PC won't load windows or enter BIOS

[Hunched]

I was in the BIOS and loaded the profile I had been using for the past month, all I was adjusting was fan profiles.

When I saved and exited, when it turned back on, the VGA LED was lit and stuck on the Asus screen saying to push F2 or Del to enter BIOS, nothing did anything, Windows didn't load.

I couldn't do anything but shut it off, and now the Boot Device LED is always on regardless of whether or not I have a boot device plugged in. 

I cannot enter the BIOS or get into Windows, it's just completely unresponsive.

 

Is it likely something just decided to stop working on this practically brand new PC? 

This is my worst nightmare.

 

Mobo is an Asus Z97-A, full specs here: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/qJrKNG

 

I have no clue what to do, it's saying boot device is the issue but that doesn't explain why I can't enter the BIOS.

Short of taking my entire PC apart and trying random crap I don't know what to do...

 

Please help.

I really hope this isn't going to be an entire week of troubleshooting.

Merry f****** Christmas to me... 

[Mojo-Jojo]

~~

Reset CMOS by taking out the CMOS battery for ~30 seconds.

This'll reset the BIOS settings.

[cesrai]

Clear the CMOS see your manual on how to do it.

[Hunched]

I just did that and the VGA light gets stuck, and it took a minute but then the light turned off and now the boot device led is just on (I removed the drives prior) and I can't enter the BIOS again....

 

So I guess I have to remove the graphics card and try starting it up with mobo graphics?

I hope the most expensive part of my PC isn't wrecked...

[Hunched]

Does this mean my 970 is busted? I followed all the steps to resetting CMOS in the Asus Z97-A manual twice now and same results.

VGA lights up, Asus logo takes forever to appear, eventually it displays and the VGA light turns off, Boot Device LED turns on, and then Windows never loads (hooked drives back up) and I cannot enter the BIOS.

 

If someone could add me on Skype or give me any 1 on 1 help I'd be so grateful... I'm so stressed out right now I'm sweating. I have nobody who can help me with this in person.

I don't know what to do.

 

Resetting CMOS didn't help.

Please, what next?

[cesrai]

Does this mean my 970 is busted? I followed all the steps to resetting CMOS in the Asus Z97-A manual twice now and same results.

VGA lights up, Asus logo takes forever to appear, eventually it displays and the VGA light turns off, Boot Device LED turns on, and then Windows never loads (hooked drives back up) and I cannot enter the BIOS.

 

If someone could add me on Skype or give me any 1 on 1 help I'd be so grateful... I'm so stressed out right now I'm sweating. I have nobody who can help me with this in person.

I don't know what to do.

 

Resetting CMOS didn't help.

Please, what next?

Unplug and plug the ram again, check the cables.

[Hunched]

Unplug and plug the ram again, check the cables.

Already had checked all the cables, just reseated the ram and nothings changed.

I'll make a video now of what happens during boot, I don't know what else to do, I don't even know what is wrecked if something is which seems likely, at least I have warranty on everything as far as I know.

But I'm in Canada so weeks upon weeks to get anything sorted out if that's the case...

[cesrai]

Already had checked all the cables, just reseated the ram and nothings changed.

I'll make a video now of what happens during boot, I don't know what else to do, I don't even know what is wrecked if something is which seems likely, at least I have warranty on everything as far as I know.

But I'm in Canada so weeks upon weeks to get anything sorted out if that's the case...

Okay I'm waiting for the video.

[Hunched]

This is going to take 30 minutes because of how horrible the upload speed is here, to summarize exactly what happens in the video to see if it sparks any ideas...

 

VGA light turns on first, stays like that for about a full minute.

Suddenly it turns off and it's as if the PC restarts and it's on again, for another minute.

After that minute, it turns off again, Asus finally appears on my display, the boot device led turns on, and I cannot do anything.

 

Previous to this I was adjusting case fan curves in the BIOS and saved and exited. It seems to shut down pretty aggressively compared to how it usually does when I save & exit the BIOS.

I followed the steps to reset CMOS which were to move a jumper over to two other pins for 5-10 seconds and back, did not actually remove the battery.

 

There isn't another PC in the house, or any other parts in the house. I don't really have anything to substitute and test to nail down a broken component.

We do have a local computer store nearby, unsure if they do repairs or how useful they would be. I'd just like access to other parts to swap and keep trying until it eventually works.

 

This was so random, and has ruined my day and possibly many more days, we'll see.

