Question asus legacy motherboard M5A78L

[thomastt371]

i have a problem after the motherboard posts[1 beep] sometimes there is no video,just a black screen.I have swapped out the video card to a known working one but this doesnt hep.If i reboot I can somtimes get video..I have asked asus support but i can get any help.They just tell me to flash the bios,..but my board has the latest bios version ie 2101.I have tried to get this version of the Bios dated 2015..but I get a page not found 404 fault on the asus website..can anyone help please michael

 

[logainofhades]

Need full system specs, including make/model of the power supply. I would not be surprised if the board itself is on its way out. It wasn't a very good board to begin with, unfortunately. PSU is another possibility, though.

 

[thomastt371]

Thanks for your replyThe ..Hard Dive is Seagate 500GBPSU is an ISO Model 480PP RAM 16GB Video Card MSI N1996 am currently bench testing out of the case..I was hoping to flash the Bios but after searching for it on all of the asus support sites i eventually found one that listed my motherboard M5A78L but when i clicked on download bios 2101 i got a page error 404 so despite the fact that asus told me they still support Legacy DDr3 boards they dont.Do you know where i can get a copy of this Bios on the internet,?I want to flash the bios to rule out any corruption.Finally i agree that as The Motherboard is possibly more than 10 years old it could be on its way out. Thanks for your help michael UK member

 

[logainofhades]

Assuming this is the correct board version. If not, we need to full model number of said board.

M5A78L-M PLUS/USB3 - Support

www.asus.com

That PSU would not be something that can be considered a quality unit.

 

[Misgar]

I eventually found one that listed my motherboard M5A78L but when i clicked on download bios 2101 i got a page error 404

I've just downloaded Asus BIOS 2101 without any trouble from:
https://www.asus.com/uk/supportonly/m5a78l-m-usb3/helpdesk_bios/

Video Card MSI N1996

According to this web site N1996 is not the number of a video card:
https://soggi.org/misc/articles/MSI-N1996-motherboard-video-card-odd.htm

"What is N1996?
Often the marking N1996 is mistakenly deemed to be the model number of a mainboard, graphics card or ODD, but it's just MSI's ACA supplier code number which signifies that the product may be legally sold in Australia."

sometimes there is no video,just a black screen.I have swapped out the video card to a known working one but this doesnt hep

With an ancient AMD AM3+ system, it's not surprising things are starting to go wrong. You've already swapped the video card. The next thing I'd try changing is the PSU.

As @logainofhades says, it's not a particularly high quality unit and it's a very old design. If it's the original PSU supplied with the PC, it's probably on the point of dying. After 10 years, the electrolytic capacitors may have dried out, leading to high ripple voltages and the risk of explosion.
https://www.samaterials.com/podcast/capacitors-understanding-the-risks-and-solutions.html

You can still buy the ISO Model 480PP, but I'd suggest a newer, better quality design, from the likes of Corsair.
https://microdream.co.uk/iso-iso-480pp-420w-atx-psu-power-supply.html

Another thing to check is the BIOS battery (CR2032). When these batteries go flat, all kinds of strange things happen at start up. You may have to change a few settings in the BIOS after replacing the CR2032.

Personally, I don't think you should update the BIOS until you've changed the PSU, checked the RAM and the CR2032.