Question Computer freezes at motherboard screen, cant' get into BIOS

pianoman35

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Apr 18, 2019
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Hey guys, new to the forum.
Last week when I turned on my computer after shutting it down for a couple days, I can no longer get into the BIOS. It's freezing at the ASUS splash screen where you can either press F2 or DEL to enter the BIOS. Also, if I hit caps lock I can see the light flickering on the keyboard but if I keep pressing the light eventually goes really slow like it's lagging and then if I press DEL that completely locks everything up. I'm hearing a single beep every time I boot which seems like the POST was successful but still see an LED on the motherboard for boot device. I've tried pretty much everything I can think of. I was able to get into the BIOS once for some reason but haven't been able to again. I've tried many many times with no luck. I feel like the issue is probably the motherboard based on everything I've tried so far. It's an ASUS Z97-A. I've had no problems since I upgraded back in 2014.

See below for everything I've tried, same results:

Moved each stick of RAM into each slot one at a time.
Tried each hard drive one at a time and also switched SATA cables.
Tried booting with no hard drives
Tried removing video card, only using integrated graphics
Unplugged DVD drive
Reset CMOS battery
Moved jumper to reset BIOS
Unplugged all peripherals
Tried another PSU
Remounted heat sink and applied new thermal paste
Tried breadboarding
CrashFree BIOS on disc didn't do anything
CrashFree BIOS on USB didn't do anything
Switched power cables
Replaced CMOS battery with new one
Tried different keyboard
Booting from CD
Tried a different stick of RAM

I'm close to just replacing the motherboard with the same one but it seems like the only ones I find are really expensive new, or they're used and still expensive. Not crazy about buying a used motherboard I'm also thinking about upgrading the motherboard, CPU, and RAM now instead of just replacing the motherboard and having to upgrade again later, but I've been really happy with the system so far so I'm not sure that's really necessary.

Any help is appreciated, thanks!
 
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DMAN999

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Have you tried using the crashfree bios method to recover the BIOS?

If that doesn't work I'd think it is most likely a hardware issue/possible dead MB.
 

pianoman35

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I believe I tried that already. I used the disc that came with the motherboard and tried booting with it in the drive. Didn't do anything. I think you need to be able to access the BIOS also in order to use it. I'll add that to my list up top.
 

DMAN999

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You don't need to go into the BIOS to use the Crashfree 3 method.
If the MB isn't dead it should automatically scan the DVD for the BIOS file (which is in the root directory of the MB DVD) and run EZ Flash 3.
I'd try downloading the BIOS file from ASUS on a different PC and put it on a Bootable USB (renamed to match the one on your DVD) with the proper DOS flash utility (BUpdater ver. 1.30) from your MB support page and see if it will boot to that USB drive so you can flash it.
 
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pianoman35

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Also just tried replacing the CMOS battery with a new one and switching the power cable with another. Same thing. At this point, I'm pretty close to just hitting the buy button on some new parts...
 
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pianoman35

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Apr 18, 2019
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Tried a different keyboard also, same results. The only thing I haven't been able to try is different memory sticks altogether but I highly doubt that two sticks would go bad at once. I'm not seeing any issues with the current ones. No lights on the board for a memory POST issue.
 

Skpstr

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If you unplug all but the DvD drive, can you boot from disc?

I had a similar issue, (although it did work before I got the splash screen freeze, it just took forever to load Windows, and gaming performance was terrible)

I ended up having only the DVD drive plugged in, got it to boot from Windows disk, then as it was loading Windows, I reconnected the SSD, and was able to reformat it, and do a fresh Windows install. (lost everything I had on the SSD, but it has nothing but games on it anyway)
 

pianoman35

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Apr 18, 2019
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I tried just plugging in the DVD drive and booting from the disc but the same thing happened, get stuck on the splash screen and if I try to enter BIOS, everything freezes. I don't think my machine is set up to boot from the CD first, plus I can't get into my BIOS either. I tried booting before with the ASUS disc and that didn't work either.
 

pianoman35

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Apr 18, 2019
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Also tried using another stick of RAM from someone else and same thing happened. Seems like my motherboard is dead after everything I've tried.

Decided to go ahead and buy some new parts and use this opportunity to upgrade. Thanks for your help though guys, I appreciate it!
 
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