 

26% done uploading, it's not great quality and I don't think it will even help too much. I just need to know what to even send in for warranty if I can't fix this.

 

Another weird thing to note, is during the Asus screen where I cannot do anything, if I unplug my keyboard and plug it in somewhere else, it doesn't light back up, PC isn't aware it's been plugged in again.

I'm currently on a laptop.

[cesrai]

This is weird VGA light is the light that screen flashes ?

What do you mean by led ?

Try the battery methaod .

[Hunched]

This is weird VGA light is the light that screen flashes ?

What do you mean by led ?

Try the battery methaod .

''POST State LEDs

The POST State LEDs provide the status of these key components during POST

(Power-On-Self Test): CPU, memory modules, VGA card, and hard disk drives. If an

error is found, the critical component’s LED stays lit up until the problem is solved''

 

Which is why I'm worried about the 970, but don't understand what would have happened.

 

This is the guide I'm following

I'll try the battery here in a sec, says to do that if their suggested way doesn't work

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1150/Z97-A/e9378_z97-a_ug_v2_for_web_only.pdf

[cesrai]

''POST State LEDsThe POST State LEDs provide the status of these key components during POST(Power-On-Self Test): CPU, memory modules, VGA card, and hard disk drives. If anerror is found, the critical component’s LED stays lit up until the problem is solved''

 

Which is why I'm worried about the 970, but don't understand what would have happened.

 

This is the guide I'm following

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1150/Z97-A/e9378_z97-a_ug_v2_for_web_only.pdf

So the error code is in not readable ? If it's what does it show ? I would say check the manual but I'm sure you did.

[Hunched]

So the error code is in not readable ? If it's what does it show ? I would say check the manual but I'm sure you did.

There are no error codes, just a light to inform you of a problem.

I still don't understand if the GPU is the problem, why that stops Windows from booting or the BIOS from being entered.

Or how I go from adjusting case fans to wrecked GPU.

 

It works enough to display the Asus logo on my screen.

Going to try removing the battery now.

[cesrai]

There are no error codes, just a light to inform you of a problem.

I still don't understand if the GPU is the problem, why that stops Windows from booting or the BIOS from being entered.

Or how I go from adjusting case fans to wrecked GPU.

 

It works enough to display the Asus logo on my screen.

Going to try removing the battery now.

 

There are no error codes, just a light to inform you of a problem.

I still don't understand if the GPU is the problem, why that stops Windows from booting or the BIOS from being entered.

Or how I go from adjusting case fans to wrecked GPU.

 

It works enough to display the Asus logo on my screen.

Going to try removing the battery now.

Try to use the memok button and see what happens, try to play with the tpu  and epu switches.

[Hunched]

Removing CMOS battery didn't help.

Do I risk anything by adjusting the memok, tpu, or epu switches?

[cesrai]

Removing CMOS battery didn't help.

Do I risk anything by adjusting the memok, tpu, or epu switches?

Try the memok button first, nothing will happen that can damage your PC, try to put the TPU, EPU, EZ XMP and all other switches to it's default state if you moved them.

[Hunched]

I apologize for the annoying old squeaky chair

 

http://youtu.be/gwhGUQKGqKg

 

The first light to appear is the VGA light, the one at the end of the video is the Boot device light.

 

I'll try Memok but I don't see what it will do, as by default my ram is clocked at 1333mhz and was at 1600mhz for the past month.

I changed absolutely nothing in the BIOS prior to this happening besides fan curves, all the settings were the same for the past month.

 

It really seems like something just crapped out and died.

 

I just don't understand if it's the GPU why I even get an image at all, and not being able to get into the BIOS seems like the motherboard is wrecked.

[cesrai]

Okay I have seen the video, I would say try return all the switches to it default state, unplug the GPU and put it in another slot, use one of the ram sticks, unplug your SSD and HDD and see what happens, spam that keyboard -the key that gets you in bios-  when you first start to power that PC.

[Hunched]

Okay I have seen the video, I would say try return all the switches to it default state, unplug the GPU and put it in another slot, use one of the ram sticks, unplug your SSD and HDD and see what happens, spam that keyboard -the key that gets you in bios-  when you first start to power that PC.

I'll try everything. I never changed any switches from their default states.

 

If I remove the GPU and try running on integrated graphics from the motherboard, or another slot with the GPU and still no success, I think it will be warranty time.

I wish I could just go to the local PC store and pay them to let me swap in used items there until I figure out what's actually broken.

