Slugsie Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 So my daughters PC has started hanging at the BIOS splash screen. It started yesterday when she was trying to get into the BIOS to enable the on-board graphics to try and use it for dual monitors. She says she pressed DEL as the PC was booting up, and it just hung. Since then it refuses to boot, hanging at the splash screen for a few minutes then it just goes blank. She's left it like that overnight and nothing changes. It's a Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H rev 1.0 motherboard, not sure which BIOS version it is, but as this was my old motherboard it should be the most recent version and I don't think there has been any updates on this old mobo for a while. The CPU is an Intel i5, not sure of the model. 2x8GB RAM. 2x SATA HDs. Things already tried: Removing the RAM sticks 1 at a time Removing the CMOS battery Resetting the CMOS with the CLR-CMOS jumper Pressing and holding Power and Reset at the same time for 10 seconds Pressing and holding Power until the PC starts and shuts down, then powering it on (those last two should apparently both cause the DUAL BIOS to kick in and switch) Pressing DEL (should open BIOS), F9 (Should show system info), F12 (should show boot menu), and End (should show Q Flash menu). None of them do anything. Caps-Lock light does come on and off The biggest complication is that she's 250 miles away so all support is over video chat. Anyone got any ideas on what else she can try? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon H Supervisor Posted January 19, 2021 Supervisor Share Posted January 19, 2021 that's a head scratcher. you've already tried all the things I would think to suggest. the CMOS reset by pulling the battery being the big one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slugsie Posted January 19, 2021 Author Share Posted January 19, 2021 Just checked and I think the power supply was still plugged in when she tried the CMOS reset/removing the battery. I've suggested she unplug the PSU and try it again. This may be the second mobo she's killed in as many months. The last one mysteriously stopped working after she dusted it. I sent her this mobo from my spares collection and it was in full working condition (she's been using it since mid December with no problems). The other one she sent back to me and it just sits there in a loop powering up for a second, then off, then 5 seconds later up again, rinse lather repeat. First time I've seen a board do that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon H Supervisor Posted January 19, 2021 Supervisor Share Posted January 19, 2021 Just now, Slugsie said: Just checked and I think the power supply was still plugged in when she tried the CMOS reset/removing the battery. I've suggested she unplug the PSU and try it again. This may be the second mobo she's killed in as many months. The last one mysteriously stopped working after she dusted it. I sent her this mobo from my spares collection and it was in full working condition (she's been using it since mid December with no problems). The other one she sent back to me and it just sits there in a loop powering up for a second, then off, then 5 seconds later up again, rinse lather repeat. First time I've seen a board do that. that is bizarre. hopefully this one you guys can get working again and doesn't end up in another situation like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim K Global Moderator Posted January 19, 2021 Global Moderator Share Posted January 19, 2021 Is it just hanging at the Windows start/splash screen or is it not even getting that far? If it is hanging during Windows load .... she didn't change the SATA mode selection (AHCI to IDE or vice versa)...did she? Edit: oh, doesn't look like she even got into the BIOS. Hmmmm...any beeps? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slugsie Posted January 19, 2021 Author Share Posted January 19, 2021 Nope, it's hanging at the Gigabyte splash screen, it's not getting as far as booting into Windows. She didn't even manage to get into the BIOS, basically on her first try it just hung when she was pressing DEL after power on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slugsie Posted January 19, 2021 Author Share Posted January 19, 2021 There is a single beep that repeats every 10-15 seconds or so. According to the manual a single beep means no issues detected. If she repeatedly presses the DEL key eventually the keyboard buffer fills up and pressing a key also makes a beep. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim K Global Moderator Posted January 19, 2021 Global Moderator Share Posted January 19, 2021 1 hour ago, Slugsie said: There is a single beep that repeats every 10-15 seconds or so. According to the manual a single beep means no issues detected. If she repeatedly presses the DEL key eventually the keyboard buffer fills up and pressing a key also makes a beep. Sounds like a boot loop. I suspect the BIOS is corrupted but not triggering the board to switch to the backup BIOS. I know you wrote the following... Quote Pressing and holding Power and Reset at the same time for 10 seconds Pressing and holding Power until the PC starts and shuts down, then powering it on (those last two should apparently both cause the DUAL BIOS to kick in and switch) ...is that the same as as the second post in this thread (I didn't see you mention using the PSU) ? https://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php?topic=9462.0 It seems like some users were successful in corrupting their primary BIOS so the second BIOS would load. Why users aren't given manual control of this...no idea. Another idea is to try and install the latest (even if the latest is already installed) BIOS .... Quote A. Before You Begin 1. From GIGABYTE's website, download the latest compressed BIOS update file that matches your motherboard model. 