Old motherboard issues. Need some help please.

[ClonicMechanics]

Hey guys I have an issue with a board I bought my brother about a year ago. Its a MSI z77a-g41. Ive had it sitting off for a few months after I last cleaned it. I built him a new system. The issue is now I was going to sell it to some people that just needed a basic computer. I booted it up with some new drives. I wanted to get in the bios to check everything was working right. I got a error code of A2 which means a drive wasn't being detected or the cable was messed up. I unplugged all sata devices and reset the cmos to be sure I could get into the bios. I get to the setup screen and press f2 to enter setup. It shows the line for entering setup then freezes and the cpu fan proceeds to ramp up as if it was under heavy load. I had an issue with this board before because of this but it turned out to be the E-sata port on the case not the board itself. Help would be appreciated.

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/NjC9bh

CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 3.2 GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler
Motherboard: MSI Z77A-G41 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard
Memory: ADATA XPG V1.0 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR3-1600 CL11 Memory
Storage: Kingston A400 480 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Case: NZXT Phantom ATX Full Tower Case
Power Supply: EVGA BQ 500 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply
Optical Drive: LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer

[Bombastinator]

58 minutes ago, ClonicMechanics said:

Hey guys I have an issue with a board I bought my brother about a year ago. Its a MSI z77a-g41. Ive had it sitting off for a few months after I last cleaned it. I built him a new system. The issue is now I was going to sell it to some people that just needed a basic computer. I booted it up with some new drives. I wanted to get in the bios to check everything was working right. I got a error code of A2 which means a drive wasn't being detected or the cable was messed up. I unplugged all sata devices and reset the cmos to be sure I could get into the bios. I get to the setup screen and press f2 to enter setup. It shows the line for entering setup then freezes and the cpu fan proceeds to ramp up as if it was under heavy load. I had an issue with this board before because of this but it turned out to be the E-sata port on the case not the board itself. Help would be appreciated.

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/NjC9bh

CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 3.2 GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler
Motherboard: MSI Z77A-G41 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard
Memory: ADATA XPG V1.0 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR3-1600 CL11 Memory
Storage: Kingston A400 480 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Case: NZXT Phantom ATX Full Tower Case
Power Supply: EVGA BQ 500 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply
Optical Drive: LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer

So the bios is messed up then, or something more fundamental on the board is out of whack.  When a board is sufficiently old it starts to become vulnerable to a whole other set of potential problems like slow corrosion and crystallization and bad capacitors and all sorts of obnoxious stuff.

 

im not sure selling a machine that old to people who know little about computers is a kindness. The thing will never work with win11

[ClonicMechanics]

1 minute ago, Bombastinator said:

So the bios is messed up then, or something more fundamental on the board is out of whack.  When a board is sufficiently old it starts to become vulnerable to a whole other set of potential problems like slow corrosion and crystallization and bad capacitors and all sorts of obnoxious stuff.

 

im not sure selling a machine that old to people who know little about computers is a kindness. The thing will never work with win11

The computer was intended as just a house computer to mess with for linux coding. That was all.

[ClonicMechanics]

Windows 11 is not a major concern for this system.

The system was working for over a year with no issues I dont see any damage to the board at the moment.

[Bombastinator]

Just now, ClonicMechanics said:

The computer was intended as just a house computer to mess with for linux coding. That was all.

Ah. Coding is data entry and as such is potato. It’s the compiling that trades horsepower for potentially large amounts of time.  You can do it on a low spec machine, it just takes longer (days sometimes) With Linux one doesn’t much care what windows is up to.

[ClonicMechanics]

1 minute ago, Bombastinator said:

Ah. Coding is data entry and as such is potato. It’s the compiling that trades horsepower for potentially large amounts of time.  You can do it on a low spec machine, it just takes longer (days sometimes) With Linux one doesn’t much care what windows is up to.

This still doesnt really give me a possible way to proceed.

[Bombastinator]

1 hour ago, ClonicMechanics said:

This still doesnt really give me a possible way to proceed.

Well of course not.  I was merely agreeing with the concept.  The original statement was that it sounds to me like messed up bios from tour description.  So a bios reflash would be a probable next step.  The other stuff was me poining out it might not work because of other possible issues.

[honami]

The machine isn't that old. I'd reflash the BIOS and see what is going from there. Maybe clean some SATA contacts.

[Bombastinator]

34 minutes ago, honami said:

The machine isn't that old. I'd reflash the BIOS and see what is going from there. Maybe clean some SATA contacts.

If it’s brand new it might have a current bios or it might not.  Intel doesn’t need repeated bios reflash the way AMD stuff often does because people making stuff for it will make allowances whereas they tend not to for AMD (getting less true) so AMD stuff often has to keep dead current or there are problems.  Everything can be corrupted though, so in this case it’s not about the current bios so much as simply rewriting what you’ve got to erase any possible errors. 

[honami]

33 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

so in this case it’s not about the current bios so much as simply rewriting what you’ve got to erase any possible errors. 

Yes, that's exactly why I said that.

