[SOLVED] ECS A55F-M4 V 2.0 - Bios Stuck on blinking cursor at boot

[rexilafa]

Hi!
I'm having a little trouble trying to "resurrect" an old desktop PC at work...
I was told that before they put it apart for some reason, it used to work just fine. The memory was taken from it so I borrowed a RAM card to test the PC. When I turned it on, Bios started OK, but it got stucked at OS boot with the blinking cursor on the top left part of the screen and nothing else happenned.
What I tried so far:

• I change the HD drive.
• I tried to boot from an usb stick with different OS.
• I tried to boot from a DVD.
• I tried disconnecting everything including the frontal USB ports and afterwards trying one drive at a time in different sata ports (first de HD, then the DVD reader).
• I did a clear CMOS from the jumper and removing the battery.

I was able to boot after a clear CMOS, both from an usb and from the HD drive (with an error of CMOS settings wrong after booting). But everytime I reboot it, it goes back to getting stuck of the blinking cursor on the top left.

A particular thing about the BIOS setup it's that I'm not allowed to change the settings on most sections (for example o boot: legacy/UEFI, device order, etc.). I make the changes but when I hit save on the last tab and return to boot, everything goes back to the original configuration. I'm allowed only to change date and time.

So that's it. I'm guessing that the mobo it's dying... but if anyone has any suggestions I will really apreciate it.

Specs:

• Mother: A55f-M4 V2.0
• PSU: mlogix dx-atx600
• CPU: AMD A4-3300
• Memory: 4096 MB DDR3
• Drive: HD WD 160 GB with Windows XP 32 bits.
• Drive: DVD r/w.

 

[Lutfij]

I would sincerely ask you to change that PSU to something more reliable. All your hard work will mean nothing when the PSU blows up and takes out the entire system. To add, Did you take note of the time on the BIOS? Did you try and replace the CMOS battery with a fresh cell? See if that helps in retaining the BIOS settings you key in.

 

[rexilafa]

I would sincerely ask you to change that PSU to something more reliable. All your hard work will mean nothing when the PSU blows up and takes out the entire system.

Yeah, something to keep in mind... I found an old Vitsuba COl-45-B, but I don't have any molex to sata converter... I will see if I find anything and post back.

To add, Did you take note of the time on the BIOS? Did you try and replace the CMOS battery with a fresh cell? See if that helps in retaining the BIOS settings you key in.

Yeah, I changed it succesfully, unpluged the power and waited a few minutes and it kept the time.. (did this because previously it didn't so I changed the battery). But the weird thing is that I cannot even save the changes to boot priority. I change date or time, save without rebooting, return to date/time tab and it's changed. I change boot priority, save without rebooting, return to boot tab and the changes are gone as if the bios doesn't allow me to change anything there...

Thanks for the advice. Will try changing the PSU to se if it helps...

 

[rexilafa]

Basically I tried with the other PSU and still it didn't work...
So, since I don't have another mob with same socket to test, my last choice was to update BIOS. But supposedly the BIOS was up-to-date since it had the same date than the one the ECS's webpage offered me, so I tried anyway to "reinstall" de BIOS. I had to force it because it showed me a message of not compatible ROM file ROMID with existing BIOS ROMID during the normal flash (nevertheless it was the correct bios or at least the only one ECS offered for this mob). And it got stucked at 12% on "Erasing Boot Block"... It doesn't seem to move at all... So I'm guessing that the motherboard is pretty much dead...
I will post back to confirm it when I get tired of waiting and shut down the computer and try to boot it again...

 

[rexilafa]

Hi again.
I waited for over a day and it didn't advance beyond 12%, so I restarted it... Although the mother wasn't bricked by this, I'm still at the same place than before, so unless someone has any suggestion, I'll consider the mother as defective and the thread can be closed...