Problems with my ASUS P4P800SE motherboard

[lew_meister]

Hi,

I've just encountered a serious motherboard failure.

When I power on my computer, it seems to be starting to boot, but then
just halts. I don't even get any display on my monitor, so I really
don't see what's happening. I have tried to put in the recovery CD with
the original BIOS in the CD-ROM and tried to use the recovery method
described in the user guide. I it looks like the CD and the original
BIOS on that CD is found. I get a message that the P4P800SE.ROM is
found and that the BIOS is flashing. After that the Comnputer is
rebooted and I'm back to where I started.

What has happend to my motherboard? Can anyone help me with this???

Many thanks
/lew_meister

 

[Paul]

Hi,

I've just encountered a serious motherboard failure.

When I power on my computer, it seems to be starting to boot, but then
just halts. I don't even get any display on my monitor, so I really
don't see what's happening. I have tried to put in the recovery CD with
the original BIOS in the CD-ROM and tried to use the recovery method
described in the user guide. I it looks like the CD and the original
BIOS on that CD is found. I get a message that the P4P800SE.ROM is
found and that the BIOS is flashing. After that the Comnputer is
rebooted and I'm back to where I started.

What has happend to my motherboard? Can anyone help me with this???

Many thanks
/lew_meister

Check the top of the Southbridge chip. Does it look like the
picture at the top of this page ?

http://www.abxzone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=84122&highlight=usb+port

Paul

 

[lew_meister]

Hi Paul,

No really... It does not look burned at all...

Lew_Meister

 

[Paul]

Hi Paul,

No really... It does not look burned at all...

Lew_Meister

Unplug the computer and clear the CMOS. Maybe the computer is
not running at stock speed while you are trying to flash
the BIOS.

See section 2.6 "Jumpers" in the manual, and the section
"Clear RTC RAM" for more info on the procedure.

Paul

 

[lew_meister]

Paul skrev:

Unplug the computer and clear the CMOS. Maybe the computer is
not running at stock speed while you are trying to flash
the BIOS.

See section 2.6 "Jumpers" in the manual, and the section
"Clear RTC RAM" for more info on the procedure.

Paul

Hi Paul,

Tried that... Did not work.

Any other ideas?

/lew

 

[Doug B]

Check the cpu heatsink. I once had a socket 478 retainer bracket break at one
corner. The mobo was never the same after.

--Doug

 

[Paul]

Paul skrev:



Hi Paul,

Tried that... Did not work.

Any other ideas?

/lew

Do you have another power supply to swap in ? If
you don't have another power supply, do you own a
multimeter ?

With the multimeter, while the computer is on, you
can verify the supply voltages. (One trick I use, is
I clip the black lead of the multimeter to an I/O
connector screw on the back of the computer.
To the red lead of the multimeter, I attach a sewing
needle, by wrapping bare wire around the needle and the
probe of the multimeter. You can them poke the needle
into the various wires on the ATX power cable, and
measure the voltage. This is one time you don't want
an ATX power cable with one of those "wraps" around
the wires. You'd have to slide that back, to get at
the wires. Be careful not to poke two wires
simultaneously, as the short will cause the needle
to glow red hot.)

At some point, you have to give up and RMA.

Does the BIOS appear on screen, if there are no hard
drives or CD drives connected ?

Do you get beep codes delivered, if the memory
sticks or the video card are missing ?

I suggest partially stripping the motherboard, just
to see if there is any useful response at all.

Otherwise, I think you should be using the warranty
and try for an RMA. Make it clear when you are
communicating with Asus, that you were not flashing
the BIOS at the time, and the failure occurred "out
of the blue" while booting. They would likely not
issue an RMA number if you told them this was a BIOS
flashing accident...

When the Southbridge fails on these boards, a minority
of them fail partially, and sometimes there are no
visual symptoms to be seen. I think one poster reported
only his USB ports failed to work. In any case, there
is little analysis possible with the average home
toolkit. PSU swapping, removing components, and using
the multimeter is about all I can think of.

Paul