Asus Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 refuses to boot.

[detrol2k]

So about a month ago I decided to upgrade my PC, well it mainly involved changing almost every part besides the hard drive since it was pretty recent. I bought it from the store, took my time to install it in the new case and do it's cable management and everything. Almost a full month I didn't have absolutely any issues with it, until it first started having some annoying flickers which involved the sound becoming very distorted and slow, almost if it was 2x slower than usual and the USB device turning on and off, I observed that when moving the mouse and keyboard. I decided to update my drivers to the latest and do a full WIndows update too just in case, maybe something was faulty from the software.
A few days passed and one day when I turned my computer on, the monitor's screen remained completely blank. I did a few shutdowns and restarts and it started working again. The weird thing is It didn't show any issues at all, I kept playing stressfull games without any problem at all, so it didn't affect it's performance at all.
A few days ago, I had to shut down my PC to connect a hard drive to save some data, that was the biggest mistake ever as I got the same blank screen only it had absolutely no chance of ever coming back.
I thought there were some faulty parts so I started to replace each one of them individually. I started with the RAM, no issue there, it even flickered the light next to it when I turned the PC on without any in the sockets, so the motherboard was still good enough to realize they were missing. I changed my 7950 with my sister's GTX 560, same issue, I even got a second FX8350 from a good friend of mine only to have the exact same issue. The last part was to replace the PSU, I have an MS-Tech 920W Modular, a very good PSU considering the money I payed for it, I replaced it with a Modular 1000W Chieftech only of course to not be able to solve the issue at all.

I checked before and all the holes of the motherboard were mounted on the chasis, so there isn't a short-circuit issue. What really concerned me is even with the image not coming up, the CPU, Video Card and RAM were still getting warm, a sign as they were operating under normal parameters. I kept my eye on the HDD light to assume when the windows would load, but the light not turning on showed that it most likely didn't get there.

Now, when I turn the PC on, the light of the CPU and ram turn for a second, and by what I know that means the motherboard reckognizes them as working, and is working itself.

The BIOS already arrived with the newest version, I think it was 1903, so it might not be an issue with the processor. Problem is it happened all of a sudden, I had a full month of absolutely no issues, everything working pristine.

Specs:
FX 8350 stock freq
Asus Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 1903 Bios version
MS-Tech 920W Modular
MSI 7950 OC
8 GB (2x4) Kingmax 1333
Aerocool Strike-x One chasis

I need some alternatives to get it fixed before I get it to the warranty and make a fool out of myself for sending it with a possibly trivial issue.

 

[xCaRpEDieM]

I have had one or two boot issues with this board to but they have since ironed themselves out.

The first time I encountered boot issues I just re-flashed the BIOS and it started to work fine.

The second time however I had problems because I had left a USB Flash Drive in one of the rear I/O USB ports but when I remove it the computer booted fine. I assume changing the boot device preference to the hard drive could fix this too.

So in simple terms:
1. Check USB
2. Try change Boot Device Preference
3. Flash BIOS with version 1903 again

If that doesn't work then I'm afraid I'm clueless as to what the problem is.

I hope this solved your problem.

 

[detrol2k]

As I specified initially, I cannot access the BIOS due to the simple fact that my PC refuses to show any image on the monitor, it hangs on stand-by.

 

[alexoiu]

It looks like a motherboard issue. If with single RAM stick, graphics card, dvd drive, keyboard and mouse, still the same, then I would RMA it.

 

[detrol2k]

I even tried various RAM sticks from my friends ranging from Corsair Vengeance, Kingston, Zeppelin and even AMD. When I removed them, the led of the RAM OK function kept flickering so the motherboard was clearly still good enough to realize it didn't have any RAM in it's slots. I'm waiting for monday to be able to get it back to the warranty, hopefully it's that BIOS common issue and a simple flash should get it fixed. I would do it myself but I really don't want to risk on bricking it and giving them a reason to refuse the service.

 

[xCaRpEDieM]

Flashing the BIOS on this board is easy and even if the board gets bricked it can still be recovered thanks to the EZFlash button. I have bricked my board (power outage when I was flashing the BIOS) and managed to flash it out of being bricked. This board is really robust in that sense.

Edit: Do whatever you want though as it is your choice in the end - all I can do is state my opinion on what you can do.

 

[detrol2k]

I understand, but I haven't really done this before and it's best to let the experts handle it. Plus I'm too lazy to have to reassemble it back into the case with the risk of the BIOS not really being the problem. It's a double-blade to be honest.