I HAVE REPOSTED MY POST HERE FROM ELSEWHERE, AS I AM DESPERATE TO FIND SOMEONE WITH A MAGIC BULLET FOR ME, HOPE THIS IS OK!
Thanks in advance you clever folk...
I know this is referring to pretty old Gigabyte tech now but I have not had a problem with my setup until a couple of days ago, running like a dream since 2015. Now it just goes to a black screen straight after Gigabyte splash screen, no matter what you remove and how much you hammer the keyboard. And it is driving me insane!
If anyone can help me out of this horrorshow you will be earning a lifetime of karma I can tell you that
System specs:
CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.30GHz Socket 2011 15MB Cache (Corsair liquid-cooling)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X99-Gaming 5 (Rev 1.0)
Ram: Ballistix Sport DDR4 16GB (4x4GB) 2400mhz
SSD/HDD: 240 Gb Sandisk SSD plus - approx 18 months old I think -as system drive, plus 2 x data HDDs.
GPU: Powercolor Radeon R9 280x 3Gb (main GPU) / MSI Radeon 5450 256Mb (old alternate GPU)
PSU: Corsair RM850 850W
OS: Windows 10, fully updated
Background - I was trying to save a few Gb on my Windows Drive so asked it to clear up and delete redundant system files. Might be just incredible co-incidence but seems like this was a big mistake.
Because.... Next time I restarted it flicked strwight past the Gigabyte screen in 1-2 secs and on to a black screen which still seems to be sending info to the monitor as that stays on. Nothing else happens no matter how long you leave it. No matter how hard and fast I hammered various keys on a USB wired keyboard trying to get into the Gigabyte System info, boot options or BIOS options on startup it always went straight back to the black screen of nothingness after 1-2 seconds.
So obviously it isn't totally dead and is capable of sending info to the graphics card which is then in turn capable of sending info to the monitor, but it is like it forgets how to drive the graphics after a few seconds.
I unhooked all of the hard disks and PCI cards except for the graphics card, all USB peripherals except keyboard, everything possible I could strip out, in the hope that I could get things back to basics and have a look at what was going on. Set up a Windows 10 Installer USB stick using my laptop, and a Gigabyte BIOS USB stick using the F23c BIOS update too. Hoping I could reinstall Windows and if that failed re-flash the BIOS.
But without being able to get into the options on the startup screen none of this was possible.
I'm a few hours into my troubleshooting now and starting to get pretty fraught to say the least. I rely on this computer for all of my important work and leisure activities, especially at the moment for obvious reasons.
So I tried swapping out the R9 280x for my primitive old MSI Radeon 5450 to see if maybe it can deal with less advanced graphics capabilities for longer before crapping out. No change.
I tried taking out all the RAM, try as many permutations of the four sticks in different single slots I can. No change. Still just a Gigabyte screen for a second then blackness.
I tried leaving the CMOS battery out overnight and resetting the CMOS via the jumper. No difference. Just a second of startup screen and blackness.
I tried taking all the RAM out and putting my BIOS update USB stick in the white BIOS update USB port. Here obviously you get no monitor feedback and have to rely on the flashing orange LED that says 'FBIOS_LED'. When you power it on in this state it flashes that LED on once, thinks for a second, all other lights on the motherboard off, then shuts itself down, before restarting with all lights on, and the orange light starts flashing for a while.
At this point I'm presuming / hoping that the QFlash BIOS update process is happening though I can't find info on this anywhere. At least something is happening, I think.
I wait until the light turns solid, which I'm hoping means the BIOS flashing process is complete, then I go off for a bit just to make sure
When I return, the light is still solid. So I turn the computer off, remove the power cable, take the USB stick out, put a stick of RAM back in, put my Windows installer USB in the first of the yellow USB-DAC ports, and fire back up, do you usual trick of hammering the keyboard.
Progress! Well a tiny bit. This time the black screen holds off for long enough for me to access a screen where it says the BIOS has been updated and asks me to press enter. Then blackness.
