Question New build won't turn on ?

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the Tom's Hardware community: where nearly two million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Sep 8, 2021
32
1
35
I just finished my pc build but somehow it won't start. The CPU fan spins for a second then suddenly stops, GPU fans are spinning as long as power is turned on. When starting the pc the monitor goes from "please check your cable" to "no signal". I have removed the CPU and reinstalled it, switched RAM between different slots, reinstalled GPU. For some reason, I cannot do a bios update either. It blinks up 3 times and then turns into constant light. My flash USB is set to FAT32 filesystem and has the image with the proper name in its root directory. At this point I do not really know what to do, any help would be appreciated.

Components:
  • Asus ROG Strix b450
  • AMD Ryzen 7 3700x
  • 2x4GB DDR4 Ram 2400Mhz
  • 600W Be Quiet PSU
  • RTX 3060 TI
  • 256 GB m.2 SSD
 
D

Deleted member 2849646

Guest
I just finished my pc build but somehow it won't start. The CPU fan spins for a second then suddenly stops, GPU fans are spinning as long as power is turned on. When starting the pc the monitor goes from "please check your cable" to "no signal". I have removed the CPU and reinstalled it, switched RAM between different slots, reinstalled GPU. For some reason, I cannot do a bios update either. It blinks up 3 times and then turns into constant light. My flash USB is set to FAT32 filesystem and has the image with the proper name in its root directory. At this point I do not really know what to do, any help would be appreciated.

Components:
  • Asus ROG Strix b450
  • AMD Ryzen 7 3700x
  • 2x4GB DDR4 Ram 2400Mhz
  • 600W Be Quiet PSU
  • RTX 3060 TI
  • 256 GB m.2 SSD
does your pc have a vga socket? If so, try get into bios using that. My bro had a similar issue - no signal to dvi/hdmi, but vga was fine. Used vga mode to update bios, and then hdmi and dvi worked. Very weird bug. Don't know why the bios update fixed it but it worked so i'm not moaning!

Edit: it could of course be ram, so try one module at a time in various slots too!
 
Sep 8, 2021
32
1
35
does your pc have a vga socket? If so, try get into bios using that. My bro had a similar issue - no signal to dvi/hdmi, but vga was fine. Used vga mode to update bios, and then hdmi and dvi worked. Very weird bug. Don't know why the bios update fixed it but it worked so i'm not moaning!

Edit: it could of course be ram, so try one module at a time in various slots too!
Thanks for the advice. However, my motherboard does not have any graphical output socket (Well, I don't have an APU whatsoever). Neither does my GPU support VGA.
 
D

Deleted member 2849646

Guest
Thanks for the advice. However, my motherboard does not have any graphical output socket (Well, I don't have an APU whatsoever). Neither does my GPU support VGA.
Ah that sucks! Hope you get the problem solved. Be interested to hearing the solution if you find one.
 
Sep 8, 2021
32
1
35
Haha! Well! Good luck reassembling! If it still doesn’t work make sure to reply!
Aight, so after reassembling the whole thing I still got the same issue. Also, the USB 3.0 cable seems lose. I cannot push it any further in or something but it just seems loose. The USB port that supports a flashback bios update is a USB 3.0 so the loose cable could be the reason the flashback bios update does not work. I don't what I should do about that though lol.
You can try using the other PCs PSU too
yes, I will definitely try that, thanks.

However, the DRAM lamp indicates that my CPU doesn't recognize the RAM doesn't it? What could possibly cause this issue?
 
Aight, so after reassembling the whole thing I still got the same issue. Also, the USB 3.0 cable seems lose. I cannot push it any further in or something but it just seems loose. The USB port that supports a flashback bios update is a USB 3.0 so the loose cable could be the reason the flashback bios update does not work. I don't what I should do about that though lol.
The cable is for the front I/O USB on the case not the BIOS Flashback on the back I/O of the motherboard. This is from the ASUS website about BIOS flashback;

"Press the BIOS FlashBack™ button for three seconds until the FlashBack LED blinks three times, indicating that the BIOS FlashBack™ function is enabled.

