Bios Wont Start Up/Post on new build

[kaitlyndoyle]

I built a new computer yesterday and currently when it turn on the power and hit the power button on the case the motherboard lets out several beeps. About 10 or so. The fans keep running, the dvd drive is running and PSU seems to be working properly. I am just unable to get any video signal. The video card's fan is running as well.


The first time I attempted to boot it up, I had an old drive hooked up with Windows Vista on it and it was an IDE drive. The computer appeared to boot straight to the login of this old hard drive which I did not expect then it immediately went BSOD. However even on this attempt I never got to the bios.

Now currently I have tried hooking up the the other drives (whgich are a new 500GB SATA drive and a DVD drive) and taking out ram. All I get is a blank screen and I get 10 beeps. 9 that are in sucession than one beep kinda off by itself. I have gone to check these beep codes on ASROCK's website and they mention a read/write possible error. I'm not sure what that means and I do not have the small rectangular pieces used to "short" the cmos battery??

Anyhow here are the parts of my new build

ASROCK M3A770DE 770+SB710 RT
CPU AMD|ATH II X3 445 3.1G AM3 RT
700 Watt Corsair Power Supply
ASUS GTX 460

 

[rolli59]

Follow this guide step by step http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-perform-steps-posting-boot-video-problems
You can set BIOS to defaults by removing the motherboard battery. Displaying post might be disabled in BIOS by default.

 

[kaitlyndoyle]

I have read the guide, I am now getting 11 beeps, it the ASROCK website suggests it might be a cache error?

 

[kaitlyndoyle]

Now I'm getting one beep but no visual display other than the one time from the IDE hard drive which immediately booted into Vista

 

[jsc]

OK, try this:
I have tested the following beep patterns on Gigabyte, eVGA, and ECS motherboards. Other BIOS' may be different, but they all use a single short beep for a successful POST.

Breadboard - that will help isolate any kind of case problem you might have.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/262730-31-breadboarding

Breadboard with just motherboard, CPU & HSF, case speaker, and PSU.

Make sure you plug the CPU power cable in. The system will not boot without it.

I always breadboard a new build. It takes only a few minutes, and you know you are putting good parts in the case once you are finished.

You can turn on the PC by momentarily shorting the two pins that the case power switch goes to. You should hear a series of long, single beeps indicating memory problems. Silence indicates a problem with (in most likely order) the PSU, motherboard, or CPU. Remember, at this time, you do not have a graphics card installed so the load on your PSU will be reduced.

If no beeps:
Running fans and drives and motherboard LED's do not necessarily indicate a good PSU. In the absence of a single short beep, they also do not indicate that the system is booting.

At this point, you can sort of check the PSU. Try to borrow a known good PSU of around 550 - 600 watts. That will power just about any system with a single GPU. If you cannot do that, use a DMM to measure the voltages. Measure between the colored wires and either chassis ground or the black wires. Yellow wires should be 12 volts. Red wires: +5 volts, orange wires: +3.3 volts, blue wire : -12 volts, violet wire: 5 volts always on. Tolerances are +/- 5% except for the -12 volts which is +/- 10%.

The gray wire is really important. It should go from 0 to +5 volts when you turn the PSU on with the case switch. CPU needs this signal to boot.

You can turn on the PSU by completely disconnecting the PSU and using a paperclip or jumper wire to short the green wire to one of the neighboring black wires.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FWXgQSokF4&feature=youtube_gdata

A way that might be easier is to use the main power plug. Working from the back of the plug where the wires come out, use a bare paperclip to short between the green wire and one of the neighboring black wires. That will do the same thing with an installed PSU. It is also an easy way to bypass a questionable case power switch.

This checks the PSU under no load conditions, so it is not completely reliable. But if it can not pass this, it is dead. Then repeat the checks with the PSU plugged into the computer to put a load on the PSU.

If the system beeps:
If it looks like the PSU is good, install a memory stick. Boot. Beep pattern should change to one long and several short beeps indicating a missing graphics card.

Silence, long single beeps, or series of short beeps indicate a problem with the memory. If you get short beeps verify that the memory is in the appropriate motherboard slots.

Insert the video card and connect any necessary PCIe power connectors. Boot. At this point, the system should POST successfully (a single short beep). Notice that you do not need keyboard, mouse, monitor, or drives to successfully POST.
At this point, if the system doesn't work, it's either the video card or an inadequate PSU. Or rarely - the motherboard's PCIe interface.

Now start connecting the rest of the devices starting with the monitor, then keyboard and mouse, then the rest of the devices, testing after each step. It's possible that you can pass the POST with a defective video card. The POST routines can only check the video interface. It cannot check the internal parts of the video card.

 

[ankhaw]

I have almost the exact same mobo / cpu combo as you for my first build... and I have the same problem, nothing's happening for me! May I pick your brain for any solutions you may have found? BTW, my mobo is the same model number, and my CPU is the 450 instead of the 445... just got'em from newegg!

I'm using a EVGA 210 video card, I'm getting power to it - the fan turns - but who knows, it might be bad for all I know. I haven't gotten to the hooking up HDD or DVD drive stage yet, and I tried to do a makeshift breadboxing thing - took the mobo out of the case, hoping there was something shorting out somewhere - but no go, still nada.

BTW, I'm not getting ANY beeps whatsoever, but I also don't see any speaker or anything on the board, and my case has no internal speaker... so maybe I'm getting beeps and maybe I'm not, who knows?

I tried to test the voltages on the PSU, but I evidently don't know what the heck I'm doing, I can't get anything on my trusty little multimeter.

Soooo, any help would be appreciated from me!

 

[rolli59]

I have almost the exact same mobo / cpu combo as you for my first build... and I have the same problem, nothing's happening for me! May I pick your brain for any solutions you may have found? BTW, my mobo is the same model number, and my CPU is the 450 instead of the 445... just got'em from newegg!

I'm using a EVGA 210 video card, I'm getting power to it - the fan turns - but who knows, it might be bad for all I know. I haven't gotten to the hooking up HDD or DVD drive stage yet, and I tried to do a makeshift breadboxing thing - took the mobo out of the case, hoping there was something shorting out somewhere - but no go, still nada.

BTW, I'm not getting ANY beeps whatsoever, but I also don't see any speaker or anything on the board, and my case has no internal speaker... so maybe I'm getting beeps and maybe I'm not, who knows?

I tried to test the voltages on the PSU, but I evidently don't know what the heck I'm doing, I can't get anything on my trusty little multimeter.

Soooo, any help would be appreciated from me!

Did you plug in the cpu power and main power to the board.

 

[ankhaw]

Yes, I'm getting power to the board and case... I turn on the power switch on the PSU, then push the power on button on the case, the fans on the CPU and video card turn, and the LED on the power switch lights up... and then nothing else. And in order to power down I have to turn off the switch on PSU, the power switch on the case does nothing after powering up.

 

[rolli59]

Go through this guide step by step http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-perform-steps-posting-boot-video-problems then post back.

 

[ibbyibby]

my problem was embarrassing. i hooked up the reset/power switch on the motherboard improperly (reverse, power was reset was supposed to be etc), on up that all i needed to do was use the other video output on my card (make sure u try all of them, you never know which dvi/vga port is default) and everything worked.