Asus motherboard issue - Black screen, no post, beeps or boot
23 Jul 2016 10:45:14 UTC
Topic 198707
(moderation:
In recent weeks I have had two apparently healthy systems fail with the thread title symptom's.
The first to fail was a rarely used non crunching Asus Z97-K based Windows 7 Pro machine using onboard graphics that was working perfectly until it was cleanly shut down and moved (about two feet) to a new location. On re-boot the monitor "woke up" but all I got was a black screen - no post splash etc. so I re-booted to get the same effect but this time I noted the lack of the regular bios beep... Numerous re-starts and cold starts and the fault persists so I clear the cmos, disconnect all ancillaries etc. to zero benefit. Swapping each ram stick between available slots also changes nothing but at this point it should be noted that having no ram installed will produce the expected bios beep error code... I then swapped the PSU to get the same result and tested the ram and cpu in a known good machine and found they work perfectly.
Must be the motherboard...
Several weeks later one of my crunchers died in exactly the same way. This time an Asus H81M-PLUS using one of my 280X's... I've performed all the tests mentioned above and have even bought a new bios chip (to satisfy my curiosity more than anything) but I'm no further forward - although I can't be sure the new chip is working as I don't even get the 'no ram installed' beeps with it in the board.
Obviously I require two new m/b's and will be placing an order today but the real purpose of this post is to ask if anybody else has experienced this type of issue or can shed any light onto what the heck causes it!
Gav.
Asus motherboard issue - Black screen, no post, beeps or boot
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Is it possible some USB device / keyboard / monitor cable issue?
When it is a destructive
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When it is a destructive issue, i will point to the PSU. How old is the PSU and which is it ? Any thunders around your place ?
RE: Is it possible some USB
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During my testing I managed to rule out all these potential trouble mongers. Even with nothing but cpu and ram installed I'm not getting the reassuring beep to indicate all is good.
No storms or PSU issues - one psu has been running happily in another machine for 6 odd weeks and the other has been powering a different machine for nearly 3 weeks now. They are both approx. 18 months old and are of differing brands and capacity, the specifics escape me at present.
What´s your floor made of ?
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What´s your floor made of ? Stone,wood,vinyl,rubber,carpet ?
RE: Obviously I require two
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I've had two ASUS boards in the past fail in precisely this manner, i.e. failing to produce video output. Furthermore after doing all the swaps with 'known good' parts, I like you, was left wondering what the H... happened? But let's face it, without sophisticated test equipment there's really no way to know for sure. We somethings forget that a MB is an engineering marvel made of voltage regulators, capacitors, transistors etc. working in precise unison to produce a result that even Maxwell himself would think it magic. Even if you were to send the board back to the factory for replacement, I doubt that they would be the least bit interested in figuring out exactly what went wrong. MBs can fail because of excess heat, humidity, power surge, dust, inferior parts, etc. etc. ... you pick it. I know this doesn't really answer your question, but maybe thinking about this will make you feel better.
Oh, one last thing, I don't mean to knock ASUS boards. I've owned dozens of ASUS boards over the years with a few Gigabyte and MSI's thrown in the mix. The two ASUS boards that failed on me were bottom of the line ASUS boards and anyway, since I've owned so many ASUS boards, failures for me would most likely occur with an ASUS board. Asus top of the line boards, like one I'm using now, a Z-87 Pro, I would highly recommend.
Is there a hard drive on the
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Is there a hard drive on the machine?
If so do you hear anything from the drive at all? If it is just not driving the monitor, you'd hear the first few stages of a normal boot sequence--though if you have a motherboard speaker connected you should also hear the beep--so probably not
You have already tried removing everything--but for others spotting this thread I'd urge that. I once had a motherboard which would "not even beep" on first build. By removing things until it worked, I learned that it would not tolerate a modem card in a PCI slot. That persisted when I purchased a replacement card, so probably it was actually a motherboard fault.
Thanks Robert, its good to
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Thanks Robert, its good to know that this sort of thing happens to other people too! and of course I do know and even expect there to be failures, its the nature of the beast :-)
The purpose of this thread was not to bemoan Asus. I have owned and run scores of Asus boards over the years and in my opinion they are the best of the bunch and I won't buy anything else.
What prompted me to start this was the fact that I've had the two identical failures within a matter of weeks which made me think there must be some commonality between each boards demise.
Most likely the root cause will never be known and I accept that.
I just find the whole thing intriguing :-)
@ Rantanplan, Failure 1 in a room with anti static floor covering and grounding controls. Failure 2 in a room with wood flooring and grounding control. ESD is not the cause! Also both rooms are 'clean' and temperature controlled...
Gav.
One more question. On the
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One more question. On the computers with the failed motherboards do any of these connect directly to phone lines/cable TV or other outside sources? And if so would these connections be protected by surge protection? For example a TV tuner in a PC connected to the cable system. Normally not surge protected and another way into your computer. Telephone/fax modems would also be a reason for concern. My guess is that you don't but thought I would ask anyway.
I've owned 4 ASUS X99e ws
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I've owned 4 ASUS X99e ws boards and can tell you even the top of the line boards will do the same as the bottom of the line. 3 of 4 are still working, the 4 never worked properly. Like you, after I turned it off to move it, it decided it wasn't going to boot anymore. Also like you, it replaced and moved everything and nothing got it to come back. Swapped in a new board and it's purring like a kitten with all the same components. ie bad board.
Asus boards, when they work are great. But when they don't, they are a pain in the .........
Good luck
RE: On the computers with
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No nothing like that. They were even on separate unconnected networks.
True, but then the same could be said about any manufacturer's boards.
In the last 12 years or more I have only had one Asus board fail and that was due to me managing to (determinedly) install a ram stick the wrong way round and powering the system up... Excess alcohol during maintenance procedures was to blame for that one!!
I have ordered another H81M-PLUS to replace my crunching board.
Robert and Zalster:
Have your similar failures been with eufi (or should that be uefi?) bios'd boards?
Does this phenomenon just affect Asus?
I remain intrigued and thank all for their response's.
Gav.