PC Boots straight to bios

[Yohannas]

Hi guys,

I built a gaming PC in August. A week or so ago I turned it on and it gave me a 'CPU Fan error' message. After leaving it for a day, it worked as normal. This worried me so I emailed Swiftech for an RMA of the H220, but they still haven't replied. I continued to use my PC as normal.

This evening my computer suddenly started running extremely slowly: everything did, not just the internet. I pressed the hard reset after it finally froze, and now when it boots, I get a black screen with a flashing white 'typing' line in the top left corner, followed by the bios screen.

I have tried restoring the bios to default settings, unplugging my keyboard and leaving it for a few hours, and nothing is working.

Just before it started to run slowly, I had been playing a video game for about an hour. Could this have been the cause of this? I'm worried that my CPU has fried.

My specs are:

Intel i7 4770k
2 X Asus DirectCU II GTX 780 in SLI
Asus Z-87 Pro motherboard
Swiftech H220 CPU cooler
Windows 8.1

I would appreciate any suggestions on this: it seems to be a unique issue, as I can't find any other posts online which describe the flashing 'typing' line that I'm seeing (it's only on screen for 3 or 4 seconds)

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I have not overclocked my PC in any way.

Thanks for your time!

 

[Azn Cracker]

Was anything overheating before hand? Something might of burnt..

Do you actually get to bios settings? Is so thats good because that means your cpu works.

Maybe your copy of windows is corrupt the HDD died? Try putting the windows install disk and see what happens.

If you think any of your parts died I would just a boot disk to test the parts. one I used is Ultimate Boot Disk

 

[Azn Cracker]

Come to think of this. It has happened to me before and Re-installing windows solved my problem. If your windows dvd isn't OEM genuine, then maybe it is your install disk (faulty burn).

 

[Yohannas]

My Windows DVD wasn't OEM genuine, it was an update edition of Windows 8 which I installed onto a new Samsung 840 SSD and activated using the commands, as this article explained: http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/windows/3435649/how-install-windows-8-upgrade-on-empty-hard-drive/

The computer got very hot before it froze: perhaps something did burn. I'm getting a completely normal bios reading though: all my hardware is detected. The only strange thing is that the CPU Opt fan is running at around 550rpm, and is highlighted red by the bios. I have replaced these fans with Noctua fans, however, and I have read elsewhere that this is nothing to worry about.

Does any of this point to any particular problem?

 

[Yohannas]

I've just noticed that the Q-code readout is AE. Does this mean anything in particular? It's always been AO before now!

 

[Christopher Shaffer]

Hi guys,

I built a gaming PC in August. A week or so ago I turned it on and it gave me a 'CPU Fan error' message. After leaving it for a day, it worked as normal. This worried me so I emailed Swiftech for an RMA of the H220, but they still haven't replied. I continued to use my PC as normal.

This evening my computer suddenly started running extremely slowly: everything did, not just the internet. I pressed the hard reset after it finally froze, and now when it boots, I get a black screen with a flashing white 'typing' line in the top left corner, followed by the bios screen.

I have tried restoring the bios to default settings, unplugging my keyboard and leaving it for a few hours, and nothing is working.

Just before it started to run slowly, I had been playing a video game for about an hour. Could this have been the cause of this? I'm worried that my CPU has fried.

My specs are:

Intel i7 4770k
2 X Asus DirectCU II GTX 780 in SLI
Asus Z-87 Pro motherboard
Swiftech H220 CPU cooler
Windows 8.1

I would appreciate any suggestions on this: it seems to be a unique issue, as I can't find any other posts online which describe the flashing 'typing' line that I'm seeing (it's only on screen for 3 or 4 seconds)

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I have not overclocked my PC in any way.

Thanks for your time!

Does this motherboard have an LCD error code display? If so, boot the computer and view the error code(s) shown at startup. This will tell you if there is a bad piece of hardware.

My first instinct is to a) Make sure the CPU fan is actually running (even a good heatsink will keep it cool w/out a fan when not under load, so just because there's no smoke doesn't mean it's working) and b) Try moving the CPU 3/4 pin plug to a different fan header on the motherboard - use CPU2 if you have one.

This issue is commonly caused by one of three things:

1) CPU fan has stopped for some reason.
2) CPU fan works fine, but the connector or the header is not making contact or is bad and the motherboard *thinks* it isn't running.
3) The sensor on the motherboard isn't working to detect fan speed, resulting in the BIOS thinking the fan is not working and as a result it doesn't speed up the fan based on temp. This can result in a hot CPU and bad performance, sometimes CPU damage.

The line flashing may be due to the motherboard doing its normal boot tests and detecting an issue. While issue is being detected, it may flash a cursor. The BIOS will attempt to either reboot or redetect sensors, etc. that are not working correctly.

 

[ahnilated]

It means the bios thinks the fan is running too slow and you should fix it. Most bioses only allow fans to run down to 600 rpm.

 

[Christopher Shaffer]

I've just noticed that the Q-code readout is AE. Does this mean anything in particular? It's always been AO before now!

