Help with restoring an A320M PRO-VD/S motherboard

[thefluffcat]

Hi everyone! I'm having issues with my motherboard and I think I'm at my limit as to what to do next so I thought I'd try seeing if anyone with more expertise than me could help. 

 

I decided to build a PC for my girlfriend during Christmas which lead me to buying an already pre-built one second-hand from a guy that refurbishes PC's. I was trying to upgrade to a Ryzen platform from my FX-8350 and the guy was offering a Ryzen 3 1300X slotted into a A320M PRO-VD/S motherboard. Since he was offering the build for pretty cheap I impulse bought it since the components overall were better than what I currently had. I tested the rig for a couple of days and it seemed to have no issues. I swapped my graphics card and power supply from my old rig alongside my SSD that had my Windows partition installed. I booted up to an error message that said that it couldn't find a boot drive (I later realized that somehow during the swap my SSD just kinda died). This lead me to do a pretty stupid thing and I restored my BIOS to it's defaults in the BIOS settings. 

 

Here's the main issue. After restoring the BIOS to the default settings the computer wouldn't post. The 1300X needs a BIOS update in order for the motherboard to be recognized. I assume that this is where the problem lies but I can't access the BIOS settings to update it so I'm just looking for potential solutions or just confirmation that the motherboard is bricked. I've been trying to diagnose the problem on my own through just googling it but I think I hit a brick(ed) wall in terms of solutions. 

 

The state of the computer now is that the fans turn on but there's no post. The CPU light on the EZ-Diag is blinking (but since the manual for the board just says that that indicates that there's "an issue with the CPU or it's not recognized" it doesn't really help). I bought an Athlon X4 970 after I've read on the manufacturer site that it supports the earliest motherboard version but after popping it in the CPU light on the EZ-Diag is constantly lit as opposed to blinking with the 1300X and it still doesn't post. I've tried taking the CMOS battery out for the night and retrying the two CPU's but it didn't change anything. I've tried jumping the JBAT\_1 pins since the manual said it would restore it to it's default state but that didn't change anything either. Beneath the JBAT\_1 pins is what I assume a BIOS version number - MS-7A36 Ver. 1.1 but looking at the manufacturer's site, every the last version number that is supported by some CPU's is 7A36v20 (which is why I tried buying the Athlon in the first place and that didn't work). I can't figure out which CPU I'd need to get in order to post with the default settings if that's the problem in the first place.

 

The specs for the build are 

CPU: Ryzen 3 1300X (+stock AMD wraith cooler)

GPU: RX 570 4GB

PSU: EVOLVEO FX 550W

RAM: 2x4GB Patriot Viper Elite DDR4

Motherboard: A320M PRO-VD/S with BIOS version 7A36

 

Thanks to everyone for the feedback.

[Chapunna]

Try one ram stick in all slots start from 1 

[jaslion]

Its not a bios version issue as else it would have never ever even booted.

 

Try with a single stick of ram as suggested. Could be it dislikes the config as is and is erroring out without different memory settings

 

Same for storage

[AlfaProto]

I think you need to reflash the bios chip externally.

 

Plus, I don't know the age of that board. I had 2 MSI board, Z77 and Z170 for 3 years, and they all failed after a day after their 2-3 years warranty period is up, and the best part: I didn't OC my CPU at all.

The two to seven days before, it randomly default my settings for no reason--display a warning on a cold boot.

 

Side note:

 

Since it's 1st gen AMD, have you tried even more JEDEC spec (no XMP profile at all, it literally runs at that speed and timings) memory, like 2.133 GT/s sticks instead?

[thefluffcat]

4 hours ago, jaslion said:

Its not a bios version issue as else it would have never ever even booted.

 

Try with a single stick of ram as suggested. Could be it dislikes the config as is and is erroring out without different memory settings

 

Same for storage

I tried removing one stick, putting it in different slots, trying on different HDD/SSDs both with the Athlon and the 1300X but no change. The EZ-Diag is still showing a blinking CPU light with the 1300X and the light is on when I put the Athlon in as before. Still no post or any signs of life.

[thefluffcat]

4 hours ago, AlfaProto said:

I think you need to reflash the bios chip externally.

 

Plus, I don't know the age of that board. I had 2 MSI board, Z77 and Z170 for 3 years, and they all failed after a day after their 2-3 years warranty period is up, and the best part: I didn't OC my CPU at all.

The two to seven days before, it randomly default my settings for no reason--display a warning on a cold boot.

 

Side note:

 

Since it's 1st gen AMD, have you tried even more JEDEC spec (no XMP profile at all, it literally runs at that speed and timings) memory, like 2.133 GT/s sticks instead?

I saw a suggestion like that on another forum post, can't really remember where. I'm tempted but I looked it up and it seems like I'd need a similar board to what I have now (the only other Ryzen board I have is an A520M H that I'm using in my current rig. I've never done it before and I heard it's risky as apparently it could brick the boards? But I'm willing to try I guess, any tips on how to do it?

 

The seller didn't really specify the age so it could be that it just failed but it's weird how it happened after I fiddled with the BIOS settings.

 

I would try different sticks but I don't really want to spend any more money on repairing the board and getting different components just in hopes of it working. I guess if I find someone who might have those I can give it a try.

