[SOLVED] Asus Z97M-Plus + i5-4670 - "No VGA" beep codes at power up.

[Calab]

I have a system here with an Asus Z97M-Plus mainboard and i5-4670 processor. When powered up I get one long and three short beeps, indicating that no video card was detected. I added in a nVidia GT610 PCIe video card, but get the same beep codes. I'm hoping someone may have an idea on how to resolve this problem.

I have tried the following:

• Cleared the CMOS settings using the jumper on the mainboard AND also by removing the coin battery.
• Reseated the CPU in the socket, with fresh thermal paste on the cooler.
• Removed the RAM and booted - One long and two short beeps, repeating quickly.
• Tried a known good power supply.
• Tested the system connected to VGA or DVI or HDMI on both the mainboard video ports and the nVidia ports.
• Tried the nVidia G610 card in both PCIe slots
• Pressed and held the RAM OK button several different times
• Tried the GPU Boost switch in all three positions

I spend about two hours troubleshooting the system in a multitude of configurations. ONE time is actually did boot and I was able to press F1 and get into the BIOS settings but after saving the settings the system did not restart properly. If I remember correctly, the BIOS is v 0220. There is a newer BIOS available, but no idea how I could flash it.

 

[Math Geek]

when did this start? was it working ok before without any issues? did you change anything before it started? sounds like you were using the igp from the cpu and added the gt610 once you got the error??

can you try another motherboard to ensure that's not the problem?

with no gpu installed can you get to the bios and ensure it is set to the igp and not pcie slot?

just looking for some more info to help decipher what might be going on. anything else you can give about the system and how it was working can be very useful

 

[Calab]

when did this start? was it working ok before without any issues? did you change anything before it started? sounds like you were using the igp from the cpu and added the gt610 once you got the error??

can you try another motherboard to ensure that's not the problem?

with no gpu installed can you get to the bios and ensure it is set to the igp and not pcie slot?

just looking for some more info to help decipher what might be going on. anything else you can give about the system and how it was working can be very useful

Unfortunately, I got the system in this condition so I'm not aware of when or how the issue started. The system was supposed to be working when I got it, so possibly the move had something to do with it.

The nVidia G610 was installed when I got the machine and I removed it while troubleshooting.

I don't have another mainboard to test with, unfortunately. I don't think I have another CPU, but I am looking into that option.

So far I cannot get into the BIOS at all, except for the one single time that it did boot. Settings were default and I did see that the video option was set to "auto".

I just downloaded the latest BIOS and the manual says that this mainboard will auto update if the right file is on a USB stick. That is going to be my next step.

 

[Math Geek]

the bios update is a good first step for sure.

after that i'd test the cpu on a different mobo and the mobo with a different cpu if possible. it's likely you just got sold a broken something and need to separate it all to see which is not working.

as old as it is, i doubt you'd have any reason to have such spare parts sitting around. i happen to have tester parts but that does not do you any good. lol

if you take the ram out does it post or still beep at you? possible the ram is causing issues and a bad error code. unlikely but i've seen it before.

 

[Calab]

So, I could not get the automatic BIOS update to work, but I was fortunate enough to get into the BIOS a second time and was able to update the BIOS with QFlash. The machine seems stable now. Just completed a Windows 8.1 installation (it's what's licensed for the machine) and will be trying and Windows 10 update next.

So, I'm assuming the answer was to keep rebooting and button mash the DEL key to get into the BIOS, and then update it.

 

[Math Geek]

glad you got it working. sometimes it takes a few tries to get into bios even if you know what button to press.

enjoy it