Cannot start or get into BIOS anymore, no screen anymore, Asus P5GD1 Proactive

[jef]

Hi
Yes, the 2x2 power cable is connected to the motherboard.
This is what I found on the label off the PS and what I measured (with
a Fluke 175 multimeter):
+3.3V 22A (measured 3.358V) orange wire
+5V 21A (measured 5.05V) red
+12V1 10A (11.92V) yellow
+12V2 15A (12.05V) yellow/black: 2x2 connector
5Vsb 2A (5.014V) purple
-12V 0.3A (-11.53V) blue
I think that these are good voltages except the -11.53V (low), could
this be a problem.
I also disconnected the 2 harddrives, floppy and DVD-writer and I
still have no screen. I think the motherboard is defect?
Jef

 

[Paul]

Hi
Yes, the 2x2 power cable is connected to the motherboard.
This is what I found on the label off the PS and what I measured (with
a Fluke 175 multimeter):
+3.3V 22A (measured 3.358V) orange wire
+5V 21A (measured 5.05V) red
+12V1 10A (11.92V) yellow
+12V2 15A (12.05V) yellow/black: 2x2 connector
5Vsb 2A (5.014V) purple
-12V 0.3A (-11.53V) blue
I think that these are good voltages except the -11.53V (low), could
this be a problem.
I also disconnected the 2 harddrives, floppy and DVD-writer and I
still have no screen. I think the motherboard is defect?
Jef

Power looks good, so that probably isn't it.
A 5% spec on voltage would leave -11.4 as the minimum, so
it is still passing. And, the -12V might only be used
by the serial port.

If you motherboard had vocal POST, you could listen for
error messages, but without that, debugging will be harder.

As Ender mentioned, if wouldn't be a bad idea to check
the LGA775 socket, and make sure the processor is seated
properly. Since the speaker didn't beep, I think that means
the BIOS is no longer executing, and it could be the processor
has a bad contact with the socket.

The socket on these boards is "high tech", and is sensitive
to contamination. You cannot touch the pins inside the
socket with your fingertips, as the oils and salt from
human contact will contaminate the contact. I doubt there
is any cleaning process that wouldn't make the situation
worse. That is why the manual will instruct you to keep
the plastic insert, and use it to protect the socket
when it isn't populated. I hope you don't have a socket
problem...

(The socket is also a reason I wouldn't be buying a refurb
board or a used board with an LGA775 on it.)

If you do decide to try the CMOS clearing procedure,
unplug the computer before doing it. You don't want
+5VSB to be operating, because at least in motherboard
designs in the past, the CMOS jumper ends up pulling
current from +5VSB, if you leave the computer powered
while doing the procedure. That can burn the ORing diode
that selects current from +5VSB or the coin cell battery,
to run the Southbridge RTC/CMOS block. Unplugging the
computer will keep it safe.

About the only other debugging tool you can use as an
end user, is a "POST card". This is a PCI/ISA card that
has a two digit display, and any time the BIOS writes a
value to I/O port 80, the data written shows on the two
digit display. If the display digits change rapidly,
then the BIOS is executing. If the display stays at
0x00 or 0xFF, the board is probably not executing BIOS
code. The reason the product is square, is it has
contacts on two edges - one edge plugs into an ISA
socket, the other plugs into a PCI socket, and PCI
is what you've got. Here is a sample product - at
one time, these were $100 each.

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=44943&item=6728900469&rd=1

The two digit codes are listed on http://bioscentral.com/
if you want to see what kind of info is made available
by a two digit code. Since newly released BIOS can
introduce new codes, they might not all be listed.

HTH,
Paul

 

[Milleron]

On Sun, 12 Dec 2004 21:59:53 -0500, (e-mail address removed) (Paul) wrote:

snip

If you do decide to try the CMOS clearing procedure,
unplug the computer before doing it. You don't want
+5VSB to be operating, because at least in motherboard
designs in the past, the CMOS jumper ends up pulling
current from +5VSB, if you leave the computer powered
while doing the procedure. That can burn the ORing diode
that selects current from +5VSB or the coin cell battery,
to run the Southbridge RTC/CMOS block. Unplugging the
computer will keep it safe.

Paul,
What if all I want to do is replace an old CMOS battery before it
fails?
(I was thinking that if I did it while the computer was powered on,
there wouldn't be a need to re-enter all my settings afterward.)

Is it also dangerous to replace a button battery with the power on??

Ron

 

[Paul]

On Sun, 12 Dec 2004 21:59:53 -0500, (e-mail address removed) (Paul) wrote:

snip

Paul,
What if all I want to do is replace an old CMOS battery before it
fails?
(I was thinking that if I did it while the computer was powered on,
there wouldn't be a need to re-enter all my settings afterward.)

Is it also dangerous to replace a button battery with the power on??

Ron

If you look at the figure on page 67, it looks safe to remove
the battery with +5VSB still running. This circuit implies
the +5VSB is regulated down to 3VSB, before it gets to the
Southbridge. Nothing you do to the battery, including shorting
the socket, should do anything, due to the lower of the two
diodes being reverse biased.

http://developer.intel.com/design/chipsets/datashts/25251601.pdf

Would I do it to my motherboard ?

Nope.

The real question in the back of my mind, is how many ways are
there to design that circuit, and will all of them share
the benign characteristic mentioned above. For me, it is easier
to just write the settings down on a piece of paper, or try and
find a copy of CMOS.exe .

******
ftp://ftp.asuscom.de/pub/ASUSCOM/BIOS/BIOS_FLASH_UTILS/aflash221.zip

Inside the ZIP file, you'll find a copy of CMOS.exe. Here is the contents
of a post found in groups.google.com using "print bios settings cmos.exe"
as search terms. I cannot say how many motherboard models this program
supports, or whether the program works only directly in DOS or
a command prompt window. Also, don't use the other program called
clrcmos or something.

"Included in this zip is a file CMOS.exe. You can use this to
copy your bios settings to a file which you can print out.

This is the text file included in the zip in english:

What do CLRCMOS.EXE and CMOS.EXE do? Where can I get them ?
In the AFLASH archive at ASUS Germany FTP Server (see one
paragraph above) both CLRCMOS and CMOS are included.

CLRCMOS clears the CMOS (saved BIOS setup data like what
drives you have, what RAM timing parameters you are using)
and basically has the same effet as shorting the CMOS Reset
jumper (or solder points) on your mainboard (see here).
You should clear the CMOS after every flash to a different
BIOS version. For details see the next paragraph.

CMOS saves the BIOS setup settings to a file. This is
nessecary since in newer AWARD BIOSes you can't use
"print screen" to print out your settings.

Usage is: " CMOS /L filename " for example
" CMOS /L settings.txt "
******

You may need to run CMOS.exe from a MSDOS boot disk. I don't
know if it works from DOS in Windows or not. I also don't know
if it could handle either Award or AMI BIOS - it may rely on a
BIOS hook to get the data.

Maybe print_screen works on your BIOS ?

Paul