Forewarned is forearmed and I restart, ready to quickly press enter. I do this and then it goes to blackness again.
Now when I hammer the keyboard on startup I can get into the different menus for a fraction of a second, like if I press F9 the system info comes up for long enough to see it before once again blackness descends. By mashing the keyboard on a few more startup attempts I by a MIRACLE manage to get a stable screen giving me options to boot up from USB, including the Windows 10 Installer ! Amazing! I've done it! After only about 10 hours of fruitless work! I select my Windows USB stick and have a couple of options to install 64-bit or 32-bit Windows. Those blocky words rendered in that primitive DOS font are the sweetest thing I have ever seen at this point.
But as already mentioned I have no hard disks attached. So I quick as poss try and plug my old Windows SSD drive back in, ferreting around with SATA cables in a semi-excited panic. Even if I have to wipe my Windows drive and start again, it'll be worth it, I'm thinking right now.
Then when I look up it's just that black screen again
I unplug the SSD again just to be sure.
Now when I restart I can't even get that two second access to the menus again like I could since the update, it's like I'm back to square one. FFS FML SNAFU FUBAR etc...
I go through all of the above steps again taking many more hours and can't even seem to replicate the situation where I got access, however temporary, to the menus, again.
I even order a PS/2 keyboard overnight to see if that works better at getting me in via the miniscule tapping window than a USB keyboard, being closer to the fundamental hardware level and all.
No difference. Just a second of Gigabyte then that inky black empty void staring back at me.
ARGH.
I don't have much money knocking about to buy a whole new computer, things being what they are at the moment. But I need the computer to earn money. So at this point I have a handful of options left.
Thanks in advance you clever folk...
I know this is referring to pretty old Gigabyte tech now but I have not had a problem with my setup until a couple of days ago, running like a dream since 2015. Now it just goes to a black screen straight after Gigabyte splash screen, no matter what you remove and how much you hammer the keyboard. And it is driving me insane!
If anyone can help me out of this horrorshow you will be earning a lifetime of karma I can tell you that
System specs:
CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.30GHz Socket 2011 15MB Cache (Corsair liquid-cooling)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X99-Gaming 5 (Rev 1.0)
Ram: Ballistix Sport DDR4 16GB (4x4GB) 2400mhz
SSD/HDD: 240 Gb Sandisk SSD plus - approx 18 months old I think -as system drive, plus 2 x data HDDs.
GPU: Powercolor Radeon R9 280x 3Gb (main GPU) / MSI Radeon 5450 256Mb (old alternate GPU)
PSU: Corsair RM850 850W
OS: Windows 10, fully updated
Background - I was trying to save a few Gb on my Windows Drive so asked it to clear up and delete redundant system files. Might be just incredible co-incidence but seems like this was a big mistake.
Because.... Next time I restarted it flicked strwight past the Gigabyte screen in 1-2 secs and on to a black screen which still seems to be sending info to the monitor as that stays on. Nothing else happens no matter how long you leave it. No matter how hard and fast I hammered various keys on a USB wired keyboard trying to get into the Gigabyte System info, boot options or BIOS options on startup it always went straight back to the black screen of nothingness after 1-2 seconds.
So obviously it isn't totally dead and is capable of sending info to the graphics card which is then in turn capable of sending info to the monitor, but it is like it forgets how to drive the graphics after a few seconds.
I unhooked all of the hard disks and PCI cards except for the graphics card, all USB peripherals except keyboard, everything possible I could strip out, in the hope that I could get things back to basics and have a look at what was going on. Set up a Windows 10 Installer USB stick using my laptop, and a Gigabyte BIOS USB stick using the F23c BIOS update too. Hoping I could reinstall Windows and if that failed re-flash the BIOS.
But without being able to get into the options on the startup screen none of this was possible.
I'm a few hours into my troubleshooting now and starting to get pretty fraught to say the least. I rely on this computer for all of my important work and leisure activities, especially at the moment for obvious reasons.
