondary drives and peripherals -- No improvement.
5) Disconnected ALL USB and SATA cables, only built-in Intel and nVidia GTX 710 graphics cards present, each connected to a different monitor -- and when I say "all" I mean ALL, including every connector on the mobo, so this obviously means NO USB devices, keyboards, mice connected at all. (Of course the display card and build in graphics were left connected). -- No improvement; nothing showing on either monitor.
6) Left everything disconnected except the optical drive, with a bootable "live" DVD inserted so there would be something it could boot -- No improvement.
You see, I tried everything I could think of before turning to you hardware wizards for help. It might help if I knew what the red BOOT_DEVICE_LED exactly meant: NO boot device found? A boot device found but no bootable media found? The boot device is defective? (I've tried several boot devices, but the same symptoms remain).
What would you all suggest for the next troubleshooting steps? Surely the power-on, power-off, power-on issue is critical.
Thank you!
UPDATE: With only the optical SATA drive connected, I'm now getting a BIOS beep code of 1. It's an AMI BIOS, and their documentation says the following:
Boot Block Beep Codes
1 = No media present. (Insert diskette in floppy drive A)
UPDATE 2: Even with all the SATA drives and cables connected, I'm still getting a beep code of 1.
UPDATE 3: Once I reconnected all the USB cables and peripherals (keyboard, mouse, Bluetooth), the Beep Code went away. But all the other symptoms remain.
Shortly before this happened, I inserted then later removed a Sound Blaster PCIe x1 card, which is probably the event that kicked this off, even if only as a result of nudging something on the mobo.
Here's what I've tried already:
1) Reset the CMOS -- No improvement.
2) Carefully inspected everything on the mobo and connected devices for visible shorts -- Nothing seen, but that certainly doesn't mean there are no hidden shorts -- No improvement.
3) Re-seated all components except CPU, including RAM -- No improvement.
4) Disconnected all secondary drives and peripherals -- No improvement.
5) Disconnected ALL USB and SATA cables, only built-in Intel and nVidia GTX 710 graphics cards present, each connected to a different monitor -- and when I say "all" I mean ALL, including every connector on the mobo, so this obviously means NO USB devices, keyboards, mice connected at all. (Of course the display card and build in graphics were left connected). -- No improvement; nothing showing on either monitor.
6) Left everything disconnected except the optical drive, with a bootable "live" DVD inserted so there would be something it could boot -- No improvement.
You see, I tried everything I could think of before turning to you hardware wizards for help. It might help if I knew what the red BOOT_DEVICE_LED exactly meant: NO boot device found? A boot device found but no bootable media found? The boot device is defective? (I've tried several boot devices, but the same symptoms remain).
What would you all suggest for the next troubleshooting steps? Surely the power-on, power-off, power-on issue is critical.
Thank you!
UPDATE: With only the optical SATA drive connected, I'm now getting a BIOS beep code of 1. It's an AMI BIOS, and their documentation says the following:
Boot Block Beep Codes
1 = No media present. (Insert diskette in floppy drive A)
UPDATE 2: Even with all the SATA drives and cables connected, I'm still getting a beep code of 1.
UPDATE 3: Once I reconnected all the USB cables and peripherals (keyboard, mouse, Bluetooth), the Beep Code went away. But all the other symptoms remain.
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