[jaslion]

1 minute ago, thefluffcat said:

I saw a suggestion like that on another forum post, can't really remember where. I'm tempted but I looked it up and it seems like I'd need a similar board to what I have now (the only other Ryzen board I have is an A520M H that I'm using in my current rig. I've never done it before and I heard it's risky as apparently it could brick the boards? But I'm willing to try I guess, any tips on how to do it?

 

The seller didn't really specify the age so it could be that it just failed but it's weird how it happened after I fiddled with the BIOS settings.

 

I would try different sticks but I don't really want to spend any more money on repairing the board and getting different components just in hopes of it working. I guess if I find someone who might have those I can give it a try.

You have another ddr4 system.

 

Steal a stick from there and try with

 

Remove the cmos battery too every time you try a different slot after waitint a minute or so for it to try to live

 

Also may wanna try a different gpu just tk check if it isnt pcie erroring out which can cause the cpu light to trigger too

[AlfaProto]

4 minutes ago, thefluffcat said:

I saw a suggestion like that on another forum post, can't really remember where. I'm tempted but I looked it up and it seems like I'd need a similar board to what I have now (the only other Ryzen board I have is an A520M H that I'm using in my current rig. I've never done it before and I heard it's risky as apparently it could brick the boards? But I'm willing to try I guess, any tips on how to do it?

 

The seller didn't really specify the age so it could be that it just failed but it's weird how it happened after I fiddled with the BIOS settings.

 

I would try different sticks but I don't really want to spend any more money on repairing the board and getting different components just in hopes of it working. I guess if I find someone who might have those I can give it a try.

I mean, if external flashing is pretty much using another computer to flash your board.

 

The only two roadblocks that I know are:

 

1. The quality of the EEPROM
2. Voltage supplied to the BIOS chip

 

I might as well get a new A520 board.

5 minutes ago, jaslion said:

You have another ddr4 system.

 

Steal a stick from there and try with

 

Remove the cmos battery too every time you try a different slot after waitint a minute or so for it to try to live

 

Also may wanna try a different gpu just tk check if it isnt pcie erroring out which can cause the cpu light to trigger too

I know MSI board, no, even if the PCIE is erroring, your GPU would only light up. The CPU light is only there if you have a newer chip or unsupported chip.

[thefluffcat]

On 1/26/2024 at 7:14 PM, jaslion said:

You have another ddr4 system.

 

Steal a stick from there and try with

 

Remove the cmos battery too every time you try a different slot after waitint a minute or so for it to try to live

 

Also may wanna try a different gpu just tk check if it isnt pcie erroring out which can cause the cpu light to trigger too

Decided to give it a shot. No change. Swapped different RAM sticks (Patriot Signature Premium 2666MhZ instead of the Viper Elites), no change with either of the CPUs. I have tried both my old R9 270x and my  GTX 1060 6GB but still no post. At this point I think I tried every possible configuration but nothing seems to budge. Removing the CMOS didn't seem to work either.

[thefluffcat]

On 1/26/2024 at 7:21 PM, AlfaProto said:

I mean, if external flashing is pretty much using another computer to flash your board.

 

The only two roadblocks that I know are:

 

1. The quality of the EEPROM
2. Voltage supplied to the BIOS chip

 

I might as well get a new A520 board.

I know MSI board, no, even if the PCIE is erroring, your GPU would only light up. The CPU light is only there if you have a newer chip or unsupported chip.

I'm still not quite sure about flashing the board. Maybe somewhere down the line if I decide to tinker with it further.

 

The CPU light blinking is the weird thing. I understand why it would blink on the Ryzen 3 1300X because when I reset the BIOS to the default configuration, the CPU became unsupported because the update was deleted from the BIOS. But the Athlon should work yet it's throwing out a solid light. I was thinking I should maybe try looking for a different CPU that I could use to update the board but when I picked the Athlon I was specifically looking for CPUs that would be compatible with the earliest motherboard version. Any idea as to which CPU I should try?

[jaslion]

27 minutes ago, thefluffcat said:

Decided to give it a shot. No change. Swapped different RAM sticks (Patriot Signature Premium 2666MhZ instead of the Viper Elites), no change with either of the CPUs. I have tried both my old R9 270x and my  GTX 1060 6GB but still no post. At this point I think I tried every possible configuration but nothing seems to budge. Removing the CMOS didn't seem to work either.

Think the board just died oddly enough

[jaslion]

23 minutes ago, thefluffcat said:

BIOS to the default configuration, the CPU became unsupported because the update was deleted from the BIOS.

No thats not how a bios works.

 

A bios is flssh and FOREVER stuck on the version flash to it.

 

It never lost support its still good to go

[AlfaProto]

13 hours ago, thefluffcat said:

The CPU light blinking is the weird thing. I understand why it would blink on the Ryzen 3 1300X because when I reset the BIOS to the default configuration, the CPU became unsupported because the update was deleted from the BIOS. But the Athlon should work yet it's throwing out a solid light. I was thinking I should maybe try looking for a different CPU that I could use to update the board but when I picked the Athlon I was specifically looking for CPUs that would be compatible with the earliest motherboard version. Any idea as to which CPU I should try?

And this proves that AM4 socket doesn't support ALL 6 gens of support.

 

Actually, it's not, MSI removed support for the very first chip on AM4 (Ryzen isn't the first), which is Bristol Ridge (Excavator+ AM4).

 

 

I'm not sure if it still work, I owned two MSI board, and was able to flash to an older version, not sure about AM4 board.

 

You can try flashing the most oldest BIOS from MSI, but if it still fails, I am guessing that the board just gave out.