Check the motherboard manual (or download it from the Asus website) for this error code. From a Google search, it appears this code means the system has handed control to the OS, but that may not be correct.

I would also ask if you installed by booting into the Windows installer using UEFI on the drive you installed from. The BIOS will give this option, but you should not use UEFI boot until the OS is installed as this can cause a corrupt OS install while the system is doing the whole install/reboot during initial setup.

Based on everything so far, I think the primary issue is a bad CPU fan header, but keep troubleshooting.

 

[Yohannas]

I don't know what UEFI means! I'm sorry, I'm not a software person! I installed the update version by putting it on a usb pen, then installing it from there. I installed all of the bios and system updates after installing Windows 8.

The manual tells me that an AE code indicates a 'legacy boot event', but I don't understand what that means.

I moved the CPU_OPT 4-pin header (which controls 2 Noctua NF-F12 fans attached to the heatsink) to the CHA-FAN3 header and the readout has gone from 540rpm to 960rpm.

 

[Yohannas]

Ok, I just removed both my graphics cards and my sound card then turned my PC back on. The Q-code has returned to normal (AO) and the computer currently says: "Scanning and repairing drive (C".

Ths provess has finished now and the computer is working completely normally. Clearly, the problem was one of the graphics cards or the sound card. One of the graphics cards was very dusty when I removed it - could this have caused this problem? I will try plugging everything back in now and seeing if it all works, if you guys think that that's the best course of action.

Again, thanks guys. I appreciate your time and energy!

 

[Christopher Shaffer]

I don't know what UEFI means! I'm sorry, I'm not a software person! I installed the update version by putting it on a usb pen, then installing it from there. I installed all of the bios and system updates after installing Windows 8.

The manual tells me that an AE code indicates a 'legacy boot event', but I don't understand what that means.

I moved the CPU_OPT 4-pin header (which controls 2 Noctua NF-F12 fans attached to the heatsink) to the CHA-FAN3 header and the readout has gone from 540rpm to 960rpm.

UEFI is a different type of boot. It's only supported by Win 7 and up and results in a much faster boot to Windows. If you installed from a USB drive, it may have defaulted to a UEFI boot because it detected Windows 8, and this may also explain your boot code.

I would still strongly recommend reinstalling Windows 8. If you install from a USB drive, you'll want to first boot to the BIOS, check your boot options and make sure the USB is the boot device and that it is NOT set to a UEFI option and is instead set to either ACPI or AHCI (one or the other will be the only option other than UEFI).

Install Win 8 to your SSD, then once installed, make sure the SSD is set as the first boot device (again, in BIOS) and that the UEFI option *IS* selected for this drive.

The problem occurs during Win8 installation if the drive being installed *from* is a USB set to UEFI because the MBR does not get correctly written to the main (SSD) drive and as a result your system will sometimes (or always) hang on boot and never reach Windows.

Ok, I just removed both my graphics cards and my sound card then turned my PC back on. The Q-code has returned to normal (AO) and the computer currently says: "Scanning and repairing drive (C".

Ths provess has finished now and the computer is working completely normally. Clearly, the problem was one of the graphics cards or the sound card. One of the graphics cards was very dusty when I removed it - could this have caused this problem? I will try plugging everything back in now and seeing if it all works, if you guys think that that's the best course of action.

Again, thanks guys. I appreciate your time and energy!

I think there are two things going on here: the fan or fan header for the CPU is bad.. I think it's the header as the new fan had the same issue. Either that, or your CPU fan profile in the BIOS is not set to AUTO.

In addition, at some point probably while something else was not functioning correctly (like a HOT CPU or UEFI/boot issue) either the BIOS became corrupt or the MBR became corrupt and as a result the system hung while trying to boot one of your PCI devices (sound or vid card).

My suggestion would be to:
1) Wipe the SSD. Start from scratch.
2) Flash the BIOS with a fresh BIOS.
3) Reinstall Win8 using the method described above.
4) Reinstall each of the cards having an issue *ONE* at a time, each time booting into BIOS to check for issues and keeping a close eye on MB error codes.
5) Once you rule out a card with an issue (or not, as I still think they're fine) move your CPU fan back to the correct header and see if it's working right, making sure the fan speed in BIOS is set to AUTO.

Please report back.

 

[Yohannas]

I've reinstalled each card one by one and one of my GTX 780s is causing the computer to display the problems I described. When I remove it again, everything works perfectly normally. I noticed that the card was actually making a slight, rapid clicking sound from one (or both) of the fans. I really think this card is the cause of the problem: I'm going to reinstall windows 8 regardless, however, just to be safe. I will update you about RMA status and tell you if a replacement solves the problem!

Thanks for all your time.

 

[Christopher Shaffer]

I've reinstalled each card one by one and one of my GTX 780s is causing the computer to display the problems I described. When I remove it again, everything works perfectly normally. I noticed that the card was actually making a slight, rapid clicking sound from one (or both) of the fans. I really think this card is the cause of the problem: I'm going to reinstall windows 8 regardless, however, just to be safe. I will update you about RMA status and tell you if a replacement solves the problem!

Thanks for all your time.

Sounds good. Good luck with the RMA.