A few days ago my Dell Vostro 400 (nicked from work; quad core intel, 8800GT) just started locking at POST - on the 'Dell' screen. No BIOS, no life, just dead. First thing I tried was resetting the CMOS with jumper and it appears the motherboard did not appreciate that. When I tried to boot up I got no video, fans would spin up for about 5 seconds, no beeping. Then it'd power off for about 5 seconds and then power up, fans spin etc. This just repeats infinitely. I have tried taking out everything, replacing everything, I've even reseated the CPU. Now all I have in is a PSU and the CPU and it's still stuck in this powercyle loop. Does anyone have the foggiest? Because I don't and I'm about to call time on this motherboard (Foxconn G33M03)
I've seen this twice before, once was cured by running the windows disc and reinstalling the boot loader the other was a fresh install
How can I install anything? The power shuts off after 5 seconds and doesn't show any sign of posting, let along getting to boot stage. There are no hard drives even plugged in.
When you reset the CMOS, did you remember to put the jumper back on the correct two pins? (i.e. the non-resetting ones)
There's a very easy way around this, if you can't get the windows disc to load, put another hard drive in and reinstall on to that. The problem is on the hard disc.Once you've reinstalled you can refit the other disc scan it and then get anything off that you want to save remember to disconnect the disc thats in there atm or you'll still have the same probs Forget this, just seen the previous post about having no hard drive connected
These things can be difficult to diagnose... Do the CMOS clear trick again, but make sure you have disconnected the AC power completely (if you didn't already). Check the stupid stuff, I had an issue like this once and after pulling my hair out for a few hours, I noticed that the power button was stuck in! Then it's into the methodical removing all 'superflous' components (additional RAM sticks, GPU [if integrated] or try another, etc, etc) Good luck SouperAndy
disconnect the power button pins from the MB, and short it manually to start the pc - sounds like its stuck on as souperandy said.
@SouperAndy, I've tried booting it without the CMOS even in, and behaviour is exactly the same :\ Am I right in assuming that it should still boot without a CMOS? @barndoor101, I've already tried manually shorting the pins to start it and it still does it. I've take then motherboard completely out of the case (in case it was shorting somewhere else), shorted the pins (in case the switch was faulty) and nothing. I've even tried it, very briefly, without a CPU fan - literally JUST the CPU on the board - and it was exactly the same. Seriously, there isn't much I haven't tried and I can't find any reference to this kind of behaviour through Google, which makes me think it's just a buggered board.
Not sure what you mean 'without the CMOS in', I assume you mean the battery. The CMOS is a small volatile memory bank that is used to store the configuration of the BIOS. The CMOS battery is used to keep the data safe while the PC is powered off. When you short the CMOS clear jumper, you are just clearing this small memory bank and letting the BIOS 'start from scratch' again. The minimum you need for the board to post is: CPU (+HSF!) One stick of RAM GPU (if the board does not have integrated) Connect up the ATX 24-pin power connector and the CPU AUX (4 or could be 8-pin depending on mobo). If the board is outside of the case, how are you activating the power-on command? Doe the board have a power button soldered on? Or are you momentarily shorting the relevant FP-panel connector, like barndoor suggested? If you do this, does the CPU fan startup? Do any diagnostic beeps get annunciated? It's starting to point towards a possible H/W failure, but it's worth checking everything to try and avoid unneeded expense! Cheers, SouperAndy
@SouperAndy, Thanks man, I'll check this out tonight. To answer your questions, yeah, I meant the CMOS battery, I've been starting the board by either just trailing the power button pins from the case or bridging the pins with a screwdriver, and when I do this the CPU fan spins (as did the other case fan before I removed it) but no, there are no beeps. I've not tried with a single stick of RAM so will do that later (hopefully) and the board has on-board GFX which had been disabled in the BIOS but as the CMOS battery isn't even in the board this should reset to 'on'.