2. Extract the file and save the new BIOS file (e.g. Z77XD3H.F1) to your USB flash drive or hard drive. Note: The USB flash drive or hard drive must use FAT32/16/12 file system. 3. Restart the system. During the POST, press the key to enter Q-Flash. Note: You can access Q-Flash by either pressing the key during the POST or pressing the key in BIOS Setup. However, if the BIOS update file is saved to a hard drive in RAID/AHCI mode or a hard drive attached to an independent SATA controller, use the key during the POST to access Q-Flash. https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-Z77-D3H-rev-10/support#support-dl-bios Last ditch efforts I think would be to start breaking it down ... first thing I would do is disconnect the drives and go from there. Just weird that it a hardware component (like the motherboard) would fail simply by going into the BIOS...one hell of a coincidence. ....after that, I'm really out of ideas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slugsie Posted January 19, 2021 Author Share Posted January 19, 2021 Yeah, the steps I mentioned appear to be the same idea as the ones it that post, although they seem a little more involved. I'll pass them on to try out just in case. Trying to (re)install the latest BIOS is a non starter when you can't get into the BIOS or QFlash screens. I think my daughter has tried breaking it down. We went through a pretty comprehensive fault finding when her old mobo stopped working. I think she's been through most of the same steps again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim K Global Moderator Posted January 19, 2021 Global Moderator Share Posted January 19, 2021 1 minute ago, Slugsie said: Yeah, the steps I mentioned appear to be the same idea as the ones it that post, although they seem a little more involved. I'll pass them on to try out just in case. Trying to (re)install the latest BIOS is a non starter when you can't get into the BIOS or QFlash screens. I think my daughter has tried breaking it down. We went through a pretty comprehensive fault finding when her old mobo stopped working. I think she's been through most of the same steps again. You can't get to the Q-Flash screen by pressing the <end> key? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slugsie Posted January 19, 2021 Author Share Posted January 19, 2021 Nope. There is no response to any of the 4 keys that are supposed to elicit some kind of response when booting up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindovermaster Moderator Posted January 20, 2021 Moderator Share Posted January 20, 2021 Reading all this, you might need a new board.... How old is this motherboard? Still under warranty? Do you have another one around? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnelsoninjax Posted January 20, 2021 Share Posted January 20, 2021 How about trying a different keyboard? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindovermaster Moderator Posted January 20, 2021 Moderator Share Posted January 20, 2021 2 hours ago, jnelsoninjax said: How about trying a different keyboard? I don't think that'll fix anything, but being he tried everything else... 😕 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Som Posted January 20, 2021 Share Posted January 20, 2021 I had a PC in for repair last week with the same problem, turned out to be a faulty nvme ssd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slugsie Posted January 20, 2021 Author Share Posted January 20, 2021 The motherboard is several years old, well out of warranty. I did check the caps etc before I sent them down to her and they all passed a visual inspection just fine. She's not tried a different keyboard, but did try without one by accident with no change. All mass storage is traditional spinning HDs. No other mobo is available, and as my daughter is currently furloughed from her job money is a little on the tight side. Luckily she does have a laptop so she's not completely off-line, but it's not really up to gaming which is what is keeping her sanity together at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sulphy Posted January 20, 2021 Share Posted January 20, 2021 Looking at the manual, there is a clear cmos jumper you can short ... check pg 21: mb_manual_ga-z77(h77)-d3h(-mvp)_e.pdf Have you tried that? the board has dual bios, so 1 of them may be corrupt, and it isnt switching to a good chip automatically..... If that works, and the board comes up, highly recommend flashing the bios again, and ensure the backup gets flashed as well.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slugsie Posted January 20, 2021 Author Share Posted January 20, 2021 If you read the first post, yes that's been tried. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slugsie Posted January 20, 2021 Author Share Posted January 20, 2021 Just to bring you all up to date... While brainstorming the problem with some tech savvy friends it was suggested to remove the graphics card and just try running on internal graphics only. I thought my daughter had tried it already, but suggested it to her anyway. Lo and behold it worked! Windows had a little freak out and wouldn't start properly, be a quick auto-reinstall had that fixed and she could boot into Windows with everything intact. Then she reinstalled the graphics card, and it's all working again. Very odd. I'll talk her through doing a reflash of the BIOS just to make sure there are no hidden surprises waiting for the future, but otherwise it all seems to be good. Thanks for all who provided ideas and input. Brandon H, helpifIcan, goretsky and 1 other 4 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon H Supervisor Posted January 21, 2021 Supervisor Share Posted January 21, 2021 very odd indeed but glad everything is in working order again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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