PC Suddenly Not Posting

Swinbag

Swinbag

Swinbag

Associate
Joined
30 Nov 2008
Posts
1,336
Hi all,

Posting this as a sanity check as much as anything, be good to get some opinions/ make sure I haven't missed anything obvious.

5800x3d
MSI MEG X570 Unify
2x16GB Team Group DDR4
ASUS RTX 4070 Ti Super
Seasonic GX-650
Samsung 990 Pro & 970 Evo

PC has been working fine, no recent changes and I was playing games Saturday without issue - shut it down gracefully as normal.

Come Sunday it powers up but with no display output:

- The 'VGA' light is lit on the motherboard EZ Debug screen, manual states "indicates GPU is not detected or fail".
- Showing a 'b6' debug code, manual states "Clean-up of NVRAM".

I've tried the following so far:

1. Cleared the CMOS (using the dedicated button & jumper pins).
2. Replaced CMOS battery
3. Removed RAM and installed one stick at a time in each slot.
4. Tested with spare known-working RAM.
5. Re-seated GFX card - checked pins on each end of the power cable and PSU/ GFX card connectors.
6. Tested with a spare known-working GPU (3070)
7. Removed CPU and checked socket/ pins for obvious damage.
8. Tested with a spare known-working CPU (5600x).
9. Tried booting with both SSDs removed.

I feel like I've exhausted all my options here and I'm leaning towards a dead motherboard, which would be a shame as it's obviously well out of warranty.

Any other ideas?
 
freddie64 said:
Have you got another PSU to try?

Wonder if flashing bios will help? (using flashback button)
Click to expand...
No spare PSU unfortunately - tempted to order one from the rainforest to test before I go looking at replacement mobo's.

Tried the BIOS flashback - seemed to work but still get the same error when trying to boot up again.
 
Swinbag said:
Already tested with a spare GPU - will give a PSU a crack next, cheers.
Click to expand...
After reading up more it seems nearly everyone who has had this error has replaced their motherboard, so maybe best to do this instead of a new PSU.

Have you tried removing CMOS battery and leave it out over night?
 
My money is on a dead mobo, but definitely get a spare PSU to rule that out first. Borrow one from a friend temporarily? You can just swap the 24-pin ATX and 8-pin CPU connectors to save removing the PSUs from both rigs and remounting.

If your GPU requires external power, the GPU external power will need connecting too. Much easier to huddle two rigs together and swap a few connectors over versus a whole PSU replacement. You just need to see if it will POST to ascertain if it's new mobo or PSU time.

I have a spare PSU lying around if you're anywhere near South Wales.
 
Thanks for the suggestions all, I stopped recieving notifications for replies so missed a load.

Tried with one DIMM of spare known working ram in each slot with no change.

Unfortunately no friends locally with spares so have ordered a psu from the rainforest to test and rule out - will just return it if no joy.

Definitely feels like a dead motherboard which is a first for me in personal rigs - been wanting to downsize to SFF for a while so may try to grab an mATX x570 or B550 board, would love to go AM5 but can't make that work at the moment.
 
Gave the new PSU a go, not luck unfortunately.

Also tried the GPU in another pci slot as a hail mary - time to accept defeat and start looking at motherboards.

Thanks for the help & suggestions all.
 
Swinbag said:
Gave the new PSU a go, not luck unfortunately.

Also tried the GPU in another pci slot as a hail mary - time to accept defeat and start looking at motherboards.

Thanks for the help & suggestions all.
Click to expand...
Are you sure it's not the GPU that's failed? I've had that happen before. Exactly like the problem you have. Way back when my HD4850 failed right in the middle of playing Resident Evil 5. Upgraded to a HD4870 for £5. Problem solved :)
 
Quartz said:
Have you tried with the board outside the case? Just in case there's a short somewhere.
Click to expand...

Planned to start tearing things down today so will give this a crack.

ooStevo said:
Are you sure it's not the GPU that's failed? I've had that happen before. Exactly like the problem you have. Way back when my HD4850 failed right in the middle of playing Resident Evil 5. Upgraded to a HD4870 for £5. Problem solved :)
Click to expand...

I've tested with a spare GPU that was working prior to my last upgrade - unless I've become ridiculously unlucky and whatever issue I've got has killed 2 GPUs back-to-back...
 
Last edited:
Swinbag said:
Tried the BIOS flashback - seemed to work but still get the same error when trying to boot up again.
Click to expand...
Did you flash the same bios version? If so, try a different one.

Found this thread and the solution was a bios flash.

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/t...oot-motherboard-error-a2-code.18936625/page-2

Desperate, I took the shell of my PC to my local PC repair shop (If the PC needed new GPU's or CPU's, I didn't have any to test with, and I'm not comfortable with handling CPU's anyway, so I figured let the shop do it), anyway, they had it on their bench and they ended up reflashing the BIOS (he talked about re-merging it and updating it) and now it boots fine every time!
Click to expand...
 
Swinbag said:
Planned to start tearing things down today so will give this a crack.



I've tested with a spare GPU that was working prior to my last upgrade - unless I've become ridiculously unlucky and whatever issue I've got has killed 2 GPUs back-to-back...
Click to expand...

There's a video by Adamant IT where the problem was a broken solder joint on the PCIe slot. In that case the GPU worked intermittently.


Skip to the 47 minute mark.
 
Quartz said:
There's a video by Adamant IT where the problem was a broken solder joint on the PCIe slot. In that case the GPU worked intermittently.


Skip to the 47 minute mark.
Click to expand...
Really interesting video thanks - I've just tried all 3 PCI slots on my board and no change.

Took the board out of the case and gave things a go bare-bones but no luck.

Tried bios flashback with a different version too - time to call it a day I think.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom