Cant boot past BIOS splash screen

[tehshizno]

I have recenzly installed a new GFX card and everything went fine for a few weeks but now my computer cant launch past the BIOS boot screen which shows key/function binding. None of those work either - I cant access BIOS setup or get system info. I dont think the gfx card is the issue tbh. I tried to reset the COMS settings by taking out the mobo battery for almost half an hour and touching the COMS jack with a screwdriver for a few seconds (as suggested by the manual). These attempts did not help.

Once the splash screen shows it beeps 3/4 times in long 20 second intervals inbetween individual beeps. Almost seems like its trying to boot multiple times, but it used to do that in the past too. This time however my screen just goes black and my monitor gives a no input message.

Any advice on what I could do next to try to fix it or determine what is the cause? I will try to provide more info once I get to my laptop. I havent tried bootong with a CD. Could swapping the mobo battery help? I have an older one available here.

 

[scuzzycard]

You're going to want to pull the motherboard out and breadboard it. Try booting with just 1 DIMM installed. If you have integrated graphics, use those and see what happens.

 

[tehshizno]

You're going to want to pull the motherboard out and breadboard it. Try booting with just 1 DIMM installed. If you have integrated graphics, use those and see what happens.

So I opened the PC, took out a stick of RAM, unplugged the DVD drive, took the battery out again for a few seconds and rebooted - nothing.
Swapped the ram and rebooted nothing.
Took out the gfx card, reseated all RAM and connected a monitor to the integrated graphics slot. Launched and gotten past bios fast. It told me that it has been reset (probably as a result of the battery being taken out) and I restored defaults and restarted. Then it told me BOOTMGR was missing? Went to boot menu, changed it to boot from the correct disk and yaay!

We are back in the game. But what does this all mean? Is my gfx dead or did something go wrong with the mobo and it simply wasn't able to use the gfx? I will probably try to reseat the GFX card back and connect a monitor to it but this is a brand new one and I got it because my old one died. Could something in PC be taking out graphics cards? I will updated soon but I seriously have to back up everything on my disc before I proceed.

 

[scuzzycard]

I would try to reseat the graphics card. If it still doesn't work, I would inserting it in a different slot if you have it. If it works in a different slot, that would mean your PCI-E slot failed. If it still doesn't work, it would be fairly safe to assume the card is dead, though if that's the case, it's really not likely that it was killed by one of your other components.

 

[tehshizno]

I would try to reseat the graphics card. If it still doesn't work, I would inserting it in a different slot if you have it. If it works in a different slot, that would mean your PCI-E slot failed. If it still doesn't work, it would be fairly safe to assume the card is dead, though if that's the case, it's really not likely that it was killed by one of your other components.

Well I only have one slot so I tried reseating the gfx card and got back to the original state - BIOS splash screen starts - beeps about 3/4 times in 20 second intervals but now it manages to boot up back to windows! This is what it used to do before and I thought it was fine but now that I saw it connected to the intergrated graphics and the splash showing for just about a second I am worried there might be something fishy going on with the gfx card and mobo combo.

I have the GTX 960 MSI GAMING 4G card and I have to say it's quite heavy - about 1Kg I'd say. The whole thing is essentially just hanging from the PCI-E slot and is being supported by a single screw on the left side of the case which could be causing the card maybe bending or slipping out of the PCI-E slot. What is a good way to support it's weight even further?

 

[scuzzycard]

Without seeing your case in person, it's hard to say, but I would use zip ties to gently support it from 6-/8-pin power connector.