Z97-A Boot Issue (No post)

[onyex]

Hello,

I recently bought a Z97-A. I am attempting to assemble my computer but when I assemble my motherboard, cpu, stock cooler, single stick of ram and PSU, the motherboard shows signs of life when it is turned on but a red LED stays lit when booting. It is the boot device LED and according to the manual, it could be a hard disk drive. Some places on the internet told me to check for lose connections, missing power connectors, etc. I have checked for this and I have gone through this checklist: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/42440-readme-how-to-respond-to-a-no-post-or-no-power-up-situation/

Any suggestions?

[AlwaysFSX]

Is there a hard drive plugged in? If so, unplug it and try to boot. You should be able to access the BIOS.

[onyex]

Is there a hard drive plugged in? If so, unplug it and try to boot. You should be able to access the BIOS.

I have tried with to boot with no drive, my SSD and my HDD. None of them fix the issue

[AlwaysFSX]

I have tried with to boot with no drive, my SSD and my HDD. None of them fix the issue

When you have no drive plugged in, does it still give you a boot device error?

[TR1ALZ]

Have you also tried switching SATA ports in case it's a bad port and not boot drive?

[seiny]

Does anything display on screen?

[onyex]

When you have no drive plugged in, does it still give you a boot device error?

The boot device LED stays on when the drive is plugged in and when it's not (after a restart).

[onyex]

Have you also tried switching SATA ports in case it's a bad port and not boot drive?

Yes, I have attempted to switch to all of the SATA ports on the board. All with the same result

 

Does anything display on screen?

The monitor knows that it is connected but it does not display anything, hence no POST

 

Edit: sorry for the two consecutive posts

[seiny]

Yes, I have attempted to switch to all of the SATA ports on the board. All with the same result

 

The monitor knows that it is connected but it does not display anything, hence no POST

 

Edit: sorry for the two consecutive posts

Do you have another spare drive you could try?

[onyex]

Do you have another spare drive you could try?

I do not but I would think that both a brand new SSD and a HDD not working would be extremely rare.

[TR1ALZ]

Is the boot LED the only thing that is lighting up? No error beeps / other debug LED's?

 

Also a different SATA cable?

[seiny]

I do not but I would think that both a brand new SSD and a HDD not working would be extremely rare.

True.. It looks to be the board is the issue

[onyex]

Is the boot LED the only thing that is lighting up? No error beeps / other debug LED's?

 

Also a different SATA cable?

The only light that stays lit is the boot device LED.

 

I did not think to try another SATA cable but I just tested two other cables in all of the SATA ports on both dives (This took some time) and it still has the same issues.

[yudothat2me]

Have you tried connecting video to the onboard graphics and seeing if it will post?

[jewwe]

Do you have a speaker/buzzer connected to the motherboard? If yes, you can try the following:

 

Turn off the power and remove all of the RAM from the motherboard, switch power back on and turn the machine on. Now, if you get any error beeps, basic motherboard functionality is fine.

 

If you do not get any beeps however, the motherboard could be defective.

 

Remove the cooler and CPU and check if the pins in LGA socket are like they are supposed to be. Observe if there is ANY and I really stress this part, ANY variation in how the pins are aligned. The best way to descripe this, is that there can't be anything that breaks the picture of a perfect layout.

 

If they are all aligned like they are supposed to be, my guess is that the motherboard is DOA.

[onyex]

Do you have a speaker/buzzer connected to the motherboard? If yes, you can try the following:

 

Turn off the power and remove all of the RAM from the motherboard, switch power back on and turn the machine on. Now, if you get any error beeps, basic motherboard functionality is fine.

 

If you do not get any beeps however, the motherboard could be defective.

 

Remove the cooler and CPU and check if the pins in LGA socket are like they are supposed to be. Observe if there is ANY and I really stress this part, ANY variation in how the pins are aligned. The best way to descripe this, is that there can't be anything that breaks the picture of a perfect layout.

 

If they are all aligned like they are supposed to be, my guess is that the motherboard is DOA.

I did remove the RAM and then booted it up. The red light came up checking for RAM instead but no beeps. The CPU socket seems to be ok.

[jewwe]

I would assume the board is defective then.

 

It could still be the CPU, but it happens so rarely that the board is a much safer guess.