So I tried swapping out the R9 280x for my primitive old MSI Radeon 5450 to see if maybe it can deal with less advanced graphics capabilities for longer before crapping out. No change.
I tried taking out all the RAM, try as many permutations of the four sticks in different single slots I can. No change. Still just a Gigabyte screen for a second then blackness.
I tried leaving the CMOS battery out overnight and resetting the CMOS via the jumper. No difference. Just a second of startup screen and blackness.
I tried taking all the RAM out and putting my BIOS update USB stick in the white BIOS update USB port. Here obviously you get no monitor feedback and have to rely on the flashing orange LED that says 'FBIOS_LED'. When you power it on in this state it flashes that LED on once, thinks for a second, all other lights on the motherboard off, then shuts itself down, before restarting with all lights on, and the orange light starts flashing for a while.
At this point I'm presuming / hoping that the QFlash BIOS update process is happening though I can't find info on this anywhere. At least something is happening, I think.
I wait until the light turns solid, which I'm hoping means the BIOS flashing process is complete, then I go off for a bit just to make sure
When I return, the light is still solid. So I turn the computer off, remove the power cable, take the USB stick out, put a stick of RAM back in, put my Windows installer USB in the first of the yellow USB-DAC ports, and fire back up, do you usual trick of hammering the keyboard.
Progress! Well a tiny bit. This time the black screen holds off for long enough for me to access a screen where it says the BIOS has been updated and asks me to press enter. Then blackness.
Forewarned is forearmed and I restart, ready to quickly press enter. I do this and then it goes to blackness again.
Now when I hammer the keyboard on startup I can get into the different menus for a fraction of a second, like if I press F9 the system info comes up for long enough to see it before once again blackness descends. By mashing the keyboard on a few more startup attempts I by a MIRACLE manage to get a stable screen giving me options to boot up from USB, including the Windows 10 Installer ! Amazing! I've done it! After only about 10 hours of fruitless work! I select my Windows USB stick and have a couple of options to install 64-bit or 32-bit Windows. Those blocky words rendered in that primitive DOS font are the sweetest thing I have ever seen at this point.
But as already mentioned I have no hard disks attached. So I quick as poss try and plug my old Windows SSD drive back in, ferreting around with SATA cables in a semi-excited panic. Even if I have to wipe my Windows drive and start again, it'll be worth it, I'm thinking right now.
Then when I look up it's just that black screen again
I unplug the SSD again just to be sure.
Now when I restart I can't even get that two second access to the menus again like I could since the update, it's like I'm back to square one. FFS FML SNAFU FUBAR etc...
I go through all of the above steps again taking many more hours and can't even seem to replicate the situation where I got access, however temporary, to the menus, again.
I even order a PS/2 keyboard overnight to see if that works better at getting me in via the miniscule tapping window than a USB keyboard, being closer to the fundamental hardware level and all.
No difference. Just a second of Gigabyte then that inky black empty void staring back at me.
ARGH.
I don't have much money knocking about to buy a whole new computer, things being what they are at the moment. But I need the computer to earn money. So at this point I have a handful of options left.
- Ask you clever folk online to see if someone can help me with any more ideas!
- Buy a set of needle-nose tweezers and try and short out pins 1 and 6 of the main BIOS to try and force the board to use the backup BIOS. This sounds scary and like I could easily cause more damage.
- Buy a freshly flashed BIOS chip from ebay, hope it's legit, and try and desolder the old MBIOS (once I've identified which is which) and solder in the new one. Involves the joy of SMT soldering with super delicate components. Maybe worth soldering in an SMD chip socket if I go down this route...
- Buy a replacement LGA 2011v3 DDR4 RAM motherboard. I was pretty close to biting the bullet to save me more headaches and just doing this, but right now even sourcing legit compatible like-for-like X99 LGA2011 v3 DDR4 RAM motherboards for anything like a reasonable price seems nigh-on impossible too, whether new or second-hand. So even my nuclear option is a virtual non-starter. Ridiculous!