[ClonicMechanics]

On 9/26/2021 at 11:00 AM, Bombastinator said:

If it’s brand new it might have a current bios or it might not.  Intel doesn’t need repeated bios reflash the way AMD stuff often does because people making stuff for it will make allowances whereas they tend not to for AMD (getting less true) so AMD stuff often has to keep dead current or there are problems.  Everything can be corrupted though, so in this case it’s not about the current bios so much as simply rewriting what you’ve got to erase any possible errors. 

I currently can't get into the bios at the moment. Like I said it gets to entering setup then freezes. Im not sure how else I can reflash the bios without getting into the bios. Sorry for the late reply I work as well and thats been taking up a lot of my time.

[Bombastinator]

38 minutes ago, ClonicMechanics said:

I currently can't get into the bios at the moment. Like I said it gets to entering setup then freezes. Im not sure how else I can reflash the bios without getting into the bios. Sorry for the late reply I work as well and thats been taking up a lot of my time.

Some (but not all) motherboards have a “bios flashback” or some other often patented system by which a new bios can be loaded without the use of various sections of the machine. If a motherboard does NOT have such a function generally the only people who can replace the bios is the manufacturer and it is considered “bricked”. There are people who won’t buy a motherboard without such a system.

 

p.s I keep reading clonicmechanics as colonicmechanics which leaves me imagining a person holding a big hose with a both perplexed and horrified look on his face.

[IkeaGnome]

Have you put a new CMOS battery in this lately? Try that. CR2032.

[ClonicMechanics]

18 minutes ago, IkeaGnome said:

Have you put a new CMOS battery in this lately? Try that. CR2032.

Tried that already

[ClonicMechanics]

20 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Some (but not all) motherboards have a “bios flashback” or some other often patented system by which a new bios can be loaded without the use of various sections of the machine. If a motherboard does NOT have such a function generally the only people who can replace the bios is the manufacturer and it is considered “bricked”. There are people who won’t buy a motherboard without such a system.

 

p.s I keep reading clonicmechanics as colonicmechanics which leaves me imagining a person holding a big hose with a both perplexed and horrified look on his face.

Lmao anyway Im not sure if this board has a flash back or not. Finding information on this board has been a little hard besides the manual. The thing is the board was working before I took it off line. The only things that were removed from the system were the Drives and the GT 1030 I had in it. The case was a bit of a junker where the motherboard tray is bent a bit. but the standoffs and everything else are fine. The only bit of the board that moves a bit is the IO. I already looked at the back of the board no traces are damaged or anything. I mean if it could be the Hdmi cable in the port on the board could be causing it to short out I would think I would have seen something else happen by now. I could try putting another gpu back in it I have a gt 710 laying around for such purposes but I dont know where to go from here. If the bios at this point bricked the board Im still not sure how at this point. I could try cleaning the chipsets and see whats happening there. I could try taking the cooler off and reseating the cpu. Im really just trying to rule everything out before I have to start throwing money at something.

 

P.S Clonic means Chronic Headache. Story of my life.

[ClonicMechanics]

I also have some more images

[ClonicMechanics]

[IkeaGnome]

If there is a shop near you, and they have the required tool, they might be able to flash the BIOS through the JSPI1 port

[Bombastinator]

That hdmi cable implies you’re running off the iGPU.  I take it it never actually enters setup?

[ClonicMechanics]

7 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

That hdmi cable implies you’re running off the iGPU.  I take it it never actually enters setup?

yep you got it.

 

[Bombastinator]

On 9/26/2021 at 10:20 AM, honami said:

The machine isn't that old. I'd reflash the BIOS and see what is going from there. Maybe clean some SATA contacts.

Z77 means it’s sandybridge or ivybridge or something.  I’ve got a z97 system I consider geriatric. It will run win10, mostly because win10 was unusually open that way. My z97 system originally had win7 on it which I updated to 8.1 and then 10.  It’s pretty old. 

[ClonicMechanics]

1 minute ago, ClonicMechanics said:

yep you got it.

 

Tried changing ram to 1 dimm to try to do a old bios flash trick but now its like this

[ClonicMechanics]

1 minute ago, Bombastinator said:

Z77 means it’s sandybridge or ivybridge or something.  I’ve got a z97 system I consider geriatric. It will run win10, mostly because win10 was unusually open that way. My z97 system originally had win7 on it which I updated to 8.1 and then 10.  It’s pretty old. 

This system ran windows 10 fine for a few years before I acquired it. That was both as a office pc with no gpu and as a budget gaming pc before it came to me as well.

 

[Bombastinator]

2 minutes ago, ClonicMechanics said:

yep you got it.

 

It should theoretically enter bios without any drives in it at all.  Just needs a cpu and memory.  Have you tried pulling the drives and seeing if it enters bios? 

[Bombastinator]

Just now, ClonicMechanics said:

This system ran windows 10 fine for a few years before I acquired it. That was both as a office pc with no gpu and as a budget gaming pc before it came to me as well.

 

Doesn’t change the age.