No POST, No BIOS, Slow click from motherboard speaker

[Tex61]

Gigabyte GA-Z97MX-Gaming5
i7-4790K
CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO

PC will not boot. At power on, it tries the CD-ROM, but goes no further. Disk activity light flashes during attempted boot, but not afterwards. Never makes it to POST beep. No motherboard logo appears on screen. There is a slow click, about once every two seconds, from the motherboard speaker.

Determined CPU fan is faulty. Disconnected from motherboard. No change.
Removed video card (750ti). No change.
Reset CMOS. No change.

For last two days, would hear alarm from mobo speaker prior to POST. Alarm always stopped at POST. Today, alarm lasted past POST. Figured out that alarm was due to stopped CPU cooler fan. Launched Gigabyte SIV tool and set fans to max, and CPU fan would run.

Troubleshooting steps:
Check BIOS settings. All settings OK.
Uninstall Gigabyte SIV & other tools. System boots. CPU fan runs. No alarms.
Thought maybe Gigabyte s/w somehow became corrupted, so re-installed.
After installation & reboot, no POST, no BIOS, slow clicking from mobo speaker.

I've disconnected the CPU fan from the header. Connected exhaust fan to header and fan runs, so seems the CPU fan header is OK.

I connected the CPU fan to the exhaust fan header and it still does not run, so seemingly confirms that CPU fan is bad. I then disconnected CPU fan & reconnected exhaust fan. CPU cooler fan now disconnected from system (CPU fan header empty).

I reset the CMOS. Had no effect.

Obviously the CPU fan is toast. But shouldn't the system at least POST, especially with the exhaust fan plugged in to the CPU fan header (to simulate a CPU fan)?

Easy enough to replace the CPU fan. Will replace it tomorrow.

But wondering if my motherboard is on its way out too.

Thoughts?


Thanks.

 

[Lutfij]

There are a number of thread on here that state that the board is on it's way out however there are some who have been able to hold onto it for a while longer. See if replacing the cooler gives you any change in the POST situation. You forgot to list your specs like so:
CPU:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:

Seeing how this is a thread of troubleshooting nature.

Can you be specific about the beeps you're hearing?

 

[Tex61]

Thanks for your reply. Full system details below.

It seems the motherboard is toast. I replaced the CPU cooling fan, but it made no difference. Additional details below.

Guess I'm just looking for some verification and some way to know if the CPU is still OK. I don't have another system with which to swap parts for testing.

Basically, am I looking at (a) buying a used motherboard online (less than $200 USD), or (b) new current motherboard + CPU + memory (a lot more than $200 USD)?

I've a technical background and am comfortable handling electronics. However, troubleshooting motherboard issues is outside my area of expertise.


Thanks.

---

I replaced the CPU cooling fan, but it made no difference. New fan spins when system powered (as do other case fans), but system still does not boot.

The sound I'm hearing now is a single click that repeats every 2 seconds (approx) from the motherboard speaker. The system never makes it to POST (i.e. the normal "beep" from the speaker). The sequence is 1) power on PC, 2) fans start spinning, 3) hear the repetitive click from motherboard speaker.

The CMOS did reset. The motherboard has some LEDs which I had disabled in the BIOS. After resetting CMOS the LEDs are now come on when system is powered (default BIOS setting).

I also tried pulling the video card (750ti) and using onboard video, which made no difference (CMOS reset would switch back to onboard video anyway). There is no video output with either 750ti or onboard video. Not even a black screen. Monitor just says "no signal."

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97MX-Gaming5
CPU: i7-4790K
Cooler: CoolerMaster Hyper 212EVO, with Thermaltake Riing12 replacement fan
RAM: 16 GB (2 x 8) Team Xtreem, 2666, DDR3
SSD: Samsung 840EVO 256GB boot, 850EVO 1TB data
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti FTW w/ EVGA ACX Cooling
PSU: Corsair RM550
Chassis: Fractal Design R4
OS: Windows 10 Pro