Computer turns on and off every 3 seconds cannot post or boot to Bios

[Wydrfell]

Hey all,

 

First time posting and in need of help!

 

My PC i built in 2013, suddenly today turns on and off every 3 seconds. I am not able to get the PC to post nor am I able to Boot to BIOS. I also notices that these two LEDs on my motherboard labeled MBIOS and BBIOS keep cycling back and forth. The PC turns on and BBIOS LED would shine, then after a second that LED would turn off and switch to the MBIOS LED turning on where immediately, the PC would shut down and turn back on 3 seconds later but this time with the MBIOS LED on and turning off immediately when it switches to the BBIOS LED. If left on it would continuously alternate between starting with one of these two LED's on and then turning off once it swapped to the other LED. Sorry for the wordy-ness.

 

Thing's I've tried (each step builds on the previous step, nothing was put back):

 

Pulled out RAM ---> Issue persists

Took out GPU (both the PSU cables and from the slot) ---> Issue still persists

Took out all Peripherals and HDD/SSDs (disconnected both SATA and SATA power) ---> No changes here chief

Took off all connectors to the motherboard except, the 4+4 pin CPU and 24pin ---> still no luck

Reset CMOS by both taking out battery for 1 min and with screwdriver ---> Nope.

Bought new PSU (need one for need build soon anyway ---> unfortunately no dice.

Tried to turn on without CPU (apparently this will not allow POST but allow you to get into BIOS??? I read it online) ---> RESUME on and off cycle!

 

Everything i tried resulted in the same exact behavior nothing changed. I believe I have isolated the problem to the motherboard, but what do you fine folk think?

Is there a chance at saving this system? I want to give it to my younger brother to play games while i build myself a new system since his laptop is literally falling apart and is being held together by duck tape.

 

My system Specs:

 

i5-4690K @ 4.6GHz (been overclocked to this speed for over 5 years)

Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H Black Edition

NZXT Kraken X41

MSI Gaming R9 290X 8GB GDDR5 Stock settings

4x4GB DDR3 1866MHz CL9 Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer RAM

BeQuiet (old) 650W /Corsair RMx 850W (new) PSU

NZXT H440 Case

250GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD

500GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD

1TB Seagate Barracuda HDD

750GB Toshiba 5400rpm HDD from my old laptop

 

All these specs have remained unchanged for at least 5 years.

 

Any insights would be helpful,

 

And thank you all in advanced!

 

 

 

 

 

[Radium_Angel]

7 minutes ago, Wydrfell said:

Any insights would be helpful,

It's possible there is a short in the system where it touches the case somewhere.

Take everything out of case, place on phonebook. Try to power up.

 

If it works, then a short somewhere.

If it doesnt, then bad board/CPU (most likely board)

[Wydrfell]

2 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

It's possible there is a short in the system where it touches the case somewhere.

Take everything out of case, place on phonebook. Try to power up.

 

If it works, then a short somewhere.

If it doesnt, then bad board/CPU (most likely board)

i guess that's the only thing i didn't do. So if I try this and it doesn't work, then my motherboard is confirmed dead?

 

Thanks for the suggestion btw, im going to try that now.

[Wydrfell]

16 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

It's possible there is a short in the system where it touches the case somewhere.

Take everything out of case, place on phonebook. Try to power up.

 

If it works, then a short somewhere.

If it doesnt, then bad board/CPU (most likely board)

So I tried it, placed motherboard on an its old motherboard box, still no boot or post..  So confirmed dead?

[Radium_Angel]

1 hour ago, Wydrfell said:

So I tried it, placed motherboard on an its old motherboard box, still no boot or post..  So confirmed dead?

Sorry that didn't work. It's either the mobo or the CPU.

I'd get a super cheap CPU, lowest and cheapest it'll support, and put it in, and try again. If it still does that, then it's the board, if it powers up, it's the CPU.

[Wydrfell]

1 hour ago, Radium_Angel said:

Sorry that didn't work. It's either the mobo or the CPU.

I'd get a super cheap CPU, lowest and cheapest it'll support, and put it in, and try again. If it still does that, then it's the board, if it powers up, it's the CPU.

I figured out the issue but none of the fixes seem to work  it is in fact the motherboard, specifically the BIOS ICs, I've tried shorting them but the Main BIOS IC doesn't seem to short...

 

For more info:

 

https://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php/781595-Gigabyte-GA-Z97X-SOC-corrupted-BIOS

 

and

 

https://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php/697533-GUIDE-Forcing-backup-BIOS-on-Gigabyte-motherboards

 

[seagate_surfer]

BIOS corruption!  Something I really really don't want to hear but not all hope is lost, basically the MOBO is dead, however I was looking at the GA-Z97X-UD5H-BK and there may be an alternate option yet. Your motherboards have a dual BIOS switch that you can use to post and boot from the secondary BIOS into the system. Now that the motherboard is disconnected, move the BIOS switch to the secondary position and the system should be able to POST again. I grabbed a picture and highlighted it for you.

 

Then you can try fix the corrupted BIOS and re-flash it. Try reseting again the settings once that's done and I've removed the silver battery one whole day, this seems to have worked for me in the past.

[Wydrfell]

43 minutes ago, seagate_surfer said:

BIOS corruption!  Something I really really don't want to hear but not all hope is lost, basically the MOBO is dead, however I was looking at the GA-Z97X-UD5H-BK and there may be an alternate option yet. Your motherboards have a dual BIOS switch that you can use to post and boot from the secondary BIOS into the system. Now that the motherboard is disconnected, move the BIOS switch to the secondary position and the system should be able to POST again. I grabbed a picture and highlighted it for you.

 

Then you can try fix the corrupted BIOS and re-flash it. Try reseting again the settings once that's done and I've removed the silver battery one whole day, this seems to have worked for me in the past.

 

Hey Seagate,

 

Thanks for the reply!

 

So I actually noticed that and tried, so here are my results if i switch it to not use dual BIOS mode and set the BIOS to BBIOS, the boot loop stops, but i cannot get anything to display. The motherboard stays powered, but the LED's on my RAM (that on this model i have configured to flash according to memory usage) remain off and the Debug display doesn't show any codes. I did this with just CPU installed and one RAM stick Display output is from my CPU's Intel HD graphics, I have used both the DVI port and the HDMI port

[Radium_Angel]

6 hours ago, Wydrfell said:

dual BIOS mode

Now that you have narrowed it down, perhaps a tech support call/email to Gigabyte might be able to help.

[Wydrfell]

15 hours ago, Radium_Angel said:

Now that you have narrowed it down, perhaps a tech support call/email to Gigabyte might be able to help.

Would they? its such an old board... though it is worth a try i suppose.

[Radium_Angel]

10 hours ago, Wydrfell said:

Would they? its such an old board... though it is worth a try i suppose.

Worst they can say is "no"