PC boot problem

[Lange_666]

Last few days i encouter a bit of a problem when i boot my PC.

Cold boot:

PC is frozen on the Press F2/Delete to enter BIOS screen.

If i look at the motherboard diagnostic display, it shows A2 which is an IDE/SATA issue (i don't have IDE's anymore so only SATA).

Pressing F2 or the other options (F6 for flash, F11 for bootmenu etc...) does not work.

Pressing the power button until the PC goes off, then pressing it again to boot will boot the PC around 50%-50%.

 

Workaround if frozen on the Press F2/Delete to enter BIOS screen:

Reset button: PC "always" boots after pressing the reset button at this stage. It passes the A2 cycle. I can also get into BIOS now if needed.

 

Putting the PC to sleep (or powering off) results in the same problem, when woken up it freezes at A2, reset boots again and this time it goes through.

Restart does the same thing. On reboot, it freezes, reset button makes it boot.

 

Looked around the net for cause or solutions but not much to be found except:

- Try all SATA's one by one until you find the problem. No joy.

- Remove GPU and use onboard: No joy.

- Remove RAM's and re-seat them one by one: No joy.

- Clear CMOS and try with default settings: No joy.

- Booted from USB (with no drives attached): No Joy.

 

It's not a big issue for now, pressing the reset button after the freeze will always boot the PC but i would like to find out what causes the first hang on the A2 POST.

 

Anyone got some extra idea's?

[Taz1004]

What motherboard?  Does it have power button directly on motherboard?

This could be header connection issue.  Make sure they're all connected properly.

Power supply may be another possibility.  Check in BIOS all rails are getting proper voltage.

I've also experienced similar issue with faulty power strip.

Last thing to try I guess is reset BIOS to factory.

Edited December 29, 2020 by Taz1004

[Lange_666]

2 hours ago, Taz1004 said:

What motherboard?  Does it have power button directly on motherboard?

 

Asrock Extreme4 Z87 (in my signature).

 

2 hours ago, Taz1004 said:

This could be header connection issue.  Make sure they're all connected properly.

 

Everything is connected properly. What do you mean by "header"?

 

2 hours ago, Taz1004 said:

Power supply may be another possibility.  Check in BIOS all rails are getting proper voltage.

I've also experienced similar issue with faulty power strip.

 

Thought of that too but i don't have a spare. All rails seem to get proper voltage in the BIOS. I have a screenshot from a few years ago so i can check. Values are the same.

Powerstrip?

 

2 hours ago, Taz1004 said:

Last thing to try I guess is reset BIOS to factory.

 

Did that, no joy.

Don't have the latest, standard the board came with 2.10 or so, updated to 2.40 and later on to 2.60.

Since all was working fine, i left it there. Noticed they had released a few others later up to 3.40.

But i can't install that. Through Windows i get a message that it can't be installed because of the OS (Win 10).

In the BIOS, the internet flash option connects to Asrock alright showing me an update to 3.40 but then fails on the European server. The Asia or USA servers start the download but i then get an incomplete message. The Chinese server just hangs...

The Flash option through USB (or bootdrive) finds the biosfile alright but then quickly scrolls through a number of files and always ends with (and that is the weirdest), Saved Games_files_inc.cbu and then hangs, no update. But i don't think updating the BIOS will solve the problem.

 

My next guess is also the powersupply causing a bit of trouble when it needs to fire up, maybe one of the voltages is a bit slow reaching it's value. But with nothing attached but keyboard and one monitor, the powerdraw is minimum so....

However, once it hangs in the first boot, reset button makes a reset and the it boots. The power stays on. But when i do a restart from withing Windows, the power doesn't go down either but still the PC hangs then on the next boot, only pressing the reset button makes it go thought which makes me think it's not that certain voltage coming up a bit to slow. 

Edit: When exiting the BIOS, the PC shuts down briefly and then restarts. It never hangs on boot when i exit the BIOS.

Edited December 29, 2020 by Lange_666

[Taz1004]

3 hours ago, Lange_666 said:

Everything is connected properly. What do you mean by "header"?

 

 

Thought of that too but i don't have a spare. All rails seem to get proper voltage in the BIOS. I have a screenshot from a few years ago so i can check. Values are the same.

Powerstrip?

 

Motherboard power headers.  Where power button of the case connects to motherboard.

https://www.google.com/search?q=motherboard+power+header&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS866US866&oq=motherboard+power+header&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i22i30l3.3135j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

 

Power strip refers to surge protectors.

