Question GIGABYTE B450 Aorus Pro suddenly stopped working?

[Sherlocked]

Specs:
MoBo: Gigabyte B450 Aorus Pro
CPU: Ryzen 7 2700
RAM: 32gb Corsair Vengeance lpx 3200

I wanted to restart the system to turn on secure boot in the UEFI.
I saved the settings and restarted my computer. It didn't show anything on the screen anymore.
The Debug LEDs for DRAM, VGA and CPU turned on in this order for about 2 seconds, 2 seconds and 0.5 seconds.

I tried reserting the BIOS by shorting the clear_cmos pins. That seemed to work because my rgb fans changed their color to the default setting.

Still didn't see anything on the screen.

I have read something about these weird Debug LED behaviour meaning zhat the BIOS is bricked.
I don't think that is the problem because the system happened to boot one time after restarting it multiple times. I even could take a look at the BIOS and it showed version f41, which is weird because I updated the BIOS a few days ago.

I don't know to to progress further.
Has anyone of you guys got any ideas?

 

[Math Geek]

if you can get back into the bios, try reflashing the bios again. that would be my first thing to try.

second random thought is, have you tried booting to a boot disk? probably will not have any effect but would be curious if it did anything.

at least that's where my mind would head if it was sitting in front of me.

 

[Sherlocked]

if you can get back into the bios, try reflashing the bios again. that would be my first thing to try.

second random thought is, have you tried booting to a boot disk? probably will not have any effect but would be curious if it did anything.

at least that's where my mind would head if it was sitting in front of me.

I can'teven get the BIOS to show up on the screen. I also tried unpluggung every internal drive and plugging in my linux live stick.
A thing to mention is that besides the powercord and the boot device only a keybord and a HDMI monitor are connected to the machine.

Edit: Maybe I should state that I could go back to the bios once and then it stopped working again.

 

[Math Geek]

interesting, you should have at this point a stick of ram, the cpu and the monitor plugged in for test purposes. it needs a stick of ram to make it through post. with that in mind and such installed, does the pc make it through the POST process and then not do anything further? or does it not make it through post?

you've pretty much done the basics i'd have tried right away as well. not seen this before so i'm kinda thinking through what i would try if it was sitting in front of me.

 

[Sherlocked]

interesting, you should have at this point a stick of ram, the cpu and the monitor plugged in for test purposes. it needs a stick of ram to make it through post. with that in mind and such installed, does the pc make it through the POST process and then not do anything further? or does it not make it through post?

you've pretty much done the basics i'd have tried right away as well. not seen this before so i'm kinda thinking through what i would try if it was sitting in front of me.

That is exactly what I did. I also tried cycling through all four RAM slots in every single powsible configuration with one stick of RAM.
My personal next step would be shorting pins 1 and 6 of the main bios chip to force the backup bios chip to flash the main bios chip.

 

[Math Geek]

i can't think of any reason switching to uefi would cause this problem.

i have the same mobo and it's had 3 dif cpu's, multiple gpu's and ram configs and not had any issue. kind of at a loss as to what might be going on.

i'm gonna do some searching and see if i can turn up anything that might help but right now i'm right where you are and no idea where to go from here. hopefully i can turn up something searching or someone might come along that have seen this before and have some idea where to go from here.

 

[Sherlocked]

i can't think of any reason switching to uefi would cause this problem.

i have the same mobo and it's had 3 dif cpu's, multiple gpu's and ram configs and not had any issue. kind of at a loss as to what might be going on.

i'm gonna do some searching and see if i can turn up anything that might help but right now i'm right where you are and no idea where to go from here. hopefully i can turn up something searching or someone might come along that have seen this before and have some idea where to go from here.

I think I had an idea: My personal feeling is that the BIOS is actually bricked. i don't know what caused that, but it would explain quite a bit. After a few restarts I could go into the bios once, though it was a very old version (f41).
I guess I could do that because the board recognized that the main bios was bricked and booted using the backup bios. The backup bios would explain the old version.
The reason I couldn't go into the bios again could be that whatever I did also bricked the backup bios. As follows, both bioses are bricked and so of course I can't even get into the bios.
What stays is the question of what I did wrong. Maybe the cpu is faulty?

 

[boju]

Was Windows installed already with csm enabled? If so, changing boot to uefi means Window needed to be reinstalled as system wouldn't recognise existing boot table. Hence black screen after post.

In this order try removing the cmos battery. Leave it out for a couple of minutes. Put it back + side up. Clear cmos again shorting pins. Do this procedure with no memory installed.

Install everything back. Soon as you turn the pc on start spamming the bios key for a good 30 seconds, or at least through post phase. If you manage to get to bios, disable fast boot and save and exit. Go into bios again enable csm support. Uefi should've been on by default so csm was manually changed prior to installing Windows.