Wait until the light goes out, indicating that the BIOS updating process is completed.

*The BIOS file size will affect the update time. It can be completed in 8 minutes. Please do not remove the USB flash drive, unplug the power supply, turn on the power or press the CLR_CMOS button during the execution. This will cause the update to be interrupted and the system will not boot."

It seems you interrupted the BIOS flashback if you did all the other steps before correctly. You need to get the BIOS version from ASUS's website and put it on a FAT 16 or FAT 32 1GB+ flash drive after renaming the BIOS file to the correct name (it tells you this in the motherboard manual). Then you insert it into the BIOS flashback USB on the back of the motherboard I/O and hold the BIOS flashback button for 3 seconds until it blinks 3 times. The LED will then stop blinking and become solidly lit until its done with the BIOS flash at which point the LED will go dark.

I hope this solves your issue.
 
Sep 8, 2021
32
1
35
The cable is for the front I/O USB on the case not the BIOS Flashback on the back I/O of the motherboard. This is from the ASUS website about BIOS flashback;

"Press the BIOS FlashBack™ button for three seconds until the FlashBack LED blinks three times, indicating that the BIOS FlashBack™ function is enabled.

Wait until the light goes out, indicating that the BIOS updating process is completed.

*The BIOS file size will affect the update time. It can be completed in 8 minutes. Please do not remove the USB flash drive, unplug the power supply, turn on the power or press the CLR_CMOS button during the execution. This will cause the update to be interrupted and the system will not boot."

It seems you interrupted the BIOS flashback if you did all the other steps before correctly. You need to get the BIOS version from ASUS's website and put it on a FAT 16 or FAT 32 1GB+ flash drive after renaming the BIOS file to the correct name (it tells you this in the motherboard manual). Then you insert it into the BIOS flashback USB on the back of the motherboard I/O and hold the BIOS flashback button for 3 seconds until it blinks 3 times. The LED will then stop blinking and become solidly lit until its done with the BIOS flash at which point the LED will go dark.

I hope this solves your issue.
Thanks for the answer. However, I couldn't get it to work. The only external drive I have is a 1TB external SSD and since >32GB does not support FAT32 by default (when formatting using windows explorer) I had to use an external program that did it for me. I don't know if that could be causing issues but besides that I followed all those steps. it then blinked up a few times and went into constant light, so an error occured.
 
Thanks for the answer. However, I couldn't get it to work. The only external drive I have is a 1TB external SSD and since >32GB does not support FAT32 by default (when formatting using windows explorer) I had to use an external program that did it for me. I don't know if that could be causing issues but besides that I followed all those steps.
I do not know what you tried to do but it obviously did not work. You need to go and buy a cheap low capacity flash drive like this and try again.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sxlver
Sep 8, 2021
32
1
35
I do not know what you tried to do but it obviously did not work. You need to go and buy a cheap low capacity flash drive like this and try again.
well, since fat32 wasn't available for my 1TB drive I looked for workarounds (just googled format 1TB drive to Fat32) and there were multiple instructions on how I could do this. However, I will order a cheap USB from amazon and see if that works, thanks.

Edit: is the bios update something you have to do when a new mainboard comes to use or is this a "maybe it's the issue, maybe not" case?
 
Last edited:
Sep 8, 2021
32
1
35
So my USB Stick has arrived and I was finally able to flash the bios and finally got it to boot after reassembling the PC twice. I still don't know what the exact issue was (besides the messed up bios) but I'm happy it's finally booting.
 
So my USB Stick has arrived and I was finally able to flash the bios and finally got it to boot after reassembling the PC twice. I still don't know what the exact issue was (besides the messed up bios) but I'm happy it's finally booting.
Awesome man! I am happy for you. There's nothing like the ups and downs of a PC build gone wrong then turned right. Enjoy the PC!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sxlver