Plz help! New build freezing on 'press del to enter setup' screen!

Tazzfalcon · 7 Dec 2011 at 19:50

Ok so it was all goimg so well!

New z68 2500k build; posted first time. Spent all last night installing windows and mobo drivers, multi restarts all fine.

Come home today and it wont boot. After three seconds the fan wine amd signs of life die down to a low idle and the screen shows the press del to enter bios screen. Itll go no further. Ive tried starting without the hdd connected and with boot disc in drive, same deal.

I cracked it open amd noticed the cpu cooler was loose, have tightened it up now. I was checking temps last night and all seemed nominal bit that was the first major heat cycle id put it through, could thay be the issue? The 'dram ok' light on the mobo flashes once when I try and boot it up, does that mean anything?
Im at a loss, please help. Cheers.

Sorry about any spelling or grammatical errors, on my phone.

95thrifles · 7 Dec 2011 at 19:51

Can you actually get into BIOS?

Tazzfalcon · 7 Dec 2011 at 20:26

Nope, sadly not. Its frozen at that,point.

95thrifles · 7 Dec 2011 at 20:29

Take everything out of mobo, try booting just your mobo with PSU plugged in
You should get an error beep for no CPU, if you do, add your CPU and reboot, if you dont then either the mobo or PSU has died, hard to tell which unless you have a spare PSU to check
If it works and you add CPU and boot you should now get error beeps for no RAM, if not CPU is dead, if you do, add one stick of RAM and try again
Keep adding one component at a time til you isolate cause (all RAM, GPU, HDD, any others)

Tazzfalcon · 7 Dec 2011 at 20:43

Is tje first horror scenario there likely?

Purgatory · 7 Dec 2011 at 20:53

Clear your motherboard BIOS/CMOS first to rule out a BIOS error and try again. If it starts up fine go into the BIOS and set it up correctly again and try without any overclocks.

Tazzfalcon · 7 Dec 2011 at 21:05

I wasnt using any overclocks, everything is brand new and at stock speeds/settings. Ive never cleaered cmos before, is that easy? Im using a z68 asus p8z68-vlx mobo.

Purgatory · 8 Dec 2011 at 00:57

Yes it's very easy read the manual it will tell you how to do it, it maybe as simple as clicking a button or taking out a jumper and moving it to another set of pins and leaving it there for a minute and then moving the jumper back to the original position before you turn on the pc. But do make sure the power to the pc is switched totally off at the mains when doing this.

Give it a try and let us know how you get on.

coupe69 · 8 Dec 2011 at 02:10

Just whip the CMOS battery out for 30 seconds making sure the power is not plugged into the PSU.

Tazzfalcon · 8 Dec 2011 at 13:26

Will try. Thanks all. I'll report back.

funkyging · 8 Dec 2011 at 13:40

I remember i had a problem a bit like yours. I would start up my computer but it would keep beeping every 2 seconds with nothing on the screen. Asked a tech guy at my local college and he suggested taking everything out and putting them bac kin 1 by 1. Turned out it was the slot ny network card was in was buggered. Most random computer issue ive had to date

Tazzfalcon · 11 Dec 2011 at 12:21

OK so I fixed it. It was the card reader! Must have developed a fault after first use but it stops the PC from starting past the setup screen no matter which usb header I plug it onto the motherboard. Seems like a similar problem to funkyging's.

Thanks for all your help everyone!