 

[Math Geek]

i can't think of a reason the cpu would be the problem. if it was having issues before the setting change then it could be. but if it was all working fine and the change bricked it, then it does not really point toward the cpu.

the "end" key at bootup starts qflash. have you tried to see if maybe you can flash the bios from there?

 

[Sherlocked]

Was Windows installed already with csm enabled? If so, changing boot to uefi means Window needed to be reinstalled as system wouldn't recognise existing boot table. Hence black screen after post.

In this order try removing the cmos battery. Leave it out for a couple of minutes. Put it back + side up. Clear cmos again shorting pins. Do this procedure with no memory installed.

Install everything back. Soon as you turn the pc on start spamming the bios key for a good 30 seconds, or at least through post phase. If you manage to get to bios, disable fast boot and save and exit. Go into bios again enable csm support. Uefi should've been on by default so csm was manually changed prior to installing Windows.

I don't teally remember the bios settings before I ran into problems.

I followed your instructions but it didn't help anything.

 

[Sherlocked]

i can't think of a reason the cpu would be the problem. if it was having issues before the setting change then it could be. but if it was all working fine and the change bricked it, then it does not really point toward the cpu.

the "end" key at bootup starts qflash. have you tried to see if maybe you can flash the bios from there?

I tried it but I still don't see anything on the screen.

 

[boju]

You do have the Hdmi cable connected to the graphics card yeah lol? Motherboard video out won't work with that processor which you probably know.

 

[Sherlocked]

You do have the Hdmi cable connected to the graphics card yeah lol? Motherboard video out won't work with that processor which you probably know.

Yes yes of course. 🤣
I think I will give up this board and order a new one with a bios flashback button in case the bios is actually bricked (it could happen again since I don't change any other things in the setup). I will post an update here once I know what the problem is or how to fix it.

 

[Math Geek]

yah kind of sounds like the best choice at the moment. i can't find anything suggesting a fix.

i tinkered with my board and without video, there is no way to start qflash to flash the bios again.

 

[Sherlocked]

yah kind of sounds like the best choice at the moment. i can't find anything suggesting a fix.

i tinkered with my board and without video, there is no way to start qflash to flash the bios again.

Thanks for your help anyway

 

[GarrettL]

How old is the power supply, make and model too.

 

[Sherlocked]

I received my new Mainboard, replaced the old one with it and everything works fine now. At this point I am pretty sure that both BIOSes were bricked, though I have no idea why that happened. Thanks to everyone helping me

 

[boju]

Great 👍

Would've been good to know so you can learn from it and not do it again 😄

 

[Sherlocked]

Great 👍

Would've been good to know so you can learn from it and not do it again 😄

I am actually studying computer science. I have asked my prof about it. Once I get an answer I will share it here.

 

[Math Geek]

i'm with you there, sure seems like the bios just got bricked, but i have no idea how it happened. i've made many many windows installs unbootable by tinkering anywhere i could find to tinker.

but i have never managed to brick a mobo no matter how stupid i got messing with stuff in those settings. i've had to go to the back-up bios a few times to clear the first one i broke (usually knowing it was probably going to be needed), but never managed to break both at the same time. heck that's what the second bios is to me is a get out of jail free card so i could go stupid and tinker in the bios.

if you figure it out, i'd love to know just for personal knowledge

 

[Shinjoku]

I’m basically having the same problem…

Mobo: Gigabyte b450m ds3h

After deactivating csm support and checking secure boot that already was on, I rebooted and everything seemed fine, but Valorant Vanguard doesn’t recognized that my pc was with Secure Boot on.

Tried to restore mobo keys to default db and since then, never could go back to the BIOS setup. Already tried to clear CMOs with everything unplugged, but nothing displayed any difference on screens. My graphic card is recent, been using for like, 2 months without any problem, together with cpu and the mobo itself.

 

[Sherlocked]

My prof answered. He can't say for sure but he thinks that the flash memory that the BIOS is stored on just broke. The back up bios booted and windows updated the bios automatically because it was already about 3 years old. That again caused the second bios chip to break in a similar way the first one did.
Again that is not my theory, it is what my prof thinks.

 

[GarrettL]

Sorry but he is wrong.

How did you update your BIOS?

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_Vd-OihDMk

 

[Sherlocked]

Sorry but he is wrong.

How did you update your BIOS?

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_Vd-OihDMk

I updated the BIOS just like method 2. Why is he wrong? I know from experience that windows can update the BIOS itself, if you mean that.

 

[GarrettL]

When you doubt what I say, or anyone for that matter with techinical issues, Google it.

Google why it is a bad idea to update the BIOS through Windows.

You asked for help, I have tried.