 

I already tried unplugging the HDD and SSD, and spamming the keyboard.

 

Basically everything besides a different GPU slot, 1 ram stick, integrated graphics. I actually tried intergrated graphics but don't think that works as long as the GPU is installed, so need to try without.

 

And then figure out whether I'm sending in my GPU or motherboard for repair. Hopefully the GPU as the PC will still be usable, and Gigabyte has way better warranty than Asus...

I'd like to know what the hell went wrong...

[cesrai]

I'll try everything. I never changed any switches from their default states.

If I remove the GPU and try running on integrated graphics from the motherboard, or another slot with the GPU and still no success, I think it will be warranty time.

I wish I could just go to the local PC store and pay them to let me swap in used items there until I figure out what's actually broken.

I already tried unplugging the HDD and SSD, and spamming the keyboard.

Basically everything besides a different GPU slot, 1 ram stick, integrated graphics. I actually tried intergrated graphics but don't think that works as long as the GPU is installed, so need to try without.

And then figure out whether I'm sending in my GPU or motherboard for repair. Hopefully the GPU as the PC will still be usable, and Gigabyte has way better warranty than Asus...

I'd like to know what the hell went wrong...

Okay try that and tell what will happen.

[Hunched]

So the motherboard is definitely screwed.

Giving me a VGA warning with no graphics card installed, that doesn't even make sense...  :lol:

 

When I first bought my PC it was running off of CPU graphics for a couple weeks because GTX 970's were so hard to obtain, and here we are, not working on the very integrated graphics that previously worked.

 

So the good news is the GPU is fine, hopefully, it seems.

Bad news is that the motherboard is a worse part to fail because Asus has worse customer support, at least the PC was usable without a GPU, and it's WAY more of a pain in the a** to remove.

All the standoffs, the CPU, the CPU cooler, I have to reapply thermal paste which I've never done but shouldn't be too hard.

 

An odd scenario where I almost wish the more expensive part failed as it would be far easier and convenient to replace.

I tried only 1 stick of ram, trying each individually. There's no point obviously in testing the GPU in another slot when it does the exact same thing without it.

 

What worries me is I don't have a clue how this happened, would be nice if I had a clue so I could avoid it.

I just edited case fan curves of all things in the BIOS and saved and exited like so many times before, and it shut down really aggressively, it shows a list of all changes before exiting which I always check, it was just case fans!

 

So did the motherboard brick itself or something? Is this something I could possibly solve by trying to flash a new BIOS to it? That's something I don't know much about.

It just seems like somehow it was damaged or corrupted while trying to save settings, what settings were changed don't even matter, that's not what caused this.

 

It's going to take a week or two to get shipped out and a week or two to get back, almost makes me want to just buy a new motherboard, this PC is only a couple months old.

Maybe I should buy a new motherboard and sell the one I get back from Asus warranty 

I really hope this isn't fixable and I'm not being stupid and about to waste a lot of time or a decent amount of money. 

 

Thanks for the support cesrai, I've never had to troubleshoot a broken component before and it's reassuring to have someone to report back to after trying something instead of feeling clueless and like you're out of options.

If you have any more suggestions I'd be willing to try them all, or if anyone else does for that matter, it's not like I can make it less useless than it already is, something could magically fix it maybe.

Seems really odd it gives a VGA warning with no GPU. Is my CPU probably fine? It would suck to find out that's wrecked only when I get a new mobo. 

 

Sorry for the long post, I'm a bit relieved to at least rule out the GPU, but still have uncertainty. I feel my issue is weird, it certainly seems abnormal to me.

[cesrai]

It's very odd that this MB went down epically this MB.

[Hunched]

So attempting to flash a newer BIOS or anything like that wouldn't help?

I don't even really understand what the issue is, like, what actually broke within it. It just stopped working and gives VGA warning lights and can't enter the BIOS or load Windows.

Unfixable and definitely the mobo and nothing else?

 

I just want to be really certain before committing to an RMA

[cesrai]

So attempting to flash a newer BIOS or anything like that wouldn't help?

I don't even really understand what the issue is, like, what actually broke within it. It just stopped working and gives VGA warning lights and can't enter the BIOS or load Windows.

Unfixable and definitely the mobo and nothing else?

I just want to be really certain before committing to an RMA

Try to flash what you have to lose.

[cesrai]

@AlwaysFSX I think we have another possessed PC.