Aaargh! Stuck in boot loop on GA-Z68AP-D3

masopa

masopa

masopa

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Help!!!

Some of you may remember, I built my mum's rig a couple of weeks ago. After a brief worry re: PSU, it was up and running (thought PSU was dead, tried another one for a couple of days which worked fine and when I eventually swapped back to the original one it seemed to work also... and yes, I had connected the 4-pin!)

Win7 installed, the usual updates and MSOffice install. Everything running fine. Basic rig: i3 2100, mobo as per title, WD Caviar Blue 500GB, 4GB Kingston RAM and a cheap Radeon 6450 to provide VGA output. Not a fancy machine but plenty of upgradeability should the time come.

I'm about to head down to hers tomorrow to take down the fully working computer and I decide to check all the BIOS settings to make sure I haven't 4rsed anything up. I decide to swap the boot order to make the DVD the first option (even though there isn't one) just in case we add one later... don't ask me why I did it, but I did.

After doing this and restarting the thing goes into a boot loop. Power on spins the fans and lights the Phase LEDs for maybe a second or two and then power down. Repeat ad infinitum.

So, I've tried: removing everything which isn't essential (CPU and one stick of ram) - that means no HD, no video card. I've tried locating the RAM in random sockets. I've taken out the CMOS battery for 1 min. I've tripped the CLR_CMOS jumper. I've taken the power cord out for 30 mins.

Nothing seems to shake this damn thing out of its boot loop.

I don't have a case speaker so can't check for any diagnostic beeps but HELP!

Any clues?? Is it a case of new mobo from OCUK? I'm probably not their best friend as I RMAed the PSU but just before posting it back decided to have one last go and found it worked...

Any help much appreciated: I've done the usual google and it seems these mobos have a bit of a rep for boot looping but usually after OCing or BIOS flashing - I've done neither.
 
Try this:

1. Shut off the power supply using the switch on the back of the PSU, wait 10-15 seconds.
2. Press and hold the case Power On swtich, then while still holding turn on the power supply from the switch on the rear.
3. Still holding the case power on switch, the board will start, once it does release the case power on switch and shut off the power supply via the switch on the read of the unit. (Do the latter two parts as quickly as you can once the board starts)
4. The board will shut down.
5. Turn the power supply back on using the switch on the rear of the unit.
6. Turn on the motherboard by pressing the case power on button.

Once the board starts this time you should see the Gigabyte splash screen, or POST page, then the Auto-Recovery from Dual BIOS will kick in. You will see a checksum error, and then recovery from BACKUP BIOS will begin. Once it is done reboot your machine and enter the BIOS and load optimized defaults then save/apply/reboot back to BIOS.

(Found it somewhere and saved it ages ago)
 
horrorwood... thanks for the tip. Sadly it didn't work for me so I'm guessing I have a defunct mobo. For some reason I ordered it from another supplier (golden rule: always buy from OCUK :D) so I'll be RMAing it back to them. Fortunately I've found a shop en-route in Lincoln which has one Z68AP-D3 in stock so I'll be collecting that on my way down tomorrow...

I just hope it is the mobo which has died (and hasn't taken anything else with it) otherwise I'll be £90 out of pocket and still need to replace either the CPU or RAM...

I don't get why the CPU or RAM would have fried though... but then I'm not particularly sure why the mobo has given up the ghost either (if it is indeed that)?? :confused:
 
After everything you've tried, would say that it's time to RMA it if you can't test the CPU and RAM in other machines. Sounds like the frustration I had going through 2 of the same Asus boards with "known issues", which I found out after a few google searches. Sometimes they're just DOA, it's rare but it happens.
 
Well, thanks for the pointers everyone... replaced motherboard with the same model (but might be a slightly different revision - perhaps newer?) and it's all working.

Haven't a clue what happened to the old one: maybe just a glitch in which case I'm glad it died while I was still in custody of it rather than mum.

New one seems to be working well, although the usual problem with hibernation/sleep in Win7 so I think I'll just recommend not to use that. It's a shame as it boots back up from a powerdown in about 0.5s using that, rather than the 10-15s normally. I'm sure my mum can wait those extra 10s, though...

Cheers again and glad I wasn't missing anything obvious... just trying to use a dead mobo.
 
masopa said:
New one seems to be working well, although the usual problem with hibernation/sleep in Win7 so I think I'll just recommend not to use that. It's a shame as it boots back up from a powerdown in about 0.5s using that, rather than the 10-15s normally. I'm sure my mum can wait those extra 10s, though...
Click to expand...

What's this? I disabled hibernation, but mine 'sleeps' and 'wakes' just fine. I've got it so that it sleep after 30 minutes, or I can press the case power button. Everything works as it should. :confused:
 
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