 

I looked up your motherboard manual and it does have Smart Switches on the motherboard.  At the lower right corner just under CMOS battery.  Try powering on using that button and see if same thing happens.  At least will narrow down where the problem is.

[Lange_666]

The headers are properly connected, surge protectors also although if one of those would "jump" it would be either on or off, not a changing state depending on which button i operate.

The power and reset button on the MB behave exactly the same as those on the case connected to the headers. So as it should. No difference.

 

Edited December 29, 2020 by Lange_666

[BitMaster]

Disconnect all Sata drives and try if it boots to the point where it says "No operating system found" and stops.

 

If it does that, one of your drives went bad, connect 1 by 1 then to find which one.

 

 

It is no bad idea to take all peripherals out of the testing, use as little hardware as possible to see if the error goes away if stripped down to the bare minimum.

[Lange_666]

35 minutes ago, BitMaster said:

Disconnect all Sata drives and try if it boots to the point where it says "No operating system found" and stops.

 

That doesn't happen. If i disconnect all SATA drives the PC will boot into the BIOS directly if it didn't find any OS. I also have a bootable DOS USB stick. When i connect that (and all SATA's disconnected) the problem already roars it's head. It hangs on screen where I can select going into the BIOS or not but is frozen. It will only boot to DOS from the USB stick after i press the reset button.

[SnapRoll]

Have you tried booting without any USB devices attached? I have a similar issue when my Warthog Throttle is attached while booting. It would freeze during the UEFI load 2 out of 5 times, even when it is connected to a external powered USB hub.

[Lange_666]

Yep, i already did that when i first went through all the steps i could think of (and find in the net). Nothing attached, only one monitor through the onboard GPU to at least see something.

With nothing attached it goes straight into the bios, the moment i add a trace of OS (DOS or Windows) either via USB or SATA it hangs on first boot before going into the BIOS, then the reset makes it pass and it boots up.

I still suspect (only a very little but...) a corrupt BIOS somehow but i didn't enter the BIOS a long time before it happened so it could no be from some change in setup.

Problem is that i can't flash it (i flashed it 2 times before, once when i bought the MB and later when an update was released). Looking into the BIOS updates on the Asrock website i found that they had updated a few more times after i did the last flask so it thought of bringing it up to date but it's a no go.

It sees and reeds the flashfile alright but hangs with a strange filename: Saved Games_files_inc.cbu

Tried flashing through Windows but then i  get a message that it can't be installed because of the OS (Win 10).

In the BIOS, the internet flash option connects to Asrock alright and find the latest update showing me an update to 3.40 but then fails on the European server (can't find server message, however it can find the update message and the update log) when it wants to retrieve the file. The Asia or USA servers does the same but there the download starts but i then get an incomplete file message. The Chinese server just hangs...

The Flash option through USB (or SATA bootdrive, or DVD) finds the biosfile alright but then quickly scrolls through a number of files and always ends with (and that is the weirdest): Saved Games_files_inc.cbu and then hangs, no update.

[SnapRoll]

I suppose you've already tried loading the default BIOS settings and saving it, right? Also, is the CMOS battery still ok? Does it show the right time when you go into the BIOS? They would be different symptoms when it was that of course, but still worth checking.

[Lange_666]

Yes, tried that. Changed the battery on first sign of the problem since it was still the original from more then 5 years ago. Time is correct.

[BitMaster]

Rare but can happen is that your board did not fully clear the registers when you cleared CMOS/BIOS.

 

I have had boards in that needed Battery, RAM, CPU!! and all the rest taken off and then fire it up, short the pins and put a Quarter or 50€cent coin in the battery tray for 10 minutes.

 

On one of my own boards coupke years back it ~somehow~ got back to life...  strange things happen sometimes.

 

Might wanna give that a try, blank board clearing cmos.

 

 

Happy New Year 2021 & Stay Safe

[Lange_666]

Solved:

When i loaded my old overclock profile back into the BIOS, things were OK. Searched for differences and the only thing that came up was Intel USB 3.0 mode setting.

If i put the Intel USB 3.0 mode in the BIOS to Auto it boots fine right away.

If i put it in Smart Mode, i need to press the reset button to get into the BIOS or boot into Windows if the boot hangs just before the BIOS entry.

But... i can't remember having changed that. Last time i went into the BIOS was a few months ago to enable Hyperthreading because FS2020 runs better with it. For this to work, i had to turn down the overclock a notch too.

 

Thing is: it just roared its head last monday, not a few months ago...